Characters / Shrek - Main Characters

aka: Shrek Puss In Boots

Shrek Main Character Index
Heroes: Main Characters | Allies (Puss' Companions & Allies)
Antagonists: Main Films | Puss' Rogues Gallery
The Adventures of Puss in Boots

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From left to right: Donkey, Puss in Boots, Shrek, and Princess Fiona.

This page is centered on the primary characters of the Shrek franchise.

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In General

• Fire-Forged Friends: Shrek starts off being infuriated by Donkey's presence, but as the first film goes on, the two start to actually enjoy each other's company, cracking jokes together and Shrek choosing to look out for Donkey despite seeming to disdain him before.
• Four-Philosophy Ensemble:
  • Shrek (the Cynic), the abrasive and straight-laced Deadpan Snarker.
  • Donkey (the Optimist), the most lively and outgoing of the group who looks on the bright side the most often.
  • Princess Fiona (the Realist), the sensible one who often diffuses conflicts.
  • Puss in Boots (the Apathetic), who doesn’t join the group until Shrek 2 and has the most easygoing outlook.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: We have Shrek as choleric (grouchy but surprisingly brave when he puts his mind to it), Fiona as melancholic (often the Only Sane Woman to the other characters, mostly calm, sensitive and responsible), Donkey as sanguine (ridiculously talkative, fun-loving and a surprisingly loyal and open minded friend) and Puss as phlegmatic (cool-headed, suave, somewhat easily swayed).
• Good Is Not Soft: They're all over the place in the case of the morality scale, but are generally on the side of good. This doesn't mean that they won't strike back when backed into a corner, however.
• Interspecies Romance: Shrek fell in love with Fiona back when she was a human who turned into an Ogre at night, rather than a pureblooded ogre, and Donkey managed to score with the dragon guarding her castle, which turned out to be female. Finally, Puss is perfectly willing to flirt with human women, which they don't seem to have a problem with.
• Mysterious Past: Information about the main characters' backstory is scarce. The most we know about Shrek is that his father was a terrible ogre who tried to eat him, hence his conflict about whether he could be a good father. Donkey was owned by an old lady at one point, but that's all we know. Fiona has the most backstory in the first film, where she was cursed to turn into an Ogre at night and had to be sent to a tower, but anything prior to that is up to the imagination. Puss in Boots claimed he had a sick mother, a father who ate garbage, and a litter of brothers, but it turned out to be a lie after his backstory would eventually be revealed in his own spin off film.
• Never Bareheaded: Puss is always with his cavalier hat, which is part of his ensemble clothing. Fiona usually wears her tiara when out, but has it off when at home.
• Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits: A grumpy ogre who loves to give off the image of a stereotypical ogre, a talking donkey who refuses to shut up, a human princess who's cursed to turn into an ogre at night, and a suave Hispanic bipedal talking cat. Not the kind of ensemble you'd normally expect.
• True Companions: Despite the occasional bickering, they are always there for each other whenever they need to be.

Shrek

Shrek

Voiced by: Mike Myers (films, Shrek 4D, Shrek the Halls and Scared Shrekless), Michael J. Gough (games, theme park attractions and Shrek: Thriller Night) ^{Foreign VAs}Juan Muñoz (EU Spanish), Alfonso Obregón Inclán (Latin American Spanish), Alain Chabat (EU French), Anthony Wong (HK Cantonese), Sascha Hehn (German), Masatoshi Hamada (Japanese), Bussunda [1 and 2], Mauro Ramos [3 onwards] (Brazilian Portuguese), Lee Lichun [1], Song Kejun [2 onwards] (TW Mandarin), Zbigniew Zamachowski (Polish), Samuel Fröler (Swedish)

Appearances: Shrek | Shrek 2 | Shrek the Third | Shrek Forever After | Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (Flashback)

"Now ogres, they're much worse [than giants]. They'll make a suit from your freshly peeled skin; they'll shave your liver; squeeze the jelly from your eyes! Actually, it’s quite good on toast."

^{Click here to see his human form as seen in Shrek 2.}

"Look, I'm not the one with the problem, okay? It's the world that seems to have a problem with me! People take one look at me and go, "Ahh! Help! Run! A big, stupid, ugly ogre!" They judge me before they even know me. That's why I'm better off alone."

A grumpy and disgusting, but lovable ogre who lives alone in a swamp, at least, initially, as he finds to his utter displeasure Fairytale creatures are dumped into his land by Lord Farquaad to keep them away. He initially starts off with resentment towards everyone, but as he journeys on, he becomes way more sociable and open.

Ogres have tropes!

• Abusive Parents: At least his father apparently was. Closest we ever heard about his family is when he tells Artie that his father tried to eat him once.^note Shrek the Musical tells us that his parents kicked him out when he was seven years old to fend for himself. Then again, that may be more a case of Deliberate Values Dissonance since it seems to be ogre tradition, and they do seem to feel bad about it. However, the musical doesn't seem to be canon. This is probably the main reason behind Shrek's fear of becoming a parent.
• Acrofatic:
  • Shrek isn't exactly the leanest ogre around, especially compared to the ogres in Forever After, but he can hold his own. In the first movie, Shrek managed to outrun the much larger Dragon while carrying both Fiona and Donkey in his arms. The factory escape scene in Shrek 2 steps it up with an impressive one-handed cartwheel — performed whilst holding Donkey under his arm and dodging a rain of fire from Automatic Crossbows.
  • The first Xbox video game adaptation greatly exaggerated his prowess to where he could run and jump with all the speed of an Olympic sprinter. Later games scaled him back down to being a Mighty Glacier instead.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: His 1990 book counterpart was much uglier, with "freckles" covering his face, red eyes, and very wild, unkempt nose and ear hair. While the movie Shrek is still often described as ugly and takes great pride in his many revolting habits, he's certainly a lot easier on the eyes by comparison.
• Adaptational Heroism:
  • In the sense that he is inverting the traditional role of ogres as villains in Fairy Tales.
  • Played straight in regards to the book, where Shrek was very much a Villain Protagonist.
• Adaptational Wimp: In the original book, Shrek has the ability to breathe fire, swallow lightning, and shoot Eye Beams. In the film series, while still very strong, agile and a formidable hand-to-hand combatant, he lacks the aforementioned powers.
• Adipose Rex: When he was filling in for the King and Queen of Far Far Away, as well as being next in line for the throne, in The Third.
• All of the Other Reindeer: He suffers the feelings of this when he feels that nobody likes him because they believe him to be a roaring monster.
• Almost Kiss: With Fiona in the first movie, before Donkey ruins the moment.
• Amazon Chaser: It's after seeing Fiona single-handedly beating Robin Hood and his men that Shrek starts getting smitten in her.
• Anti-Hero: He starts off as a Pragmatic Hero before Character Development kicks in during the final act of the first movie. Throughout the rest of the saga, he is more or less a Knight in Sour Armor. In fact, he is a Knight in Sour Armor when he rescues Fiona in the first movie.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Despite being a mythical creature, Shrek thinks true love is complete whack, to the point where he uses book pages containing that to wipe his ass. But this mostly stems from him believing he will never receive it and that no one will ever love him for who he is.
• Archetypal Character:
  • Shrek on some level represents and inversion of the center and margin. Although he is a marginal being and a monster from the swamps, he frequently travels to the centers of the world to fix whatever problem is caused by the corrupted ruling class. During these adventures, he frequently embodies quite heroic roles typically reserved for the human protagonists, right down to marrying the princess he saves. In the end, he not only manages to save Far Far Away, the realm of fairy tales, but also puts King Arthur (himself an archetypal hero-king) on its throne before returning to his home in the swamps.
  • There are some really interesting allusions to the character of the Green Knight, depending on your interpretation on what the Green Knight actually is. He is a monstrous yet virtuous being who tests knights and ladies. The Green Knight himself is associated with Arthur personally: in King Arthur and King Cornwall, he serves as one of his knights, and helps him fight an opposing fairy with the help of a bubble.
• Armor-Piercing Response: After he storms out of his children's birthday party out of frustration in Forever After, he and Fiona get into an argument about how different Shrek's life was before and after they met, which leads to this:
  Shrek: Look, all I want is for things to go back to the way they used to be. Back when villagers were afraid of me, and I could take a mud bath in peace, when I could do what I wanted when I wanted to do it. Back when the world made sense.
  Fiona: You mean, back before you rescued me from the dragon's keep?
  Shrek: Exactly!
• Babies Ever After: By the end of Shrek the Third, he has three kids (two boys and one girl) with Fiona.
• Badass Boast: Used as part of his Establishing Character Moment to show how he acts around humans.
  Shrek: [to villagers] Now, ogres? Oh, they're much worse. They'll make a suit from your freshly peeled skin; they'll shave your liver; squeeze the jelly from your eyes! [sotto voice] Actually, it’s quite good on toast.
• Badass Normal: Despite being tall and in good shape, human Shrek doesn't have the same size or strength he did as an ogre during the second half of Shrek 2, so everything he does from drinking the potion up until midnight is within the limits of an average adult man.
• Beautiful All Along: Ogre Shrek is not very eye-catching. But as a human? Total hunk. Justified, as the potion that turned him human also makes whoever drinks it more beautiful.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • His goal in the first movie was to get back to his isolated life in his swamp, and he gets it by fulfilling Lord Farquaad's request of bringing him Fiona. In doing so, he almost loses his chance at love due to a misunderstanding on his part and deeply misses her and Donkey's company.
  • A literal example in the Shrek Forever After. After becoming tired over his new life filled with family and friends, all Shrek wants is one day to be a real ogre again. Rumpelstiltskin grants his wish... by taking away the day Shrek was born. And thus the lives of his friends and family were greatly and terribly altered, also meaning Shrek's children don't exist. He is quite understandably angry at himself.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Shrek still finds Donkey annoying but greatly values their friendship as the latter was the very first being to not see him as "just an ogre".
• Big Fun: Downplayed. In a Jerk with a Heart of Gold sense, as he can be quite hard to get to have fun with, but once he befriends you, he's a fun softy.
• The Big Guy: 7-8 feet tall in addition to being The Hero. Ironically, compared to the other ogres, we see he's pretty much a runt.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: He sports some thick, dark green ones.
• Bilingual Bonus: His name is a derivative form of the German and Yiddish word for terror (Schreck/Shreck).
• Brave Scot: A Scottish accented ogre who is shown to be pretty heroic and bold when necessary.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Brooding Boy (is secretly insecure and lonely) to Fiona's Gentle Girl (kind and nurturing).
• Brutal Honesty: Especially with Donkey, with poor results.
  Shrek: Stop singing! It's no wonder you don't have any friends.
  Donkey: Wow. Only a true friend would be that cruelly honest.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: He is so used to mobs coming to his swamp to kill him that when one does it at the beginning of the first movie, Shrek doesn't react with any concern and just heads out to scare them away.
• Butt-Monkey: He suffers some Amusing Injuries throughout most scenes in the series.
  • In Forever After, he does everything he can to share True Love's Kiss with the alternate Fiona, which results in receiving painful responses.^note Those being kicked back by her when he came up to her, resulting in him invading her personal space and trying to give her a goodbye kiss, to which she stomps on his foot and kicks him out whilst grabbing him by the wrist in front of his back.
  • The most noticeable is the Groin Attack; which happens in the first movie, the second chapter, The Third and the Halloween special Scared Shrekless.
• Calling the Old Man Out: In Shrek 2 during the dinner with Fiona's parents, Shrek has already had enough of King Harold's Fantastic Racism towards ogres, and then Shrek brings up how he and Lillian had Fiona locked away in a tower in hopes of getting the curse on her broken while calling him out for it.
  Harold: That is assuming you don't eat your own [[children]] young!
  Shrek: Oh, no, we usually prefer the ones who've been locked away in a tower.
  Harold: I only did that because I love her.
  Shrek: Oh, right. Daycare, or dragon-guarded castles.
  Harold: You wouldn't understand, you're not her father!
• Celebrity Is Overrated: Part of the plot of Forever After. Seen as a local hero and role model, Shrek finds himself constantly pestered by tour groups and villagers, to the extent he actually wishes humans were still afraid of him so he could have peace. He gets his wish thanks to Rumpelstiltskin, but soon realizes what exactly he gave up and comes out of the misadventure with newfound appreciation for his life.
• Character Development: From The Hermit to Family Man. Shrek comes to let go of his I Work Alone mentality and be appreciative of his family and friends.
• Chick Magnet: Becomes one after he turns human. He's this except to the woman he wanted to impress, who loved him the way he already was.
• Combat Pragmatist: When faced by many foes or an enemy he cannot beat with his strength, Shrek will rather make clever use of the environment or various items at his disposal, or retreat when he knows he cannot win as he did with the Dragon in the first film.
• Comically Missing the Point: Shrek, despite his wit and being snarky, also falls into this trope.
  Farquaad: [referring to Shrek] It's hideous!
  Shrek: Oh, that's not very nice. It's just a donkey. [Donkey gives him a look]
• Continuity Cameo: Appears briefly in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish as the Wolf causes Puss's lives to flash before his eyes.
• Cruel to Be Kind: In Shrek the Third, Charming plans to kill young Artie due to him being a threat for the throne. Scared for the boy's life, Shrek proceeds to lie and claim he only cared about having someone else on the throne instead of him. Donkey later informs Artie that Shrek saved Artie’s life by acting like he didn't care.
• Dark and Troubled Past: His father tried to eat him when he was just a kid. He then spent the next years in isolation from others...because they only saw him as a monster. It wasn't until the events of the first film that he was able to bring himself out of this and accept love into his life.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Shrek is an Ogre that can bring fear to people but is also nobler than his enemies, who are usually people seen as heroic, but are non-heroic jerks in comparison.
• Deadpan Snarker: Is he ever. So often that it's sort of his icon.
  Shrek: Sometimes I wish I had just one day to feel like a real ogre again.
  Rumpelstiltskin: Well, why didn't you say so? Magical transactions are my speciality.
  Shrek: Oh, great. Next to mimes, magicians are my favourite people.
• Deal with the Devil: Forever After has him sign away the day he was born to Rumpelstiltskin, resulting in him being thrown into a universe where he'd never existed.
• Defrosting Ice King: Spends a good part of the first movie as a grouchy, anti-social hermit who just wants to be left alone. With Donkey's friendship and Fiona's love, Shrek gradually defrosts to become a kinder, more sociable family man.
• Disappeared Dad: We briefly hear about Shrek's father and only that he attempted to eat his son but we never actually see Shrek's father or find out his fate. He is never seen visiting his son or meeting his daughter-in-law or grandchildren so he's possibly deceased.
• Disney Death: Near the end of Forever After. Of course, being the namesake of his franchise, it doesn't last.
• Distressed Dude: Towards the end of Shrek the Third, he lies to get himself captured by Prince Charming in Artie's place, prompting all of Shrek's friends to crash the play Charming puts up so they can save him.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: In the opening of the third film, he accidentally drives a sword into a man while knighting him. He also pushes a ship into the water just by leaning his hand against it, and creates a big hole when he throws a champagne bottle to christen the ship.
• Doting Parent: Despite initial fears of being a parent, Shrek loves his children very much.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: In the fourth film, Fiona tells Shrek she had never been so embarrassed by his attitude at the birthday party while Shrek assumed it was the party itself.
• The Dreaded: Is this among humans at the start of the series.
• Dub Species Change: There is no equivalent to the word "ogre" in Norwegian, Swedish and Danish, thus in the dubs in these languages he became a "troll" instead. Funnily, the fourth film has Rumpelstiltskin look at a creature and say "That's not even an ogre, that is a troll." The Norwegian dub got around this by saying "That's not even a troll, that is a jotne.", "jotne" being (among other creatures) a different kind of troll in Nordic mythology.
• Dying Declaration of Love: A genuinely tearjerking example to the alternate Fiona near the end of Forever After, when he's in the process of fading from existence as a result of Rumpelstiltskin's contract.
  Shrek: Do you know what the best part about today was? I got the chance to fall in love with you all over again.
