The Wonderful World of Puss 'n Boots (1969)

Original title

長靴をはいた猫

Directed by

Kimio Yabuki

Genre

comedy film, musical film, comedy anime and manga, action anime and manga, fantasy anime and manga

Country

Japan

Runtime

1h 20m

Rated

BTL

Rating

7.0 of 10 from 35 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A clever cat named Pero goes on a swashbuckling adventure to help a young man find fortune and win the heart of a princess. The film mixes fairy tale elements with slapstick comedy and musical numbers.

playfulwhimsicalupbeatmusicalaction-packedlightheartedcartoonishswashbuckling

What happens

The Wonderful World of Puss 'n Boots is a 1969 Japanese animated musical action comedy film produced by Toei Animation and directed by Kimio Yabuki. The screenplay and lyrics, written by Hisashi Inoue and Morihisa Yamamoto, are based on the European fairy tale character Puss in Boots by Charles Perrault, expanded with elements of Alexandre Dumas-esque swashbuckling adventure and cartoon animal slapstick, with many other anthropomorphic animals in addition to the title character. The Toei version of the character himself is named Pero, after Perrault. The Wonderful World of Puss 'n Boots was released in Japan on March 18, 1969. The film is particularly notable for giving Toei 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 Daikubara, supervised by animation director Yasuji Mori. They got 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, which would serve as the model for similar sequences in such later films as Miyazaki's feature directorial debut Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro and The Cat Returns (2002). Miyazaki is also the manga artist of a promotional manga adaptation of the film originally serialised in the Sunday Chūnichi Shimbun during 1969 and republished in 1984 in a book about the making of the film. The film was re-released 9 years later in the 1978 Summer Toei Manga Matsuri on July 22. It was released straight to television in the United States by AIP-TV. Since becoming Toei Animation's mascot, Pero's face can be seen on the company's primary logo at the beginning or ending to some of Toei's other animated features, both from Japan and some of their outsourced work for other companies. In 2016, a new 3D on-screen logo featuring Pero was revealed in celebration of the company's 60th anniversary. The 3D on-screen logo without the 60th anniversary wordmark and the company's motto was used since 2019. The former on-screen logo is currently used as a print logo. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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