Cat in the hat

Rating: 5/10 (25 December 2014)

This quite amusing spin-off prequel from the "Shrek" franchise follows the adventures of lovable rogue Puss In Boots as he establishes his legend in an adventure which takes in the nursery rhymes of principally "Jack and Jill" and "Humpty Dumpty", and "Jack and The Beanstalk" with a little splash of "Little Boy Blue" thrown in for good measure.
It starts well as we get re-acquainted with the daredevil adventurer Puss, with some nice gags and terrific animation but rather runs out of steam as the story gets elongated by extended chase sequences by which time I came to the conclusion that this was a short padded out to feature-length. Perhaps Puss can't really carry a film on his own and familiarity breeds a little contempt as many of the cat-related gags employed seem recognisable from the earlier Shrek films, including those involving fur-balls, cat's eyes and how a cat always falls on its feet.
I quite liked the Kitty Softpaws character as well as the villainous Jack and Jill protagonists but felt that the tie-up with Humpty Dumpty somewhat contrived. The best scene was probably the early dance-off between Puss and Kitty but the conclusion with the returning giant Mother Goose again was too reminiscent of the flying dragon climax to "Shrek".
"Puss In Boots" as I indicated doesn't quite step up to major character here and while containing many fun and amusing moments never achieves the heights the mighty Shrek achieved. Never really had a cat's chance, did it?