- “I am Puss in Boots, and my name... would become... LEGEND.”
- ―Puss in Boots
Puss in Boots is a main character in the Shrek franchise and the titular protagonists of its spin-off franchise of the same name. He is a swashbuckling ginger cat from Spain who has embarked on several daring adventures, becoming a legendary hero wherever he goes. He was initially hired by King Harold to assassinate Shrek under the Fairy Godmother's orders, but abandoned this hit and became fast friends with him, Donkey and Princess Fiona. He is also best friends with Perrito, as well as being Kitty Softpaws' boyfriend and Humpty Alexander Dumpty's adoptive brother.
Background[]
Once, Puss was a little orphan kitten whose basket was blown across a barren wasteland to the town of San Ricardo. There, he turned up on the doorstep of a woman named Imelda, who ran an orphanage. She immediately took him in as her child and brought Puss inside for a meal. However, some other orphans weren't very happy with his presence and tried to shoo him away, so an egg by the name of Humpty Alexander Dumpty stands up for him but is also bullied. Fortunately, Puss saves him, earning Humpty's admiration. One day, Puss walks in on the egg experimenting with a mechanism to grow a bean. Humpty explains his dream to one day find the legendary magic beans and growing them into a beanstalk into the heavens, where he'd find the legendary golden eggs and finally be where he belongs. Puss agrees to help him in his quest and joins the "Bean Club", becoming blood-brothers with Humpty and together, the two swipe beans from everywhere in an attempt to finally find a magic bean.
However, years pass and the two, now teenagers, decide to put their dream on hold. Puss and Humpty get into trouble frequently with the law, causing Imelda to convince them that they're better than this. One day, as Humpty vents to Puss about how he wishes to leave San Ricardo and have his own life, he accidentally chucks a rock at a loosely shut crate, unleashing the bull inside which charges straight at the Commandante's (one of the chief guards) mother. Leaping into action, Puss yanks the bull down and incapacitates it right before it hits the old lady, being applauded as a hero. Being given a pair of boots, a belt and a hat as a reward, he agrees to change for the better and stop his mischief.
However, Humpty doesn't do the same thing and despite Puss trying to change him and getting him out of jail multiple times, he still keeps getting in trouble with the law. One night, Humpty wakes Puss and tells him that he's in "trouble", asking him to help lift him over a wall to escape. However, Puss quickly realises he just let Humpty into the San Ricardo bank, with the egg leaping back down onto the cart with numerous bags of money, which he plans to use in his life out of town. Puss is furious and the two argue, but they are spotted by the Commandante who accuses the cat of robbery. Forced to escape, Puss rides away on the wagon, spotting Imelda along the way who is heartbroken by this sight. Arriving at the town bridge, the wagon collapses and falls into the river below, with Humpty slipping and landing on his back. With the guards approaching, he begs Puss to help him up but the cat, angered at his betrayal, orders him to help himself before diving into the river, escaping and beginning a new life as an outlaw.
Fortunately for Puss, when alone in the desert he meets the legendary El Guante Blanco, who, feeling sympathy for the outlaw, teaches him the ways of the sword and contributes with Puss becoming the famed outlaw and hero he is today, with the two parting ways once Puss had learnt all there was to.
Personality[]
A pint-sized powerhouse, Puss is one tough, contentious, suave, charismatic, flirtatious cat. He is very much in full control of his emotions, rarely expressing fear and able to keep calm in the face of danger. For a good price, he'll hunt down and capture anybody. He is an expert thief but has a strict moral code and refuses to rob churches and orphanages, yet happily robs from people who don't need their riches or won't use them for the greater good, such as Jack and Jill. Puss is also very intelligent, strategic, and quick-witted, as well as powerful enough to battle enemies who are bigger than himself. Additionally, he is sarcastic, snarky and droll. In addition to this, he has a form of hypnotic powers, employing a famous begging expression, which involves expanding his pupils, lowering his head, and holding his hat. This effect enables him to break weak-minded individuals, and exploit people under the influence of the begging face.
