Nagagutsu o haita neko

One of the more obscure yet revolutionary Japanese animated films in history is a 1969 adaptation of Charles Perrault's fairy tale classic, Puss 'n Boots. Entitled The Wonderful World of Puss 'n Boots, the film marked a historical breakthrough for acclaimed studio Toei Animation, as the title character would become their logo mascot, and many of the top key animators would lead their own prolific careers in the anime industry such as Yasuo Otsuka, Reiko Okuyama, Yoichi Kotabe & Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki. While it does remain somewhat unnoticed internationally, it's still a remarkably fun adventure.

The film follows Pero, an outlawed swashbuckling feline in boots and Pierre, a poor, neglected miller's son, on their own little adventures. Upon discovering a bustling kingdom where its princess Rosa is betrothed to be married to a prince, the evil ogre sorcerer, Lucifer, threatens to bestow darkness on the land if he is not arranged to marry Rosa in three days. So now it's up to Pero to get Pierre and Rosa together and restore balance to the kingdom. What may sound like a pretty simple premise is actually a lot more complicated in the execution, mainly in regards to all the obstacles the leads get themselves into. Pero has to constantly outrun three bumbling cats from his village trying to kill him, Pierre has to come out of his shell in order to prove his genuine self to Rosa, and even some former mouse thieves do whatever they can to help out our heroes on their missions to let the human boy and girl fall in love. With so much going on, it may seem overwhelming at first, but never once does it lose too much focus to the point of forgetting all that's centered around the mission of two inseparable friends.

Admittedly, the film does often clash tonally when it goes from a rather serious conflict into a more comically goofy chase scene, or going from a more laid back song sequence into a cartoony animal slapstick romp. Fortunately, those moments usually only happen when they need to, and the film does gradually become more and more about Pero and Pierre working together to save the day. A notable highlight would have to be the climax sequences simultaneously directed by Otsuka and Miyazaki, which take place atop castle parapets in very dynamic angles and a suspenseful goose chase in preventing Lucifer from keeping Rosa as his own. While many sequences involving Pero fighting against his enemies and the mice are entertaining in their own right, this climax offers the type of thrills and bounds that Miyazaki would later explore further in his directorial debut, The Castle of Cagliostro. In addition, the musical numbers are also very catchy and even heartwarming to listen to on their own, as rather than stopping the film dead in its tracks, they play up the momentum more and more.

In fact, momentum is the perfect word that encapsulates The Wonderful World of Puss 'n Boots, as the whole movie is a delightful thrill ride from start to finish, and a very lightheartedly humorous one at that. If you're not familiar with much of the earlier work from Toei or you'd like to see a previous swashbuckling take on the boot wearing cat prior to the Shrek franchise, then this is a definite must watch for anyone. Considering the film would go on to have a couple of sequels and be a famed icon for an already well regarded foreign animation studio, one can tell where such a hysterical movie made such an impact.

I'm not too familiar with the original story. But this is a well done anime movie.

Puss n Boots is about a cat name Pero who was given a death sentence for not eating a mouse. He runs away while 3 cat killers are on his trail.

On the run Pero finds a small cottage with 3 boys. There are 2 older ones who don't give their youngest brother a brake. That young boy is name Pierre who very simple minded. After Pierre finds out that his brothers are not being honest on their share of money. They kicked him out.

Pero cheers him up and tells him that he has a hunch that he could make Pierre's life a lot easier.

So they head for town and heard the news that the King is searching for a rich prince to be wed with his daughter, Princess Rose. Pero finds this the right opportunity. So he must make Pierre look like a prince. But Pierre doesn't find it a good idea to live a lie.

Meanwhile an Orge named Lucifer demands that he married the princess. But Rose didn't find him the right "man" to be with. Lucifer didn't take no for an answer. So he gave the king 3 days to decide. Other wise the kingdom will face catastrophic measures.

Pero tells the King that Pierre will fight Lucifer. But Pierre doesn't find that possible to achieve. Pero however has confidants in Pierre. So how will Pierre save Rose from Lucifer? Puss N Boots is a very old anime movie. Way back when early Japanese cartoonists were inspired by Disney Cartoons to make their own. This one is Disney like only the quality is different from what you'd find in an American cartoon.

The cool thing is the chase scenes were animated by THE Hayao Miyazaki who was a key Animator back then. And this movie is the debut of Toei's mascot Pero himself.

Overrall, it's a highly acclaim classic for all time anime fans or those who like older anime. It's perfectly fine for kids to watch too. You only see once small scene of Pierre's rear end.

If you like this one I also recommend "Animal Treasure Island" which was also done by the same people who made Puss n Boots possible.

Watched as a Recent Miyazaki convert and found this to be a Weak telling of the tale that sacrifices story for singing mice and cut and paste action and style, courtesy of Sleeping Beauty

Firstly, this a poor retelling of the classic fairy tale of a con artist cat with dreams of grandeur. The cat's motivations are never made clear. His cunning skills of con artistry are never established, but you do get 25 minutes of scheming cats and friendly mice singing songs about friendship.

The biggest change here, is that most of the plot of this adaptation revolves around the villain, the devil himself. Yeah, satan. It sounds cool but it wasn't.

Everything about the devil plotline (which takes up most of the films runtime) was so blatantly lifted from disney's Sleeping Beauty, it was hard for me to feel like I was watching something other than a third rate knockoff...

The green faced, black cloaked villain crashing the royal event to threaten the princess, the black and green color palettes, the green fire, the castle fortress with other black and green demonic critters running up and down spiral staircases and towers and draw bridges.

All that is fine as an artistic influence, but this adds nothing to the plot and the animation falls so short compared to the innovative gothic art style of sleeping beauty, it's unfathomable this was In fact made, a whole decade later.

I found the art style strange as well, like a mish mash of traditional anime with a Hanna Barbera cartoon. It felt like two different movies trying to co exist a lot of the time.

I believe that this film is a masterpiece, always exuberant and dynamic, full of wit and clever animation, often as hilarious as a classic Chuck Jones, sometimes as a beautiful as Miyazaki's later work. If you are able to feel at home with this older, slightly more limited style of animation (I, for one, find it lovely and full of character), than I think you will find that this film is even better than some of Studio Ghibli's work-- better, even, than "Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro" (which borrows heavily from this) or "The Cat's Return." In my view, only Miyazaki's true masterworks ("Nausicaa," "Castle in the Sky," "Spirited Away," "Porco Rosso") surpass this early work, which already beautifully interweaves action and adventure with loony comedy.

Apparently, Miyazaki himself drew much of the long, action-filled second half of the film.

I highly recommend this DVD to everyone: If we do not embrace these cult classics on DVD, they will stop releasing them! Of course, the original Japanese soundtrack is far better, and also restored for superior quality).

Fabulous wide screen cartoon feature from the days before Manga and anime had entered common our toon speak. This one was particularly imposing in it's first generation colour with the Japanese track.

Don't expect too much connection to the fairy tale we had thrust on us as kids but the chase down the spiraling INSIDE of the mountain remains printed in the memory after thousands of cheapo kiddie toons have faded.

This one comes from the days of the first Astro Boy series and while it has a style and imagery of it's own, it's not hard to imagine the people who did them downing tea and other substances together out of hours. Note Hayao Miyazaki's credit here. It would be particularly interesting to get to see a collection of his work from this period.