The Wonderful World of Puss 'n Boots ( Japanese : 長靴をはいた猫, Hepburn: Nagagutsu o Haita Neko, literally " Cat Who Wore Cavalier Boots") is a 1969 Japanese traditional animation action - comedy musical feature film, the 15th cinema feature produced by Tōei Animation (then Tōei Dōga) and the second to be directed by Kimio Yabuki. The screenplay and lyrics, written by Hisashi Inōe and Morihisa Yamamoto, is based on the European literary fairy tale of the same name by Charles Perrault, expanded with elements of Alexandre Dumas-esque swashbuckling adventure and funny animal slapstick, with many other anthropomorphic animals (kemono in Japanese ) in addition to the title character. The Tōei version of the character himself is named Pero, after Perrault.
The film was released straight to television in the United States by AIP- TV.
The film is particularly notable for giving Toei Animation its mascot and logo and for its roll call of top key animators of the time : Yasuo Ōtsuka, Reiko Okuyama, Sadao Kikuchi, Yōichi Kotabe, Akemi Ōta, Hayao Miyazaki and Akira Daikubara, supervised by animation director Yasuji Mori and given a relatively free rein and adequate support to create virtuosic and distinctive sequences, making it a key example of the Japanese model of division of labour in animation by which animators are assigned by scene rather than character. Most famous of these sequences is a chase across castle parapets animated in alternating cuts by Ōtsuka and Miyazaki which would serve as the model for similar sequences in such later films as Miyazaki's feature-directing début The Castle of Cagliostro and The Cat Returns. Miyazaki is also the manga artist of a promotional comic book adaptation of the film originally serialised in the Sunday Chūnichi Shimbun during 1969, in which it is credited to Tōei Dōga as a whole, and republished in 1984 in a book about the making of the film. The film was re-released 9 years later in the 1978 Summer Toei Manga Matsuri on July 22 of that year.
Since becoming Toei Animation 's mascot, Pero's face can be seen on the company logo at the beginning or ending to some of Toei's other animated features, both from Japan and some of their outsourced work for other companies.
Cast
Plot
The enigmatic Puss, Pero is declared an outlaw by his feline home village for saving mice, an act that defies the nature of cats and is therefore illegal. After Pero escapes to avoid punishment, the Feline King dispatches three bumbling assassins to find and capture Pero, warning them that they face execution should they fail.