Puss only uses this power in extreme circumstances, and for the greater good. During the events of Shrek the Third, Puss' consciousness was interchanged with that of donkey, and while inhabiting Donkey's body, Puss attempted the begging look, yet it was ineffective. Puss is highly popular with the ladies, has an active sex life with multiple female cats, and is considered cute by human women, as they often pamper him, and in an alternate timeline, the ogres spoiled him, making him a pathetic, morbidly obese freeloader with no fighting or hunting skills. He couldn't even get into his boots in that timeline.
However, in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Puss is shown to be rather arrogant and reckless, showing how he didn’t care when he died, believing he had more lives to spare, despite how he already wasted eight of them. While he is shown to be fearless, there are moments where he is shown to be afraid. One of these moments was when he came face to face with a “bounty hunter” who turns out to be Death, and nearly died by his blade because of his carelessness. After this encounter, he was traumatized and went into retirement and hiding hoping death would never find him. After going on an adventure to find the wishing star, Puss began hallucinating about seeing Death. But while in the Cave of Lost Souls, Puss encounters Death again, who reveals his true identity to Puss. Death and Puss met each other again on the Wishing Star, where Puss finally found the courage to face Death, and conquered his fear of him, also deciding to renounce his wish and live his last life to the fullest.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Combat Proficiency: Despite Puss' small size, he is a capable fighter even when outnumbered against much larger opponents, he can even defeat giants.
- Master Swordsman: Puss possesses incredible skills in the use of a sword, mostly in combat, being able to cut and initial letter name anything he can cut with his sword. Puss is so skilled that he can fight even death itself, disarming him in a duel, though acknowledging that he will inevitably lose to Death when he dies.
- Cute Nature: Puss' trademark attack is by using his cute nature, shown when he stares up at his opponents with an innocent, wide-eyed expression, softening his foes' hearts, which normally will cause the enemy to not attack him for a while.
- Guitar Proficiency: Puss seems to know how to play with a guitar/lute, and as seen in The Last Wish, he's a very capable musician.
- Sharp Claws: Like all cats, Puss has razor-sharp claws which are sufficient to rend most substances. His claws can also hurt Shrek, even though the ogre's green skin is very tough and are even sharp enough to pierce glass as well.
- Expert Thief and Hunter: Puss is known to be a master of thievery since he is extremely skilled in theft. Like all cats, Puss is also a master of hunting.
- Dancing Proficiency: Puss is an incredibly elegant and masterful dancer, befitting his fast-paced and lively fighting style. One of his dance moves is, partnering with Kitty, the two begin tap-dancing parallel to each other away from the ground at the same pace, allowing the two to essentially levitate up and down.
Appearances[]
Shrek 2[]
Puss in Shrek 2.
Recommended to King Harold by Doris (the Ugly Stepsister and barmaid of the Poison Apple Inn) as a famous ogre assassin, Puss is payed a great deal of money by king Harold to assassinate Shrek. However, unlike his fairy tale counterpart, he does not try to trick the ogre into changing into a mouse, but instead makes a direct, frontal assault on Shrek, which works up until the feline gags on a hairball, spitting it up. Shrek and Donkey think of what to do with him as Donkey even proposes to give him the 'Bob Barker treatment', but the swashbuckling cat begs for his life. Puss claims to have taken the contract to help his poor family, consisting of a litter of siblings, a sick mother and a father who lives off the garbage (although, considering his biological parents are dead, he was most likely lying so Shrek wouldn't harm him). Ultimately, the duo spares his life once it's revealed that he was hired by King Harold to kill him instead of it stemming from a personal agenda. Grateful and guilty for his actions, Puss proposes to the ogre that he owes a life debt to him and accompanies him and Donkey on their quest. Although there is some tension/rivalry between Puss and Donkey (who seems nervous that Puss is taking his place as the "annoying talking animal" of the team and as Shrek's best friend), the three eventually become close friends and allies.
