Puss Oozes Swagger for the Whole Family

It's a universal truth in films and movies. When you make a successful movie series with several wonderfully interesting characters who work great together, obviously the first thing you want to do is take one of those supporting characters and push them out into their own movie, completely unsupported by the other characters that made the original work so well. It worked so well for Riddick, Wolverine, Evan Almighty, Catwoman and Joey from Friends, how can it not work for Puss in Boots?

Ironic sarcasm aside, I actually had great hopes for this movie and I wasn't disappointed. I did have to change my expectations a bit, but great movies challenge and change your expectations while still satisfying your desires. Kind of like Frasier compared to Cheers.

The movie is apparently a prequel to the Shrek movies, and the only carryover from those movies is the very Latin Puss himself (Antonio Banderas). As our story starts, the titular Puss (I know that sounds dirty, but it's not) is seeking a big score to repay a mysterious debt. He's told where he can get his paws on some magic beans that could allow him to make a grab for the goose that lays the golden eggs.

The adventure brings him back in contact with a certain egg man (Zach Galifianakis) from his past (though oddly there's no walrus) and a pretty kitty burglar (Salma Hayek). There's a giant beanstalk, a rugged Jack and Jill (Billy Bob Thornton and Amy Sedaris), a character voiced by Guillermo del Toro and a very fun dance fight.

Being a spin-off from the Shrek movies—and seriously, what other character deserves their own spin-off more than Puss?—I was expecting wall-to-wall silliness and fairytale references galore. It took me a little while, but i realized that my expectations were a little off. Not that it's not silly and full of fairytales, but this one definitely feels like more of a real story than I was expecting.

I laughed out loud at this one at several points. But one of the great things here is the action sequences. There are some quite exciting segments here and they're very fun to watch.

And they've definitely improved on the quality of their human characters since the first Shrek movie. Some of those dudes were just creepy.

This one is great for both kids and adults. A wonderful family movie.

And I simply love the part where Puss orders and drinks a shot at the bar.

This one gets 8 / 10.

Puss in Boots is rated PG for action and some mildly rude humor.