Phase 4 Films - The True Story of Puss 'N Boots

While in England, I was a member of our village's pantomime troop.  Prior to our production of "Puss In Boots", I was unaware of the ins and outs of Puss's story.  Sure I had heard of the character before but didn't really know the storyline.  Of course the movie "Shrek" brought the character into the spotlight and now, Puss even has his own spin off movie.  But is it the true story?

In the Phase 4 Films animated DVD "The True Story of Puss N' Boots" based on the story Charles Perrault wrote it in the late 1600s, there is a poor miller's son, a cat (obviously) a princess, and an ogre just as Mr. Perrault scribed.  Now from there, this movie uses a large amount of creative licence to flesh out the short story into a full length film.

The animation is on par with the Barbie CGI films (with which I am all too familiar) and isn't bad at all.  I have seen some dire CGI efforts and was worried since I was unfamiliar with Phase 4 Films but I was pleasantly surprised.

One thing I did like a lot was the twist on classical music that was used.  While Diva was watching the movie I was in the kitchen cooking and picked out tunes from the operas "Rigoletto", "Nabucco", "West Side Story", "Carmen", and "The Magic Flute" as well as themes from pieces such as "Fur Elise", "Greensleeves", and "The Blue Danube."  Anytime kids can be exposed to classical music, I am a happy girl.  And even though the tunes were remixed to sound like folk music or pop music or country music, it still somehow worked for me.  Good for you Phase 4 Films for using classics in your soundtrack.

William Shatner is the voice of Puss.  Yes, I totally agree.  That was a strange pairing.  In fact the only negative comment Diva had about the movie was that she did not like Puss' voice.  Puss is such a silver tongued clever character that it was a shame really to give him a silly sounding voice instead of a very smooth-talking one.  In fact, if Mr. Shatner had just spoken more like Captain Kirk and less like Winnie the Pooh with laryngitis, it would have been far less grating.

Here is my concern about this film:  it was somewhat suggestive.  Now I may be hyper-sensitive but there were a couple of things that didn't quite sit right with me and I feel it is important that I fill you in on the good, the bad, and the ugly for a review.

1.  The Queen seemed to be sauced the entire movie.  I never saw her take a drink, but her mannerisms and speech pattern suggested that she was inebriated.  Engineer saw a clip from the show and asked why the Queen was drunk.  I am unsure how that added to the story.

2.  The sassy princess was rather buxom.  I'm not used to the leading lady of a cartoon to be so voluptuous.

3.  After the miller's son gets the Queen's approval (the King was basically narcoleptic so his approval didn't matter I guess) he and the princess are standing in a bedroom in front of a bed and share a kiss.  They could have waited to kiss or even kissed in another room but a bedroom and with a satisfied slight moan while kissing, come on.  Surely that part could have been better thought out or taken out altogether.  Again, it didn't add to the story. 

With that being said, I'm not sure that Diva scrutinized the movie the way I did and overall she was satisfied with the film and said she would watch it again.  If you would like a copy of The True Story of Puss N' Boots the Blue Ray/DVD combo pack is available for $24.99 and the DVD is available for $19.99.

*I received a copy of "The True Story of Puss N' Boots" from Child's Play Communications to review.  All opinions are my own.  Thanks Child's Play Communication!