Shrek appears to have accepted this debt, as Puss in Boots stays with him throughout the course of the film. He has also stated that he hates Mondays. When Shrek and Donkey enter the castle to find Fiona and are being chased by the castle's knights, Puss repays his debt to Shrek by holding them off (he removes his hat, looks at the guards cutely, and then attacks them when they stop and say "aww!") After Shrek and Fiona get back together, and the king turns back to a frog, Donkey finds out he has become a dad. Due to the friendship that has developed, Puss decides to be Donkey's dronkeys' uncle.
Shrek the Third[]
Puss in Shrek the Third.
Donkey, Puss, Dragon and the Dronkeys remain in Far Far Away with Fiona and Shrek, helping the royal couple run the country in the place of the ailing frog king Harold.
Puss joins Shrek and Donkey on their journey to find Artie (Fiona's cousin and heir to the throne) and later encourages Shrek to be kinder to Artie to gain the teenager's trust. He also tries, rather unsuccessfully, to advise Shrek who has just found out that Fiona is pregnant with his children, on fatherhood by suggesting they take his cousin's boat for two weeks of fishing and mojitos, but Donkey is against that.
When the group is magically sent back to Far Far Away by Merlin, Puss and Donkey accidentally have their bodies switched. The two swapped animals later join forces with the Far Far Away princesses and other captives of Prince Charming and help rescue Shrek. Towards the end of the movie, they confront Merlin and demand he put them in their correct bodies. He does so, although their tails seem to have been switched this time (in the next scene, this is shown to have been corrected as well).
At the end of the movie, Puss helps Shrek and Fiona care for their new born triplets. He has trouble with them pulling his fur and tail.
Shrek the Halls[]
Puss tells the story of Santa Claus as a smooth Spanish cat (similar to himself). He is distracted from telling the tale when he sees a glass Christmas tree ornament and begins batting at it. When he realizes what he was doing, he walks away muttering "I have shamed myself". Later, when Shrek explains that he never celebrated Christmas before and wanted it to come right, Puss tells his friend "Christmas just comes".
Shrek Forever After[]
An overweight Puss in Shrek Forever After.
In the fourth film, Puss is seen as a regular guest at Shrek's home, eating dinner with Shrek's family and telling the children of the tale of how Shrek met Fiona. He is not properly seen again until Shrek has entered the alternate reality made by Rumpelstiltskin. Here, he has retired from swordsmanship and has become obese and shiftless, and Fiona's pet as well. He befriends Shrek when he realizes there was a spark of romantic interest between Shrek and Fiona. Puss takes part in the ambush on Rumpelstiltskin's ogre hunt, but Fiona's army of ogres are captured by the Pied Piper. Puss and Donkey rescue Shrek and Fiona from the Piper, but Fiona leaves in anger when she thought Puss told Shrek everything about her.
Puss and Donkey later lead the ogres in the battle against Rumpelstiltskin's forces, and helps save Shrek and Fiona from Dragon. Puss eventually disappears with everything else when Fiona's curse is broken and reality is restored. In the real world, Puss celebrates the ogre babies' first birthday with everyone else.
Puss in Boots[]
Puss in Boots in the film of the same name.
Puss appears as the titular protagonist of the spin-off film set before the events of Shrek 2. It is shown how Puss begins to run from the law, going to many terrains and getting involved with more criminal activity. Trying to clear his name, the cat is continuously unsuccessful. He gets captured by a man that wanted the reward for his capture but he luckily escapes and goes back to San Ricardo, where he hides in a bar where some men tells him that the Magic Beans are real and they take to the Golden Goose but that they're owned by the fearsome outlaws Jack and Jill. Seeing this as an opportunity to restore his name, Puss goes in Jack and Jill's house but he gets hindered by a female cat named Kitty Softpaws, also searching for the Magic Beans.
