Puss In Boots knock-off: “A Furry Tail”

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on

Puss in Boots

What fresh hell is this?

From the people that brought you Chop Kick Panda, here’s a new 45-minute, direct-to-dvd Puss in Boots knockoff done in the style of a Jay Ward Fractured Fairy Tale. Darrell Van Citters (Renegade Animation) explains:

“The cover was meant to create confusion in the marketplace by intimating that the film is CG but unfortunately bears virtually no resemblance to what’s actually on the DVD. I only directed it, but I worked with the writer to make sure he didn’t write anything that couldn’t be executed for more than a $1.98.”

If you can’t locate it in the bargain bins at Target, you can order it on Amazon for $6.69. It actually looks like fun… here’s a sample clip:

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  • http://agoynamedjew.blogspot.com Anson J

    Looks great! Made good use of the low budget with simple, appealing designs and good voice acting.

    Renegade always seems to do amazing work.

  • Staedtler Mars Plastic

    I have to hand it to Renegade – the things they can do with $1.98!!

    I’d love to see what they can do with a couple mill.

  • Skeptical

    Severe limitations can either force extra creativity, or absolute garbage, depending on the talents of the creatives. This is in the former category. I like it!

  • greg m.

    I’m pretty sure Phil Nibblink animatea a Puss N Boots feature all by himself some years ago. Does anyone have some clips from that as well??

  • http://beesbuzz.biz/ fluffy

    Hey,this actually looks better than the Dreamworks version.

    Heck, I actually want to see this version.

  • Some Guy

    NOTE: They also did something called “Tappy Toes”.

    • amid

      Tappy Toes

      • DonaldC

        The shoes man.
        Oh my God the shoes.

      • The Gee

        Aw, come on now. That cover is brilliant. The penguin is not only winging it but those shoes are wingtips. That’s brilliant. Stupid, too. But, brilliant.

        The movie or whatever it is has half a chance if they followed up on whatever checklist the producers wrote up.

        Bonus points if Bon Jovi’s “Wing and a Prayer” is in the soundtrack. Super bonus points if there is sound-a-like version in the soundtrack.

  • Cold Hard Shit

    Those DVD covers are horrendous and do Renegade a severe disservice.

  • http://www.fooksie.com Fooksie

    It was pretty good looking. For something that they cranked out, the designs look really fun.

  • Chris Sobieniak

    Seems like they pay whoever they get to do the cover itself more than they do with Renegade.

  • http://smarterthantheaverage.tumblr.com/ Jonathan Sloman

    Never ones to miss a trick, the makers of The Adventures Of Scamper have lowered its price and changed its name: http://twitpic.com/7odg4c

  • Mike Johnson

    I literally saw this yesterday in the $5 bin at the local Wal Mart. Maybe I should go back and pick it up…looks like fun!

  • Old Man Father Time

    Unfortunately, work is work is work. And I never knew Renegade would even ALLOW themselves to accept a rip-off like this. Shame.

  • Charlie

    Sweet! The Puss in Boots movie is on Netflix! I’ll have to check it out!

  • Foss

    The marketing people must think everything must resemble CG to have even a remote shot to sell, so they resort to overt lying about their product on the cover.

    • Funkybat

      It’s less about it resembling CG than it is about resembling whatever is currently in wide release with a multi-million dollar marketing budget upon whose coattails you can ride. The nice thing about this and “Chop Kick Panda” is that they actually have decent animation and design in their own right. I remember when these coattail-rider direct-to-videos all had horrendous art, acting, and storytelling.

      I think most of us agree that we’d be much more likely to shell out a few bucks for this if the art on the cover actually was the same as in the films, but we’re not the target market. That target, of course, is confused aunts, uncles, grandmas and grandpas looking to get their little ones something for Xmas, and “it sure does look like that movie they went on and on about a month or two ago, it must be out on video already!”

      If this is on Netflix, I’ll check it out because of the actual animation, in spite of the DVD cover.

  • joe

    Those character designs are pretty appealing for a movie like this.

  • http://zeteos.blogspot.com/ Mick

    That looked great. I’d watch that for sure

  • Bob Harper

    Wow! The cover did repel me. I’m a huge Jay Ward fan and if the cover were anything like the movie I would’ve snagged it. You can also stream it on Netflix.

