Outlawed in his hometown, Puss in Boots dreams of restoring his good name. A chance presents itself unexpectedly: after chasing a masked stranger (who turns out to be a thief named Kitty), he ends up in a tavern where Humpty Alexander Dumpty offers his help. A long-time friend of Puss, Humpty betrayed him seven years ago, but now repents and urges him to steal magic beans. Planting them in the right place will lead to a celestial castle inhabited by a goose that lays golden eggs. The reserves of precious metal should guarantee that the offended townspeople finally realize how much they missed Puss all these years.
It might seem inevitable that a separate film about the impudent Puss, who appeared in the second “Shrek,” would be made from the moment he first performed his forbidden wide-eyed trick. In fact, the project has been in development since 2004, when “Shrek 2” was released. Initially, the film was intended for a direct-to-DVD release, but thankfully, they changed their minds. The overall box office success of the series likely led the producers to believe that it would be a sin not to take a chance.
However, “Puss” inherited not only a large audience and a not-so-small budget from the original franchise but also some problems. For example, the four “Shrek” films had already thoroughly explored the fairy tale library, so the spin-off’s authors had to scrape the bottom of the barrel. While we can somehow relate the mysterious goose to the Russian folktale of Ryaba the Hen, the repulsive Jack and Jill, who are the main competitors for the beans, will seem unfamiliar to most Russian viewers, even though they actually come from an English nursery rhyme.
Genre-Bending Brilliance
However, the writers of “Puss” managed to wriggle out, and quite successfully. They partially replaced the burlesque ridicule of fairy tale characters, which was the basis of the original films, with genre games. As a result, “Puss in Boots” navigates the conventions of the “spaghetti western” almost as deftly as the highly successful “Toy Story 3” handled the spy genre. And while not every joke hits the mark, successful gags sometimes occur even at the level of in-frame editing, which is a pleasant surprise for the animated genre.
A Treat for Cat Lovers
Moreover, the audience of “Puss” may even “grow” due to – yes, yes – the notorious cat lovers. And although the hero here is not quite the unashamed opportunist and mercenary that he first appears to be in “Shrek,” he remains a Cat to the tips of his whiskers. And although history is silent about the number of cats that suffered in the process of filming preparation, it cannot be denied: Chris Miller and his co. did their homework with flying colors. The knowledge, inaccessible to amateurs, of how exactly cats wipe, excuse me, their butts and scream at night, is perfectly traced in the film and evokes warm joy of recognition in all “club members.”
Zorro Meets Fluffy Kitten
In general, the cat here most paradoxically combines the bearing of an experienced Zorro, the habits of a pet, and the plushness of a soft toy, which even the beloved British cat from the well-known cat food advertisement would envy. However, the authors apply different “cuteness” in moderation and with a sly squint. For example, the gold-bearing goose desperately resembles Nibbler from “Futurama.” And the youthful version of the cat himself begins to boom exactly at the moment when we are already ready to burst into tears of emotion.
From Character-Driven to Spectacle-Driven
But on the whole, “Puss,” alas, cannot boast of any outstanding gallery of heroes, the lively diversity of which favorably distinguished the first films of the franchise, and generally takes a decent step away from the “character-driven” “Shrek” towards a special-effects blockbuster. In other words, love for animals is, of course, good, but a beanstalk that cuts through the clouds with the purposefulness of a surface-to-air missile is a sight that should make the viewer wearing 3D glasses squeak like your two-week-old kittens.