ANTONIO CAN'T SAY NO TO REVIVING PUSS IN BOOTS ROLE

Antonio Banderas was not surprised when Puss in Boots won the heart of everyone who saw Shrek 2 - and Puss is back in Shrek the Third.

The film opens in Glasgow tomorrow, with the wide-eyed kitten that turns into a dashing giant-killing swashbuckler - and the 47-year-old Latin heartthrob.

Banderas said: "When I went to the studio for the first time and saw the first drawings of Puss in Boots, I had the same reaction as audiences have had later on.

"I just saw him with that little face, and I just said, exactly what everybody says - Oh my God, he's so cute, I wanna be him'."

But that, he says, is where the creativity of the film makers came in because, he shouldn't really be voicing something like that.

"The decision at the beginning was to go for a voice that actually doesn't fit in that body. In another type of movie, a more classical animation, the voice would probably have been one that fitted the body, something a little lighter - but we didn't want to go there. We provided him with the voice of a Casanova, a Don Giovanni.

"The character is in many ways irreverent and manipulative, but at the same time cute, so that contrast is the source of comedy for the character."

For a lot of actors, providing the voice for an animated character is an easy pay cheque and a way to impress their kids.

But as you listen to Banderas discuss the role it's plain that he thinks about Puss in Boots just as deeply as he does his other characters.

"In a way, the two characters, Donkey and the cat, are very similar, and they share some stuff. One of the things they share that I love is loneliness.

"They are solitary characters, they don't have anybody around, so they have to fight to conquer Shrek as their only friend."

At one point in the new movie, Donkey and Puss switch bodies thanks to a misfiring Merlin. Does that, I wonder, mean that he changes his performance?

HE says: "Not at at all. I tried not to change, except he makes references to it, like hideous body!'. It was more difficult when I was recording the movie in Spanish and Italian.

"When I was looking at the screen I was looking for my mouth to move as the cat, but the one who was talking was the donkey. That change was one of the most dramatic moments of my career!" he smiles. "I did my own stunts there."

It's just as well that Banderas likes Puss because they are going to be spending a lot of time together. First Puss will appear in Shrek's Christmas TV special Shrek the Halls, which is due at the end of the year. Then he will be in Shrek 4 and his own Puss in Boots movie due in 2010.

"It seems it's going to happen," says Banderas, smile. We have the script already, but I haven't had the opportunity to read it yet.

"The things I've heard are what I'd like the movie to be. We're going to see his story, since the time he was very little, to the time when he becomes an ogre-killer, and just to unplug all his history.

"We're going to see why he became what he became. I heard that not only is it very funny, but it could be very emotional as well.

"It'll be made by the same team, which is fabulous, because I love to be in this family."

Banderas admits he has done a lot of different things lately.

As well as family hits such as Shrek and the Spy Kids series, he has the Sin City and Desperado franchises, has been a hit on Broadway and directed a couple of movies.

But in the midst of all this he says there will always be room for another Shrek and he's on board for as long as the series lasts.

"It's the audience who will decide that, as much as you see they are demanding more stories from Shrek, and we are going to be more than happy to do it," he says. "Nobody in his right mind would reject to do something like that. So when they called me I almost unconditionally said yes."