Der gestiefelte Kater

Puss in Boots was what I expected - interesting characters, some great laughs (including the Shrek-like humor for adults only), and an interesting backstory. Unfortunately, no cameos from major Shrek characters (I always get a kick out of Gingy).

Antonio Banderas does a great job voicing the "hero" Puss, and the movie provides Puss' history with some good laughs and great images. The big eyes look of the adult Puss is topped by the young Puss, and we learn how Puss received his name and his boots.

Humpty Dumpty is Puss' long-time friend, who becomes jealous of the young hero Puss and betrays him. But, Humpty Dumpty returns with a plan to achieve their lifelong goal - get the goose that lays the golden eggs. Humpty Dumpty has some funny lines and great visual humor. My favorite was Humpty wearing a golden egg costume.

Joining the adventure and rounding out the trio is Kitty Soft Paws, who transitions from Puss' nemesis to love interest. The pair has some great chemistry for animated characters. Their adventures include run-ins with Jack & Jill (not what anyone will expect), magic beans, the beanstalk, and the goose that lays the golden egg.

Overall, kids and adults will love the movie for its humor, cute characters, and action. Puss in Boots is a worthy spin-off of Shrek. And, the movie has a great message about learning from our mistakes, retribution, and making good choices.

This film is about a cat and an egg, who have been childhood friends, working together to find the golden goose to repay the town what they robbed years ago.

"Puss in Boots" is an adventure filled with fun and action. It has cute characters and colourful animation for children to enjoy. Puss has a wide variety of facial expressions, some of which are so cute that he is irresistibly cuddly. The songs and dance provide great entertainment too. Adults will find "Puss in Boots" entertaining too, as the plot is filled with proper adventure that is appropriate for both adults and children. The brotherhood subplot is strong and gripping, and provide the emotional elements to make "Puss in Boots" even more credible as a film for the whole family. I enjoyed watching it.

I was able to see the San Francisco premiere for Puss N' Boots last night. I would say the audience was about 50% children and 50% adults. The movie was shown in 3D and I would definitely recommend it.

The star of the movie was definitely Banderas's Puss. If you liked the character from previous movies, you will not be disappointed. Salma Hayak as Kitty Softpaws was decent enough although not very memorable in any way. And finally, Zach Galifianakis's Humpty Dumpty will be a polarizing character in my opinion. If you thought Rumpelstiltskin from Shrek Forever After was a tad on the annoying side, I think you'll feel the same way about Humpty Dumpty.

Anyways, the story is good. The integration of former players in nursery rhymes and fairy tales is seamless. And the comedy is standard Shrek-style delivering lots of laughs for children and the occasional adult-only joke (some very funny).

The visuals are stunning. And the music is fantastic. It almost felt like an action-packed spaghetti western with a Latin flavor. I definitely enjoyed myself. I also talked to quite a few people afterwords and the consensus was that the children all loved it and the adults kept using the word "cute" in so many different ways to describe their feelings about the movie.

"Puss-in-Boots" is one of the funniest and most entertaining animated movies I have seen in recent times. Its not perfect by any means, as some parts seem to drag and at times the movie felt a bit too long for its own good, but on the whole it made for a nice viewing.

I remember a decade or more ago when CGI movies were an event to behold. Each release was noteworthy. Movies like the original "Toy Story", "Finding Nemo", "Ice Age", "Monsters Inc." and the first "Shrek". To that veritable gallery I would venture to add the spectacularly underrated "Final Fantasy". When I saw that movie back in 1999 (damn, I can't believe that was soo long ago...holly crap I'm getting old!), the potential of CGI movies was fully revealed. I thoroughly enjoyed the visionary creativity of that film, especially since it had a more mature, adult slant (something sorely lacking in CGI movies, especially in North America, where CGI movies seem to be exclusively aimed at a young audience).

Since then technology has advanced by leaps and bounds and so have CGI movies. Now it seems that there is one of them coming out every other week. This has not necessarily translated into an all-around positive effect, because while their quantity has increased, their quality has steadily declined. Adding 3D effects and cutesy side-kicks cannot make up for the lack of having a compelling story, an interesting plot and well developed characters.

This brings me back to "Puss-In-Boots". This movie has all that, a compelling story, a good message, funny characters and a lot of humour, including a healthy dose of those "in-jokes" intended for the adults in the audience, in most cases the parents who tag along with their kids to watch the movie. That makes it a truly good family viewing because not only will the children have a good time, but there is plenty for the adults to enjoy too.

"Puss-In-Boots" is the most entertaining CGI (animated) movie I've seen since "Despicable Me" and "Monsters Vs. Aliens". Not on par with the gem that was "UP", but a solid offering of funny!

"We found a bag of catnip on you!" jail guard. "Its for my glaucoma!", Puss.

Enough said...

Now before we begin, I'll make this quick on what i thought of the Shrek films. The first one, at the time, was a clever work of art that got Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy as a pretty good duo of animation voices for quite a while now. It was fresh, new, and one of Dreamwork's best CGI animated features. Shrek 2, was absolutely amazing. It took everything that made the original Shrek good and made it an amazing comedy! It introduced Puss in Boots as a spin-off of Zorro just hysterical, ESPECIALLY since he's played by Antonio Banderas, who played Zorro in the Martin Campbell movies, Mask of Zorro and Legend of Zorro. Overall, Shrek 2 is by far one of the best sequels that could ever be made by Dreamworks. Now for Shrek the Third and Shrek Forever After, all i got to say for those films is.......meh. they were okay.

So now, Dreamworks still has a good hold for the franchise, but now with Puss in Boots. So how was it? well, let's discuss it first.

The movie's what you expect it to be, an origin story of the whiskered outlaw with boots. It explains his backstory on how he became an outlaw and what he did to redeem himself of being no longer the villain his home town thought him to be, seven years after he was betrayed by a former comrade. For what it gives us, it's a pretty entertaining movie and shows a lot to give.

Antonio Banderas reprises his role as Puss, and does a good a job as he always he does. Salma Hayek plays Kitty Softpaws, Puss's love interest and a master thief. She could take the shirt off your back so fast, it'd take you 10 seconds to realize you lost it. Hayek's not unfamiliar with working with Banderas, so she knows the right style of acting to choose with him. Zach Galifianakis plays Humpty Alexander Dumpty, and is pretty good in the role. Despite being in the Hangover movies with barely anything funny once in a while, he at least tries to give a pretty good performance. Guillermo del Toro has a pretty good cameo in the film, and it works out well, since he's also the executive producer of the film.

One more thing I want to talk about is the 3D in this film, and this film's in the category for good 3D. Animation. The animation in the film, while CG, is gorgeous. Dreamworks has a thing for making such well made animated films, becoming it's own stronghold for CG animation, along with some of their films to have some well done action. Sure, i still prefer hand drawn animation, but i'm not saying CG animation is bad. I'm just saying it's overused. But back to the 3D. Like i said, animated films are one of the only category in movies that work best for 3D. And for this, it looks amazing. Is it as good as Pixar 3D movies? No, but it's still worth it.

Overall, Puss in Boots is a fun family film that really knows how to be entertaining. It's comedy, action, and dark story all in one.