• Easily Forgiven: Evidently, the fairytale creatures hold no grudge against him for angrily turning them from his swamp in the first film. Likely because he took care of Farquaad for good and let them return to their actual homes safe and sound.
• Enraged by Idiocy: In the first movie, as Shrek and Donkey were just starting to build their friendship, Shrek is frequently getting annoyed by Donkey's obliviousness to what he's trying to say, which makes sense, as Shrek only brought him along so Donkey could show him the way to Farquaad's castle.
  Donkey: You know what everybody likes? Parfaits! Have you ever met a person, you say, "Let's get some parfait," they say, "Hell no, I don't like no parfait"? Parfaits are delicious!
  Shrek: NO!! You dense, irritating, miniature beast of burden! Ogres are like onions! End of story! Bye-bye. See you later...
• Everyone Has Standards: A montage in Forever After has him go around loudly roaring at people to scare them. When he encounters an elderly woman with an Ear Trumpet, he merely whispers "roar".
• Expressive Ears: His ears will usually show his mood. If he's happy, his ears will become erect, and if he's sad, they will usually go down.
• Fartillery: Shrek tends to use his farts as a weapon in the video games: Shrek SuperSlam has his Slam be a giant fart that knocks enemies away in the console version and smaller farts that stun enemies as a regular attack in the GBA version.
• Formerly Fit: If what the concept art◊ to Forever After implies, Shrek was lean in his youth.
• Freudian Excuse: In the first film, it's shown that the reason for Shrek's misanthropy and reclusive nature is because of being rejected by everyone around him for most of his life.
  Donkey: What's your problem, Shrek? What you got against the whole world anyway, huh?
  Shrek: Look, I'm not the one with the problem, okay? It's the world that seems to have a problem with me! People take one look at me and go "AAH! Help, run! A big, stupid, ugly ogre!" [sigh] They judge me before they even know me. That's why I'm better off alone.
• Freudian Slip: In The Third.
  Shrek: [to Artie] ...and you're gonna be a father!
  Artie: What?
• Friendless Background: This doesn't seem to bother him, though. At least, on the surface it doesn't seem like it does.
• Gasshole: A species trait, apparently.
• Gentle Giant: Or gentle ogre. There's a difference. He tries his best to be, but he can be pretty careless. Nonetheless, while it's never commented on, Shrek differentiates between trained fighters and angry peasants, preferring to scare off the latter rather than simply grabbing and throwing them out of his way. Even his main method of fighting, grappling, means he rarely risks seriously injuring the knights he usually fights. Even in the climax of the first movie, when he's dogpiled by knights and threatened with torture, he only throws one elbow and a punch in the heat of the moment.
• Get Out!: When the Fairy Tale creatures are banished to Shrek's swamp, he tries to get them to leave before realizing that they are never going to leave unless Farquaad returns their lands to them.
• Girly Skirt Twirl: Played for Laughs in Forever After when he crashes a wedding early on in the Alternate Universe part of the film. No points for guessing who he's dressed as in this scene.
• Gleeful and Grumpy Pairing: The Grumpy to Donkey's Gleeful. Shrek is a grumpy, sarcastic loner while Donkey is a kind, cheerful friend.
• Good Parents: With Fiona at the end of The Third and later on. He is hesitant about his abilities to be one when he first discovers he is going to be a father, given his own past. He has trouble adapting in the fourth film but loves his children dearly.
• Grass is Greener: A big part of the plot in the Forever After. Shrek has grown tired of being a family man and celebrity among the local villagers, and longs for the days where he was a "real ogre", feared by villagers and actually had privacy. He gets his wish, and soon begins to understand the consequences of his actions and how important he was to the grand scheme of things; among other things, his children no longer exist, and Fiona's parents have been erased from existence. Best summed up in this exchange between himself and Donkey near the climax:
  Donkey: If your life was so perfect, then why'd you sign it all away to Rumpelstiltskin in the first place?
  Shrek: Because I didn't know what I had until it was gone!
• Green and Mean: Subverted. Shrek exploits this trope to play into people's perceptions of him as a "big scary ogre", but he's revealed to be a Jerk with a Heart of Gold underneath his walls and a pretty nice guy once you get to know him.
• Green Is Gross: He has green skin, lives in a swamp, bathes in mud/swampwater, and has many gross habits, such as belching, farting, and eating bugs.
• Groin Attack: The poor guy suffers this several times.
  • In the first movie while he, Donkey and Fiona are trying to escape from the Dragon, Shrek slides down a pillar that has a bump in the middle of it. He recovers pretty quickly from it, though.
  • In the second movie, this happens during Shrek and Donkey's first encounter with Puss in Boots. While Puss is climbing all around Shrek, Donkey tries to kick him, but instead hits Shrek in the nuts.
  • In the third movie, the trio are trying to pass off Shrek as a guy in a suit, and Donkey tries to prove it by kicking Shrek in the groin because then it wouldn't have hurt him. It does however, and Shrek has to just bear the pain so he doesn't expose himself.
  • In Scared Shrekless, this happens to him in his own story, where he gets kicked by a possessed Pinocchio.
• Guest Fighter: Shrek appears as a secret playable character in Tony Hawk's Underground 2 and Madagascar Kartz.
• Guile Hero: While he can and will throw down, his most successful wins come from thinking on his feet; he drew his sword, seemingly to slay the dragon, but instead slammed it into the chandelier chain to hold her back when he escapes the castle. This not only avoids extra time in a battle he might not win, but leaves Dragon alive to become his friend and save the day.
• Happily Married: With Fiona, though they go through their ups and downs.
• The Hermit: He starts as this, living all by himself and not needing anyone else's company. Even after he learns to open up about himself to others and be more inviting and people grow to accept him, he prefers a quiet life in the swamp, alone save for the small handful of people he chooses to be around.
• The Hero: Not that he ever set out to be one.
• Heroic Neutral: In the first movie, he just wants to live in his swamp by himself. He ends up going on a quest to rescue Princess Fiona for the sake of getting all of the fairy tale creatures out of his swamp after Lord Farquaad sends them there. While Farquaad keeps his ends of the bargain, Character Development along the way on Shrek's part meant that he abandoned the few people who genuinely liked him to get his swamp back, making Shrek realize how desperately lonely he really was.
