Puss in Boots (1922)

A boy falls for a princess, his cat for hers. But her father does not like the idea of a commoner marrying a noblewoman and kicks him out. After seeing a Rudolpho Valensino movie at the ... See full summary »

Director:

Walt Disney

Writers:

Jacob Grimm (book), Wilhelm Grimm (book),

Storyline

A boy falls for a princess, his cat for hers. But her father does not like the idea of a commoner marrying a noblewoman and kicks him out. After seeing a Rudolpho Valensino movie at the local theater his cat has the idea that he could try impressing the king as bullfighter, to win his daughters hand. Bullfighting is relatively easy, when you can hypnotize the bull, but why does his cat need new boots ?

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Plot Keywords:

cat | bullfighting | princess | cartoon cat | puss in boots | 

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Genres:

Animation | Short

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Details

Country:

USA

Release Date:

3 November 1922 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Cat's Whiskers

Company Credits

Production Co:

Laugh-O-Gram Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

9 min

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

A sound version of this originally silent cartoon was made by the Sound Film Distributing Corp. (New York) and Wardour Films (England) few years later. The title has changed at this occasion : it was named "The Cat's Whiskers."

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Connections

Version of El gato con botas (1961)

User Reviews

The Dawn of Disney

Walt Disney was barely 21 years old and still working out of Kansas City when he and his earliest cohorts in animation produced this cartoon. Puss in Boots is a slangy update of the old fairy tale, complete with jazzy topical references to flappers, radio, and Rudolph Valentino. (Rudy is parodied in a brief burlesque of his recently released bullfighting saga Blood and Sand, a movie-within-the-movie entitled "Throwing the Bull.") The characters in this silent film converse in dialog balloons, as they would in a comic strip. And along the same lines, when these folks are startled, their hats dance in the air, or little lines fly out of their heads-- it's like the Sunday funnies come to life.

The story is simple. A boy who is a commoner is in love with a Princess, but naturally her father the King objects. However, the boy's cat comes up with a plan to make him a hero, and therefore an acceptable suitor. Lots of cute gags along the way boost the entertainment value of this very early effort beyond what a plot synopsis might suggest. Character movement is a bit jerky at times, but the backgrounds are surprisingly elaborate, rather more detailed than those found in Disney's later 'Alice in Cartoonland' series or in the early Mickey Mouse cartoons. It's also impressive that these young filmmakers would take on the challenge of animating such a large crowd of spectators packing into the arena for the climactic bullfight. Even this early, Disney wasn't one to play it safe or cut corners. Puss in Boots is charming and funny, an early, inauspicious effort by a young man whose subsequent career would have an impact on popular culture he never could have imagined.