In reviewing Puss N Boots I'm going to forego all the weak cat or fairy tale puns (and gee, I just know you were waiting for some). What you have here is a spin off from the Shrek franchise (what's next, the Gingerbread Man Tales?), where the cat is the focus, front and center. A smart move, for, aside from Eddie Murphy's scatter gun humor as Donkey, the rest of the aforementioned franchise cannot hold a candle to Antonio Banderas' suave turn as Puss. The opening scenes are pure brilliance - high animation equaling the production values of Pixar - that the film cannot, and chooses not to maintain that level - shrug - what can I say? Regardless, those beginning scenes, with Banderas' lovely accented voiceover narration are worth the price of admission by itself. There are beautiful flights of humorous fancy on display, including homage to Sergio Leone and spaghetti western split screen. However, after that brilliant opening 15 minutes, the film cannot sustain it (think the 2nd half of "Up", or Wall-E for further examples). Overall the story is a bit cliché, reaching 3rd grade levels of a morality and redemption type tale... and, ya know, Humpty really started to get on my nerves (which I suppose was intended, but still!!!!). In typical Dreamwork/Shrek fashion, several fairy tales and fairy tale characters get a kick in the shorts, and actually that's part of the fun. Seeing Jack and Jill as a couple of gross thieves was a hoot, and their time on screen was about the only thing holding up the middle part of the film, which failed miserably in concocting anything magical during the scenes taking place in the Giant's castle (of Jack and The Beanstalk fame). Of course the script limited itself by first proclaiming that the Giant was dead, and secondly by failing to reveal the monsterous threat (deciding to keep that secret until later). When the monster finally makes an appearance, threatening to destroy the town of San Rodrigo, the towering, hulking figure made me think of Godzilla and my feeble brain started paraphrasing the lyric to Blue Oyster Cult's song Godzilla: "oh no, there goes Rodrigo" (see, there's a pun in here after all). I have failed to mention, that aside of the Humpty Dumpty/ Puss dynamic there is also some kitty love - as Salma Hayek voices Kitty Softpaws, who, to use the olden day western vernacular, is a thief with a heart of gold. The interplay between Hayek and Banderas works well, and really, overall this film is good fun. Brilliant? Not quite; held back a bit by the simplistic tale at its core, but certainly with enough good animation and truly funny moments to entertain young and old (I mean, who wouldn't laugh at the suave, posing Puss ordering a glass of milk and then, instead of drinking it, daintally laps it out of a shot glass with his tongue?).