If you have seen the Shrek movies, all four of them, you will be familiar with the hugely popular character Puss In Boots, voiced by Antonia Banderas, who appears in 3 of the movies. Well Puss gets his own prequel movie – Puss In Boots. This movie precedes the events of Shrek 2, in which the character makes his debut. Produced by DreamWorks Animation, directed by Chris Miller, executive produced by Guillermo del Toro, this animated movie came out last year and also stars the voices of Salma Hayek, Zach Galifianakis, Billy Bob Thornton & Amy Sedaris.
Outlaw Puss In Boots is in search of the magic beans that he’s been looking for most of his life, beans that can lead him to a giant’s castle holding valuable golden goose eggs. At a local bar he hears that fellow outlaws Jack & Jill have the beans in their possession. When Puss tries to steal them from the outlaws’ room, he is thwarted by a masked cat and they have a fight and both fail. The masked cat leads Puss to a cat hideout where they have a dance off to Flamenco music and Puss finds out that the masked cat is a female cat – Kitty Softpaws. Kitty is allied with Humpty Alexander Dumpty, Puss’s long estranged friend who wanted to lure Puss to him and ask him to help him get the beans and find the golden goose eggs. Puss is upset and we find out in a flashback as to how the two childhood friends became estranged.
Both Puss & Humpty were orphans raised by a loving woman and they soon became best friends. They both had grand plans, especially Humpty who wanted riches. Humpty tricked Puss into helping him rob the band and when they got caught, Puss had to jump and escape to save himself, leaving Humpty behind. It wasn’t what he wanted to do and ever since then Puss could never go home. Humpty however appeals to Puss and says that they can make things right by getting some golden eggs and help their town so Puss joins him & Kitty and the trio steal the beans from Jack and Jill and and plant them in the desert. The go up the beanstalk into the clouds to find the castle of the late giant, while avoiding the Great Terror who guards the Golden Goose. When they realize the golden eggs are too heavy to carry, they steal the Goose, which is just a gosling (the great terror is the mother goose), and escape the castle. However as the group come back down they are ambushed by Jack & Jill and Puss is knocked out cold. Turns out that Jack & ill were in cahoots with Humpty’s scheme all along and he planned to take revenge on Puss for betraying him many years ago.
At their hometown the townfolks charge at Puss and his mother pleads him to give himself up, which he so does while Humpty becomes a hero by giving the people plenty of golden eggs. In prison Puss meets the real Jack who warns him that the large mother goose will soon come looking for it’s child. Kitty approaches Puss, tells him she loves him and helps him break out of prison. Puss tracks down Humpty, who wants the Great Terror to demolish the town. Puss tells Humpty that he must help him and knows that he is a good person inside. The giant mother goose arrives and starts attacking the town. Using the goosling, Humpty, Puss & Kitty lure the mother goose outside the town but Humpty and the Goose are knocked off a bridge with Puss holding onto them. Humpty knows Puss cannot hold both of them, so he lets go, sacrificing himself to save the Goose and the town. Humpty’s shell cracks open to reveal he was a golden egg on the inside. The Great Terror then takes the Goose and Humpty back to the giant’s castle.
Puss’s efforts makes him a town hero again and he kisses Kitty. Puss rides off again into the sunset off to seek more adventures and we know that he later joins Shrek, Donkey & Fiona. Great fun, hilarious and exciting. This franchise is awesome. Puss in Boots opened to very positive reviews and became a success at the box office with a gross of over $554 million. It was also nominated forBest Animated Feature Film at the 84th Academy Awards.I’d give it a 9 outta 10!