Le Chat potté

"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...

Like many others, I was getting fed up with the Shrek movies. The characters, the way they were structured. It all made it obvious something fresh and new was needed to spice up the series and make things interesting and fun to see again. The way they did this was by releasing this spin-off, which involved just the popular Puss in Boots character, from the previous 3 Shrek movies, voiced again by Antonio Banderas.

So basically this movie is being set in the same Shrek universe but without some of the familiar tropes and characters. This allows "Puss in Boots" to do its own thing and picks its own course. The movie definitely differs in style, humor and its buildup, from all of the Shrek movies. And this is a good thing really. It makes this movie like a much needed breath of fresh air for the entire franchise. However I'm still now more interested in seeing a "Puss in Boots 2" than a "Shrek 5".

Simply said; this is a very entertaining movie. It's a movie that lets you sit back and make you enjoy the ride. It's filled with some great new and fun character, good humor and some nice action in it as well.

The story is not great but it definitely serves its purpose. It provides the movie with plenty of action and adventure elements. Besides, it also provides the the origin- and background story of the Puss in Boots character, which I'm sure lots of people would be interested in.

Absolutely no other characters, from any of the previous Shrek movies, appear in this movie. This means that this movie introduces a whole lot of new characters but luckily not too many though. Basically only two are really important; Kitty Softpaws, the love interest and Humpty Dumpty, the villain, voiced by Salma Hayek and Zach Galifianakis. And they are welcome as characters in this movie. Especially Humpty Dumpty, who is of course absurd to have as a villain, works out really well and entertaining for the movie and Zach Galifianakis did a great job voicing him.

It's still mostly being a kids movie but that of course does not mean it's not fun for adults to watch as well. There are some jokes and references, which only the adults will get, while there is still plenty of silly and slapstick comedy in this movie to amuse the youngest kids. In other words; it's a good family movie!

Visually and technically these movies are also only getting better and better. Especially the movements for all of the characters also seem more fluent than ever, which allows them to do a lot of convincing fighting and battling in this movie, sometimes even the two combined.

Simply a very entertaining movie, that more than serves its purpose and is a real much needed breath of fresh air, after already 4 Shrek movies.

7/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

This movie must have been one of the first to take a frankly secondary (but funny) character from an animated film and to give it a prominent place in a film of its own. Its a fad of animation studios that has not always been able to make good movies but has certainly helped to increase their profits.

The first appearance of this cat is during "Shrek" franchise, but in this film we can see Puss in Boots in a different way, mixing "Zorro" with elements of the traditional tales "Jack and the Beanstalk" and "Chicken of the Golden Eggs". I think it's not necessary to mention that cinematography and animation are excellent and everything looks quite beautiful and elegant. The performance of voice actors is good, with António Banderas and Salma Hayek in the lead. It's an entertaining movie, to please both young and adult, and will definitely be a good choice for a "family get together" evening.

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.

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.