Delayed Reaction: Puss in Boots

The Pitch: People have picked up on the fact that we aren't trying anymore with the Shrek sequels. I wonder if we do a spin-off, would that confuse them enough to see another?

What Took Me So Long: I haven't enjoyed the world of Shrek much since the first movie.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) The Shrek series is, first and foremost, a joke delivery system. There's some plot to the movies but it's all a means to do more jokes about fairy tales. Puss in Boots smartly moves away from that. It inserts Puss into a straightforward story, using a couple fairy tales (Jack & Jill, Jack and the Beanstalk, Humpty Dumpty) to make an action comedy. It proves that the framework of the Shrek world is ripe with stories to tell that don't involve the ogre we all sort of love. I too enjoyed the Desperado reunion of Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek, although it did point out how few Spanish/Mexican actors are in Hollywood.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: I'll go ahead and say that I never got the appeal of the character Puss in Boots. He's basically a single punchline replayed a lot. The movie veers away from the joke of him and turns him into a lead (oddly, reminding me of the recalibrating done to Frasier Crane from Cheers to Frasier which goes to show how my mind works). Dreamworks animated movies either work because they have heart (How to Train Your Dragon) or they have jokes (Shrek). Puss in Boots dropped more of the jokes, but I didn't feel it replaced them with enough heart, so it didn't totally work for me.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend