Not Exactly the Cat's Meow

Rating: 6/10 (10 November 2011)

Puss in Boots is a competently made kids' film in the sense that its colorful, quickly paced and accessible. If you're an undiscerning parent their are certainly worse things to see with your children; mindless dribble like Spy Kids 4D comes to mind. Alas, despite occasional flashes of originality this spin-off of the immensely popular "Shrek" series seems as phoned-in as an episode of The Flintstones.
The story begins with our titular hero (Antonio Banderas), living on the razor's edge of the law searching for his next big score. Intrigued by rumors of magic beans, Puss looks to steal them from the dastardly duo Jack and Jill (Billy Bob Thornton and Amy Sedaris) but not before bumping into like minded thief Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek) and former friend/adopted brother Humpty Dumpty (Zach Galifianakis). The three then forge a shaky alliance and hatch a plan to steal the beans, plant the stalk and make their way to the castle in the sky to find a gold-laying goose.
The most glaring problem with the film is the script which possesses a solid outline but little else. The jokes are sparse and mostly revolve around our hero being a cat or Humpty Dumpty being an egg and character motivations are fuzzy to say the least. It seemed almost as if the writers wanted to do ambitious things but didn't have time for a few more rewrites before the project was rushed into production.
Still, its refreshing to see a Dreamworks Animation production that isn't heavy on the pop-culture references. Additionally the animation itself is beautiful and Antonio Banderas once again projects his Latin lover persona into the role with gusto.
At one point a crucial character tells Puss to stop stealing informing him that "you are better than this." truer words have never been said and no sounder advice can be given to this film's creators.
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