Puss in Boots (2011, Chris Miller)

CG animation has, much to my surprise, gotten to the point of disquieting reality. In Puss in Boots, Zach Galifianakis’s Humpty Dumpty has such real facial expressions, it makes the entire experience uncomfortable. The face, on the alien form, is too real.

Galifianakis is Puss’s weakest casting choice. In fact, he might be the only weak casting choice. He doesn’t bring any, you know, acting to the part. He’s reading lines, maybe exaggerating his tone occasionally, but he’s not acting. Everyone else is good. Except Amy Sedaris, for the same reason.

Antonio Banderas is great—but Puss is kind of perfect… it’s a cat as Zorro. Who better to do the performance than Zorro? Salma Hayek, Billy Bob Thornton, both are strong.

The film’s constantly delightful, which seems to be everyone’s goal, so picking at it doesn’t seem fruitful. But it would also be difficult.

My biggest gripe, besides the two weak performances (which aren’t bad, just not up to the film’s standard), has to do with scale. When the cast goes from the spaghetti Western setting to fairy tale setting, the two cats and the giant egg-man aren’t around any recognizable size landmarks. In fact, they’re in a giant’s castle… so the scale gets disconcerting.

But it’s a very small gripe. Puss holds it together for a difficult finish too.

By not failing the narrative, director Miller succeeds. Though the lead and the amazing CG help.

Puss in Boots is a very charming, just smart enough amusement.

2.5/4 ★★½

CREDITS

Directed by Chris Miller; screenplay by Tom Wheeler, based on a story by Brian Lynch, Will Davies and Wheeler and a character created by Charles Perrault; edited by Eric Dapkewicz; music by Henry Jackman; production designer, Guillaume Aretos; produced by Joe M. Aguilar and Latifa Ouaou; released by Dreamworks Animation.

Starring Antonio Banderas (Puss in Boots), Salma Hayek (Kitty Softpaws), Zach Galifianakis (Humpty Alexander Dumpty), Billy Bob Thornton (Jack), Amy Sedaris (Jill), Constance Marie (Imelda) and Guillermo del Toro (Comandate).


RELATED

OTHER 2011 RELEASES

Static Shock 2 (December 2011)

I’m not sure where to start.

Now, the first issue of Static Shock was unbelievably bad, but this second issue… it somehow manages to be even worse.

Maybe I just blocked the awfulness.

First, the art. McDaniel and Owens open with an incomprehensible action scene. Apparently, Static’s arm gets cut off and reattaches. I only figured out the extent of the injury during the truly godawful page where he talks to himself about his problems. The art doesn’t show this event clearly enough to follow it.

Then there’s the villains. They don’t just talk in exposition, they talk in exposition and tell the other villains exactly what to do–which kind of kills the narrative progression.

Oh, the gang stuff. Apparently, gang members in the new DC Universe talk like Steve Urkel.

I can’t believe Rozum’s got his name on this garbage. Static Shock‘s not just bad, it’s laughably incompetent.

CREDITS

Disarmed; writers, Scott McDaniel and John Rozum; penciller, McDaniel; inker, Andy Owens; colorist, Guy Major; letterer, Dezi Sienty; editor, Harvey Richards; publisher, DC Comics.

Planet of the Apes: The Forbidden Zone 2 (January 1993)

Cunningham has four plots this issue (and presumably through the entire series, until the last one). He’s got the peaceful humans and apes, the not peaceful apes, the mutants and then this expedition team. In some ways, it’s like he’s doing a good version of the second Apes movie—without the expectation of a Charlton Heston cameo.

With these four plots–a couple are definitely subplots, but assigning them catagories means deciding between the two remaining plots and it seems impossible to give either of them primacy. Anyway, with these four plots, Cunningham is juggling a big cast. Around twenty speaking parts. And he does a great job.

Forbidden Zone still isn’t remaking the wheel–it’s “just” a licensed property–but Cunningham’s execution is so masterful, it’s a joy to read.

Unfortunately, Kirk’s art is nowhere near as impressive as Cunningham’s writing. The art is decent, but Kirk’s completely unenthusiastic.

Batman: The Dark Knight 2 (December 2011)

So Finch opens ripping off Blade Runner and ends with an homage to Tim Burton’s Batman.

Finch has got some really dumb ideas. I wonder if he ever thinks about them logically. He mixes the Burton Batmobile with the one from the new movies. Not that it makes any sense whatsoever, but I guess Finch thinks it looks cool so who cares.

Right off, he shows himself to be incapable of committing to a cliffhanger. The hulked out Two-Face is just a tease. It’s over in a couple pages, with some terrible Batman narration about being lonely. We then discover all of Batman’s foes have been injected with the Hulk venom so they’re all getting overgrown.

Besides a scene with Gordon, a lot of intercuts with Alfred and some non-Batman action scenes, there’s not much else in this issue.

It’s not even creative enough to be truly awful.

CREDITS

A Rush of Blood; writers, Paul Jenkins and David Finch; penciller, Finch; inker, Richard Friend; colorist, Alex Sinclair; letterer, Sal Cipriano; editors, Rickey Purdin and Mike Marts; publisher, DC Comics.

Planet of the Apes: The Forbidden Zone 1 (December 1992)

Forbidden Zone is quite a surprise, and not just because a young Leonard Kirk is on the art. It’s surprising because writer Lowell Cunningham takes a departure from the regular Adventure approach (even of their good entries) and goes it alone.

