THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
It’s crazy that franchises can regain momentum no matter how big of a downfall. This is definitely true because when Dreamworks started stumbling as they made Shrek sequels far from great, they took a different direction by making a spin-off about one of the most entertaining characters in the franchise, Puss in Boots.
PLOT
The film follows the titular talking cat known for being skilled with a sword and wearing his signature footwear. Puss is now a fugitive on the run and hopes to restore his honor. When hearing that outlaw couple Jack & Jill have stolen magic beans that can lead to the Golden Castle known by legend to contain valuable golden goose eggs. Puss plans to steal the beans from Jack & Jill and plant them in his hometown of San Ricardo to give back to the people, in order to regain his heroism. In his earliest attempt, it is backfired when encountering another talking cat who intends to steal them as well, Kitty Softpaws. When confronting her, he finds out she was hired by his childhood friend, a talking egg named Humpty Alexander Dumpty. Puss hasn’t spoken to him in a long time since he tricked him into committing a bank robbery that led to him being labeled a criminal. With Humpty convincing to join him, they agree to retrieve the golden eggs together. As Puss warms up to him and Kitty, they succeed in stealing the beans and plant them in the desert. As the group climbs up the beanstalk, they enter the castle with caution despite knowing the giant protecting the eggs has been dead for a long time but there is still a ‘Great Terror’ roaming around. With the golden eggs too heavy to carry, they choose to steal the Golden Goose itself. By the time they make it back to the surface, Jack & Jill ambush the group and knock Puss unconscious. When the male cat wakes up, he assumes Humpty and Kitty were abducted. By the time he tracks down Jack & Jill in San Ricardo, it turns out Humpty staged the kidnapping as an act of revenge against him for abandoning him during the failed robbery. Surrounded by militia, Puss would have no choice but to surrender and allow Humpty steal the glory. When getting put in a cell, he shares one with Andy ‘Jack’ Beanstalk (Mike Mitchell) who tells him that Humpty stole the beans years prior and the Great Terror is the goose’s mother, a gigantic bird that’ll stop at nothing to rescue her baby. This has Puss realize that Dumpty’s plan was to unleash the Great Terror to avenge his past imprisonment and flea with the gosling in the process. With Kitty’s help, Puss locates his friend in time to convince Humpty to redeem himself. Together, they try to lure Great Terror out of town. As they use the gosling as bait, they also prevent Jack & Jill from stealing it. By the time the mother reaches past the outskirts, she causes the bridge to collapse. This causes Humpty and the gosling to be knocked off, but Puss holds on to them both. Knowing both can’t be saved, Humpty chooses to sacrifice himself and let go. Upon fatal impact, Puss sees that he was a golden egg underneath the shell. With the Great Terror reunites with her gosling, she takes Humpty’s remains to the Golden Castle as well. Although San Ricardo’s townspeople hail Puss as a hero, the militia still deem him a fugitive. The film would end with him running away with Kitty.
THOUGHTS
Considering that the third and forth Shrek films were not amazing, expectations predictably got high for another entry to deliver. After putting aside my hesitance, I found myself relieved on how much I would enjoy this. Director Chris Miller surprises the world with an adventure that was so fun to watch you didn’t want it to end. With technology improving yearly, you bet your ass the animation did significantly as it made every character and every setting more distinguishable than before. They were honestly at the most effective during the dance fight. While you can laugh on how that plays out, you’re basically in awe with every frame that comes from that scene and so on. To me, I think the reason this movie has gotten better overtime would be because of its creative approach to tell audiences we don’t have to let our mistakes define us and we can always do good to avoid being labeled for the bad. Puss was the right character to explore this theme because he is one who had his ups and downs when we first met him in Shrek 2 and in here, he is able to take another step in redeeming himself. Antonio Banderas reminds us this cat has a pure heart and only wants to do right by others, never hesitating to do that. Yes he started out as a troublemaker but once he saw how it’s better to be a helping hand to people in need, he knew he had to grow up. After Humpty betrayed him for the first time, he was stuck in a trail of mistakes until he encountered Shrek. Reuniting with his former friend, he knew it wasn’t too late to set things right. And when things got worse afterwards, it didn’t stop him from doing whatever he could to save his town. With the civilians praising his heroism, he knew it was worth it and it kept him back on the positive track. Although his sequel The Last Wish showed him still have ups & downs, he never truly changed severely because nothing stopped his heart from being intact and doing what he did was right. Since this fairy tale universe has given us interesting interpretations of such familiar names, we got to see a new handful of characters that kept things interesting. Considering how distinctive of a character Puss is, it was hard to imagine another cat that would kick as