Puss in Boots is a 2011 American computer-animated action comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation, directed by Chris Miller (who directed Shrek the Third in 2007), executive produced by Guillermo del Toro, and written by Brian Lynch, with screenplay by Tom Wheeler. It stars Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Zach Galifianakis, Billy Bob Thornton and Amy Sedaris. The film was released in theaters on October 28, 2011^[3] in Digital 3D and IMAX 3D.^[4]

The film is a spinoff prequel to the Shrek franchise, and it follows the character Puss in Boots on his adventures before his first appearance in Shrek 2 in 2004. Accompanied by his sidekicks, Humpty Dumpty and Kitty Softpaws, Puss is pitted against Jack and Jill, two murderous outlaws in ownership of legendary magical beans which lead to great fortune.

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 for Best Animated Feature Film at the 84th Academy Awards.

Plot[link]

Puss (Antonio Banderas) goes on a heroic adventure teaming up with mastermind Humpty Dumpty and beautiful street-savvy Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek). He learns that the outlaw couple Jack (Billy Bob Thornton) and Jill (Amy Sedaris) have the magic beans he's been looking for most of his life, beans that can lead him to a giant's castle holding valuable golden goose eggs. When Puss tries to steal them from the outlaws' room, Kitty interrupts, and both fail. Kitty is allied with Humpty Alexander Dumpty (Zach Galifianakis), a talking egg and Puss' long-estranged childhood friend from the orphanage where he was raised. Puss tells Kitty of his feelings of betrayal for a youthful misadventure when Humpty tricked Puss into helping commit a crime. Humpty convinces Puss to join them in finding the beans and retrieving the golden eggs.

The trio steal the beans from Jack and Jill and and plant them in the desert. Puss and Kitty's relationship becomes romantic. The trio ride 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, and escape the castle. While celebrating their victory, the group is ambushed by Jack and Jill, who knock Puss unconscious.

When Puss wakes up, he tracks Jack and Jill to his old hometown where he learns the entire heist was a plot by Humpty to lure him home to be captured, as revenge for abandoning him to the authorities when Humpty's youthful heist went bad. Jack, Jill, and Kitty were involved in the con. After pleas from his adoptive mother, Puss turns himself in to the guards while Humpty donates many golden eggs to the town and becomes a hero.

While in prison, Puss meets the original Jack from "Jack and the Beanstalk" who warns him that the Great Terror is in fact the Goose's mother, and it will stop at nothing to get its child back. A repentant Kitty helps Puss break out of prison and tells him she loves him. Puss tracks down Humpty, who wants the Great Terror to demolish the town. Puss convinces Humpty to help him fight off the Great Terror, saying he knows Humpty is a good person at heart. The Great Terror, a giant goose, arrives. Using the Goose as bait, Puss and Humpty lure the Great Terror out of 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 to save the town make him a hero among the townspeople. In the epilogue, Jack and Jill are recovering from their injuries after being crushed by the Great Terror, Humpty is shown once again in his regular egg form, wearing a golden egg suit, as he rides the Great Terror into the clouds, and Puss and Kitty finally kiss.

Cast[link]

Salma Hayek and Antonio Banderas at a premiere of the film in Paris.

• Antonio Banderas as Puss in Boots, the main protagonist, a fugitive from the law and hero of San Ricardo.
• Salma Hayek as Kitty Softpaws, a street-savvy Tuxedo cat who is Puss' female counterpart.
• Zach Galifianakis as Humpty Alexander Dumpty, the mastermind who intends on retrieving the Golden Eggs from the one-of-a-kind Goose.
• Billy Bob Thornton & Amy Sedaris as Jack and Jill (married), two murderous outlaws.
• Constance Marie as Imelda, Puss' human adoptive mother
• Guillermo del Toro as Comandante, Moustache Man
• Mike Mitchell as Andy Beanstalk

Production[link]

The film had been in development since 2004, when Shrek 2 was released.^[5] As a Shrek 2 spin-off, it was originally planned for release in 2008 as a direct-to-video film,^[6] then titled Puss in Boots: The Story of an Ogre Killer.^[7] Due to the market conditions, DreamWorks re-slated the film in 2006 as a theatrical release.^[8] Production on the film began after the release of 2010's Shrek Forever After. Banderas said in an interview in early 2010 that he had completed the first recordings of his character.^[9]

Late in 2010, Guillermo del Toro, director of Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth, had signed on as executive producer.^[10] "We were really inspired by him," said director Chris Miller, in relation to del Toro's contribution. "We worked out a system for him to come in once every few months or whenever we had something new to show him. If we needed someone to bounce ideas off of, he was always there, and if we had a problem we were tackling, we'd get Guillermo on the red phone – our emergency phone – and ask him advice on what we should do with a certain character or scene. It was like having our own film school." Miller stated that del Toro was particularly involved in the character design of Humpty Dumpty. "Guillermo loved the dreamy quality of Humpty Dumpty. He suggested we push that further, make him more like Da Vinci."^[11]

Except for Puss, the film features new characters. Citing the co-writer, David H. Steinberg, "It doesn't overlap with Shrek at all. Partly that was done to tell an original Puss story, but partly because we didn't know what Shrek 4 were going to do with the characters and we couldn't write conflicting storylines."^[12] The film was teased in Shrek Forever After, when Shrek finally shuts the book titled "Shrek", and puts it away next to a book titled "Puss in Boots".

