Puss in Boots roars like a lion on its gorgeous Blu-ray Disc debut....
Paramount / 90 Minutes / 2011 / Rated PG / Street Date: February 24, 2012
In this latest spin-off of the Shrek universe, Puss (Antonio Banderas) meets his match. While lollygagging around the fantastical Festival del Fuego one fine day, Puss learns that a couple of banditos (Billy Bob Thornton and Amy Sedaris) claim to have claimed to be owners of a set of magic beans - the same beans that Puss himself has been yearning to discover since he can remember. But when he goes to grab the things, not only is he outsmarted by the dum-dum duo, but he discovers that there is another feline also vying for his beloved legumes.
Said fellow outlaw in Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek), a kitty kat who can't exactly be trusted completely, but who owns Puss' heart from the get-go anyway. Unable to resist her beauty and sassy intellect, Puss not only gets wrapped up in a quest to track the beans down with her, but another major twist is presented to him: It turns out that Softpaws already has a wingman of sorts, one Humpty Alexander Dumpty (Zach Galifianakis), who just happens to be Puss' one-time arch rival.
Like most of the Shrek films, there's a certain innate charm to Puss in Boots, one that makes up for the relative redundancy of its story and structure. Without the starpower of Banderas, Hayek, and Galifianakis, the movie would be bogged down in painfully familiar cliche, but there's enough oomph in the film's dialogue exchanges and virtuoso action sequences that it makes for a short, completely benign viewing experience.
The Shrek universe has nothing on How to Train Your Dragon as far as undeniably transcendent family entertainment goes, but while it may not flint up a fire in your belly, Puss in Boots feels like the kind of movie it would be difficult to heartily dislike. It's breezy, often quite funny, and it has a potent audio/video punch on Blu-ray that will dazzle the eyes of ma and pa while junior sits rapt in attention.
