Now Playing: Puss in Boots 3D (2011)

I was really tired today, and really wasn't in the mood to watch a movie at all. Then an awesome girl gave me a great idea. If the movie is really fun, it would combat my lack of interest, and hopefully wash the sour taste left in my mouth after seeing Immortals. I didn't have any "fun" movies at home, but I knew of one that was in the theaters still, and that was of course Puss in Boots 3D. I only saw the first 2 Shrek movies, and that was really enough, but I always thought Puss in Boots was an awesome character. Now it was time to see if he could support a movie entirely on his own! Find out after the jump!


Puss is off on his own this time around. He's wandering the land in search for treasure and riches, and generally just trying to stay out of the hands of the law. He hears about the possibility that someone in town named Jack might have some magic beans. Puss claims they don't exist, but the locals in the bar confirm they're real! While on the job, he's ambushed by another "cat burglar" and after a decisive battle, learns that the job is actually much bigger, and could have vastly larger rewards. That is, if he's willing to work with an old "friend" who once betrayed him in the past. It's never made clear if there's any kind of a time line to the Shrek films, but it's also pretty clear that that doesn't matter one bit. Shrek is out, and the boots are in!

Challenged to a duel!

It's an easy choice for me to make to say that Puss in Boots is my favorite character from the Shrek films. But while doing some quick fact checking, I was actually surprised to realize that Puss was never in the first film, and was only introduced in the second. I never saw the 3rd and 4th installments, so all my great memories of this character come entirely from one movie! I'd say that's a pretty good lasting impression for a new character.

In this film, Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) is joined by his old friend Humpty Alexander Dumpty (Zach Galifianakis) and Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek). There are a number of other characters, a few being inspired by other fairy tales, much in the same way Shrek was. There is even a side role voiced by Billy Bob Thornton and, surprisingly, Guillermo del Toro gets a voice credit here too. Unsurprisingly, all the voice acting is fantastic.

Kitty Softpaws can steal anything and never be noticed, as comically demonstrated here

The graphics and animation quality is also top notch. In particular I love how Puss always flings himself around, often sending himself literally cartwheeling through the air. The action is always lively and fast and fluid. The graphics maybe aren't as detailed as say Rango, but the more cartoon colourful look lent itself very well to the film and I couldn't help but find myself impressed.

As for the 3D, I think there may have been some of the best use of 3D in this movie that I've seen in a looong time! In particular a few scenes in which we are zipping just feet off the ground. You can see for miles, and you cover several miles in these fly-overs. Seeing that land and cacti zoom up and zip past me was pretty awesome. I think this solidified 3D for me as an excellent way to enhance animated movies.

Perhaps my only gripe is that I just didn't like the Humpty Dumpty character much at all. He just looks so weird. Of course his unique shape is used well in the movie and some comical scenes can result because of it. On the other side, I thought Kitty Softpaws was a great new character, and I hope that if they make a sequel to this film, that she'll make an appearance again.

He may be small, but he's still a huge Hero!

So in the end this definitely ended up being a fun lighthearted movie. I found the comedy to be quite good, and I thought all the action sequences were good and the CG graphics were great. The story is adequately fanciful and it works very well. I liked the adventure that Puss was lead on, which at first all started with such a simple task as stealing something valuable, and becomes this vast grand journey and they go to the coolest places. This just solidified Puss in Boots as an awesome character for me. It's a great movie which is also fun for the kids, as well as adults, which is what made Shrek so popular in the first place. I'd definitely recommend it, and I'd even recommend the 3D option if you have the choice available.