Movie Review: Puss in Boots (2011)

In a perfect world, there would be no such thing as mediocre amongst the Pixar catalogue. But alas, every few years, John Lasseter wants to deliver another Cars film. While DreamWorks may be better known for throwing a few clunkers our way, the last few years have been mighty kind. Maybe it’s losing all those coveted Best Animated Feature Oscars along the way. Not that this weekend’s Puss in Boots will completely change that but it’s continuing in the right direction.

All that aside, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it every time: as of now, so long as DreamWorks isn’t trolling out another Shrek film, they seem to do mighty fine. Looking back over their list of films since Shrek premiered just over ten years ago they’re actually doing way better than I make it sound. The only true stinkers being Shark Tale, and the last two Shrek films, Shrek the Third and Shrek Forever After.

When you notice the director of Puss in Boots is none other than Chris Miller, the director of Shrek the Third (arguably one of the worst DreamWorks feature thus far), it gives cause for alarm. Can he pull a nice little trick out of his hat and deliver the prequel we’ve been waiting for since Puss made his first appearance back in 2004’s Shrek 2? We all know Puss has been the best thing to happen to that entire franchise so it was only a matter of time before his tale was finally told.

Puss in Boots works as an origin story, but keeps the film within the fractured Shrek fairy tale land while never sinking so low as to even conjure up any of those films’ characters. Puss (voiced by Antonio Banderas) has his own tale to be told. Here we find that as a young kitten, he is placed within an orphanage in San Ricardo, where he quickly befriends Humpty Dumpty (voiced by Zach Galifianakis). The two aspire to grow up and escape the confines of said orphanage to fulfill Humpty’s dreams of finding Jack’s magical beans that lead to a giant castle where the golden goose lies ripe for the taking if they can get it past the Great Terror.

Article Author: Cinenerd

A Utah based writer, born and raised in Salt Lake City, UT for better and worse. Cinenerd has had an obsession with film his entire life, finally able to write about them since 2009, and the only thing he loves more are his wife and their two wiener dogs (Beatrix Kiddo and Pixar Animation). …

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