A rip roaring good time.

Rating: 8/10 (29 October 2011)

I went into this film, wanting to see it but with mild expectations. The director of this film is Chris Miller, whose most recent film as a director was Shrek the Third, which I thought was the worst one of that series. He has redeemed himself here. Something I noticed on this film was that Miller relied more on the story in the film, rather than put in too many pop culture references.
Antonio Banderas comes back from the Shrek series to voice Puss in Boots, once again. Banderas shows that there is no other actor who can voice this cat. In his own film, Banderas makes Puss into a much more lovable character. In the story, Puss is an outlaw in his hometown of San Ricardo. If seen, he will be arrested and put behind bars indefinitely. He has a mission to find magic beans.
Immediately, he has an unknown rival who is also after the same magic beans. After a long series of chasing and fighting, we find out that it is Kitty Soft Paws, voiced by Salma Hayek. Hayek does great a voicing this sassy cat with no claws, and can steal from one without that one realizing it.
It turns out that she was working with an old friend turned nemesis of Puss named Humpty Alexander Dumpty, voiced by Zach Galifianakis. Zach does an excellent job of becoming this socially awkward egg, who needs Puss for a job involving the magic beans. However, Humpty has a secret of his own.
These magic beans are heavily guarded by a husband and wife bandit couple named Jack and Jill, who are voiced by Billy Bob Thornton and Amy Sedaris. They are after the same thing Puss and Humpty are after, and want the rewards all to themselves. Thornton does a bit of a mix of his own regular voice and the voice he used when he was Karl Childers in his film Sling Blade. Sedaris made Jill sound like an angry hick.
The story is fun as it is about who Puss in Boots was before he met Shrek and Donkey. The five main characters were all well developed and well played. The visuals in this film are stunning. The animation was spectacular as the scenery is amazing. The music is great as it feels part spaghetti western, part modern day swashbuckling tale.
As for a family film. the kids will enjoy it. The parents will be able to sit through it and enjoy a good story for themselves. Even those who are not kids or parents, like myself, will enjoy watching this film.