Puss In Boots 3D Review
Posted by Jeffrey Harris on 10.28.2011
The spin-off to the incredibly successful Shrek franchise, Puss in Boots, has finally hit theaters! But is it as good as the original or does the cat fail to land on its feet? 411's Jeffrey Harris checks in with his full review!
Directed By: Chris Miller Written By: Tom Wheeler and David H. Steinberg Runtime: 90 minutes MPAA Rating: Rated PG.
Puss - Antonio Banderas Kitty Softpaws - Salma Hayek Humpty Alexander Dumpty - Zach Galifianakis Jack - Billy Bob Thorton Jill - Amy Sedaris Imelda - Constance Marie Moustache Man/Comandate - Guillermo del Toro
Following the tremendous success of the second Shrek movie, the breakout character that stole the show was without a doubt Antonio Banderas’ voiced character, Puss in Boots. Shortly thereafter there was news of Dreamworks Animation planning a spinoff movie featuring Puss. I was always skeptical about such a movie. I grew similarly skeptical after the following two Shrek movies as the franchise was growing more and more tired and mediocre. Surely a Puss in Boots movie would be nothing more than franchise saturation, cash-in overkill if you will. All things considered, going in skeptical, I came out pleasantly surprised by how good and entertaining Puss in Boots turned out to be and was a fun, 3D adventure.
The story is actually completely unrelated to the Shrek films besides the familiar character of Puss, and I think the movie is better for it. Wheeler and Steinberg keep the story focused on boots and do not even reference or cameo other characters of the Shrek-verse other than Puss, which I guess proves that the franchise is over for now. However, this helps in letting director Chris Miller to not get bogged in any details involving other Shrek characters and Puss gets to develop on his own.
The story likely precedes the events of the first Shrek movie. Here Puss is a professional bandit and outlaw. He was an orphan raised in the small town of San Ricardo by the kindly Imelda (Marie). However, Puss learns of a score that’s a blast from the past, magic beans of legend that can grow a beanstalk to the giant’s castle in the cloud that holds the goose that lays the golden eggs. The golden goose could be Puss’ salvation to repay his “debt” at his old home. However the beans are in the possession of the nasty, lugubrious outlaws, Jack (Thorton) and Kill (Sedaris) who don’t appear to be fans of cats. Puss is manipulated into the quest by his old “brother” Humpty Alexander Dumpty (Galifianaki) and the alluring cat thief, Kitty Softpaws (Hayek). Puss however doesn’t trust Dumpty since he is the reason Puss is now an outlaw and cannot go home.
The movie starts pretty slow and takes quite a while to get going. However around the second act, the action and story really pick up and just seems to become more sure of itself. The writers also don’t sway too far into dated pop-culture jokes and territory as the Shrek and other recent CG animated pictures have done. The humor is built more around the characters and situations, but the more flat jokes are when Dumpty has a pastiche line reworked from the movie Fight Club.
But Puss, whose purpose as a supporting character seemed to grow more and more pointless and trivial in the Shrek sequels does manage to come into his own as a protagonist here. The writers and director accomplish this by filling the movie with a lot of witty cat related jokes and humor. Cat people and owners will certainly enjoy this film. It sort of reminded me a bit of how the movie Up utilized its dog characters. What Up was to dogs, Puss in Boots is to cats.
The movie is overall a very quick and tight experience. There is no over-reliance on big marquee stars other than the three main leads. I think this was a major problem of the Shrek sequels when big name actors were hired for throwaway roles who barely had any lines or interesting material to work with in the movies a tall. My only caveat though is that Galifianakis never really kicks it into high gear as Humpty Dumpty. His dialogue and character came off somewhat out of place for the story. His performance as Dumpty isn't at all bad, just a little uninspired. It is a little reminiscent to how Jean-Claude Van Damme was cast as a crocodile Kung Fu master in Kung Panda 2 but wasn't at all funny and literally had nothing funny at all to say. Though Dumpty does have some good jokes here and there, he really needed a lot more.
As far as the 3D presentation goes, it looked pretty well done, and I’m usually impressed with how well 3D is utilized by Dreamworks Animation features such as this and also this year’s Kung Fu Panda 2. The animation has a great amount of depth and is incredibly vibrant. Sequences like the growing of the beanstalk and some of the extreme close-ups do well in taking advantage of the 3D format.
The 411: Puss in Boots was a very entertaining film. It started a little slow as it got further in it became much more entertaining and comedic. The cat related humor was very funny. Zach Galifianakis came off a little out of place as Humpty Dumpty. The comedy though was a lot better than the more recent Shrek movies without the over-reliance on big stars in throwaway roles and heaping amounts of tired pop-culture jokes.
