Puss in Boots (animation)/Headscratchers

This page is about the movie, not the generic trope.


 * Puss says at the beginning that he doesn't steal from churches or orphans. So apparently he only steals from jerks that deserve it. What makes him assume that the giant is a jerk? Maybe the giant needs that golden goose to pay his bills and feed his family, or whatever. (We later find out that the giant's been dead for years, but Puss didn't know that.)
 * Maybe he's just heard nasty things about the giant and assumed they were true.
 * "Churches and orphans" and "jerks that deserve it" are not the only two points on the scale. He only says he doesn't steal from churches and orphans. That doesn't mean he won't steal from someone who's a well off, decent guy who won't miss a couple bags of gold.
 * Not to mention that he only intended to steal a few golden eggs. He didn't actually want to steal the whole goose until after he had found out that the giant was already dead.


 * IIRC, near the beginning Humpty says to Puss "You left my alone by that wall in pieces!". Then we see the flashback, and Humpty remains in a single piece the whole time. So both the song he mentions and his own story are false. What gives?
 * Maybe he meant "pieces" metaphorically, like he was "in pieces" on an emotional level?
 * It was just a reference to the old Humpty Dumpty rhyme, as was "surrounded by soldiers." (All the king's horses and all the king's men.)
 * People might have composed the song without full knowledge of the situation. 'Has a cracked eggshell' could easily turn into 'smashed into pieces' via the rumor mill, not to mention it's more dramatic and thus makes for a better song.
 * Fridge Brilliance. Humpty said that about his MIND! His sanity went into pieces and he thought he couldn't be fixed hence his breakdown at the tower..


 * Puss was basically framed for the robbery of the San Ricardo bank. His main motivation is to clear his name regarding the robbery. But his method of doing this is...stealing a bunch of gold from a giant and then giving that money to the bank? First off, the robbery was unsuccessful, so the bank reclaimed all of is money and there's no need to pay it back. Secondly, the phrase "clear my name" means you're going to prove your innocence. How does giving money to the bank somehow prove that you never stole it in the first place? It might prove that you've had a change of heart, but it doesn't prove you were always a good guy.
 * Justice in San Ricardo might work a little differently than you'd expect. (Puss's early crimes seem to have been forgiven once he saves the guy's mother from that bull, for instance.) But yeah, that was kind of confusing. And even after he saves the whole town from a giant goose, the authorities still want him in jail.
 * The common people of San Ricardo saw him save the town, and know that he's a hero. The Commandante, however, saw him riding the giant goose, and all Puss offered was a feeble "I can explain". Assuming he wasn't present during the actual day-saving, you can see why the Commandante still thinks Puss is guilty.
 * All the money fell into the river. It's not a big bank with insurance that'll let it recoup its losses, it's just a building to hold the village's cash. Once it fell into the river, it was more or less gone.
 * Humpty who was an crimanal was redeemed for bringing back the golden goose. Maybe Puss was aiming for that to redeem himself.


 * Once Puss is back in San Ricardo and surrounded by soldiers, his adoptive mother pleads with him to surrender and face what he has done. This would be a perfect time for Puss to say "I have done nothing wrong" and then escape from the soldiers. But instead, he just surrenders. Why?
 * I guess his adoptive mother's shame just felt overpowering to him, even though he knew that her shame was unjustified.
 * But if her (unjustified) shame is enough to make him surrender and go to jail, why isn't it enough to keep him in jail? Why does he bother escaping later?
 * Because by that point he knew that Mother Goose was coming to destroy the whole town. Saving the town outweighed the shame thing.


 * Why does everyone assume that the Mother Goose is going to destroy San Ricardo? The Goose isn't a vengeful God that has a history of destroying stuff, nor is it obligated to do so. Even in its most enraged state, the goose isn't really destroying much. At one point it sortof brushes up against the side of a building and causes some damage, and there's the general danger that it'll step on somebody. But this is a far cry from "destroy the town". Even if the baby goose died, it seems like the mother would just sorta shuffle around all depressed and whatnot, cause a fairly mild degree of damage, and then just fly away. It's not Godzilla.
 * Well, if Mother Goose kills even a single person by stepping on them or whatever, that's still a tragedy, even if doesn't "destroy" the whole town.
 * Vengeful god, perhaps not, but it's huge and wrecks a significant portion of the city just by walking around searching for her kid. If it were pissed off, it could've leveled the place.
 * Never underestimate a mother, even if that mother is a seemingly harmless but very large goose. There's a reason the Mama Bear trope exists. Alternatively, it is a Kaiju-sized goose. It's only natural to be scared of something that large, and of its damage potential. I know I wouldn't want to be stepped on by a goose that size, and would move as quickly as I could to get out of its way.
 * One also shouldn't underestimate geese in general. They can get very vicious if provoked. Like stealing their kids.


