Puss in Boots

Just discovered this early Walt Disney pre-Mickey Mouse Laugh-O-Grams cartoon on Cartoon Brew as linked from Matinée At The Bijou which linked it to YouTube. It's a modern day-in-the-'20s retelling with the cars and of-the-period clothing plus a matinée showing of the latest Rudolf Vaselino flick. With the King not allowing the commoner young man or his female cat to see his daughter or the cat chauffeur James, young Puss tries to get her master to get her boots to impress James but to no avail until after the movie when she gets him to buy them as exchange for telling him what to do to impress the King. Since the picture was about bullfighting, that's what the young man tries to do...While a little primitive with comic strip balloons to tell us what the characters are saying since this is silent, even this early in his career Disney provides quite a few visual gags that keep this entertaining to the present day. My favorite comes when the inter-title says "Time flies by" while clocks with wings float on screen! Also, when the King gets shocked, his coat flies off! Well worth seeing for vintage cartoon fans, particularly those of Walt Disney.

'Puss in Boots' (1922)

Opening thoughts: Although a huge Disney fan, liking to loving all but about four of their films and liking to loving a vast majority of their cartoons, it has to be admitted that my knowledge of Disney pre-'Steamboat Willie' is still pretty limited. Am planning though to rectify this through primarily watching the Alice series, which has been the aim for years but being behind with film watching and reviewing has stopped that.

1922's 'Puss in Boots' (very loose adaptation-wise but with the basic elements) is a pretty interesting example of early Disney. It is not perfect or great, but it is still pretty decent and quite charming. Enough to make one want to see more of Disney's pre-'Steamboat Willie' output. Especially to see how they fare in comparison to their output 1928 onwards.

Bad things: It is not perfect. The story is very slight and takes time to get going. The pace could have been tighter and there was the feeling that the cartoon could have been 2 or 3 minutes shorter.

Other than the titular character, the characters don't make much of an impression.

Good things: However, the animation is quite impressive, was very surprised at how fluid the character movements are and the backgrounds were already more elaborate than most animation studios in their infancy in the 20s. The music has lush orchestration and lively character, never at odds with the action.

Furthermore, the titular character has an appealing and fun personality, the topical references while of the time and ones younger audiences are not going to get are amusing to spot and once the cartoon gets going it goes at a lively clip and entertains and charms. The climax is suspenseful and visually striking.

Closing thoughts: Concluding, pretty decent.

7/10.

Walt Disney was barely 21 years old and still working out of Kansas City when he and his earliest cohorts in animation produced this cartoon. Puss in Boots, made for Disney's first company, Newman Laugh-O-Gram, is a slangy update of the old fairy tale, complete with jazzy topical references to flappers, radio, and Rudolph Valentino. (Rudy is parodied in a brief burlesque of his recently released bullfighting saga Blood and Sand, a movie-within-the-movie entitled "Throwing the Bull.") The characters in this silent film converse in dialog balloons, as they would in a comic strip. And along the same lines, when these folks are startled their hats dance in the air, or little lines fly out of their heads-- it's like the Sunday funnies come to life.

The story is simple. A boy who is a commoner is in love with a Princess, but naturally her father the King objects. However, the boy's cat comes up with a plan to make him a famous bullfighter, and therefore an acceptable suitor. Lots of cute gags along the way boost the entertainment value of this very early effort beyond what a plot synopsis might suggest. Character movement is a bit jerky at times, but the backgrounds are surprisingly elaborate, rather more detailed than those found in Disney's later 'Alice in Cartoonland' series or in the early Mickey Mouse cartoons. It's especially impressive that these young filmmakers would take on the challenge of animating such a large crowd of spectators packing into the arena for the climactic bullfight. Even this early, Disney wasn't one to play it safe or cut corners. Puss in Boots is charming and funny, an early, inauspicious effort by a young man whose subsequent career would have an impact on popular culture he never could have imagined.

A boy likes a girl. His cat likes her cat. She's a princess and the King does not approve of their budding relationship. After seeing a Rodolf Vaselino movie, his cat comes up with the idea that he should become a bullfighter. His cat is desperate for new boots and offers his idea in exchange.

This is early Walt Disney. His drawings are rather two dimensional. His characters are mostly flat. The humans are not that well drawn. He's better off drawing the cats. I'm more interested in the cat character. That may be indicating something in his future. It's also interesting to see Disney do some Puss in Boots.

Walt Disney's first foray into animated cartoons began in 1922 with his Laugh-O-Grams Studio. While "Puss in Boots" isn't his first cartoon, it's among his very first. However, when you watch it there are two things to keep in mind. First, despite the title, this really isn't the fairy tale of "Puss in Boots". Disney often used titles of such stories as a GENERAL starting point but diverged from the stories quite a bit. Here, it's practically nothing like the old story. Second, although the cartoon seems rather naive, for 1922 it was quite good compared to other animated toons. Plus, they ALL were relatively crudely drawn, were in black & white and were silent.

As far as the story goes, there really isn't a lot of story. A young man is hanging out with the Princess. When the King notices, he tosses the guy and his poor kitty down the steps--out of the palace (leading to the best gag in the short--involving the cat and his 9 lives). Eventually, to impress the girl and her father, the cat concocts an idea involving a bullfight. As I said, it really has nothing to do with the story! Overall, a slightly better than average cartoon for its time. And, unlike later cartoons, these ones actually were animated, at least in part, by Walt himself--something he'd soon abandon in order to move more to the production and administration sides of animation.