Puss in Boots is a 2011 American animated adventure comedy film featuring the titular character originally from Shrek 2 (2004) and inspired by the fairy tale. Produced by DreamWorks Animation, the film was directed by Chris Miller and written by Tom Wheeler. Antonio Banderas stars as Puss in Boots, alongside Salma Hayek, Zach Galifianakis, Billy Bob Thornton, and Amy Sedaris. The film follows the origin story of Puss in Boots, before the events of Shrek 2.
Development began following the release of Shrek 2 in 2004. Originally titled Puss in Boots: The Story of an Ogre Killer, it was announced as a direct-to-video film, scheduled to be released in 2008. In October 2006, the film was redeveloped as a theatrical release, with Shrek the Third (2007) director Miller joining the project.
Puss in Boots had its world premiere on October 16, 2011, aboard the cruise ship Allure of the Seas, and was released in theaters in the United States on October 28 by Paramount Pictures. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and was a commercial success, grossing $555 million on a production budget of $130 million. At the 84th Academy Awards, the film was nominated for Best Animated Feature. A non-canon television series spin-off, The Adventures of Puss in Boots, premiered in January 2015, and a sequel, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, was released in 2022.
Plot
Puss in Boots is a Spanish-speaking anthropomorphic cat, named for his signature pair of boots. A fugitive on the run from the law, Puss is seeking to restore his lost honor. One night, he learns that the murderous outlaw couple Jack and Jill have the magic beans he has long sought, which can lead him to a giant's castle known by legend to contain valuable golden goose eggs.
When Puss attempts to steal the beans at their hideout, a female cat named Kitty Softpaws interrupts. She was hired to steal them as well by Humpty Alexander Dumpty, a talking egg and Puss' long-estranged childhood friend from the orphanage in San Ricardo, where they both were raised. Puss tells Kitty his origin story; he has been on the run from the law ever since Humpty tricked him into assisting in what turned out to be a failed bank robbery when they were teenagers. Humpty eventually persuades Puss to join them in finding the beans and retrieving the golden eggs.
Puss and Kitty's relationship turns romantic and, despite Puss's initial grudge against Humpty, he slowly warms up to him. The trio steals the beans from Jack and Jill and plants them in the desert. They ride the beanstalk into the clouds and enter the giant's castle. There, Humpty reveals the giant died a long time ago, but they manage to avoid the "Great Terror" who guards the Golden Goose and the golden eggs. They soon realize the eggs are too heavy, so they decide to steal the Golden Goose after witnessing it lays them. They manage to escape the castle and cut down the beanstalk. After celebrating, the group is ambushed by Jack and Jill, and Puss is knocked unconscious.
When he wakes, Puss assumes Humpty and Kitty were kidnapped and tracks Jack and Jill's wagon back to San Ricardo, where he learns that the kidnapping was staged. Jack, Jill, and Kitty are all working for Humpty, who is seeking revenge against him for abandoning him to be arrested. Puss is surrounded by the town's militia and turns himself in following pleas from his adoptive mother, Imelda. As he is hauled away to prison, Humpty is celebrated as a hero for bringing the wealth of golden eggs to the townspeople.
In prison, Puss meets Andy "Jack" Beanstalk, who reveals that Humpty stole the beans from him when they shared a cell years ago. Jack explains to Puss that the Great Terror is the Golden Goose's mother, a gigantic bird who will stop at nothing to rescue her baby. Puss realizes that luring the huge goose to destroy San Ricardo was Humpty's intention all along, as he held a grudge against the town for imprisoning him. Kitty frees Puss from prison and apologizes, revealing her feelings for him. He locates Humpty in time and convinces him to redeem himself by helping to save San Ricardo from destruction. Using the gosling as bait, Puss and Humpty are able to lure the Great Terror away from town; with Kitty's help, they also thwart Jack and Jill's attempts to steal the gosling during the chase. As the group reaches the outskirts of town, Humpty and the gosling are knocked off a collapsing bridge, but manage to hang onto a rope that Puss grabs. When it becomes evident that Puss cannot save them both, Humpty sacrifices himself by letting go. After a fatal impact, Puss discovers that Humpty has a large golden egg underneath his shell. The Great Terror is reunited with her gosling, and she takes Humpty's golden egg and returns to her home in the clouds.
Despite being hailed a hero by the townspeople for saving San Ricardo, Puss is still a fugitive in the eyes of the militia. He reunites with Imelda, who expresses her pride and love for Puss before he flees with Kitty, who playfully steals his boots. In the epilogue, Jack and Jill are recovering from their injuries, a restored Humpty is seen wearing a golden egg costume and dancing on the Great Terror's back with her gosling, and Puss and Kitty share a kiss.
Voice cast
Antonio Banderas as Puss in Boots, a fugitive orange tabby cat trying to restore his reputation as the hero of San Ricardo. Salma Hayek as Kitty Softpaws, a street-savvy Tuxedo cat who is Puss' female counterpart and love interest. Zach Galifianakis as Humpty Alexander Dumpty, the mastermind who intends to retrieve the Golden Eggs from the one-of-a-kind Goose. Billy Bob Thornton and Amy Sedaris as Jack and Jill respectively, a murderous outlaw married couple who owns the three legendary magical beans. Constance Marie as Imelda, Puss' human adoptive mother Mike Mitchell as Andy "Jack" Beanstalk Guillermo del Toro as Comandante, the military leader of San Ricardo dispatched to capture Puss Chris Miller as Little Boy Blue, Friar Miller, Prison Guard, Manuel and Rafael
Production
The film had been in development since 2004, when Shrek 2 was released. Chris Miller, who worked as head of story in Shrek 2, was a big proponent of making a spin-off film centered on Puss in Boots due to his love for the character and the intriguing story potential he had, given the adventures he mentions to have had in the film. As a Shrek 2 spin-off, it was initially planned for release in 2008 as a direct-to-video film, then titled Puss in Boots: The Story of an Ogre Killer. By October 2006, the film was re-slated as a theatrical release due to market conditions and DreamWorks Animation's realization that the Puss character deserved more. Miller was hired to direct the film immediately after directing Shrek the Third.
In September 2010, Guillermo del Toro signed on as executive producer. Having exited from The Hobbit, del Toro was invited by the crew to watch an early screening of the film, half animated and half storyboarded, which del Toro loved and asked them if he could be somehow involved in the production. Discussing del Toro, Miller stated, "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 for 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 was particularly involved in Humpty Dumpty's character design, suggesting to "make him more like da Vinci". It was del Toro's idea to make Humpty "an ingenious freak of nature" who builds contraptions such as a flying machine. Del Toro rewrote the ending to redeem the character and deepen his relationship with Puss – an unconventional conclusion for a family film. He helped design the fantasy elements of the giant's castle, as well as the architecture of the town, which he conceived as "an amalgam of Spain and Mexico".
During the film's production, the filmmakers struggled for a long time about including the Giant from "Jack and the Beanstalk", an English fairy tale from which the magic beans and the castle in the clouds were borrowed. As the filmmakers had already figured out the Giant's world, the Giant itself was challenging for them. They wanted to depict him faithfully like the classic fairy tale legend giant, but despite how hard they tried to incorporate him into the story, his presence turned out to be predictable. In the end, it was decided to have the Giant killed off offscreen in order to subvert fairy tales’ expectations.
Antonio Banderas reprised his role as Puss in Boots from the Shrek films. According to Miller, the crew wanted to cast Zach Galifianakis, Billy Bob Thornton, Amy Sedaris, and Salma Hayek early on during production. As Humpty Dumpty was Galifianakis' first voiceover role, he was allowed to improvise by the filmmakers. Similarly, Thornton enjoyed the experience of voicing Jack as he was looking to challenge himself with a role out of his comfort zone. Sedaris, with whom Miller had worked before on Shrek the Third, improvised most of her dialogue as Jill, giving almost fifty different versions of her scripted lines. 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 was 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 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 six months animating three major scenes in the film. The outsourcing had financial advantages, with 40% fewer labor costs than in the US, but the primary reason for outsourcing to India was the lack of personnel, due to the studio producing as many as three films a year.
Music
Henry Jackman, the composer for Puss in Boots, utilized folk instruments of traditional Latin music. Inspired by Spanish composer Manuel de Falla, Jackman blended guitars and Latin percussion with an orchestral sound influenced by Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. Mexican guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela contributed to Jackman's score, and two of their songs, "Diablo Rojo" and "Hanuman", were included in the soundtrack. Lady Gaga's song "Americano" was also featured in the film. The soundtrack for the film, featuring the original score by Jackman, was released on October 26, 2011, by Sony Classical.
On December 5, 2011, Paramount and DreamWorks released the complete score as part of their "For Your Consideration" (FYC) campaign.
Release Puss in Boots was originally set for release on March 30, 2012, but was moved ahead to November 4, 2011, taking over the release date of Rise of the Guardians, however it was instead 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 films were released in November 2011.