Puss in Boots is the first DreamWorks Animation feature film that was partly made in India. A Bangalore studio owned by Technicolor, which had mainly worked on TV specials and DVD bonus material, spent six months animating three major scenes in the film. The outsourcing had financial advantages, with 40% less labor costs than in the US, but the primary reason for outsourcing to India was lack of personnel, due to the studio producing as many as three films a year.^[13]

The release date was originally set for November 4, 2011, but was pushed a week earlier to October 28, 2011.^[3] Anne Globe, head of worldwide marketing for DreamWorks Animation, said the decision to move the film's release date a week earlier was to attract parents and their children to see the film before other family-friendly movies were released in November 2011.^[14]

The film was renamed Cat in Boots in the United Arab Emirates and other parts of the Gulf for officially unknown reasons, but it is suspected for religious and cultural reasons.^[15][16] The title was consequently changed in Lebanon as well, since the same Emirati distributor also released the film in that country. However, other than the title screen, the rest of the film is identical to the original release. Additionally, merchandise based on the film retain the original title, and are sold normally in these countries. The localized DVD and Blu-ray release in April 2012 retains the original title as well.

Soundtrack[link]

Henry Jackman, the composer for Puss in Boots, utilized folk instruments of traditional Latin music. Inspired by Spanish composer Manuel de Falla, Jackman blended guitars and Latin percussion with an orchestral sound influenced by Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel.^[17] Also, Lady Gaga's song 'Americano' was contributed, but not in the official soundtrack.

All music composed by Henry Jackman, except "Diablo Rojo" and "Hanuman", which are by Rodrigo y Gabriela.

Release[link]

Home media[link]

Puss in Boots was released on DVD and Blu-ray on February 24, 2012.^[18] The movie was accompanied by a 13-minute short film called Puss in Boots: The Three Diablos.^[19]

Reception[link]

Critical response[link]

Puss in Boots received positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 83% of 136 critics have given the movie a positive review, with a rating average of 6.8 out of 10. The website's consensus is, "It isn't deep or groundbreaking, but what it lacks in profundity, Puss in Boots more than makes up for with an abundance of wit, visual sparkle, and effervescent charm."^[20] Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film a score of 65 based on 24 reviews.^[21] CinemaScore polls reported that the average grade moviegoers gave the film was an "A-" on an A+ to F scale.^[22]

Box office[link]

The film grossed $149,260,504 in North America, and $405,448,722 in other countries, for a worldwide total of $554,709,226.^[2] It is the eleventh highest-grossing film of 2011 and is also the third highest-grossing animated film that year behind Kung Fu Panda 2 ($665.7 million) and Cars 2 ($559.9 million).^[23]

In North America, the film topped the box office on its opening day with $9.6 million.^[24] On its opening weekend, the film made $34,077,439,^[25][26] topping Saw III's record ($33.6 million) for the highest Halloween weekend opening ever.^[27] It retained first place during its second weekend, with $33,054,644, declining only 3%.^[28]

Outside North America, on its opening weekend, it earned second place with $17.2 million.^[29] The film opened at #1 in both the UK with a weekend gross of £1.98 million ($3.1 million),^[30] and Australia, with $2.98 million.^[31] It topped the box office outside North America on its seventh weekend with $47.1 million from 40 countries.^[32] It ranks as the ninth highest-grossing film of 2011 outside North America.^[33] Its highest-grossing country after North America was Russia and the CIS ($50.6 million), followed by Germany ($33.9 million) and France and the Maghreb region ($33.2 million).^[34]

Accolades[link]

Video games[link]

• Puss in Boots, a video game based on the film, developed by Blitz Games, and released by THQ on October 25, 2011 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Nintendo DS.^[36] It features support for Kinect and PlayStation Move on the respective platforms.^[37]
• Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots, a Puss in Boots-themed Fruit Ninja video game, which was released on October 20, 2011, on the iOS App Store,^[38] and was released for Android devices on November 28, 2011, on the Amazon Appstore.^[39]

References[link]

External links[link]

Film portal

• Official website
• Puss in Boots at the Internet Movie Database
• Puss in Boots at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Puss in Boots at Rotten Tomatoes
• Puss in Boots at Box Office Mojo