Puss in Boots (2011 film)

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Puss in Boots
Theatrical poster
Theatrical poster
Directed by Chris Miller
Produced by Latifa Ouaou
Joe M. Aguilar
Written by Tom Wheeler
Will Davies
Brian Lynch
Starring Antonio Banderas
Zach Galifianakis
Salma Hayek
Billy Bob Thornton
Amy Sedaris
Music by Henry Jackman
Editing by Eric Dapkewicz
Studio DreamWorks Animation
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)
  • October 28, 2011 (2011-10-28)
Running time 90 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $130 million[1]
Box office $554,709,226[2]

Puss in Boots is a 2011 American computer-animated action comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation, directed by Chris Miller (who directed Shrek the Third in 2007), executive produced by Guillermo del Toro, and written by Brian Lynch, with screenplay by Tom Wheeler. It stars Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Zach Galifianakis, Billy Bob Thornton and Amy Sedaris. The film was released in theaters on October 28, 2011[3] in Digital 3D and IMAX 3D.[4]

Although the character of Puss in Boots originated in a French fairy tale in 1697, the film is a spin-off prequel to the Shrek franchise. It follows the character Puss in Boots on his adventures before his first appearance in Shrek 2 in 2004. Accompanied by his friends, Humpty Dumpty and Kitty Softpaws, Puss is pitted against Jack and Jill, two murderous outlaws in ownership of legendary magical beans which lead to great fortune.

Puss in Boots opened to generally positive reviews and became a success at the box office with a gross of over $554 million. It was also nominated for Best Animated Feature Film at the 84th Academy Awards.

Contents

Plot [edit]

Puss in Boots is a talking cat named for his wearing boots and is a fugitive on the run from the law, looking to restore his lost honour. He learns that the outlaw couple Jack and Jill have the magic beans he's been looking for most of his life, beans that can lead him to a giant's castle holding valuable golden goose eggs. When Puss tries to steal them from the outlaws' room, female cat Kitty Softpaws interrupts, and both fail. Kitty is allied with Humpty Alexander Dumpty, a talking egg and Puss' long-estranged childhood friend from the orphanage where he was raised. Puss tells Kitty his origin story and of his feelings of betrayal for a youthful misadventure when Humpty tricked Puss into helping commit a bank robbery; Puss has been on the run since. Humpty convinces Puss to join them in finding the beans and retrieving the golden eggs.

The trio steal the beans from Jack and Jill and plant them in the desert. Puss and Kitty's relationship becomes romantic. The trio ride the beanstalk into the clouds to find the castle of the late giant, while avoiding the Great Terror who guards the Golden Goose. When they realize the golden eggs are too heavy to carry, they steal the Goose, which is just a gosling, and escape the castle. While celebrating their victory, the group is ambushed by Jack and Jill, who knock Puss unconscious.

When Puss wakes up, he tracks Jack and Jill to his old hometown where he learns the entire heist was a plot by Humpty to lure him home to be captured, as revenge for abandoning him to the authorities when Humpty's youthful heist went bad. Jack, Jill, and Kitty were involved in the con. After pleas from his adoptive mother, Puss turns himself in to the guards while Humpty donates many golden eggs to the town and becomes a hero.

While in prison, Puss meets the original Jack from "Jack and the Beanstalk" who warns him that the Great Terror is in fact the Goose's mother, and it will stop at nothing to get its child back. A repentant Kitty helps Puss break out of prison and tells him she loves him. Puss tracks down Humpty, who wants the Great Terror to demolish the town. Puss convinces Humpty to help him fight off the Great Terror, saying he knows Humpty is a good person at heart. The Great Terror, a giant goose, arrives. Using the Goose as bait, Puss and Humpty lure the Great Terror out of the town, but Humpty and the Goose are knocked off a bridge with Puss holding onto them. Humpty knows Puss cannot hold both of them, so he lets go, sacrificing himself to save the Goose and the town. Humpty's shell cracks open to reveal he was a golden egg on the inside. The Great Terror then takes the Goose and Humpty back to the giant's castle.

Puss' efforts to save the town make him a hero among the townspeople. In the epilogue, Jack and Jill are recovering from their injuries after being crushed by the Great Terror, Humpty is shown once again in his regular egg form, wearing a golden egg suit, as he rides the Great Terror into the clouds, and Puss and Kitty finally kiss.

