Puss In Boots

One of the best things about Shrek 2 and the sequels that followed, was undoubtedly Antonio Banderas' suave, yet silly, silky-voiced Puss In Boots. Here he gets his very own origin story, refreshingly unencumbered by any of the rest of the franchise's characters or history.

An orphan and now an outlaw from justice, whose name has been in the litter tray since he got caught up in a bank heist with his best pal - and bad egg - Humpty Dumpty (voiced by Zach Galifianakis), Puss just wants to make his adopted human mum proud once more. So when Humpty shows up with ace cat-burglar Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek) in tow, he is not amused. But it isn't long before his Pepe le Pew tendencies see him trying to win over the girl and restore his good name by embarking on an adventure to steal a set of magic beans from nefarious duo Jack and Jill. The beans, story has it, will let the trio access the Giant's Castle, where the cash to repay the money he and Humpty stole, awaits in the form of the goose's golden eggs.

With its strong story structure, sense of adventure and cross-generational comedy - everything from crotch-crunch gags to more adult word-play is covered - Puss is firmly at the quality end of the Christmas family releases. For once, the film is also worth seeing in the intended 3D, with director Chris Miller using it to enhance much of the action, in particular a rather neat dance fight between Kitty and Puss and several immersive action sequences.

While Puss is the sly charmer we've come to know and love, there are plenty of humorous nods to the fact that he is, ultimately, a cat. If the plot may occasionally feel a little too convoluted for its own good, Tom Wheeler ensures the jokes keep on coming.

Kitty - whose back-story begins and ends with her declawed state - doesn't quite come up to scratch in the character development department but Hayek nonetheless makes her a feisty charmer, who is more than a match for Puss in the brains department and who ought to make a return in the inevitable sequel. This is the Puss and Humpty show, however, and the two of them prove a winning double act as they come to learn that it is never too late to do the right thing. Just a whisker away from being the cat's whiskers.