Viewed in
2011
Formats
IMAX 3D
Premise
Puss in Boots from the Shrek franchise gets his own spinoff flick.
Loved
Rodrigo y Gabriela, interesting final boss.
Liked
Humor, creativity.
Thoughts
I found it interesting that it was a stand-alone story for the Puss character. I didn't see a shred of reference to nor inside jokes of the previous movies. This probably liberated the film makers to get creative with the fairy tale material and craft their own comedy, instead of relying on old material as a crutch. Overall, I laughed a lot, and Antonio Banderas definitely upped the charm and proved that his character could carry a film.
The most creative part was the climax, when Puss' hometown was besieged by a rather unique, yet super-logical monster. As a 3D flick, it was definitely worth the extra bucks. The image was crisp, it had a great sense of depth, and there was a lot of cool shots, especially the epic swooping shots of desert landscapes.
I probably liked this more than I should because the score starred Rodrigo y Gabriela, whom I'm a big fan of. Their flamenco-thrash guitars were a perfect choice of giving the entire film a hip, energetic Spanish flair throughout.
Puss in Boots was definitely one of the better entries of the successful franchise, but like all sequels it still lacked the novelty and memorable comedy of the very first film. The plot twists with Humpty Dumpty felt predictable, and as a whole, none of the relationships with the new characters were interesting enough for me to care.
What I would change
Nothing.