Cast [edit]

Salma Hayek, Antonio Banderas and Puss in Boots at a premiere of the film in Paris.

Production [edit]

The film had been in development since 2004, when Shrek 2 was released.[5] As a Shrek 2 spin-off, it was originally planned for release in 2008 as a direct-to-video film,[6] then titled Puss in Boots: The Story of an Ogre Killer.[7] Due to the market conditions, and with the realization that the Puss character deserved more,[8] DreamWorks re-slated the film in 2006 as a theatrical release.[9]

Late in 2010, Guillermo del Toro, director of Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth, had signed on as executive producer.[10] Discussing del Toro, Miller stated: "We worked out a system for him to come in once every few months or whenever we had something new to show him. If we needed someone to bounce ideas off of, he was always there, and if we had a problem we were tackling, we'd get Guillermo on the red phone – our emergency phone – and ask him advice on what we should do with a certain character or scene. It was like having our own film school." Miller stated that del Toro was particularly involved in Humpty's character design. "Guillermo loved the dreamy quality of Humpty Dumpty. He suggested we push that further, make him more like da Vinci."[8] It was del Toro's idea to make Humpty "an ingenious freak of nature" who builds contraptions such as a flying machine.[11] Del Toro rewrote the ending to redeem the character and deepen his relationship with Puss – an unconventional conclusion for a children's film.[12] He helped design the fantasy elements of the giant's castle, as well as the architecture of the town, which he conceived as "an amalgam of Spain and Mexico".[11]

Except for Puss, the film features new characters. Citing the co-writer, David H. Steinberg, "It doesn't overlap with Shrek at all. Partly that was done to tell an original Puss story, but partly because we didn't know what Shrek 4 were going to do with the characters and we couldn't write conflicting storylines."[13] The film was teased in Shrek Forever After, when Shrek finally shuts the book titled "Shrek", and puts it away next to a book titled "Puss in Boots".

Puss in Boots is the first DreamWorks Animation feature film that was partly made in India. A Bangalore studio owned by Technicolor, which had mainly worked on TV specials and DVD bonus material, spent six months animating three major scenes in the film. The outsourcing had financial advantages, with 40% less labor costs than in the US, but the primary reason for outsourcing to India was lack of personnel, due to the studio producing as many as three films a year.[14]

The release date was originally set for November 4, 2011, but was pushed a week earlier to October 28, 2011.[3] Anne Globe, head of worldwide marketing for DreamWorks Animation, said the decision to move the film's release date a week earlier was to attract parents and their children to see the film before other family-friendly movies were released in November 2011.[15]

The film was renamed Cat in Boots in the United Arab Emirates and other parts of the Gulf for officially unknown reasons, but it is suspected for religious and cultural reasons.[16][17] According to UAE's The National Media Council, which is responsible for censorship, UAE didn't have any involvement in the rename and that "the decision to change the name had been made by the Hollywood studio and the movie distributors in the UAE."[18] The title was consequently changed in Lebanon as well, since the same Emirati distributor also released the film in that country. Other than the title screen, the rest of the film is identical to the original release. Additionally, merchandise based on the film retain the original title, and are sold normally in these countries. The localized DVD and Blu-ray release in April 2012 retains the original title as well.

Soundtrack [edit]

Main article: List of songs featured in Shrek#Puss in Boots

Release [edit]

Home media [edit]

Puss in Boots was released on DVD, Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D on February 24, 2012. The movie was accompanied by a short animated film called Puss in Boots: The Three Diablos.[19]

Reception [edit]

Critical response [edit]

Puss in Boots received positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 83% based on reviews from 139, with an average rating of 6.8 out of 10. The website's consensus is, "It isn't deep or groundbreaking, but what it lacks in profundity, Puss in Boots more than makes up for with an abundance of wit, visual sparkle, and effervescent charm."[20] Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film a score of 65% based on 24 reviews.[21] CinemaScore polls reported that the average grade moviegoers gave the film was an "A-" on an A+ to F scale.[22]

Box office [edit]

The film grossed $149,260,504 in North America, and $405,448,722 in other countries, for a worldwide total of $554,709,226.[2] It is the eleventh highest-grossing film of 2011 and is also the third highest-grossing animated film that year behind Kung Fu Panda 2 ($665.7 million) and Cars 2 ($559.9 million).[23]