• Heroic BSoD: In Shrek 2, Shrek was already down on himself for not being the kind of husband to Fiona Far Far Away expected, but Shrek finally gets this when he loses Fiona to Prince Charming and Fairy Godmother convinces him to let Fiona go.
  Donkey: I can't believe you're gonna just wak away from the best that ever happened to you.
  Shrek: What choice do I have? She loves that pretty boy, Prince Charming.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Due to being an ogre. Only in the first two movies, though — in the latter two, he has been accepted by the public and is in fact admired as sort of a local hero and role model.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Donkey — despite their occasionally rocky relationship, they're ultimately really good friends who'll always have each other's backs. This loyalty later extends to Puss, who Shrek gets along a lot better with than Donkey.
• Hidden Depths: Despite his status as an outcast ogre, lack of education and hermit lifestyle Shrek is shown to be literate and even is well-read, shown reading a fairy tale book at the beginning of the first film (even if he ended up using the book for another purpose) , and he's far more observant and cunning that what you would expect an ogre to be. He also has surprisingly good cook skills.
• Hot in Human Form: In the second film, Shrek takes a magic potion that transforms him into a human. The maids who revive him after he passes out find him very attractive, and are disappointed to learn that he already has a wife. He's currently the page image of the trope.
• Humanity Ensues: After drinking the Happily Ever After potion in the second movie, Shrek is temporarily transformed into an attractive human. He was willing to remain human forever if it would make Fiona happy, but she declined and they both reverted back to ogres.
• Humble Hero: Even after Shrek ends up ruling over Far, Far Away, he much prefers living in his old house in the swamp.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Fiona is really petite compared to Shrek, even as both ogres or humans.
• Hunk: His human form replaces all of his fat with muscle. He instantly charms three farm girls the second they lay eyes on him.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: He changes his entire physical apperance in Shrek 2 all because his insecurities leads him to believe that Fiona would want a prince charming instead of an ogre. When Fairy Godmother figures this out, she manipulates Shrek into believing that he and Fiona would never work together, so Shrek leaves her to let her live out her days with Prince Charming, someone Shrek thinks she would want.
  • In Forever After, when it has become clear to him that the Fiona from the alternative universe will never fall in love with him, he turns himself in to Rumpelstiltskin, using a loophole to get the wish rewarded to the one who brings Shrek to him, which is to set Fiona and all the other ogres free.
• I Work Alone: Befitting that he wants to be left alone, Shrek prefers much more to get things done by himself at first. The only thing he really needed from Donkey during the quest was getting to know where Farquaad's castle was and after getting there, Shrek had no more use for him, but Donkey still stuck around, leading to a friendship for all the ages.
• Ink-Suit Actor: A vague resemblance to Mike Myers can be seen in his human form. Additionally, his normal ogre form also has a resemblance to his original choice Chris Farley before dying.
• Insecure Love Interest:
  • In the first movie, Shrek seemed like he was going to propose to Fiona, but stopped when he thought that Fiona and Donkey were talking behind his back.
  • Expanded on in the second movie. After seeing that the kingdom didn't expect him to be Fiona's husband and finding out that the king and queen had filled Fiona with hopes that she would get together with a "Prince Charming", he thinks that Fiona would prefer that, so he goes off to try and find a magical potion to become one for her.
• Internalized Categorism: The world outside of Shrek's swamp has a big hatred for big, stupid, ugly ogres, with villagers starting mobs in attempts to kill him on a regular basis. This has led Shrek to believing that nobody will truly ever accept him and that he might as well adhere to that and be the fearsome ogre everyone calls him, never reaching out for any contact with anyone from the outside world. This changes when he spends some time with Donkey and Fiona who see him for who he is, which helps him be more honest with himself. But it continues in the second movie, where the people of Far Far Away has to witness that their princess married an ogre, and combined with him seeing all the hopes Fiona had about marrying a "Prince Charming", he ends up believing that he would only be accepted as Fiona's husband if he took a beauty potion to become human. But even after taking the potion, Fairy Godmother's manipulation makes Shrek think that he will never be good enough for Fiona and that he should let her go.
• Interspecies Romance: With Fiona when she was still human.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • When Shrek objected to Princess Fiona and Lord Farquaad's wedding in the first movie, he did make a good point about how the latter only wanted to marry Fiona so he could be king of Duloc. He’s proven right when you witness how Lord Farquaad treats Fiona when the latter turns into an ogre.
  • In the second movie, Shrek expresses his concern about how Fiona’s parents would react to seeing the latter’s Ogre form. He is proven right when Harold isn’t happy with seeing Fiona as an Ogre. Even Fiona comes to agree with Shrek’s viewpoint when she packs her things to go back to Shrek’s swamp (this happens after another argument that Shrek and Fiona have about this topic).
  • While Shrek's Jerkass behavior made him regret his argument with Fiona in Shrek 2, he made a very good point about the likeliness of getting Harold's blessing even if he did try to get along, which he did try. He wasn't the one who started the fight, Harold was (something even Lillian calls Harold out on). Shrek did try for Fiona, but Harold's prejudice meant he never had a fair chance. He lost the argument because he forgot what Fiona sacrificed for him, which he knew was big.