After almost getting killed by Jack and Jill since they both got caught by the two killers, Puss follows Kitty to a bar run by alley cats, where he finds out that she is working with his former friend, Humpty. After Humpty, who had followed the two, explains to Puss that he wants a second chance, Puss agrees to help him find the beans/golden eggs, making it clear that he is doing it for the town and his mother who adopted him, not for Humpty. The three of them set off to find Jack and Jill, finally seeing them coming towards them, hiding in a canyon type place in the desert. Kitty jumps onto their cart which is pulled by warthogs, followed by Puss, while Humpty readies their getaway vehicle. Puss lowers Kitty into the back of the cart, who struggles to open the box the beans are held in (which is around Jack's hand), with Puss urging her to use her claws. She finally admits to him that she has no claws, which wakes up one of the baby warthogs sleeping in the back. Puss drops in beside her and opens the box with his claws as Kitty quiets the baby pig, giving him to Puss as she uses her paws to get the beans from Jack's hand, giving them to Puss. Just as they are about to leave, Puss accidentally backs up and steps on two pigs' tails, alerting Jack and Jill, who drop into the bottom where they are. They manage to get outside, jam the levers to force their seats to stay up, and tie up their heads, signaling Humpty to get their own cart besides the one they're on now. Kitty jumps onto the cart, but Jill headbutts Puss before he can, briefly knocking him out and causing him to drop the beans, which bounce around the top of the cart, almost falling off. Puss gets them back while fighting Jill, who somehow escaped, but she grabs him and dangles him over the edge of the cart and the canyon, about to drop him. Humpty rams the side of their cart and Puss lands back in their cart, and they get away. Kitty explains to Puss, as they are riding in the cart, that her adoptive owners got her claws removed for an unknown reason (although she does suggest it was for shredding the curtains or "playing too roughly with the hamster").
They make it to the perfect spot to plant them, being directed in the right way by Humpty, and plant the beans in a bare, sandy area, right as a storm cloud comes overhead, and a giant funnel of green-lit clouds and wind comes spinning down the place they planted the beans, cracking the sand, then suddenly disappearing, leaving only a small weed where the beans are buried. Kitty suggests Humpty talk to it and he does, but he barely gets a few words out before a giant beanstalk shoots up out of the ground, taking them with it, higher and higher into the clouds before it finally stops. The three got off and surprisingly are able to stand and walk on the clouds without difficulty, although their voices grow higher due to the thin air (their voices return to normal in the normal air
Puss wakes up and goes back to San Ricardo, believing Jack and Jill kidnapped Humpty and Kitty. There he discovers that Humpty betrayed him and that everyone was involved, even a regretful Kitty. Puss gets arrested for the Bank Robbery and in the prison, he discovers from the real Jack that the mother of the Golden Goose is coming for her baby and will destroy San Ricardo, just like Humpty planned. He gets saved by Kitty and escapes from prison to confront Humpty and convinces him to help him to save the city and that he's better than that. The Golden Goose gets given back to her mother, but Humpty dies sacrificing himself to save Puss and the Goose, leaving a Golden Egg which the mother takes back to the Castle. Now famous as a hero that saved the city, Puss leaves the city with Kitty and later they share a kiss becoming a couple.
Puss in Boots: The Three Diablos[]
A few days after saving San Ricardo, Puss is riding his horse in the desert until he gets captured by Italian guards. He gets hired by the Princess to stop a criminal called the Whisperer and to do that she asks him to bring his three minions, called Three Diablos with him as they know where he is. When he discovers that they are three cute innocent kittens, Puss is surprised that they're so infamous minions of The Whisperer but later he finds out about their devilish nature when they turn on him as they're walking in the desert and bury him alive.
Puss survives and, using his cute eyes, captures them and tells them that he's gonna bring them back to prison until he finds out that they were orphans, just like him. Understanding that they got betrayed by The Whisperer just like he got betrayed by Humpty, Puss decides to help them going in the right path and gives them names: Gonzalo, Sir Timotheo The Third and Perla. Together, they fight The Whisperer and accidentally kills him when he falls from the cliff where they were fighting.
The three kittens becomes the new guards of the Princess and Puss says goodbye to them, proclaiming that they will not forget about him but before he can finish the guards close the door.
Sometime after the events of this short, Puss would find himself in the Poison Apple in Far Far Away, working as a bounty hunter to try to further clear his name.
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish[]
Long after the events of Shrek Forever After, Puss is now considered a hero by the whole world. Well, almost the whole world. He throws a party in the city of Del Mar, until the Governor arrives and orders the guards to arrest him, knowing of his criminal record. However, a giant monster arrives and attacks everyone, with Puss saving the day but dying in the process after a bell falls on him.
