Puss in Boots (film)

Puss in Boots (formerly Puss in Boots: The Story of an Ogre Killer) is a 2011 American computer-animated comedy film, directed by Chris Miller and produced by Latifa Ouaou and Joe M. Aguilar. It features the voices of Antonio Banderas (as the voice of Puss in Boots), Salma Hayek (as Kitty Softpaws), Zach Galifianakis (as Humpty Dumpty), and Billy Bob Thornton and Amy Sedaris (as Jack and Jill).

Plot
He tries to steal the magic beans and goes on a topsy turvy adventure with Kitty Softpaws and Humpty Dumpty.

Voice cast

 * Antonio Banderas as Puss in Boots, the main protagonist, a fugitive from the law and hero of San Ricardo.
 * Salma Hayek as Kitty Softpaws, a street-savvy Tuxedo cat who is Puss's female counterpart, partner and love interest. Puss' equal in swordplay, dancing and cat-itude. A greatly-feared thief in San Ricardo.
 * Zach Galifianakis as Humpty Dumpty, the mastermind who intends on retrieving the Golden Eggs from the one-of-a-kind Goose.
 * Billy Bob Thornton and Amy Sedaris as Jack and Jill, two murderous outlaws who are married.
 * Zeus Mendoza as Rancher
 * Constance Marie as Imelda, Puss's surrogate mother.
 * Guillermo del Toro as Mustache Man / Comandante
 * Bob Joles as Giuseppe
 * Robert Persichetti, Jr. as the Ohhh Cat
 * Mike Mitchell as Andy Beanstalk

Production
The film had been in development since 2004, when Shrek 2 was released. As a Shrek 2 spin-off, it was originally planned for release in 2008 as a direct-to-video movie, then titled Puss in Boots: The Story of an Ogre Killer. Due to the market conditions, DreamWorks re-slated the film in 2006 as a theatrical release. Production on the film began after the release of 2010's Shrek Forever After. Banderas said in an interview in early 2010 that he had completed the first recordings of his character.

Late in 2010, Guillermo del Toro, director of Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth, had signed on as executive producer. "We were really inspired by him," said director Chris Miller, in relation to del Toro's contribution. "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's was particularly involved in the character design of Humpty Dumpty. "Guillermo loved the dreamy quality of Humpty Dumpty. He suggested we push that further, make him more like Da Vinci."

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." 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 6 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.

The release date was originally set for November 4, 2011, but was pushed a week earlier to October 28, 2011. 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.

Puss in Boots 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. The title was consequently changed in Lebanon as well, since the same Emirati distributor also released the film in that country. However, 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.

Critical response
Puss in Boots received positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 83% of 134 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average 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." 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. CinemaScore polls reported that the average grade moviegoers gave the movie was an "A-" on an A+ to F scale.

Box office
Puss in Boots has grossed $149,260,504 in North America, and $386,396,644 in other countries, for a worldwide total of $535,657,148. It is the 11th highest-grossing movie of 2011 and is also the 3rd highest-grossing animated movie that year behind Kung Fu Panda 2 ($665.7 million) and Cars 2 ($559.9 million).

The movie grossed $9.6 million on its opening day at the top of the North American box office. On its opening weekend, the movie made $34,077,439.

The film opened at #1 in the United Kingdom with a weekend gross of £1.98 million ($3.1 million). It also opened at #1 in Australia with $2.98 million. It ranks as the 9th highest-grossing movie of 2011 outside North America.

Home media
Puss in Boots was released on DVD and Blu-ray on February 24, 2012. The movie was accompanied by a 13-minute short film called Puss in Boots: The Three Diablos.

Video games

 * Puss in Boots, a video game based on the movie, developed by Blitz Games, and released by THQ on October 25, 2011 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Nintendo DS. It features support for Kinect and PlayStation Move on the respective platforms.
 * Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots, a Puss in Boots-themed Fruit Ninja video game, which was released on October 20, 2011, on the iOS App Store, and was released for Android devices on November 28, 2011, on the Amazon Appstore.