The Wonderful World of Puss 'n Boots

This article is about the 1969 Tōei Animation film and its sequels. For other uses, see Puss in Boots (disambiguation).

Puss 'n Boots
Front cover of Japanese DVD of the original film
長靴をはいた猫 (Nagagutsu o Haita Neko)
Genre	Action-comedy, kemono, musical film, sword and sorcery
Anime film
Nagagutsu o Haita Neko
Directed by	Kimio Yabuki
Produced by	Hiroshi Ōkawa[1]
Written by	Hisashi Inōe, Morihisa Yamamoto
Music by	Seiichirō Uno
Studio	Tōei Animation
Licensed by	Discotek Media (United States, 2006—)[2]
Released	March 18, 1969 (1969-03-18) (Japan)
Runtime	80 minutes[3]
Anime film
Nagagutsu Sanjūshi
Directed by	Tomoharu Katsumata
Produced by	Isamu Takahashi
Written by	Hiroichi Fuse
Music by	Seiichirō Uno
Studio	Tōei Animation
Released	March 18, 1972 (1972-03-18) (Japan)
Runtime	53 minutes[4]
Anime film
Nagagutsu o Haita Neko: Hachijū Nichi-kan Sekaiisshū
Directed by	Hiroshi Shidara
Produced by	Chiaki Imada
Written by	Yūsuke Jō, Tadaaki Yamazaki
Music by	Seiichirō Uno
Studio	Tōei Animation
Released	March 20, 1976 (1976-03-20) (Japan)
Runtime	69 minutes[5]
Anime and Manga Portal

The Wonderful World of Puss 'n Boots (長靴をはいた猫, Nagagutsu o Haita Neko^?, literally "Cat Who Wore Cavalier Boots") is a 1969 Japanese traditional animation action-comedy musical feature film, the 15th cinema feature produced by Tōei Animation (then Tōei Dōga) and the second to be directed by Kimio Yabuki. The screenplay and lyrics, written by Hisashi Inōe and Morihisa Yamamoto,^[3][6] is based on the French literary fairy tale of the same name by Charles Perrault, expanded with elements of Alexandre Dumas-esque swashbuckling adventure and funny animal slapstick, with many other anthropomorphic animals (kemono in Japanese) in addition to the title character. The Tōei version of the character himself is named Pero, after Perrault.

The film is particularly notable for giving Tōei Animation its mascot and logo and for its roll call of top key animators of the time: Yasuo Ōtsuka, Reiko Okuyama, Sadao Kikuchi, Yōichi Kotabe, Akemi Ōta, Hayao Miyazaki and Akira Daikuhara, supervised by animation director Yasuji Mori^[3] and given a relatively free rein and adequate support to create virtuosic and distinctive sequences, making it a key example of the Japanese model of division of labour in animation by which animators are assigned by scene rather than character. Most famous of these sequences is a chase across castle parapets animated in alternating cuts by Ōtsuka and Miyazaki^[7] which would serve as the model for similar sequences in such later films as Miyazaki's feature-directing début The Castle of Cagliostro and The Cat Returns.^[8] Miyazaki is also the manga artist of a promotional comic book adaptation of the film originally serialised in the Sunday Chūnichi Shimbun during 1969, in which it is credited to Tōei Dōga as a whole, and republished in 1984 in book about the making of the film.^[9]

Characters

• Pero Voiced by: Susumu Ishikawa
• Pierre Voiced by: Toshiko Fujita
• Princess Rose Voiced by: Rumi Sakakibara (Corinne Orr (English dub version))
• Assassin Voiced by: Ado Mizumori
• Little Mouse Voiced by: Yōko Mizugaki
• Boss Mouse Voiced by: Kazuo Kumakura
• Daniel Voiced by: Kenji Utsumi
• Raymond Voiced by: Shun Yashiro
• Assassin Boss Voiced by: Kinya Aikawa
• Lucifer Voiced by: Asao Koike
• King Voiced by: Kiiton Masuda

Plot

Release

Discotek Media has released an English language version on DVD along with the original Japanese with English subtitles and a music and effects track in Region 1 NTSC format in the United States, under the title The Wonderful World of Puss 'n Boots.