  • http://saturnome.blogspot.com/ Saturnome

    The cover of Tappy Toes is horrible. But at least they seems to know how to make good looking cartoons.

    Discotek should exploit their old release of The Wonderful World of Puss ‘N Boots… It certainly wouldn’t be a bad thing.

  • Clint H.

    Yes, the cover is dreadful, but the designs of the characters looked great! Looks better than the OTHER direct-to-video PUSS IN BOOTS movie with William Shatner.

  • eeteed

    i noticed this at wlamart on a recent visit…

    http://www.amazon.com/Story-Pussn-Boots-Blu-ray-Combo/dp/B005C9YZRI

  • Ron

    Looks fun. I wonder if that version stuck closer to the original Tique fairy tale, with the Marquis of Carrabas and the shape shifting ogre, than did the Dreamworks version. I tried to make my own Claymation feature of Puss in Boots when I was only 14 years old, but alas didn’t have the means to pull it off. I’m glad to see others are doing it, even if it is only to ride Dreamworks’s coat tails.

  • Baron Lego

    I really liked the look of this (the actual cartoon- not the DVD cover).

  • Schmegz

    How can any of you support this? How can any of you appreciate this?? Horriffic creatively bland material that sinks animation to a low degree. This isn’t film making, it’s just a bunch of bums asking for quarters.

    This kind of thing makes my stomach hurt, it’s like having to smell the crap that Dreamworks Puss in Boots took. And that movie is like having to smell the crap that Shrek took. Then Bullwinkle shows up and takes a ripe piss all over it.

    By promoting this you are abolishing any integrity animation has the potential for. It will never surface this way. If you want an educated audience to support the better side of what animation has to offer and can advance it further, they should know that THINGS LIKE THIS SHOULD NOT HAPPEN.

    • Funkybat

      Maybe you’re right, things like this shouldn’t happen. But you know what else “shouldn’t happen?” Major-league messes like the CGI “reimaginings” of classic cartoons we’ve been assaulted by over the past decade.

      Some are better than others, but overall they’re both cringe-inducing and nostalgia-poisoning. It’s not just CGI, either. Transformers, GI Joe, Inspector Gadget, The Grinch, Cat in the Hat……so many live-action “interpretations” that largely fail to capture what made the originals special.

      Most of us loathe these as much or more than I do, but many of us also realize they are not going away any time soon because they make money. The same axiom applies to the much smaller market for knock-off “mistaken identity” D2V movies. They clearly turn some kind of profit for whoever produces them or they would not continue to show up on the shelves at Walgreens and Target.

      Frankly, the existence of these D2V clones offend me far less than that big-budget remakes do, at least these toil in obscurity, getting play mainly in living rooms, daycare centers, and backseat DVD systems. The multi-million dollar multi-media “reboots” that largely ignore the good aspects of whatever they are trying to copy do much more damage to the legacy of the properties in question. It also should be noted that neither of these types of films likely do much damage to the bottom line of the original properties.

      • Roberto

        Schmegz, did you actually look the clip? It’s actually well done. Appealing and funny looking designs, decent voice acting and good dialogues. Yes, it’s a Puss In Boots knock off and the cover is horrible, but the guys in Renegade Animation are talented and it shows.

        And obviously the guys who contracted Renegade are doing this to copy those other movies, but this one in particular wouldn’t even look so much like a rip-off if it weren’t for the date they’ve chosen to put it in the market. I mean, Chop Kick Panda maybe had a different story to KFP (I didn’t watch it), but it seems like the concept is very close. Same thing with Tappy Toes.

        That, and what Funkybat said.

        However Puss In Boots is a fairy tale character and you can do as much versions of him as you want. I’m considering ordering this, it looks very close to Jay Ward’s style, in a good way.

      • Schmegz

        Yes I watched the clip, it isn’t well done, appealing, and funny looking, it’s just transparent as an 11th hour scramble, dead end rip off of Jay Ward. But then why should any thought go into this? Poop it out, which they did, so well done (and smart) in that sense.

