There is still a gulf between Dreamworks quality and Pixar quality, (excluding How to Train Your Dragon, of course) but Puss in Boots leaves the crumbling nonsense of the Shrek series and makes something of itself.

Puss In Boots is a prequel to the Shrek films and follows the loveable feline rogue as he seeks to redeem himself in the eyes of his home town after one of his old friend Humpty Dumpty’s money making schemes goes wrong. Teaming up with Humpty once more and Kitty Soft-Paws, he is in for an all new adventure.

Puss in Boots is a short and relatively unsurprising story, at least I wasn’t any particularly fascinating plot… but then I wasn’t looking for that. This is a kids film with just enough creativity and entertainment value to keep adult audiences at least watching it, which is a lot to come from the Shrek franchise.
Can you tell I don’t like the Shrek series?

Puss in Boots easily stole the show in Shrek 2, and felt wasted in the third (what didn’t feel wasted? I felt wasted watching that!) and fortunately his spin-off has succeeded, proving the character was not only good by proxy of other airhead characters.
Humpty Dumpty may not have been likeable at any point, making his fate more than a little self evident, and Kitty was simply the feisty love interest you would expect. Salma Hayek and Antonio Banderas? Hm, where have I seen this film before…!

But, it is a good romp with some great cat related jokes and creative fairytale references (good to see Dreamworks hasn’t completely forgotten how to do those). I’d recommend it to anyone who’s looking for a distracting hour and a bit.

Additional Marshmallows: Unfortunately I had seen a lot of this film previously, the trailer gives some of the best jokes, while my cinema work had me see even more. Trying to see it with fresh eyes isn’t easy!