  • In Shrek The Third, when Artie decides to bail out of being king when the responsibilities of such a job are (inadvertently) revealed to him, one of Shrek's responses is effectively "Back to what, being a loser?". While these were harsh words and in context Shrek is just giving the kid the job so he doesn't have to do it, he isn't exactly wrong that Artie is still giving up a chance of a lifetime in favor of going back to a place where he was so unpopular even stereotypical nerds bullied him. It’s worth noting that Artie never does provide a real counterfeit to this claim besides the fact, he simply doesn't want the responsibilities laid on him.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Shrek can be hot-tempered and rude, but he's also brave, selfless, and a loyal friend once he lets down his guard.
  Shrek: Ogres have layers.
• Kavorka Man: He's an ugly and disgusting ogre but manages to attract the beautiful princess Fiona after they bond over common interests. Also in the third film, a high school student wishes to go to homecoming with him because she's into mythical creatures.
• Knight in Sour Armor: He's crude, hot-tempered and cynical, but nearly always manages to do the right thing, especially for people (and donkeys) that have proven they're able to see past the idea of "big, stupid, ugly ogres."
• Know When to Fold 'Em: In the first movie he chooses to avoid direct confrontation with the Dragon while rescuing Fiona, prefering to run away or using the environment to outsmart her rather than fight a battle he cannot win against a dragon, only pulling her tail in order to save Donkey before running away.
• Large Ham: "WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY SWAAAAMMMMPPPPP?!!!!!!!!!!!"
• Large Runt: He's big enough by human standards, but in Forever After we learn that male ogres are normally much larger and more muscular. Before that movie, the only other ogres that were ever seen were Fiona and their children, all of whom are smaller than Shrek, making this even more of a surprise.
• Loony Friends Improve Your Personality: The Cloudcuckoolander Donkey is the first person Shrek ever meets who doesn't treat Shrek like a monster, which is the treatment from society that Shrek has come to terms with. This makes Donkey later the first person Shrek opens up about himself to, and Shrek becomes much happier and more amiable after experiencing more adventures with him.
• Loved by All: Deconstructed in Forever After. When the events of that movie starts, every single being in the land loves Shrek, from his family, to his friends, to the people outside those groups who visits his swamp to see him. All the weight from having to play all these different roles takes its toll on him and it reaches its tipping point at his children's birthday party. This results in him missing the time he had before meeting everyone that led him down the path to his new life, when he was a dreaded hermit, or as he calls it, "back when the world made sense". So he then makes a deal with Rumpelstiltskin that ends horribly for the world and everyone in it not named Rumpelstiltskin, which in turn helps Shrek appreciate the life he ended up getting by befriending those close to him.
• Magic Pants: Averted at first in the second movie. After drinking the beauty potion, Shrek shrinks in size, making him too small for the clothes he wears as an ogre and forcing him to "borrow" some from a passing noble. At the end of the movie however, when he and Fiona turn from their human forms into their ogre forms, Shrek's original clothes magically come back.
• Man in a Kilt: Befitting his Scottish accent, Shrek has his own official tartan and wore it (as depicted by a costumed character) to the UK premiere of Shrek the Third.
• Meaningful Name: His name is derived from the Yiddish word "Schreck", which means "fright". Given that most people are terrified of Ogres, it's an appropriate moniker. It's also one letter from the word "shriek", which is what humans tend to do when they cross paths with him in the first movie.
• Mighty Glacier: Most video game adaptations depict Shrek as one of the strongest but slowest characters, which usually gives him the short end of the stick when speed and mobility are two of the most important assets.
• Mighty Roar: One of his many ogre abilities includes roaring so loudly he can actively blow others away.
• Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold: As he puts it; "ogres have layers". Shrek can be a decent guy, but everyone is afraid of him and treats him like an outcast, which has made Shrek adapt to it. He leaves the "Misunderstood loner" part when he learns to embrace that heart of gold and be more open to others.
• Morphic Resonance: His human form retains his eye color and nose shape.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After realizing what his deal with Rumpelstiltskin has done to everyone he used to know and love, Shrek is visibly torn apart by his actions, to the point where he cries for the first time in the franchise.
• Mysterious Past: We know virtually nothing of Shrek's life before the first film. All that's ever said about his childhood is that he had a father who tried to eat him and that for a long time, he believed people who thought he was a monster. Everything else, including the fate of Shrek's father, is a mystery.
• Nominal Hero: In the first movie, his motivation for helping the other fairy tale creatures be safe from Farquaad is because he wants them off his property, not because he actually wants to help them.
  Shrek: Attention all... fairy tale, things. Do not get confortable. Your welcome is offically worn out. In fact, I'm gonna see this guy Farquaad right now and get you all off my land and back where you came from!
  Fairy Tale Creatures: (cheers, leaving Shrek in disappointment)
• Nostalgia Filter: All the weight of being a husband, father, friend and celebrity causes Shrek to miss his old life when he was a scary ogre, "back when the world made sense". What adds fuel to the fire is how much Shrek and ogres in general have fallen from the feared beings they used to be, as everyone cheers when Shrek does the same Mighty Roar that used to scare away people, and the (replacement) cake at his kids' birthday party having a cute cuddly ogre on it, causing Shrek to smash it.
• Not So Stoic: Despite having just been attacked from him moments prior, even Shrek can't resist Puss in Boots' Puppy-Dog Eyes, and decides to let him tag along with him and Donkey because of his cuteness.
• Odd Name Out: As of Shrek The Third, he is the only member of the Ogre family whose name does not begin with F. His wife's name is Fiona, and his three children are named Fergus, Farkle, and Felicia.
• One True Love: To Fiona. He's also something of a deconstruction, in that no one expected an ogre to be Fiona's true love, least of all Fiona herself, preventing them from acknowledging they're soulmates until they fall in love for real while on the way to Duloc.
• Only Sane Man: The conscience to the cloudcuckoolanders Donkey and Puss.
• Our Ogres Are Hungrier: One of the most famous ogres in fiction. As for the "hungrier" part, he doesn't actually eat people (at least on screen, if his dialogue from his first scene is of any indication), although most would find his culinary habits pretty disgusting anyway.
