Cat In Boots: Name change was a marketing ploy

The change in title of the new animated film Cat In Boots from its original name, Puss In Boots, was part of the marketing strategy for the Middle East and not due to religious reasons, according to the film's distributor in the region. The Dreamworks Studios animated film, starring the voice of Spanish actor Antonio Banderas, is a spin-off from the popular Shrek series and opened in the UAE on Thursday. Denying media reports on Thursday that had said the title was changed to conform with the UAE's religious and moral sensitivities, Pamela Abou Chabki, marketing director at Four Star Films, which handles Dreamworks Studios' releases in the region, said the studio itself chose to change the title to make it more understandable for the region's multilingual population. "It was agreed upon that Cat In Boots' title would be more clearly understood. It is common practice to many foreign territories outside of the US to change a movie title to suit their territory better, which is what we did with Cat In Boots," Abou Chabki said in an email to Gulf News. "It happens all over the world, all of the time," she said, adding that nothing in the film has been cut or changed. "The movie itself is exactly the same version, scene by scene, as the US version, with absolutely no changes whatsoever." The film tells the story of the swashbuckling Puss, who appears as one of Shrek's sidekicks in the franchise, before his meeting with the ogre.