This story is set after the regular series and before the movies. It seems to feature an aged version of John Huston’s Lawgiver character (breaking the internal continuity of Adventure’s Apes comics) and deals reasonably with the character.

The bad guys are the mutants from the second Apes movie and Cunningham comes up with a nice way to involve them. He also creates the first intellectually curious gorilla, which is long overdue.

Cunningham’s future manages to be interesting not just as an Apes tie-in, but also as a look at the “apes as slaves” period, which has never really been covered.

It’s not great, but it’s reasonably compelling.

All-Star Western 2 (December 2011)

First off, this comic is good.

I don’t plan on getting too negative sounding, but in case I do… I wanted to open saying it’s good. Gray and Palmiotti have found their niche with Jonah Hex.

And this issue has an El Diablo backup, which is extra nice because it provides a great example of what I wanted to talk about. The cliffhanger on the Hex story is terrible. He’s in danger. A giant is about to pop his head off.

Now, I do not believe for one moment Hex is going to die. It’s a waste of a page. The El Diablo backup, on the other hand, has a rousing soft cliffhanger—El Diablo is about to kick ass.

It’s strange to have both in the same issue, by the same writers.

The puzzling cliffhanger problem aside, it’s great stuff.

Moritat opens the Hex story with a fantastic shootout.

CREDITS

Showdown at House Arkham; artist, Moritat; colorist, Gabriel Bautista. El Diablo; writers, Gray and Palmiotti; artist, Jordi Bernet; colorist, Rob Schwager. Writers, Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti; letterer, Rob Leigh; editors, Kate Stewart and Joey Cavalieri; publisher, DC Comics.

Planet of the Apes: Blood of the Apes 4 (February 1992)

I didn’t think Blood could get worse.

I thought Mann had established the bottom and was comfortable lurking around it. I was very, very wrong.

He breaks with the franchise’s “reality” so abruptly at the end, I wish I’d read Blood first, so I could have either enjoyed other Adventure Apes comics more or just not read them all together. If I were an Apes movie fan and I read this garbage at the time, I’m not sure what I would have done. Maybe sent monkey poop to the Adventure offices.

But Mann doesn’t just have moronic plot developments, he’s got some terrible writing habits as well.

For example, this issue he doesn’t narrate from any character, just an omniscient third person. But this omniscient third person sometimes over-acknowledges the reader, sometimes under-acknowledges. There’s no balance.

Blood is a terrible series with an even worse finish. It’s dreadful.

I, Vampire 2 (December 2011)

Well, this one is a disappointment.

Fialkov narrates the entire issue from Mary’s perspective. She’s the bad guy. But she’s also a vampire, so the I, Vampire title still works. Shame Fialkov felt the need to expand on the idea with a second narrator.

Anyway… this issue reveals the vampire holocaust we saw last issue isn’t really a holocaust. It’s a very bad localized incident. There’s no giant vampire army about to take over the world, it’s just a few.

It also means these first two issues are narratively pointless, at least when it comes to establishing the series. All Fialkov establishes is a protagonist and an antagonist and they alternate narrating. No idea about supporting cast, no idea about location.

Fialkov gets by because he’s got Sorrentino on the art. Sorrentino makes Vampire look great, even Mary’s unlikely jaw structure.

But if Fialkov keeps slipping, Sorrentino might not matter.

CREDITS

Girls Just Want to Have Fun; writer, Joshua Hale Fialkov; artist, Andrea Sorrentino; colorist, Marcelo Maiolo; letterer, Pat Brosseau; editors, Wil Moss and Matt Idelson; publisher, DC Comics.

Planet of the Apes: Blood of the Apes 3 (January 1992)

While this issue of Blood isn’t any better than the previous ones, with Mann and his artists operating at their established their quality level, they can’t exactly disappoint.

Here, Mann joins the creative continuity club of Adventure’s Apes comics and establishes the main ape settlement (from the movies and the regular series) knows about all the colonies.

More than knows about them, there’s some kind of “ape-o-gram,” to send messages between the settlements.

Much like Mann breaking one of the franchise’s primary details just to tell this terrible story, this latest development changes the Planet of the Apes once again. If there’s some lush world beyond the regular city, why doesn’t everyone just leave?

Okay, maybe I did have some more vitriol left than I thought. It’s just how Mann refuses to follow the basic franchise guidelines. Was Adventure really so desperate, they’d hire anyone to write Apes?

Aquaman 2 (December 2011)

Johns is nowhere near as funny this issue of Aquaman. I don’t mean more of the jokes fall flat, I mean he’s given up the gag. Instead, he presents Aquaman as an action hero. Well, he does add Mera to the equation and reveal the couple to be adorable in private.

Though I enjoyed the issue less—and it’s clear Johns was more traditional and less inventive—it almost bodes well for the series and the approach itself. It’s not The Thin Man, but it’s about on par with “Hart to Hart.” Arthur and Mera make a fine team.

Of course, having a great superhero artist like Reis on the book is essential. If it weren’t so much fun to look at, Johns’s stalled pacing might get more annoying.

And it’s creepy. It’s a horror comic, with the nasty unseen creatures of the mist being visible and horrific.

It’s fine.

CREDITS

The Trench, Part Two; writer, Geoff Johns; penciller, Ivan Reis; inker, Joe Prado; colorist, Rod Reis; letterer, Nick J. Napolitano; editors, Sean Mackiewicz and Pat McCallum; publisher, DC Comics.