Reception

The film placed 58th in a list of the 150 best animated films and series of all time compiled by Tokyo's Laputa Animation Festival from an international survey of animation staff and critics in 2003.^[10]

Sequels

The 1969 Puss 'n Boots was followed by two sequels. The second film, the misleadingly-titled Nagagutsu Sanjūshi (ながぐつ三銃士^?, "Cavalier-Booted Three Musketeers") (1972), actually departs from the Dumasian Europe of the first for a Western setting and was released on VHS in the early 1980s in the United States by MPI Home Video as Ringo Rides West and in the United Kingdom by Mountain Video as Ringo Goes West, with Pero renamed to Ringo.^[11] It is also marketed by Tōei as Return of Pero^[12] and popularly known today as The Three Musketeers in Boots.^[11]

The third, Puss 'n Boots Travels Around the World (長靴をはいた猫 80日間世界一周, Nagagutsu o Haita Neko: Hachijū Nichi-kan Sekaiisshū^?, "Puss 'n Boots: Around the World in 80 Days") (1976), was licensed by Turner Program Services and given a dub directed by Peter Fernandez.^[13] The video game Nagagutsu o Haita Neko: Sekai Isshū 80 Nichi Dai Bōken is based on this third film and was also released, in a heavily revised version, in the United States under the title Puss 'n Boots: Pero's Great Adventure, where it is better known than the film itself.^[14] The game and its plot, based on the third film, was used as a plot in one of the episodes of the second season of Captain N: The Game Master, entitled "Once Upon A Time Machine", which have re-designs of Pero and the two villains of the film, Count Gourmon (Gruemon in the game's instruction manual) and Dr. Garigari.

References

1. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2A718NDTUw
2. ^ http://www.discotekmedia.com/puss_n_boots.htm
3. ^ ^{a b c} http://www.allcinema.net/prog/show_c.php?num_c=142792
4. ^ http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/1972/cv000790.htm
5. ^ http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/1976/cz000840.htm
6. ^ The creators of the popular children's puppet television series Hyokkori Hyōtanjima and its title song, also scored by Seiichirō Uno, this being the fourth and last time, following Jack and the Witch, the animated Hyokkori Hyōtanjima feature and the previous year’s Andersen Monogatari, also directed by Kimio Yabuki, that all three would contribute to a Tōei Animation production (Yamamoto but not Inōe handled both screenplay and lyrics for 1971’s Uno-scored Ali Baba to Yonjū-ppiki no Tōzoku; only Uno would stay on for the latter two Puss 'n Boots).
7. ^ http://www.pelleas.net/aniTOP/index.php?title=toei_doga_pt_2&c=1
8. ^ http://ghiblicon.blogspot.com/2006/06/puss-in-boots-now-on-dvd_03.html
9. ^ http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/manga/neko.html
10. ^ "150 best animations of all time (from 2003 Laputa Festival)". Animatsiya in English. May 29, 2008. http://niffiwan.livejournal.com/7455.html. Retrieved 3 April 2011. 
11. ^ ^{a b} http://www.anime-games.co.uk/VHS/anime/ringo.php
12. ^ http://corp.toei-anim.co.jp/english/film/return_of_pero.php
13. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhqoj0TAM1I&fmt=35
14. ^ Merrill, David (December 3, 2008). "Wears boots, can talk". Let's Anime. Blogspot. http://letsanime.blogspot.com/2008/12/wears-boots-can-talk.html. Retrieved April 14, 2011. 

External links

• Puss 'n Boots at Tōei Animation's corporate Web site (English)
• Nagagutsu o Haita Neko at Tōei Animation's Japanese Web site (Japanese)
• Puss 'n Boots at AllRovi
• Nagagutsu o Haita Neko (film) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
• Nagagutsu o Haita Neko at the Internet Movie Database
• Puss 'n Boots at Rotten Tomatoes