Let’s imagine a movie. This film will be produced by Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy). It will star Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek as lovers on a quest for redemption and justice. We’ll throw in comic relief from Zach Galifianakis in skin-tight golden spandex and Billy Bob Thorton and Amy Sedaris as a couple of hillbilly psychopaths. That sounds like a movie I’d watch. No, Robert Rodriguez isn’t adding a fourth film to his Mariachi Trilogy — this is Puss in Boots.

About 15 minutes into Puss in Boots, I became deeply concerned. I was being... entertained. How could this be? There are few animated movies I despise more than the Shrek series, and despite a few recent gems, DreamWorks Animation is still responsible for 20-something downright awful films over the past decade. My terror turned into skepticism before dissolving into joyous acceptance after a roller-coaster ride of stunningly animated 3D chase scenes, slapstick humor, wink-wink adult jokes, an expertly choreographed dance off and a flurry of cat puns.

My praise is difficult to utter. It lingers in my throat like a massive hairball I hesitate to vomit free, but I must: This is an entertaining movie. I would recommend people see this.

Though Puss in Boots was born from the painfully unfunny Shrek films, which suffered from a case of Family Guy humor (i.e., mistaking pop-culture references for jokes) and Mike Myers, it has little in common with its forebearers and is much more like DreamWorks Animation’s best work, Kung Fu Panda and How To Train Your Dragon. It’s a family-friendly action-adventure, a PG take on Zorro with universally relatable characters and top-notch visuals and exceptional performances. 

Though the lack of competition may take some of the punch out of this statement, Puss in Boots is the best animated film I’ve seen this year.

--Eric Pulsifer