Independent developer ‘Difference Games’ is proud to announce the release of ‘Puss In Boots’ for the Amazon Market compatible tablets and mobile devices. This charming and fuzzy Hidden Objects puzzler is made available as a 100% Free download on the Amazon App Store, courtesy of a sponsorship by TinyCo. It sells for USD $1.99 on other markets.

‘Puss In Boots’ is Hidden Object gaming at its finest and features 27 levels packed full of items and an exciting story line to boot. Retold in a caveman setting, furry friends will quickly fall in love with the immersive story, not to mention the beautiful visuals and addicting gameplay.

The game comes with 3 different modes of play, ‘Normal’, ‘Nice & Casual’ and ‘Challenge’. The ‘Normal’ mode offers timed gameplay, limited hints and exciting bonus rounds. The ‘Nice & Casual’ mode is ideally suited for a nice and relaxing experience, while the ‘Challenge Mode’ adds an extra level of play for those up for the task, as objects are rotated and words have missing letters.

Furthermore, ‘Puss In Boots’ offers several challenging options to uncover the Hidden Objects throughout the levels. For starters, objects can be discovered by ‘Picture’, which is a great introductory mode well-suited for children. Or, objects can be discovered by ‘Word’, which is really cool if your child is just learning how to read, and a slight step up in difficulty compared to the ‘Picture’ option.

And finally, objects can be discovered by ‘Silhouette’, the trickiest way to play, and not without surprises along the way. Hints are available to players that get stuck throughout the game.

The Free version of ‘Puss In Boots’ is available on the Amazon App Store here.

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The oscar-nominated ‘Puss in Boots’ chronicles the heroic beginning of the beloved big-eyed feline. When Humpty Dumpty finally finds a way to make their childhood dream of finding the magic beans come true, he needs Puss’ help to execute it. But it’s also going to be a three man (cat, egg, cat) job.

That’s where the character of Kitty Softpaws comes into the story, who’s the greatest thief in all of Old Spain. “Salma Hayek is Kitty Softpaws,” supplies Chris Miller, “and in her performance, she’s beautiful, strong and sensual, but most importantly, she’s funny — Salma’s a really funny actress and she gets to really show that off in this.

Because she brings this working relationship with Antonio to the character [this is their fifth film together], it feels really authentic. You can tell that they are good friends, because they fight really well together, which brings sparks to their onscreen romantic relationship. They’re a great duo.”

“I love Salma’s voice, it’s rich and deep, and it works so well for Kitty,” Joe Aguilar elaborates, “Puss in Boots’ backstory always included having a history with the ladies, so we had to build a character that was worthy of him. And so we created Kitty Softpaws. We immediately thought of Salma Hayek and were very excited that she was willing to come aboard.

We knew that their chemistry would be strong, from their work in live-action films. We knew their voices would work well together, too. Kitty Softpaws is somebody who wasn’t going to be easy for Puss to attain, she had to be strong and interesting. We were trying to paint a picture of a character that wasn’t just a femme fatale.”

Latifa Ouaou observes, “Comedy probably isn’t the first thing you think when you think of Salma Hayek. She’s got a great voice, and while we knew she could be sultry, she’s actually really amazing with comedy. She’s extremely witty and she brought a lot of her own attributes to the character. There’s something really special about a female character who knows what she wants and doesn’t really need anyone else to get it.”

Hayek was thrilled to voice the strong, independent and funny feline: “Everything about this film is fun and exciting. To start with, it’s the first time I’ve worked with animation, and I’ve been wanting to do one for a long time. It could not have come at a better time, because now I get to share this one with my daughter.

I have become an animation expert since she was born…and I say with a lot of pride that even though I think I’ve seen every animated movie that’s ever been done, I think this one’s in the top ten for sure.” There were logistical points that also worked for Hayek: “There was a convenience that I really liked. I could work in my pajamas. And because I travel a lot, I was able to record in about five cities.”

Almost illustrating Ouaou’s point about development and production coinciding, it wasn’t until partway into the recording sessions that a key facet of Kitty’s character came into being. Head of story Persichetti: “When I work, there are all of these things that are bouncing around in my head, like the idea of a cat burglar who’s really a cat.

They’re really quiet. Maybe it’s to overcome an inadequacy? It was a slow gel for her character. It may have been our third or fourth iteration of the early assemblage of the film, but it was like, of course! She doesn’t have any claws! This is the thing that’s she’s overcoming, but now, we can play with it, because it’s this incredible skill that she can basically steal the beans out of Jack’s hand without him even feeling it.

She can steal Puss’ boots without him realizing it. She’s the ultimate pickpocket. So, it just kind of worked out really well. And it adds this interesting layer to her whole sexy Latina character.”

Hayek loved her character and describes her: “She’s a very good verbal fighter, and also a very good physical fighter.  She’s also an amazing thief, one of the best that are out there. And she’s proud of it. I enjoy that she always wins, and that she’s always right. And even though Puss keeps fighting her and continues to try and prove her wrong, he can’t. It’s really a joy to be this kind of a cat.”

So symbiotic is the back-and-forth performance between Banderas and Hayek that Antonio made a request of the filmmakers. “I’ve worked with Salma since the beginning of the ‘90s, and she’s a dear friend. Normally, in animation, we work alone. But this is the only time that I asked for a session with an actor, because with Salma, I know that we have such chemistry, and especially, we fight very well on camera.

We have a kind of rhythm and we can improvise. So I asked them to bring her here with me, and we did a session together. And we got a number of things from it. It was great to work with her again.”

