Occasionally Funny

Rating: Null/10 (7 November 2011)

Walking into this film, I knew it would have some innuendo and cheap 'shock' humor, but I hadn't realized just how much it does have. The original Shrek was a fun romp through a hilariously flawed version of Fairy Tale land, but Puss in Boots is rather sad by comparison. While innuendo certainly was present in Shrek, it was subdued and quietly funny, as it is meant to be. In Puss in Boots, however, innuendo is replaced with in-your-face references to sexuality, alcohol, etc that were a turn-off for me. The fairy tale land gone wrong story was replaced with an awkward mix of the harsh real world and completely random fairy-tale elements. This strange, inadequately explored world was confronted by oddly out-of-place talking cats, eggs, and a few characters who seemed hastily and inexplicably thrown into the script. (e.g. little boy blue, wagon-pulling pigs...) These elements combine to make a film that is sometimes more confusing and awkward than funny, with a few genuinely hilarious moments mixed in.