Charming and brutal

An action-packed slog

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

There are worse animated 'mock-busters' out there than Puss in Boots: A Furry Tail, especially the whole of Video Brinquedo's and Spark Plug Entertainment's outputs (mainly because Puss in Boots: A Furry Tail doesn't feel anywhere near as much of a blatant or pale imitation). That however is in no way defending Puss in Boots: A Furry Tail's lack of quality.What redeems Puss in Boots: A Furry Tail is the character of Puss, the only likable character here and has a real gallant charm too. His voice acting is also not too bad either surprisingly; it is very enthusiastic and in keeping with the storybook nature and the French (?) accent is serviceable. Also did feel quite nostalgic at the beginning with the Puss in Boots story being recited, setting up nicely the tone for a sequel story (Puss in Boots: A Furry Tail is actually more of a loose sequel than a mock-buster).On the other hand, that is where the redeeming values for Puss in Boots: A Furry Tail end. The animation (hand-drawn and not CGI like the DVD implied), with the exception of a decently drawn Puss and the occasional nice storybook picture/painting background, ranges from pretty bad to awful. It has a very similar style to the animation style in Tappy Toes, except Tappy Toes' animation was better and that was only uneven at best, here the drawing is incredibly rough and static, the backgrounds are basically walls of flat colour and very, very sparse amount of detail and the character designs are incredibly ugly and stiff. It really did look like very few people were involved doing it and that they literally only had a few days to do it. The music has some rousing and pleasantly orchestrated moments but far too often it does get annoyingly gimmicky, the sort that you hear when children are taking part in activities on a children/family entertainment show and something surprising happens or when a presenter is revealing what they are trying to demonstrate.From a writing standpoint, Puss in Boots: A Furry Tail fares even worse and where my summary title 'Puss in Boots but without the wit, charm or heart' most applies. The writing consists of very juvenile dialogue that seemed only there to pad the running time and incredibly forced jokes, and with very little wit or sparkle if at all. There is no doubt at all who the target audience is, another thing that makes Puss in Boots: A Furry Tail superior to the output of Video Brinquedo and Spark Plug Entertainment, but while undemanding children might find some enjoyment the movie very badly forgets to provide any fun for adults, who will despair at how juvenile and pointless it feels. The movie is a little over forty minutes long, but the story, when you speed the draggy pace up, tighten up the scenes that go on longer than they need to and get rid of some of the jokes, barely even has enough to sustain twenty minutes worth, that's how painfully thin the story is. Credit is due for it to not imitate an existing story so blatantly, but for a loose sequel kind of story there is nothing original about it at all and it's also not very interesting or fun.Aside from Puss, the characters do not engage at all. The three blind mice weren't all that necessary, the king has very little to do, Dracul is only there for the sake of 'needing' a villain and the Queen was incredibly annoying. The voice work is not that well done, Puss is the sole exception while the rest are a mish-mash of bored, over-compensating and stereotypical accents. Worst of the lot was the Queen, whose voice just grates on the nerves.In conclusion, poorly done and made but could have been worse. 3/10 Bethany Cox