Review: 'Puss in Boots'

Film: Puss in Boots (3D)
Director: Chris Miller
Cast:  Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Zach Galifianakis, Amy Sedaris, Billy Bob Thornton
Rating: ***

In a land best described as a cross between a Sergio Leone wasteland and a fairy tale realm from pages of Mother Goose, our whiskered sword-wielding Puss (Banderas) roams free as an outlaw, inspiring fear and awe while wooing the ever-swooning females of his species.

On a mission for mythical magic beans that can lead one to the goose that lays golden eggs, Puss encounters a ghost from his past — former childhood friend Humpty Alexander Dumpty, and his henchwoman Kitty Softpaws (Hayek). Humpty was tactical genius (albeit a misfit) with whom Puss shared his childhood with at the orphanage at the impoverished town of San Ricardo.

The egg, obsessed from day one with the beans, found his only friend in Puss, inducting him in his top secret Bean Club. However, as the years roll by, with the feline gaining the respect of the town and him being forced to lives in his shadow, Humpty disgraces Puss by turning to a life of crime and embroiling him in a caper that made him the outcast he is. Putting aside his misgivings, Puss reunites with Humpty to take the beans that are in the possession of feared redneck outlaws Jack (Thornton) and Jill (Sedaris).      

For a Shrek spin off bereft of the genius of Eddie Murphy and Mike Myers, Puss in Boots holds its own. Though somewhat lacking in the sly adult jokes and numerous references of the first two Shrek films, the film is stronger and certainly more charming and humorous than the third and fourth installments of the franchise.  As the lead character, Puss, confidently voiced by Banderas, displays not only the swashbuckling traits of Zorro and El Mariachi but also those characteristic of felines, which makes for a lot of the film’s comedy. The character of Humpty (voiced by Galifianakis, who, for once isn’t deliberately making an ass of himself on screen) is reminiscent of the tragic Jacinto from The Devil’s Backbone, directed by executive producer Guillermo Del Toro, who also voiced the San Ricardo’s comandante in Puss in Boots. Kitty Softpaws, a skilled thief, not your typical sex kitten, is your token female character however, acting chiefly as a foil and providing grudging support and sexual tension.

Though the visual gags, like the irreverence, aren't as abundant or of the same quality as the Shrek films, Puss in Boots' animation, full of colour and detail, brings an impressive storybook feel, with the 3D being quite remarkable in the first half.

Puss in Boots is a film, with a moral, that should keep kids reasonably thrilled and entertained. While unfettered by realism, perhaps the film could have been deeper on some levels while maintaining its zaniness. Adults, take caution that amusement in Puss in Boots is not to be derived from a wiseass donkey taking pot-shots at a pot-bellied ogre, but the antics of Puss, as he reverts from the brazen Latin lover to a disarmingly doe-eyed darling.