Official Synopsis
Puss In Boots stars in the uproarious and irresistible origin story of the notorious fighter, lover and outlaw Puss In Boots. Filled with hilarious action and adventure, the true tail—er, tale—of how Puss became a hero long before he met Shrek.
This was bound to happen after the Shrek series ended! You had to see this coming.
Antonio Banderas’ reprisal of his Shrek persona, Puss In Boots, is not a bad first attempt at branching off from the Shrek series. The story surrounds the origin of Puss and how he became who is today. You’ll find out his orphaned past, and how he became friends (and later enemies) with Humpty Dumpty. Compared to Shrek, it’s a shallower story that focuses really on one main character without the bells and whistles of ‘Fairytale’ characters. That might be the flaw in this film, as it’s trying to capture the same audience as Shrek did, but the subtraction of the Fairytale atmosphere (and again, the characters) really make Puss In Boots a separate entity from the Shrek series.
With that said, I fully realize that Puss In Boots does contain a few Fairytale elements, such as Humpty Dumpty, Jack and Jill and the Golden Goose. Beyond that, it really can’t stand up to the large shadow that Shrek has cast. Puss In Boots tells a wonderful story that is what you would expect from a hero such as our famous smooth cat. It’s just difficult to not expect something Shrek-like when it comes to the first spin-off.
Having said all this, it’s still a very solid story. You have the origin of our lead character then you have him meeting back up with Humpty Dumpty on the quest to retrieve Jack’s magic beans (yes THE Jack), so that a golden goose can be retrieved from the castle in the sky. Once obtained, the duo (actually trio, if you count the new lady cat, Kitty Softpaws) run into even more trouble; namely the ‘mother’ goose of the kidnapped goose. It’s a simple story, that’s put together well, but it will relate to kids more than adults. That might be the downside, especially since Shrek movies entertained all ages. It’s still a fun story, just don’t go expecting Shrek.
One of the bright spots of this film is the voice acting from Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek (where have you been???) and the egg man himself, Zach Galifianakis. All of them seemed to buy into their respective roles and, more importantly, have fun with the characters and story. You can tell when people are just doing voice over work for the money. This was not the case with the cast of Puss In Boots.
Overall, I really enjoyed Puss In Boots, but not as much as my kids. I think kids will get a kick out of it and adults will be mildly amused.
As for the Blu-ray portion of the film, it looked perfect. The animation, which improves from film to film, looked exquisite. Lots of details in the fur, and the egg, plus some solid environment improvements. One such improvement was how the environment seemed to react to the action. You get a lot of properly placed kicking up of dirt, and wind/particle movements (you’ll see this in action when the beans are FINALLY planted). As for the HD quality, it’s the same as the animation; perfect. Lots of bright colors, fantastic lighting elements and superb video with little to no break in animation. It looked really sharp in HD. It’s easy to make animated films look perfect in HD, but consistently with new techniques actually makes it a challenge.
Other than the perfect visuals, you also get some really excellent sound mastering. The film comes in at 7.1 Dolby TrueHD. It sounds just as good as this sentence reads (probably better). It compliments the visuals perfectly.
Here’s what you get in terms of features:
– A DreamWorks Fairytale
– The Animator’s Corner
– Puss’ Paw-Pouncing Challenge
– Trivia Track
– Pur-fect Pairing: The Voices Behind the Legends
– Deleted Scenes
– Kitten to Cat: The Progression of Puss In Boots
– Glitter Box Dance Off!
– Klepto Kitty
– Fairytale Pop-Up Book
– Puss In Boots: The Three Diablos
The amount of features you get, and the quality of them, makes this a very solid set. Your kids will be enthralled with these features, especially the animator’s corner and voice over featurettes. The glitter box dance off isn’t too bad either. It will extend the life of the film way after the cats in the credits do their thing.