Puss in Boots

The swashbuckling, devil-may-care cat (voice by Antonio Banderas) joins forces with his childhood pal Humpty Dumpty (Zach Galifianakis) and a bewitching feline acquaintance, one Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek), to steal the goose that lays golden eggs from the giant at the top of that famous magic beanstalk. The script by Brian Lynch, David H. Steinberg, Tom Wheeler and Jon Zack ropes in cameo appearances by nursery rhyme characters far and wide—from Jack and Jill to Little Boy Blue—sprinkling them into the proceedings like raisins in a fruitcake. But while the story has many tricks, there’s little magic, and the dialogue flaunts its postmodern ironic wisecracks in an effort to conceal the lack of any real cleverness. The by-now-obligatory 3-D dims the shine of director Chris Miller’s sleek animation.