In North America, the film topped the box office on its opening day with $9.6 million.[24] On its opening weekend, the film made $34,077,439,[25][26] topping Saw III's record ($33.6 million) for the highest Halloween weekend opening ever.[27] It retained first place during its second weekend, with $33,054,644, declining only 3%.[28]

Outside North America, on its opening weekend, it earned second place with $17.2 million.[29] The film opened at #1 in both the UK with a weekend gross of £1.98 million ($3.1 million),[30] and Australia, with $2.98 million.[31] It topped the box office outside North America on its seventh weekend with $47.1 million from 40 countries.[32] It ranks as the ninth highest-grossing film of 2011 outside North America.[33] Its highest-grossing country after North America was Russia and the CIS ($50.6 million), followed by Germany ($33.9 million) and France and the Maghreb region ($33.2 million).[34]

Accolades [edit]

Award Category Recipient Result
84th Academy Awards Best Animated Feature Chris Miller Nominated
Alliance of Women Film Journalists Best Animated Film
Best Animated Female Salma Hayek
Annie Awards Best Animated Feature
Animated Effects in an Animated Production Can Yuksel
Character Animation in a Feature Production Olivier Staphylas
Character Design in a Feature Production Patrick Mate
Directing in a Feature Production Chris Miller
Music in a Feature Production Henry Jackman
Storyboarding in a Feature Production Bob Logan
Voice Acting in a Feature Production Zach Galifianakis
Editing in a Feature Production Eric Dapkewicz
Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards Best Animated Feature
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards Animated Film
Golden Globe Awards Best Animated Feature Film
Kids Choice Awards Favorite Animated Movie Won
Favorite Voice From an Animated Movie Antonio Banderas Nominated
Producers Guild of America Awards Best Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures Joe M. Aguilar, Latifa Ouaou
Satellite Awards Motion Picture, Animated or Mixed Media
Toronto Film Critics Association Best Animated Feature
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards
Women Film Critics Circle Best Animated Females Won
Saturn Awards[35] Best Animated Film
Teen Choice Awards[36] Choice Movie Actress Action/Adventure Salma Hayek Nominated

Possible sequel [edit]

In November 2012, executive producer Guillermo del Toro said that they already did a couple of script drafts for a sequel, and that the director Chris Miller wants to take Puss on an adventure to exotic places.[12]

Video games [edit]

References [edit]

