Having strip mined every last nickel out of “Shrek,’’ DreamWorks Animation has moved on to “Puss in Boots,’’ a spinoff/prequel centering on one of the franchise’s more amusing one-note characters.
This relentlessly mediocre cartoon is less interested in how Puss got his boots than a throwaway gag about their being crafted out of “fine Corinthian leather.’’
But we still get an elaborate back story narrated by Puss in the dulcet tones of Antonio Banderas, far better represented on America’s screens this month by his twisted scientist in “The Skin I Live In.’’
Basically, this toon is a tired riff on Sergio Leone’s spaghetti Westerns, punctuated by more puns and cat jokes than you can shake a litter box at.
Banderas manages to get away with jokes about “medical’’ catnip. But unfortunately, the proceedings pretty much get hijacked by the title character’s childhood friend from a Spanish orphanage, Humpty Dumpty (voiced by Zach Galifianakis, who turns out to be even more grating as a voice artist than as a live-action actor).
Nursing a grudge against Puss because of a failed bank robbery that ended with his falling off a wall, Humpty guilt-trips our hero into participating in a plot to steal the Golden Goose from Jack and Jill (Billy Bob Thornton and Amy Sedaris, largely wasted).
The designated feisty heroine, the cross-dressing and double-crossing Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek), at one point dances a flamenco with Puss. And it’s all in eye-straining 3-D, listlessly directed by Chris Miller (“Shrek the Third’’).
Mostly I was bored out of my skull for an hour and a half that felt like it consumed an entire afternoon. Most of the kids at the screening I attended also seemed to have fallen into a stupor.
DreamWorks Animation distributor Paramount is reportedly gearing up its own cartoon division as an alternative to the likes of “Puss in Boots.’’
Small wonder: There was more entertainment in five minutes of Paramount’s non-DWA “Rango’’ than in the entire running time of this mangy stiff.