Puss In Boots
Review by Anthony Morris
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Puss In Boots
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With the Shrek franchise looking increasingly shabby but the money
still rolling in, it's no real surprise that we've reached the stage
where spin-offs start to look pretty good. What is a surprise is how much fun Puss in Boots turns out to be. As
voiced by Antonio Banderas, Puss is a swashbuckling adventurer and
thief, wanted by the law and proud of it as he roams a land that's half
Mexico, half fairyland. When his past is dragged up by a
mysterious cat burglar (Selma Hayek) who’s working with Puss's former
friend Humpty Dumpty (Zach Galifianakis) he finds himself working with
them on one big score : to knock over Jack & Jill
to grab their magic beans, and use them to head up to the giant's
castle in the sky and steal the goose that lays the golden eggs… It's perhaps a sign of how tired the Shrek
films were getting that this manages to get so much mileage out of many
of the same fairytale jokes (such as a thuggish version of Jack & Jill) simply by shifting focus to one of the supporting cast. The
story itself is rock-solid, giving Puss a tragic past via an extended
flashback and providing plenty of thrills in the present via a string
of action sequences and heists. Puss' cuteness is exploited
to the fullest too (if you know a cat-lover, they'll thank you forever
for sending them to this) and a dance fight in a cat club early in
proceedings is a torrent of comedic invention that Pixar wouldn’t be
ashamed of. This is more about entertainment than anything
deeper – there's no morals and no subtext, and even the angle of Puss
being an orphan is lightly brushed over – which does make this feel a
little lightweight whenever the pace slows. But it only ever slows for a moment, and the end result is a whole lot of fun.
3.5 out
of 5
Puss In Boots
Australian release: 8th December,
2011
Official
Site: Puss In Boots
Cast: Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Zach Galifianakis, Billy Bob Thornton, Amy Sedaris, Constance Marie, Guillermo del Toro
Director: Chris Miller
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