DER GESTIEFELTE KATER (1955)
aka Puss ‘n Boots
Article 3855 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-23-2012
Posting Date: 3-4-2012
Directed by Herbert B. Fredersorf
Featuring Margitte Sonke, Harry Wustenhagen, Christa Oenicke
Country: West Germany
What it is: Fairy tale

A talking cat helps his down-and-out owner by helping him to win the love of a beautiful princess and to defeat an evil magician.

If I prefer the Mexican version of this fairy tale, at least one of the reasons is because that version was dubbed into English, whereas this one isn’t; the copy I found was in unsubtitled German, and though the story itself is familiar enough that I didn’t have a lot of problems following it, it is fairly talky. Which, come to think of it, is another thing I like better about the Mexican version; its wild, hyper-energetic and surreal take on it is more fun than this stodgy, slow gabfest. I suppose I should also point out that the cat costume in that movie is better than the one here; I wasn’t sure that furry thing hanging around was a cat until it went ‘meow’. Of course, there is the chance I might like this one more if it had been dubbed into English, but as of this point, I consider it another example of just how dull some of these German fairy tales of the fifties were.