• Out-Gambitted: Downplayed. In Forever After, Shrek tries to use a loophole by turning himself in to Rumpelstiltskin so that he will get a free wish that he uses to set all ogres free, most of all Fiona. However, Rumpel presents his own loophole, which is that due to Fiona's curse, she isn't "all ogre", so he doesn't free her with everyone else.
• Panicky Expectant Father: Shrek finds out from Fiona that he is going to be a father and has a nightmare about being a parent. His fears aren't that his life is going to change but he is afraid that he will be an abusive parent. Given his own experiences with his father, it makes perfect sense why he felt this way. At the end of the film, he learns to accept parenthood and proves to be a good parent.
  Shrek: It's not my life I'm afraid of ruining, it's the kid's. When have you ever heard the phrase "as sweet as an ogre", or "as nurturing as an ogre", or "You're gonna love my dad, he's a real ogre"?
• Papa Wolf:
  • He became protective of Artie in the third movie, going as far as be Cruel to Be Kind to spare him from be killed by Charming. Later in the climax, he also grabbed Charming’s sword with his chains when the boy’s life was threatened again.
  • Prominently in the fourth movie. It's when Rumpel mocks him on the fact that his children do not exist that he goes ballistic. Also acts like this towards Donkey at times, but he'll never admit it.
• The Pig-Pen: The opening scene in the first movie establishes that he has a lot of gross habits and bathes in mud/swampwater. It's an ogre thing.
• Rage Breaking Point: In Forever After, he has grown more and more tired of his new celebrity-like life, and it reaches its boiling point at his kids' first birthday party, where all of the stress finally overwhelms him and he lets out a Mighty Roar. He then smashes the cake which has a cute ogre on it before storming out.
• Rags to Royalty: He starts out as a simple ogre, living in a swamp all by himself. By the end of the first movie, he marries Fiona, who is the princess of Far Far Away. Though the whole "Royalty" part did not fare well with him, as after King Harold passes away, Shrek is not keen on succeeding him as king and instead he, Donkey and Puss venture out to find a relative to Fiona's family who fits the title better.
• Real Men Cook: His taste for rats and eyeballs notwithstanding, he's quite good at cooking and seems to really enjoy it. When he and Fiona were just starting to fall for each other, one of the things that impressed her was his rotisserie style weed rat and open invitation to his swamp, where he promised to cook her all kinds of things.
• Rescue Romance: He was meant to rescue Fiona for Lord Farquaad, but they ended up falling for each other; thus ending the fairytale how it was supposed to be when they get married at the end but with a twist of a princess marrying the monster.
• Rude Hero, Nice Sidekick: The Rude Hero to Donkey's Nice Sidekick. In the first movie especially, he's a grouchy, vulgar curmudgeon while Donkey is an open and kindly extrovert who is the first person who shows Shrek any compassion.
• Seduction-Proof Marriage: He had a number of admirers when he became a handsome human but his love for Fiona remained undeterred.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Shrek is the Manly Man to Donkey's Sensitive Guy. Shrek is blunt, strong and unapologetically crass, while Donkey is kind, loyal, and very attuned to others' feelings.
• Smarter Than You Look: He's a big, strong, slobbish ogre, and proud of it. But he's well-read, perceptive, and good at thinking on his feet.
• Spanner in the Works: The reason The Fairy Godmother has a bone to pick with him in Shrek 2. She had intended to set Prince Charming and Fiona up together so that she could get in the nobility, but throughout the sequel, she has to constantly try to work her plans around Shrek's marriage with Fiona.
• Stepford Snarker: He's got a sharp tongue which he uses to dish sarcasm anytime he can, but it's quickly revealed to be a façade to hide how lonely he feels.
• Stout Strength: Incredibly strong, despite his obesity.
• Supreme Chef: He can cook a lot of stuff and somehow make them edible.
• Swamp Monster: Shrek makes his home in a swamp. In the first movie, he is shown scaring villagers who enter his swamp with Torches and Pitchforks, just for jollies; then, when fairy tale and nursery rhyme characters displaced by Lord Farquaad settle in his swamp, he sets out on a quest to get rid of them.
• Takes Ten to Hold: When Fiona finally reveals to Shrek her transformation into an ogre every night (courtesy of a witch's curse) after he objects to her marriage to Lord Farquaad, Lord Farquaad has both arrested. Shrek, attempting to reach Fiona, starts being dragged off by dozens of guards, several of which he manages to fight off, before Dragon smashes through the church's windows, eats Lord Farquaad and forces the remaining guards to back down.
• Tempting Fate: When one of the Royal Messengers barged into Shrek and Fiona's room, Shrek sarcastically asked "Well somebody better be dying", sure enough, King Harold is close to dying.
• Terrifying Rescuer: Until Fiona realizes he's actually a much better prospect than the prince. In Forever After, since Shrek never met Donkey, the latter is terrified after Shrek rescues him from Rumpelstitskin and his witches.
• Toilet Humor: Since he's an ogre, a lot of scenes focus on him pulling out earwax or farting. His wife, Fiona, doesn't have nearly as much fondness for crude antics despite her too being an ogre.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Thanks to Donkey and Fiona's companionship, Shrek gradually evolves from a grouchy loner to a more sociable family man.
• Top-Heavy Guy: Shrek has a large, portly body with long arms, but comparatively short legs.
• Uncleanliness Is Next to Ungodliness: Averted. He follows a number of disgusting habits, but is definitely a good guy. Said habits are portrayed as normal and healthy for his ogre species, though.
• Undying Loyalty: Despite how he can be, Shrek is extremely loyal to those he cares about such as his friends and family.
• Unexplained Accent: It's unclear where his Scottish accent comes from, especially considering that none of the ogres in Forever After seem to have one.
• Unscrupulous Hero: He only went on a quest to save Fiona because Lord Farquuad unwittingly annexed him by forcing the fairy tale creatures to migrate to his swamp.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Although he is by Donkey's side at the end of the day, they do argue a lot and Donkey is a real pain in the ass to Shrek.
• Wrestler in All of Us: He shows that he knows some wicked moves during the fight against Lord Farquaad's men. Donkey makes for a good Tag Team Partner, too!