“Antonio is wonderful in this role,” responds Hayek. “He was born to play this cat. We’ve been working together for a long time, and we’ve done many movies together. It’s always a pleasure and a joy. We were lucky to have a recording session together, even though they usually don’t happen – everybody’s so busy and in different places, but we managed to schedule it.

We were both improvising and some of the stuff that we did actually ended up in the film. He is so much this character, and I know him so well by now, that when I was recording without him, I could feel him there like a ghost saying the other lines. I love him in this part, and know exactly what he would say as Puss, even when he is not in the room.”

Image Courtesy of   https://www.facebook.com/Pussinboots

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The world of oscar-nominated ‘Puss in Boots‘ is populated by twisted nursery-rhyme characters, but few are as twisted as Puss’ former friend, Humpty Dumpty.

When our story begins, Puss is an orphan growing up in the small village of San Ricardo where he befriends a somewhat odd (and oddly shaped) fellow. Per director Chris Miller: “Puss would listen to Humpty’s dreams, he had all these plans, but at the end of the day, he’s just an egg.

He can barely move around; he doesn’t have the facility to really accomplish any of his goals. He was picked on and a bit of an outsider, and Puss protected him and always stood up for him. So you have Humpty the dreamer and Puss, who helps facilitate the dreams.”

They both dream of leaving the orphanage for a better life — all they need is a few magic beans to grow into a beanstalk so they can steal a fabled goose that lays golden eggs from a giant’s castle in the clouds.  Simple, really. The childhood search for the fabled beans turns up nothing, so the childish dream begins to recede…for Puss, at least, and the two begin to drift apart.

It isn’t long before the cat of action finds his true calling, when he selflessly rescues a woman from the path of a charging bull. San Ricardo quickly bestows the title of hero to Puss, which earns him his debonair hat and legendary boots (meant to stand for truth, honor and courage).

As with many duos in lore and history, once one achieves fame and fortune, jealousy is quick to follow. So when Puss agrees to help Humpty in a joint venture that goes awry (all in the name of saving their friendship,) the two are set on separate paths with quite different goals. Puss, becomes a presumed traitor to his village and everyone who trusted him, and Humpty Dumpty, becomes a bad egg, whose childhood dreams turn to thoughts of personal gain and revenge.

Not exactly the stuff of nursery rhymes, but that’s the way Chris Miller wanted it: “Humpty Dumpty is very different from what you’ve heard before — I think what we do best is take things that you think you know and push the character in a new direction, while visually trying to create something that we’ve never seen before. That is what really excites us as animation filmmakers.”

Head of story Persichetti jokes, “Doesn’t every cat have an egg for a brother? When we started working on these characters, we knew Puss needed someone to grow up with and be his foil. We thought, ‘Wow, what if he had an egg for a brother?’ It started off as a little germ like that and just took root and spread.”

Miller says, “Humpty Alexander Dumpty is played by Zach Galifianakis, and I think Zach is pretty extraordinary in the role. I love his performance; he’s incredibly funny, and his sharp extemporaneous wit is really appealing. My favorite thing about Zach in this role is the unexpected edge he brought to it.

Humpty is a bit of a damaged character, sort of broken, and he’s up to no good in a portion of the movie, but Zach brought this rationale for it: Humpty felt he was losing his best friend, which caused him to act a little funny in the head — but his heart was definitely in the right place.”

Latifa Ouaou: “We knew Zach was hilarious, but what he brought to the character of Humpty Dumpty was a vulnerability and a childlike sweetness that really made the villain multi-dimensional. You empathize with him, and that was important to us; we didn’t want him to be a black-and-white villain.”

For the comic performer, one of the challenges lay in the restrictions of the art of voicing a character. Galifianakis says, “I think one of the toughest things was trying to figure out a character with only a voice. When you start, they show you a mock-up of what the character looks like so far. And then, you have to find an attitude, and you’re limited to just using your voice.

Once the animators see you performing, like if I use my hands during a certain part, they’ll throw those in. But you really have to dig for more expression in your voice than maybe an actor would in a regular, live-action role.”

Ouaou recalls, “When we first started, we explained, ‘Yes, you’re an egg,’ and we told him that he works from the script, but that there would be changes, because we develop and produce the movie at the same time. We also wanted him to be free to work off-script. Zach really trusted Chris and just allowed Chris to guide him.

The more familiar he got with the character, the more comfortable he felt in the material, the more he started bringing his own ideas to the sessions and improvising — which is always better for the actor, for us and for the character in the end.”

Galifianakis met the “one man in a booth with a microphone” challenge head-on: “I really like the simplicity of it. I come from a standup comic background, so I’m used to that microphone and just expressing myself. That’s what I really do like about it. I remember, whenever I would leave a session, I would always think to myself, ‘This really is a great job.’ Plus the character’s been fun to explore, that kind of looseness, he’s all over the place. I’m pretty reserved as a person, so it’s fun to come in and do this ‘all-over-the-place’ kind of character.”

He also jokes, “Did I think how an egg would be? Did I research? Hmm. I should have gone to aisle seven at the grocery store and hung out with eggs, got to know them, talk to them. But, I’ve eaten eggs. I’ve thrown eggs at people that are loud on the street at two in the morning in my neighborhood.

Now that I think about it, eggs are taken advantage of in life, I think, because people eat them, they throw them—they can go bad or be deviled. Eggs are just kind of funny in general, they’re that funny shape, they’re kind of disrespected. I think this movie proves that, and maybe it will bring light to the way that eggs have been treated. Or not.”

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