        I know Renegade is a talented bunch, but what talent is needed to copy what’s already been done? Plagiarism in these designs and the whole idea in general. A waste.

        But be an idiot and buy this and let the suits think this is what is likely to make money.

        I see cheapy films like these on the shelves all the time and they are so obvious in their purpose.

        I would hope to buy one of these and it is so cheap that the dvd is misprinted and I wind up getting some black and white Paul Terry Mighty Mouse cartoons.

      • http://elblogderg.blogspot.com Roberto

        You don’t need to be disrespectful. I agree with you to some extent and I don’t like plagiarism as in this being a rip-off of Puss In Boots cause that’s what’s there in the theaters.

        But I do like ‘rip-offs’ if they’re imitating classics and doing it well, and I think this is a well done imitation of Jay Ward’s style.

        And if the script is any good it may be better than Dreamworks Puss In Boots, which was nothing special for me. Even without watching Chop Kick Panda I know Kung Fu Panda was a thousand times better than the knock off cause that was a very good Dreamworks movie, but DWKS Puss In Boots is a technically well done film with a pretty contrived story that’s mainly trying to profit from Shrek’s success.

  • http://www.toonocity.com fremgen

    Yeah I saw this up on Netflix and laugh- but maybe I’ll watch it now. That cover is just no good. Do people really fall for that? Or get mad when it’s not CGI? I think, if I was still a kid I’d get mad over not seeing a CGI cat as promised by the cover.

  • Funkybat

    I meant to also mention, I found the use of Flash (or Toon Boom) here to be perfectly natural for those character designs. This is in contrast to that Top Cat movie, which obviously had a lot of care put into it, but felt just plain wrong with classic H-B characters being animated with auto-tweens and moving around in 3D space with 3D camera movies.

  • David

    It looks 100 times better than Dreamworks Puss in Boots

  • Matt Sullivan

    These ripoffs amuse me. What’s more amusing is how angry it makes the rest of you ^_^

    • joe

      and once again you didn’t read the thread

  • Alfons Moline

    The version of ‘Puss in Boots’ which overcomes’em all is, of course, the Japanese one made by Toei (in which the great Hayao Miyazaki took part). Also, to a certain extent, the Russian one made in clay animation by Garry Bardine (who recently has masterfully revised yet another classic fairy tale, The Ugly Duckling).

  • Lippy

    I just watched about 5 minutes of “Tappy Toes” on Netflix. Nice designs and color. Written for a 5 year old – so I didn’t stay long — but it’s a nice job for what it is.

  • http://www.classicparamountcartoons.blogspot.com ParamountCartoons

    Jon Cooke and your Ugly PD cover contest, WHERE ARE YOU?

  • celia

    These designs are more appealing than anything on Cartoon Network. Looks like I need to dig through the dollar bin more often.

    • E. Nygma

      No way “Adventure Time” is amazing and animated very nice.

  • http://www.milkmoneycartoons.com Ohjeepers

    I really enjoyed this, and I would love to see Renegade apply the same streamlined “$1.98” budget approach as a way to realize a more personal project.

  • http://utopiamoment.ca Jack Ruttan

    It’s too bad that fun work like that is going to be sworn at, because of catchpenny marketing. But kids will be disappointed if they see that expecting something more like the big budget film.

  • Justina

    I actually LIKE Puss in Boots A Furry Tail. (Cover of the dvd is only for marketing purposes)

    I must admit that the cover indicated a CGI animation…my 7 yr old daughter picked it out for herself and her 4 yr old sister when we was at the library (the 7 yr old is an avid cat lover). I myself was curious as to what this animation was about because 90% of animation isnt drawn by hand anymore.

    While watching this with the girls, there are ALOT of funny metaphors. My fav characters are the three blind mice, and the Irish messenger bird. “May your troubles be far and wide apart, as me grandmother’s teeth.”

    Its actually an intellegent cartoon mixed with French, English and American irony and slang.

    **Side note** If all people expose thier kids to is CGI animation with big stars and loose plots that barely make any sense, of course thats all what the children is gonna want to watch. I wouldn’t call this a knock off because this movie is a remake, just like the big budget cartoons.