'Puss in Boots' is a frisky adventure

The spirit of the "Shrek" movies -- rambunctious spoofing of fairy-tale traditions, with a dollop of pop-culture riffs -- lives on in "Puss in Boots," a cheery and cleverly animated spin-off that puts the sword-swinging cat in a backstory all his own.

Puss, we learn, is an outlaw in his native Spain, but as he tells the story (in the voice of Antonio Banderas), it's for a crime he didn't commit. Puss grew up in an orphanage, making friends with the egg-shaped kid, Humpty Dumpty (voiced by Zach Galifianakis). The pair reveled in pranking the powers that be, but grew apart when Puss emerged as a hero and Humpty drifted toward a life of crime.

Now, as adults, the two are reunited by a plot to steal the magic beans from the thuggish Jack and Jill (voiced by Billy Bob Thornton and Amy Sedaris), so Humpty can grow a beanstalk and reap a harvest of the Golden Goose's eggs. Also in on the plot is Kitty Softpaws (voiced by Salma Hayek), a sleek and sexy cat burglar (in that she's a cat who's a burglar).

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