Why’s it Forgotten? Puss in Boots (2011)

[TMC]

https://lebeauleblog.com/2018/11/14/...in-boots-2011/

Kevthewriter remembers that Shrek spinoff movie. Do you?

I’m surprised it took this long for Lady Gaga to become a movie star. She’s been famous for over 10 years, you think there would’ve been a Lady Gaga movie by now. Hell, she’s been famous for so long that one of her songs is in a Shrek movie…well, the spin-off, Puss in Boots anyway.



And, considering it was Dreamworks’ flagship franchise for such a long time, they haven’t really done anything with that franchise in years. It’s such an old franchise that all the stars of Shrek’s careers are the complete opposite of where Gaga’s is at right now.

Eddie Murphy and Mike Myers have both had their own What The Hell Happened? articles and Cameron Diaz and Antonio Banderas are both great candidates for people who could have their own What The Hell Happened? articles in the future. Both of them used to be huge stars but Diaz hasn’t acted since 2014 and Banderas went from being a movie star to mostly starring in independent and/or straight to VOD movies.

Puss in Boots‘ spin off is about as forgotten as the man who voices him. It’s an odd duck in the Shrek franchise, the movie that, from what I’ve noticed, people tend to overlook when discussing Shrek. Oddly enough, at the time it came out, it was well received and did well at the box office so, umm, what the hell happened?

While it did well at the box office, its box office gross was underwhelming compared to previous Shrek movies. Domestically, the four Shrek movies made $267 million dollars (the 1st one), $441 million dollars (the 2nd one), $322 million dollars (the 3rd one), and $238 million dollars (the 4th one). In comparison, Puss in Boots made $149 million dollars. Worldwide numbers didn’t help too much. While it grossed half a billion dollars, it’s still the 2nd lowest grossing Shrek movie because 3 of the 4 other movies made around $700-$920 million dollars per movie. While the box office numbers weren’t the only reason it went under the radar, it definitely didn’t help matters.

What also didn’t help was that the critics LIKED it but they didn’t LOVE it. From many of the reviews I’ve read, the general consensus seems to be “it’s much better than the 3rd and 4th movie, and it’s a pretty fun movie in its own right, but it’s nothing too special”. While the movie garnered stronger reviews than Shrek 3 or 4 did, its overall reputation seemed to be more middle of the road, considered by many to be a pretty good flick but not a huge comeback for the Shrek series or anything. And it’s hard to really remember a movie that’s just pretty good rather than something that’s great and really special.

It also didn’t help that the movie came out around a time people were still kind’ve sick of Shrek. With the poorly received 3rd and 4th movie and the fact that, in the mid-late 00’s-early ’10’s, Dreamworks was trying to put Shrek EVERYWHERE (a Universal ride, holiday specials, even a musical) PLUS the fact that every studio was trying too hard to copy the success of Shrek by having all their animated movies have celebrity voices, crude humor, pop culture references, and even dance party endings, it made people tire of Shrek. To some, having one of its characters get their own spin-off film probably didn’t help matters and they skipped it. And the movie’s overall “ehh, it was pretty good” reputation probably didn’t really help the franchise’s reputation overall.

What doubly didn’t help was that there were other family films that came out around the same time that were also well reviewed, even moreso, like The Muppets, Hugo, and Arthur Christmas. While it made a lot more than those movies, the fact that those movies gained stronger reviews probably made them more popular in the long run as, well, many who saw them were praising them (Hugo even got oscar buzz and Arthur Christmas is a holiday film, making it a perfect film to pop in during the holidays, which definitely would give it some longevity).

And, well, is it a Shrek film? Technically it is, it has one of the characters in it, but that’s the thing, only ONE of the characters. It’s one thing for The Minions to have their own spin-off and have them be the only characters to have a large part in it because The Minions are much, much more popular than the other characters from Despicable Me. As a result, their spin-off kinda blends in with the rest of franchise. It might as well be Despicable Me 3. On the other hand, Puss may be a well-known character but so are Shrek, Donkey, Fiona, and their versions of famous fairy tale characters like The Gingerbread Man and Pinocchio. So when a movie from the franchise comes out that doesn’t include most of those characters, it doesn’t really mix in that much with the other movies of the franchise and just comes off as its own thing. Therefore, it’s probably gonna be less likely to be considered part of the franchise. And if, on its own, most people don’t find it that memorable, it probably won’t be talked about much 7 years after it came out.

Whether or not you do count it as a Shrek movie, it just didn’t resonate with the public as much as the original Shrek did. And I think a large part of that is what it was parodying. The Shrek franchise is basically a parody of Disney, or at least Disney’s Fairy Tale Movies, and the first two came out at a time when people were getting sick and tired of Disney’s non-Pixar movies and WDAS wasn’t doing great so seeing Disney get knocked down a peg resonated with audiences. Puss in Boots is a parody of swashblucking adventure movies, a genre that is nowhere near as popular as it was decades ago. It does fit the character to make the movie a parody of swashbuckling action movies but it’s not gonna get people to care the way they did with Shrek, meaning that the movie’s entire success basically revolves around if people think Puss can carry an entire movie on his own.

PLUS there was supposed to be a sequel to this but thanks to Dreamworks’ re-structuring, that’s been kept in development hell. Last thing I heard about it was that they were still considering making it but no release date has been put in place. If you’re a Dreamworks movie and you don’t have a sequel, chances are you’re going to be forgotten. Just look at Antz, their first movie.

All these reasons (and maybe more) are the reasons why, despite technically coming off of a huge franchise, the Puss in Boots movie has been largely forgotten.

Also, wait a minute? A spin-off of a character with an orange, green, and yellow color palette that’s an origin story for that character and made a lot of money but was then quickly forgotten? Oh my god, this is basically the animated version of Oz The Great and Powerful.

[Tubehead]

i think they got Puss n boots Anmited tv series!! now i also read that there remaking shrek & puss n boots!!

[king of comedy]

I loved it. At least we got to know a differant character besides that orgre. Four movies about him was enough.