  1. ^ Kaufman, Amy (October 27, 2011). "Movie Projector: 'Puss in Boots' to stomp on competition". Los Angeles Times. Tribune Company. Retrieved October 27, 2011. 
  2. ^ a b "Puss in Boots". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 1, 2012. 
  3. ^ a b "Holiday Movie Release Date Moves: A Recap". Deadline. September 30, 2011. Retrieved October 2, 2011. 
  4. ^ "DreamWorks Animation Announces Plans to Release Five Feature Films Every Two Years". DreamWorks Animation SKG (Press release). 2009-05-28. Retrieved 2010-12-09. 
  5. ^ Australian Associated Press (2004-06-10). "Banderas walks Shrek's green carpet". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2010-12-09. 
  6. ^ Fritz, Ben (2005-09-14). "D'Works will rely on animal instinct". Variety. Retrieved 2010-12-09. 
  7. ^ Carroll, Larry (March 30, 2006). "Movie File: Antonio Banderas, Rob Schneider, Jack Black, Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Aniston". MTV. Retrieved October 27, 2011. 
  8. ^ a b Lynn, Cari (2012-02-19). "OSCARS: Puss In Boots -- Chris Miller". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 2012-02-27. 
  9. ^ "DreamWorks Animation Reports Third Quarter 2006 Financial Results". DreamWorks Animation SKG (Press release). 2006-10-31. Retrieved 2010-10-27. 
  10. ^ Kit, Borys (2009-09-27). "Guillermo del Toro, DreamWorks Ani strike deal". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2010-09-27. 
  11. ^ a b Dodes, Rachel (October 21, 2011). "An Odd Couple and a Well-Shod Cat". online.wsj.com. Retrieved January 25, 2013. 
  12. ^ a b Chitwood, Adam (November 12, 2012). "Guillermo del Toro Talks PUSS IN BOOTS 2, KUNG FU PANDA 3 & TROLLHUNTERS; Says PANDA 3 Has the "Most Formidable Villain in the Series"". Collider.com. Retrieved November 12, 2012. 
  13. ^ "Caffeinated" Clint (2009-06-08). "Exclusive : Puss in Boots scribe talks". Moviehole.net. Retrieved 2010-12-09. 
  14. ^ Verrier, Richard (October 29, 2011). "'Puss in Boots' showcases work by India animators for DreamWorks". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 1, 2011. 
  15. ^ Kaufman, Amy (October 30, 2011). "Box Office: 'Puss in Boots' wins weekend by more than a whisker (Updated)". Los Angelese Times. Retrieved October 30, 2011. 
  16. ^ Mottram, James (2011-11-24). "Cat In Boots in 3D". The National. Retrieved 2011-12-09. 
  17. ^ "Censors' claws out for film". 7Days. 2011-11-23. Retrieved 2011-12-09. 
  18. ^ Sambidge, Andy (November 25, 2011). "UAE says it had no role in 'Puss in Boots' renaming". Arabian Business. Retrieved June 27, 2012. 
  19. ^ Zahed, Ramin (February 17, 2012). "Check Out Exclusive Clip from "Puss In Boots"". Animation Magazine. Retrieved February 26, 2012. 
  20. ^ "Puss in Boots (2011)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved February 15, 2012. 
  21. ^ "Pus in Boots Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved October 28, 2011. 
  22. ^ Finke, Nikki (October 30, 2011). "Snow Ices Box Office: ‘Puss In Boots’ #1, ‘Paranormal’ #2, ‘In Time’ #3, ‘Rum Diary’ #4". Deadline.com. PMC. Retrieved October 30, 2011. 
  23. ^ "2011 Worldwide Grosses". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved May 26, 2012. 
  24. ^ Smith, Grady (October 29, 2011). "Box office update: 'Puss in Boots' the cat's meow on Friday with $9.6 million". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved October 30, 2011. 
  25. ^ Smith, Grady (October 30, 2011). "Box office report: 'Puss in Boots' walks all over 'In Time' and 'The Rum Diary' with $34 million debut". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved October 30, 2011. 
  26. ^ "October 28-30, 2011". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved June 27, 2012. 
  27. ^ Subers, Ray (October 31, 2011). "Weekend Report: 'Puss' Purrs Softly". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved June 27, 2012. 
  28. ^ Young, John (November 6, 2011). "Box office report: 'Puss in Boots' stuns 'Tower Heist' by topping weekend with $33 mil". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved June 27, 2012. 
  29. ^ Segers, Frank (October 30, 2011). "Foreign Box Office: Spielberg's 'Adventures Of Tintin' Opens Solid No. 1 Overseas". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 27, 2012. 
  30. ^ Mayer, Nissim (December 13, 2011). "'Puss in Boots' beats 'Arthur Christmas': UK box office top 10 in full". Digital Spy. Retrieved December 14, 2011. 
  31. ^ "Australia Box Office December 8–11, 2011". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved June 27, 2012. 
  32. ^ Subers, Ray (December 11, 2011). "Around-the-World Roundup: 'Puss' Climbs to First". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved June 27, 2012. 
  33. ^ "Overseas Total Yearly Box Office". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-03-08. 
  34. ^ "Puss In Boots - International Box Office Results". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-03-13. 
  35. ^ "Nominations for the 38th Annual Saturn Awards". Saturn Award. Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films. February 29, 2012. Archived from the original on February 29, 2012. Retrieved February 29, 2012. 
  36. ^ Ng, Philiana (May 18, 2012). "Teen Choice Awards 2012: 'Vampire Diaries' Leads Nominations". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 21, 2012. 
  37. ^ "DreamWorks' Puss in Boots". THQ. Retrieved September 22, 2011. 
  38. ^ "Step into the Boots of the Swashbuckling Feline Hero with the Puss in Boots Video Game from THQ". THQ via Business Wire. September 28, 2011. Retrieved October 2, 2011. 
  39. ^ Gilbert, Ben (October 7, 2011). "Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots is a thing, really; coming to iOS on Oct. 20". Joystiq. Retrieved October 7, 2011. 
  40. ^ Hinkle, David (November 25, 2011). "Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots heading to Android on Monday". Joystiq. Retrieved November 25, 2011. 

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