Ever since I saw Shrek 2 I have loved the sword fighting, boot and hat wearing Puss. He reminds me of Inigo Montoya, if Inigo were a cat. So I was excited as a kid at Christmas when I heard there was going to be a Puss In Boots movie. Especially since the last two Shrek movies have been less than impressive.
So after my two week long hiatus (I've been poorly sick) I decided that the best way to get back to the cinema, and back to my reviews, was to have a double bill. So as well as seeing Puss today I also saw Hugo. But we'll get to Hugo later.
Puss In Boots tells the story of the early life of everyones favourite sword fighting cat, his time as an orphaned kitten and how he came to own those fetching boots of his. It all started back when he was best friends with Humpty Dumpty when they were both orphaned youngsters. He meets Humpty again years later and the two of them, along with Kitty Softpaws, go on a quest to obtain magic beans from simple crooks Jack and Jill.
As Puss inevitably became the best thing about watching the Shrek movies, it's kinda nice that he has a whole movie to himself without being sidelined. That said I was slightly disappointed that there were no cameos from Shrek, Fiona or Donkey in this movie as I was expecting there to be some mention of the previous adventures Puss has had.
That's not to say that the introduction of Kitty and Humpty doesn't make up for the loss of Shrek and co, just that it's nice to see a familiar face. *Stop reading if you don't want to know who the voices are* The voice actors are all very well suited to their roles and of course Banderas clearly relishes playing Puss for the fourth time. His voice is so well matched to that character that when Puss's voice becomes more high pitched at one point, it just sounds wrong.*Feel free to resume until you get to cast overview under the trailer*
The film isn't overly taxing for young 'uns to keep up with, but they may get bored as it is a little on the long side at nearly 2 hours (including ads/trailers). I think overall it will be an enjoyable, easy watch for adults and kids alike.
Finally I will say that while I have not been that impressed with Dreamworks animation until they made the amazing How To Train Your Dragon, I was sufficiently impressed with the animation on show here and am happy that they seem to be continually improving. They just need to better their stories a little to be on a par with Pixar.
One of the better animations of this rather dismal year for kids films. 6.5 out of 10.
Viewing Date - 18th December 2011
UK Release Date - 9th December 2011
Cast Overview:
Antonio Banderas ~ Puss in Boots
Salma Hayek ~ Kitty Softpaws
Zach Galifianakis ~ Humpty Dumpty
Billy Bob Thornton ~ Jack
Amy Sedaris ~ Jill
Constance Marie ~ Imelda
Director ~ Chris Miller
Writer(s) ~ David H Steinberg and Jon Zack with additional writing credit for Charles Perrault (Character), Will Davis (Story), Brian Lynch (Story) and Tom Wheeler (Screenplay).
That's a low score for a film you seem to have really enjoyed?
ReplyDeleteI know, I toyed with a 7 but decided it wasn't as good as Tangled or Cars 2 which both got 7's so it got 6.5. 6.5 is still good. Just not great.
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