Puss in Boots (2011, U.S.)

Soooooooooo cute. I always thought that Puss in Boots was the best character from the Shrek movies, and now that I have two little orange fuzzballs of my own, I have to say I'm even more biased. Of course, the cat jokes were all hilarious to me (and to the friend I saw it with, who is not really a cat person). I laughed out loud several times. Antonio Banderas is such a good voice actor, and the rest of the cast was pretty good too. The plot was definitely weird. It involved Humpty Dumpty, Jack and Jill, the goose that lays the golden eggs, Jack's beanstalk... it was bordering on ridiculous, but somehow it worked. The one negative thing I will say about it is that Humpty Dumpty is just creepy, in his looks, his mannerism, everything. I don't know why, but he made me think of a pedophile. So that was a bit off-putting.

I can't say enough about the main focus of this movie, however. Of course, that's Puss. He's one of those characters like Jack Sparrow who could salvage any movie. (Well okay, that's not a fair comparison, but I thought that was true of good old Jack until POTC4!) Totally worth it for Puss, Banderas, and funny cat jokes.

Rating: 4.0

The Adventures of Milo and Otis (1986, Japan)

I remembered this movie very fondly from my childhood. I couldn't remember what it was about, other than the obvious cat/dog friendship. I decided to check it out from the library to "watch with my cats," two orange tabbies. This ended up being quite amusing, because one of them sat and watched almost the entire thing, and the other investigated for at least a few minutes.

You really have to appreciate the dedication of a crew that would spend four years filming live animals. I gather that there were some accusations of animal cruelty, but I don't know what came of that. It seemed to me that most of the action was realistic in terms of animals' real lives. I was surprised to see that the two had litters of kittens and puppies, which I don't recall from my childhood viewings. Still, it was done tastefully enough that a young child can watch it without figuring out what's going on (as I must have once).

I was shocked to find that I still loved this movie, which I have such fond memories of, as an adult. I think this is a wonderful, wonderful family movie. Very sweet. And two out of two cats agree!

Rating: 4.0