 * How does the Mother Goose find them in San Ricardo?
 * Maybe the golden goose acts as a sort of magic homing beacon.
 * Humpty laid a bunch of baby goose's eggs in the bell-tower thing that seemed to have been the highest point in San Ricardo. We saw an external shot of the sunlight gleaming off the eggs. So Humpy made sure mama goose would find San Ricardo.


 * Humpty uses the fake kidnapping of himself and Kitty to lure Puss back to San Ricardo, so Puss will be arrested. Humpty also uses the golden goose to lure the Mother Goose to San Ricardo, so it'll destroy the whole town. Humpty then plans to get away on his own, taking the golden goose along with him. But wait...if Humpty takes the goose with him, won't the Mother Goose just keep following? He's going to spend the rest of his life being chased by a giant goose. How does that make any sense?
 * He probably plans to demonstrate the golden goose's power to some rich guy who doesn't yet know about the Mother Goose. He'll sell the golden goose at a ridiculous price and then skip town. The golden goose's new owner will have to deal with the Mother, and meanwhile Humpty gets away with his money.


 * This is a prequel to the Shrek movies, right? What happens to Kitty Softpaws between this movie and then?
 * Maybe they'll cover that in Puss In Boots 2, or whatever.
 * It's definite sequel bait. Maybe it'll be a full sequel, or perhaps a pack-in short film like they did B.O.B.'s Big Break, Legend of the Boneknapper Dragon, or The Button of Doom.


 * Why do they chop down the beanstalk after they're done using it? (And how did they manage to do it?)
 * While the means they do it is unknown (I think Puss just went buzzsaw on it myself) the reasoning is simple, in the eyes of Puss: The Terror is still in that castle and at the moment, Puss doesn't know that it has wings. Child's play to get him to believe that chopping down the beanstalk would prevent the Terror from being able to come down from Cloudland and cause havoc on the surface.
 * It was a magic beanstalk, perhaps it self destructed?
 * There was an axe in the wagon.


 * After they get the golden goose, Humpty has Jack and Jill knock Puss unconscious. Humpty then makes it look like he and Kitty have have been captured by Jack and Jill and taken to San Ricardo. Puss follows them, thus falling into Humpty's trap. Why did Humpty bother with all this stuff in the middle? Once Puss is knocked out, why doesn't he just have Jack and Jill drag Puss into San Ricardo themselves?
 * I think this is due to it being more of the pleasure of Puss willingly chasing after the kidnappers and thinking he's going to save the day, and then blindside him with the truth about everything that happened. Sorta a power thing.


 * In the end, is Humpty dead or not? We see him all cracked and with his literal heart of gold exposed, but later we see him whole again and with his golden suit on with the geese. This last sceene happens during the Dance Party Ending so probably is not expected to be taken as canon, but is not made clear.


 * Humpty's plot seems a bit over complicated. He had Jack and Jill in on it, he had a gang of minions used to steer Puss, he even had Kitty Soft Paws. At no time at all was Puss needed to steal the Giant's Golden Egg Laying Goose. Why the hell did he (and will the other let him) go through all that trouble when the Goose could just be stolen and to hell with Puss. If Humpty wanted revenge, he could do it on his own time and with his share of the loot.
 * If you're spending all your time on a revenge plot, you're not thinking about what's rational and practical. Revenge on Puss was the main goal for Humpty.
 * He was using the fact that they'd promised to do this together to manipulate Puss. Playing on old memories, old dreams, old feelings. The robbery itself was risky, too: if worse came to worse, Puss could become the 'decoy' and be the one left behind instead. Plus, there was the larger picture of getting vengence on the whole town. If Humpty did that first, and word got to Puss that the entire town had been wiped off the map... well, he'd probably investigate, right? And possibly find something -- a stray feather, a half-buried golden egg -- or hear something that he might connect to that old childhood dream... Making sure he got rid of him would remove that complication.
 * Having Puss assassinated would have been easier. If the Egg wanted A Fate Worse Than Death, there's always Cold-Blooded Torture.


 * The movie is completely different from Shrek, of course, so how in the world did Puss wind up going from 1800's style Mexico, to a Medieval time period?? Considering this movie is a prequel, it makes very little sense.
 * Shrek in general uses Schizo Tech and Rule of Funny a lot. The second film on, for example, mostly takes place in Far Far Away, which is basically a parody of modern Hollywood. Since the whole world seems to be a Fantasy Kitchen Sink, it makes sense that there would also be a Fantasy Counterpart Culture for the (already somewhat mythical) Mexico you'd see in a Western or Zorro film.