much ass as him. Surprisingly, we didn’t look too hard when we saw Kitty enter the screen. Salma Hayek made a good impression in her first outing due to portraying her as one who was too comfortable doing selfish deeds like stealing, but thanks to meeting Puss she knew there was more to life than sticking to one thing. She gets along with him so well and it leads to them having intimate feelings for each other because they admire their positive spirits. And if the sequel proved anything, they still do. It made sense Puss had friends before Shrek, but I would’ve not expected him to have one as complex as Humpty. Zach Galifianakis makes it clear he has his own ingenious mind he can’t help sharing, but he uses it for the wrong reasons. The result comes from the neglect he had in his childhood. Puss did have his back as long as he could but once he could no longer after crossing the line, it only led to him being a manipulative figure. He was so heartbroken of losing his only friend he couldn’t accept it was his own doing, hence leading him to continue his trail of constant mistakes. It was honestly tough to see him die because he was just catching on he was in the wrong the whole time. Seeing him choose to sacrifice himself was also bold to see because it was reminder that it’s never too late to be redeemed. Villains come hand in hand when there are multiple ones in a single film. While Humpty was a sympathetic one, the plot is definitely spiced up a bit when you get a pair that’s bad to the bone. Billy Bob Thornton & Amy Sedaris succeed in making Jack & Jill as greedy and brutish you wouldn’t expect from the nursery rhyme. They were definitely interesting in their given time due to not regretting their actions compared to the other characters. The difference between the duo that stood out a lot was how Jack actually sees himself slowing down unlike Jill. We may have not been able to see that further play out, but it’s a clever thing to notice we’ll always be different from the people we love. If getting injured during the Great Terror’s attack did anything, maybe that will be the sign for Jill to be on the same page as her partner. While I find this film aging well, it doesn’t excuse the issues I noticed upon rewatching. For instance, continuity errors kick in at the very beginning when it came to the ball Puss uses to escape. One frame it’s not there only for it to actually be there by the next. I know we’re supposed to be surprised how fast Puss can be, but there should’ve been consistency by showing how he used the ball to his advantage. I literally say the same with the guitar that ends the dance fight. And if that wasn’t enough, I get confused seeing Jack unshackled when we didn’t even see Puss free him. It wouldn’t hurt seeing something simple yet important. I would admit that it’s smart to swallow a key to prevent anyone from stealing your belongings, but why would Jack swallow his own? He could’ve just told Jill to hide it otherwise his hand would’ve been trapped the whole movie. I want to laugh that a lady mistakes Puss to be ‘Chupacabra’, but why? He looks nothing like that figure because he’s a clothed animal running on two feet. Also, how did Humpty get back on the other side of the wall after he stole from the bank? I know we’re supposed to be focused on Puss being in shock but we should know how he got back over without help. If there were barrels, it shouldn’t hurt knowing that. I was generally impressed on the various designs this film showed, but that opinion does not apply when I look at Jack & Jill’s carriage. I mean there really is no good reason for it to have holes for their heads to pop up because common carriages don’t need wooden roofs. They’re just making it unnecessarily constricting for themselves. Moving on, how did Jack not feel the box get removed from his hand? He had to feel some kind of pressure released from his wrist. If you’re trying to say he’s numb to feeling, I won’t believe you. That confuses me more than Jill being able to get out of the carriage quietly during the chase for the beans because it’s not like she briefly shrunk just to pull that off. If there were magic beans for her to do that, please say so. And was it really a good idea for Jack & Jill to fire cannons at Team Puss when they’re in on the cahoots with Humpty? That could basically ruin the whole plan if Dumpty were to die sooner. I don’t like questioning the rules of magic, but how does a baby goose lay eggs? Sure animals may have different fertility than humans but it’s insane for a baby to lay infinite eggs with ease in comparison to its mother. And where did that horse come from? Puss was surrounded by crows and nothing else by the time he woke up. So did he just keep running until he found one? If so, please clarify this shit. And why did Humpty make it a mystery that the Great Terror was the gosling’s mother? If he knew what it was based on Jack‘s account, there was no reason to be mysterious towards Puss. I was happy to see Kitty stop Jack & Jill from their bullshit, but where did she go when the bridge collapsed? If she had seen what went down at the bridge, she likely would’ve saved Humpty from falling. Other than that, this will remain quite fine of an animated film. In short, Puss in Boots reboots the popularity of the Shrek franchise by being naturally fun to get through and having a bigger heart than before, earning its attention during awards season. If you’ve been a Shrek fan from the get go, I assure you this spin-off will satisfy you.
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