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Donkey

Donkey

Voiced by: Eddie Murphy (films and Shrek the Halls), Dean Edwards (Scared Shrekless, Shrek: Thriller Night, and DreamWorks All-Star Kart Racing), Mark Moseley (games and Shrek in the Swamp Karaoke Dance Party) ^{Foreign VAs}José Mota (EU Spanish), Eugenio Derbez, Luis Alfonso Mendoza [Shrek: Thriller Night] (Latin American Spanish), Med Hondo (EU French), Kōichi Yamadera (Japanese), Mario Jorge Andrade (Brazilian Portuguese), Randolf Kronberg (German, first two films), Dennis Schmidt-Foß (German, third and fourth film) Dicky Cheung (HK Cantonese), Action Tang (TW Mandarin), Jerzy Stuhr (Polish), Jonas Malmsjö (Swedish)

Appearances: Shrek | Shrek 2 | Shrek the Third | Shrek Forever After | Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (Flashback)

"We can stay up late, swapping manly stories, and in the morning, I'm making waffles!"

^{Click here to see Donkey as a "Noble Steed".}

Donkey is a miniature talking donkey who is not too bright. He is Shrek's annoying but good-hearted best friend, Dragon's husband and father of the Dronkeys.

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• A Dog Named "Dog": Well, he is a donkey and his name is Donkey.
• Abduction Is Love: Flip-flopped. It originally terrified him, but once he realized how lonely his abductor was, he forgave her.
• Acrofatic: Donkey can run pretty fast despite being overweight. This is lampshaded by Puss in Shrek the Third.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: In the manga one-shot, he's already living with Shrek by the time the story starts, probably a consequence of the Compressed Adaptation nature of the manga.
• Adaptational Jerkass: In the games, he's usually acting narcissistic. In the PC version of the Shrek 2 video game, for example, he adds to the storybook opening "a noble, handsome, gorgeous donkey"; even though he doesn't fit any of these traits.
• Adaptational Romance Downgrade: Donkey doesn't share any romance with Dragon in the manga, instead Dragon falls in love with Lord Farquaad.
• The Alleged Steed: Lampshaded especially in the first film. He turns into an actual white steed in the second film after drinking the Fairy Godmother's potion.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Implied when he mentions how some kids bullied him in school.
• Almost Kiss: From Dragon, but Shrek climbs down a chain and pushes Donkey out the way, making it Literal Ass-Kissing instead, which Dragon wasn't too happy about.
• