Do you remember when you first saw Yellow Submarine? Do you remember how batshit crazy that film looked the first time you saw it? I remember thinking, “these guys are on drugs,” even though I didn’t know what drugs were. I want you to think about that when I describe what passes for mainstream entertainment these days: There’s a cat, Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) who walks upright and talks with a thick Spanish accent. And his wardrobe entirely consists of a feathered musketeer hat, knee-high boots and an épée. It gets better. He seeks magic beans, held captive by Jack & Jill, depicted here as beefy professional wrestlers. In his attempt to thieve the beans, he encounters a fellow cat-burglar (literally) named Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek) and their sudden rivalry escalates to a “dance fight” at a feline-only dive bar. Lest ye think this isn’t weird enough, the dance fight ends in an encounter with Puss’ childhood accomplice/rival Humpty Alexander Dumpty (Zach Galifianakis), a large talking egg. Despite growing up in the same orphanage as the cat, the egg does not have a Spanish accent. Shame, I like Huevos Rancheros.
It really doesn’t get less silly at this point. However, there is adorable animation of Kitten in Booties. If you stand back and try to remember that this is mainstream animation, the popular stuff for the masses – not a whiff of anything underground — it really is quite amazing what we can accept as a people. And you can tell it is mainstream because the animation and 3D are first rate. All else being equal, IMAX & 3D this one if it won’t put you out several limbs. Puss in Boots does justice to the medium. That and your admission price, of course, will get you a supersize box of kitty litter. Like most Shrekery, the story won’t last in your mind beyond the ride home, but the ride is kinda fun.
The character of Puss in Boots was first introduced in Shrek 2: Electric Boogaloo as a vandal-for-hire. I guess we’ve decided he isn’t bad and never was, just a tad misunderstood, like any average sword-wielding feline. The continuing strength of the Shrek franchise is the addition of color to characters of whom we know the names and little else. And why shouldn’t somebody take advantage of our ready-made acknowledgment of Jack & Jill? And doesn’t the nursery rhyme world in general deserve something better than Andrew Dice Clay to add back-story? I mean, what exactly is a tuffet and why wasn’t little Miss at home having breakfast? Coming into Puss in Boots, I knew that Humpty Dumpty sat on wall ineffectively. That is the total sum of my HD knowledge. Now I find he was a troubled teen from a broken home … that’s interesting, no?
You probably don’t need to have seen Shrek to enjoy Puss in Boots; the catch is if you’re going to Puss in Boots, you almost certainly have seen at least one Shrek. That’s probably not a bad thing.
Rated PG, 90 Minutes
D: Chris Miller
W: Brian Lynch, David H. Steinberg, Tom Wheeler & Jon Zack
Genre: Spin off
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: The Shrek Group, LLC
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: People with lives
