johnlinkmovies

Though I’ve mentioned this before, my son’s favorite movie (and he will be four in September) is WALL-E. He’s seen that roughly two hundred times in the last year, without exaggerating too much. Second on his list is PUSS IN BOOTS, which he has probably watched a good thirty to forty times. I’ve probably seen this movie in its entirety by watching it in pieces with him. Today, however, was the first time we sat down (with his little sister Charlie too) and watched it all beginning to end.

I watched PUSS IN BOOTS (2011) on 7.16.14. It was my first (official anyway) viewing of the film.

PUSS IN BOOTS is a kids’ movie which starts with Puss (Antonio Banderas) proclaiming his various nicknames. One of them is Frisky-Two-Times. Because, well, if you’re making a kids’ movie you want to start off with a bang… joke. Perhaps this sort of thing is no surprise considering that this is a movie based on a character which comes from the SHREK universe. It is not the only sexually charged joke, seemingly necessary because of the title character’s Latin roots, but it is one of the better ones.

Despite a bit of bawdy humor, this is a mostly tame movie. More importantly, it is a solidly told movie. The animated story has Puss reluctantly teaming with old-friend-turned-rival Humpty Dumpty (Zach Galifianakis) to get some magic beans off of Jack and Jill (Billy Bob Thornton and Amy Sedaris) with the hopes of planting them, scaling the beanstalk, and getting the golden goose. Aiding Puss and Humpty is the ‘sexy’ feline Kitty Softpaws (Selma Hayek). It is questionable how many kids out there were eager to see the two romantic leads from DESPERADO team up (albeit in animated fashion), but we got it anyway.

The visuals in this are surprisingly good. The old time Latin setting gives this a nice color palate to work off of. The few emotional scenes are given some weight in the drawing, and we are privy to a decent number of good looking shots. The two dance scenes are particularly cool as well.

The humor is mostly there, even if it isn’t particularly memorable. There are some good gags which work in the moment and are easily forgotten. The strength of the script comes in taking some classic stories and providing us with a fun time, not necessarily in its use of humor. Another slight knock on the writing involves the frequent use of characters crossing an impossible amount of physical space in the blink of an eye. I know this is an animated film. I’m not looking for realism. But there is a lack of consistency with how the characters can use their speed to get out of trouble.

There isn’t all that much to say about PUSS IN BOOTS. This is not a movie to be analyzed. This is a fine enough kids movie which adults can enjoy well enough. It’s better than the last few SHREK movies, not that being so is a particularly noteworthy accomplishment. Since my son loves PUSS IN BOOTS, I’m sure I’ll see it many more times than I ever thought possible.

SCORES

The ‘acting’ score in an animated movie considers character creation in both voice work and animation.

FILM: 5; MOVIE: 8; ACTING: 6; WRITING: 6

5+8+7+6+0=26

FINAL SCORE: 6.5 out of 10

~ by johnlink00 on July 16, 2014.

Posted in ~ P ~, ~~~ 2011 ~~~
Tags: Amy Sedaris, animated, antonio banderas, Billy Bob Thornton, Puss in Boots, Salma Hayek, Zach Galifianakis