Since he has 9 lives, Puss doesn't die and he's successfully healed by the town's doctor but he's at his last life, having died too many times. The doctor suggests him to retire and to become a lap cat for the cat lady Mama Luna but Puss refuses. Puss goes to the bar and jokes about what the doctor said until a mysterious creepy big white wolf with red eyes and two sickles sits close to him with the intention of killing him. Puss presumes he's a bounty hunter and tells him he laughs in the face of death, but the wolf says nobody ever got away from him as they start fighting.
Unfortunately, the wolf strangely beats every move of Puss and even cuts some hair from his head almost killing him, making him drop a bit of blood and his fur puffing from fear, exciting the Wolf as he "loves the smell of fear". Puss escapes by flushing himself in the toilet leaving his sword behind. Scared of death and afraid he can not be the famous legend he was, Puss accepts the doctor's advice and goes to Mama Luna becoming a lap cat. However, he first buries his boots and dress, metaphorically killing his old persona.
Life as a lap cat is boring and unexciting but Puss eventually gets used to it although getting depressed. He meets an unnamed talking therapy dog that he names Perrito (Perrò for short) but he tells him to leave him alone. His retirement doesn't last long when the crime family Goldilocks and the Three Bears comes for him to recruit him to rob the dangerous "Big" Jack Horner and get the Map to the Wishing Star. They find Puss's buried clothes and thinks he's dead, while Puss hears them talking and decides to rob Horner for himself so he can use the wish to get his nine lives back. He gets his clothes back (except his sword) and, with Perrito, he goes to Jack Horner (even though he initially leaves him behind).
Puss arrives in the Horner Family's Factory of Cakes and, after seeing Horner turning one of his henchmen into gold for making fun of him, he gets the map for the wish but gets kicked by Kitty, that only kicks him again when she recognizes him, still angry for what he did at Santa Coloma. However, they found themselves forced to work together once again as they're both chased by Jack Horner, as they're helped by Perrito, Puss and Kitty arrive at the portal to the Dark Forest. Puss is scared at first but as it turns out, the Dark Forest is just a field of beautiful flowers. Puss begs Kitty to let him see the map and after a challenge of big eyes she accepts. The map shows dark paths for both of them but Perrò's own version of the path is safe and simple, much to their shock and disgust. He then tells them about his childhood and how he got thrown into a river by his own family, with Puss and Kitty feeling sympathy for him.
Chased by the Three Bears Crime Family and Jack Horner, the trio has to pass the giant roses. They try to fight them but Perrò shows that they have to simply smell the roses, which works, with Puss and Kitty are still complaining about how much easier his path is. When they hop on a platform through the River of Relaxation, Puss is starting to get irritated by his beard. He finally accepts to have his long beard cut by Kitty, and she also gives him her sword. However, Perrò gets captured by Horner, who threatens to kill him if they don't give him the map. Luckily, Perrò escapes and there's a huge fight where Horner launches Unicorn's horns towards people, making some of his henchmen explode, making Puss almost die as he sees the Wolf once again, thus escaping in fear.
Perrò finds him and he calms him down. Puss reveals what happened between him and Kitty: they were going to get married but the day of their wedding Puss got away and left her. He apologizes to Kitty and she forgives him (she heard him before while he was talking to Perrò and heard him saying how much sorry he was) revealing that she didn't go to the wedding either as she knew she couldn't compete with his one true love (himself). However, she also happily notices, while flirting, that he doesn't seen that kind of guy anymore. Puss and Kitty steal back the Map from the Three Bears but they manage to capture Perrò. Puss tries to utilize the Map to find him but he gets trapped in a giant crystal cave, so he sends Kitty to save Perrò promising they will reunite.
