So to be honest, I am not entirely super familiar with the story of Puss In Boots. I don't know if I'd ever really heard it before... but from my hours of deep research (a few minutes on the web) this is the gist as far as I can tell: There's a poor kid who inherits a cat from his dead father. The cat really wants a pair of boots and he ends up getting them, and in turn decides to turn his owner's fortune around. He gets the poor kid to remove his clothes and then goes before the king and explains that his owner is actually a duke or prince or lord or something and that his clothes were robbed. So the king robes the poor kid in some royal garb. In the meantime, the king's daughter falls for the kid. They all end up traveling along as the cat runs ahead and threatens all the villagers he runs across, telling them that they need to play along and recognize the kid as The Marquis or else the cat will slice n' dice em. Then the cat finds a castle inhabited by a giant or monster of some kind that can turn into any animal he chooses. The cat tricks him into turning into a mouse, eats him, and then presents the castle as belonging to his owner. The King is way impressed and gives his daughter to the kid to marry. And the cat enjoys a life of pleasure for the rest of ever. Not entirely sure what the moral is here... lying gets you ahead? Be a tricky ruffian? Don't believe what the cats tell you (I hope it's not this one. I recently gave my credit card number to a cat from Nigeria who claimed that they would in turn give me full access to millions of dollars in a bank account somewhere in Europe. Fingers crossed)?
While the Laugh-O-Gram film doesn't follow the exact plot, the basics are still in tact. Firstly, you probably guessed it, this cat appears to be the same one we've seen in the previous films. Only this time there is a twist. The cat is female (because he couldn't possibly have been a girl in the other ones... or could he? Oh wait, he probably was. He was in the kitchen making doughnuts, after all. As a woman should be!). Anyways, puss and the kid head to the castle where the kid goes into the courtyard to get hot n' heavy with the princess. Actually, they just seem kinda cute and flirty. In the meantime, Puss heads to the garage where she has a passionate make out session with the King's driver, who is the Dog we've also seen in previous cartoons (always stuck providing the transportation). It's kinda a weird scene cuz the cat gets all pressed up against the castle wall as she plays tonsil tennis with the dog.... you can't make this stuff up. Anyways, the King finds out and beats the living daylight out of the kid and literally throws him down the castle steps, followed by the cat. Puss hits the ground hard and as per tradition we get to view all her lives leaving her body, but her owner grabs one and stuffs it back in. An interesting note, the characters in this film have talk balloons that display what they're saying which is pretty neat. Makes things make a lot more sense than in the other movies where we've only been able to guess at what they're saying. Though, it's not exactly the sharpest dialogue. The kid explains, "King don't like me." The despaired duo head to a movie to pass the time, and we see Puss be even more skanky than before. She has a wild crush on the film's star, and then tries to get down with the sickness with her owner... it's kinda weird. The movie is about bull fighting though, and it's awesome. The protagonist literally grabs a charging bull by the horns and forces him down into the ground where it presumably dies of a dislocated brain, and then he goes and makes out with some girl. This gives Puss a plan to help her owner but she refuses to cough up the goods until he buys her some boots (which we learn she wants because she thinks the Dog will find them sexy and want to kiss her with his mouth parts and other body parts... really. I'm not making any of this up). With the kinky boots now in her possession Puss puts her plan into action. It's kinda complicated to stay with me- the kid will wear a mask and they'll put on a bull fighting show. The king will attend, be impressed, and offer his daughter to the boy. Puss will rig the fight by using an electric contraption to shock the bull into a limp lifeless jelly-bovine. Flawless. So everything goes as planned, and the king offers his daughter. But first he requests that the kid remove the mask. When he does so, the king is outraged to see his true identity (which kinda confirms the whole "King don't like me" thing... making the whole plan null and void. But hey, Puss got her kinky boots so it's all good). The boy grabs the princess, they dash into the kings car and puss and the dog jump in the front seat and drive off. The king follows angrily, but the dog puts the pedal to the metal and the car takes off. Two hearts dance around on the screen and everyone lives happily ever after.
I must admit a bit of disappointment at not seeing the shape shifting monster in this cartoon. Ogre's being eaten by cats in sleek rubber boots that cling to the flesh and outline every sensual curve of the leg is something that really appeals to the my inner lunatic. But we cannot always have what we want. My feelings here are probably similar to how I felt about the Musicians of Bremen. I don't get why it steps so far away from the source, I don't get why this cat dies to easily, and I don't get 21 year old Walt's sense of humor. But it's all sort of made up for just by how odd this all is, and again the over the top violence draws me back in when this thing gets boring. So I dunno. I also like the written dialogue this time around, as it really helps enhance the story. But I gotta say I'm getting tired of these dying cats and heroic dogs. The princess looked a lot like Little Red Riding Hood minus the Hood too... which actually might explain why the dog was still their in the garage... perhaps thy are one and the same? In which case, I wonder what became of the pilot she was kissing earlier??? Probably beheaded by the protective king. He like bull fighters! Not airmen! And I guess he doesn't like his wife either cuz the doughnut making mother lives in a tiny cabin with secret windows for old perverts to look through. Am I reading too much into all this?
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