The Wonderful World of Puss 'n Boots

As a young child, I used to watch this movie all the time and loved it. Even today, I like to watch it and as an old anime-style movie, it is is a classic to me. The catchy main song is still stuck in my head to this day. I had the English dub version of the movie on DVD and didn't watch the original Japanese version but I still think that the voice actors did pretty well, especially for the time period it was made in. Made from TOEI Animation, was a crisp animation with a good plot/story and fun characters. I don't know ifmany people even watched the movie because it is old but I recommend that everyone watch it! *FUN FACT: TOEI Animation's mascot is one of the main characters of this movie!!!

Here's the question that i want to ask you guys: You know that mascot that appears in a Toei Animation logo anytime a show made by Toei Animation is shown? Like One Piece, Dragon Ball, GeGeGe No Kitaro or even Precure? You know that Puss-In-Boots cat that's shown every single time? You know that character, right? Well, what if i told you that this well-known mascot nowadays actually has not one, not two, but THREE animated feature films made in the 60s and 70s? You heard me right. Three films about the mascot himself. and this film is one of them. Nagagutsu wo Haita Neko is an animatedfeature film made and released in 1969 by Toei Animation (Originally Toei Doga). This is the 15th feature-length they've produced The movie became an instant hit and it was even placed in a list of 150 animated films and series of all time by Tokyo's Laputa Animation Festival in 2003. So just by hearing this, this must be a good movie, right? Well, yes. It is a pretty good movie! And here's why: The story is about a cat named Pero. Who wears boots (obviously) and a musketeer clothes and a very gentle swordman who's willing to help people out whenever he can with his brilliant plans up his sleeves. However, he got into trouble because he was sentenced to death because... Well, he just spared a mouse's life. Yep, and the cats really hates that. Luckily, Pero found his way to escape his execution and embarked on a journey. From there, he meets a boy named Pierre, a gentle orphan who got kicked out the house from the people he worked for. With theses two together, Pero would help out Pierre whenever he can. When Pero learns about the news of the Princess named Rose, who's looking for a husband, Pero became determined to make sure that Pierre is the one who will become hers. But there's a problem, Lucifer (And no it's not the devil himself), the big and tall ogre wants to get his hands on her and force her to be his wife. If she don't, he will threatens her father to a terrifying demonstration of the darkness that will befall his country in three days. Pero, was dumbfounded when he heard this conversation that he decided to do what it takes to prevent him from getting his hands on her and make Pierre as Rosa's husband. As you can see, the story is pretty good so far. It tells the story about Pero's willingness to help a person whenever he can and Pierre, who must face his fears and doubts and become a man. It definitely has that same magical charm that many old Disney films usually have back in the 30s, 40s, 50s and even the 60s. A fun and lovely adventure that it's easy to watch and fun to see. The same thing can be said about the animation. For a 1969 film, it looks fantastic! You see alot love and efforts put into this movie. Many of the animations were done by many of the key animators who worked on certain scenes. Such as Yoichi Kotabe, Yasuo Otsuka, Reiko Okuyama and the most interesting of them all, Hayao Miyazaki. The most famous anime director in animation industry who co-founded Studio Ghibli and brought us many of the best animated feature-length films such as Laputa: The Castle In the Sky, Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away. So seeing how much smooth and nice looking the animation and the backgrounds look is pretty impressive! For the characters, they are also very well written and well developed. First you got the main character, Pero. What i love about this cat is how gentle he is and always determined to help out people with his plans he can come up with. Even the voice actor, Susumu Ishikawa (Who's known for being a well-known anime singer) gives out a wonderful performance that makes the character shine even more than it already needs to. Then there's Pierre, who's a very shy boy who becomes friends with Pero along the way. Even though he's not easy to talk to girls, he does what he can to take a step forward and become the man who will marry a girl. You also have Princess Rose, who serves as a love interest for Pierre to talk with. She's not much of a interesting character as the others, but she can be cute as well. There's also the bandit rats, who also appear alongside with Pero and Pierre, who also helps out them in certain situations they're on. They are funny, cute and can be useful to take on some problems that Pero, Pierre and the mouses come along the way. There's also three cats who serve as Pero's enemies that he has to avoid from being captured and sentenced to death. They don't have names, but they are quite funny. Especially the little one who gave me laughs anytime he tries to attack Pero. And finally, you have the main villain, Lucifer. The main villain of the movie, who wants to marry Rose, but can't due to his nature, attitude and appearance. Which he gets frustrated easily when she keeps refusing his proposal. He's quite a goofball, as he tries to entertain her with his powers to transform into animals, but none of them works. The guy can also bring me lots of laughs as well. For the sound, while there can be some audio hiccups, it still gets the job done with the quality that it got. The music is wonderful, you have many background musics that kept me loving it. But then you have the songs, which makes me believe that it's a musical anime film (somehow). They are not bad by all means, but they're nothing special, either. Although the opening sequence's song is pretty catchy. Sang by Pero's seiyuu, it gives a wonderful song that still keeps inside of my head. For the seiyuus, they all did a good job as well. Like i said, Susumu Ishikawa gives an wonderful performance for Pero. As well as the others such as Toshiko Fujita as Pierre, Kazuo Kumokuro (GeGeGe No Kitaro's singer) as the boss mouse, Asao Koike as Lucifer and more. If there's anything about this film that i can say about it is that i still cannot believe that it's not a Disney film! I had a great time watching this film even as an adult and a fan of japanese animation in general. Not only this is a wonderful film that kids and Adults can enjoy, this is also a wonderful film that definitely deserves the praise that it got in Japan. Though it's just a shame that nobody has seen this film outside of Japan and people nowadays when they think of Pero, they now think of him as a evil cat who always abuse the copyrights infrigement. Which can be understandable, but we have to just blame mostly the company that does this and not the animators or the staff that works on theses movies and TV shows. But i'm not going deep into that kind of crap, i'm just giving my review on this film. But overall, this is indeed a pretty good movie in it's own way. The story is simple to follow, but still pretty good, the characters are very memorable, the sound is good as well, the animation is fantastic and i had a good time watching this anime. SO i can give this anime an 8 out of 10. If you're a fan of japanese animation or japanese films in general and you're looking for a good old fun movie with your kids, then i'd say, watch this film. It's worth it. Anyway, my name's Diogo and this has been my review on Nagagutsu wo Haita Neko. Thank you for reading my review and have a great day.