While he walks inside the cave, Puss meets all his previous eight lives and, after a brief moment of nostalgia, realizes how much wrong he was about wanting to be a loner and prepares to leave but he meets the Big Wolf once again, who reveals he's not a bounty hunter but Death in person and, finding the idea of cats having nine lives absurd and being mad that he wasted his eight lives without any regards, he wants to take his last life to "make a favor to both of them". Puss runs away and manages to escape from the crystal cave, being spotted by Kitty and Perrò, who believe he's leaving them behind.
Puss finally arrives at the Wishing Star and he prepares to make the wish but he's confronted by Kitty who is disappointed in him for leaving her once again and for still running away from problems. However, when Puss tries to tell her that Death is after him, "Big" Jack Horner with his only surviving henchwoman, Goldilocks and the Three Bears arrive and a big fight for the Wish starts, which ends with Kitty throwing Horner in his own infinite magic bag.
As Perrò tells Puss maybe one life is enough, Death comes back and he creates a fire circle between Puss and the others so he can catch him. Death offers him to fight once again, giving him back his sword. Puss sees his life flashing before his eyes once again but this time he only sees his moments with Kitty and Perrò, realizing he's not alone anymore and accepts the fight, much to Death's amusement. However, this time Puss succeeds to impress Death, using both his sword and Kitty's knife to defeat Death.
In an act of humilty, Puss gives Death his sickles back and tells him that, even though he will never beat him, he will never stop fighting for this life. Death looks right into his soul and tells him that he came for an arrogant little legend who thought he was immortal but he doesn't see him anymore, noticing that Puss changed and having a newfound respect for the cat, telling him to live his life well, even though he notes they will meet again when his time has come, which Puss agreed to. Puss reconciles with Kitty, who sees that he changed and forgives him.
However, this moment is interrupted by Horner as he, thanks to the magic biscuits in his infinite magic bag, becomes giant and prepares to make his wish. Perrò distracts him enough (making the cute eyes) to allow Puss, Kitty and Goldilocks to destroy the Map. "Big" Jack Horner tries to fix the Map but the Cricket comes back and uses the Phoenix to destroy the missing piece he was looking for, this destroying the Map, while Horner gets killed as he explodes alongside the Wishing Star.
Puss says to Kitty that a life with her is the only thing he could ask for, much to her happiness. After friendly saluting Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Puss and Kitty search a name for Perrò until he decides that he likes Perrito as his name since that is what his friends call him.
Puss, Kitty and Perrito sometime later steal the ship from the Governor and they sail towards Far Far Away to meet some old friends.
Inspiration[]
Puss' Shrek form is based on Zorro's (whom Banderas also portrayed in the The Mask of Zorro and The Legend of Zorro) fighting style, accent (Spanish) and personality. While attacking Shrek, he used his sword to scratch up a P, a parody of Zorro's trademark move. In Shrek the Third, Donkey, while in Puss' body, scratches a D instead.
Trivia[]
- Puss is a character parody of the popular character, Zorro, who the voice actor, Antonio Banderas, previously played in a live-action movie.
- He makes a very strange (and possibly unlicensed) appearance on the mobile puzzle game Indy Cat (a parody of Indiana Jones) by PlayFlock. The outfit used for the cat appears to be the Deluxe Indiana Jones costume. The boots used in this variant of Puss in Boots isn't intact on that game.
- In Shrek 2, Puss is portrayed as an antagonist, but he reforms and becomes friends with Shrek. This movie also reveals that Puss hates Mondays, making it a reference to how Garfield from the comic strip of his name hates Mondays.
- In Shrek Forever After, Puss is shown in the alternate reality as retired from his days in the boots and now overweight from all the heavy cream he had drunk since then. His overweight appearance and lethargic demeanor parallel to Garfield.
- Whenever Puss makes his cute face to distract an enemy or to plead, a leitmotif of "Annoying Talking Animal" from Shrek 2 is heard.
- As seen in Shrek 2 and Puss in Boots: The Three Diablos, when Puss is about to cry, he wipes his nose, not his eye.
- In Shrek 2, Puss is seen drinking milk at the Poison Apple using his lips, while in his own film and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, he is seen drinking milk using his tongue. He probably does these based on his mood.
- When speaking, Puss seldom uses contractions.
- Based on Ezio Auditore da Firenze
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