Overall Rating:
Score: 7.5/10
Grade: B+
Family-Friendliness Scale: Level 4 (Great)
Kids ages 7+
Following the enormous success of the Shrek movies (if you combine all four, they've grossed nearly $3 billion worldwide), DreamWorks tried to create a new franchise with the popular character that was introduced over seven years ago in the second movie, and that is Puss in Boots. In an origins story of sorts, the film shows how Puss came to be as El Ricardo's most wanted outlaw, and how he tries to clear his name. In other words, I guess you could call the character a Spanish "Robin Hood".
Positive Notes
The film boasts strong role models with Puss (once again voiced by Antonio Banderas) and his dastardly sidekick Kitty Softpaws (voiced by Salma Hayek). There are also positive morals on bravery, heroism, the importance of family, friendship and the simple joys of doing the right thing. The animation is brilliant, with realistic looking backgrounds and characters, and the 3-D effects are great for an animated film, with dust clouds being kicked up in your face and gold coins and other small objects flying in and out of the screen.
Besides Banderas and Hayek, there are some other good voice artists with Billy Bob Thornton and Amy Sedaris as the murderous outlaws Jack & Jill, as well as Zack Galifankis as the cunning and bumbling Humpty Alexander Dumpty. There are some clever fairy tale cliches, referencing the fairy tales of Jack & The Beanstalk, Little Boy Blue, Humpty Dumpty (obviously), and numerous others. Henry Jackman (who scored Winnie The Pooh earlier this year) does a great job with the music score, as he accomplishes making it illustrate what the movie is about. And like MegaMind before it, the film has an unpredictable twist close to the end, but I'm not telling what it is.
Negative Notes
Puss takes the quote "more of a lover than a fighter" quite literally. The beginning of the film shows a room with empty glasses with milk residue, and Puss putting his hat and cape on and bidding farewell to a white, fluffy cat (humorously and coincidentally, they both look like our cats Tickles & Olivia). Puss and Kitty dance one time a bit seductively, and sometimes give or take in a mildly flirtatious manner.
Milk (said in Spanish as "leche") is used as a play-on for alcohol, and one time, a prison guard finds a bottle of catnip inside Puss' boot, where the cat states it was for his glaucoma, but it could easily be seen here as a reference to a strong drug. The film also contains a couple of litter-box jokes, and some cartoonish action that may still be too intense for the youngest of children. No foul language, though we do hear two misuses of God's name and one exclamation of "holy frijoles!" (the spanish word for "beans").
Conclusion
If it hadn't been for the ogre, then Puss in Boots wouldn't have existed. Having cautious parents, I wasn't allowed to watch the Shrek movies because of their innuendos and crude material. This one, on the other hand, is much more clean than any of those films. But, a few romantic play-ons and a catnip/marijuana joke certainly aren't needed in a film like this. Because of that, Puss falls short of MegaMind, Kung Fu Panda and How To Train Your Dragon, but it still stands on its' own as a fairly good movie that is character-driven and action-packed.
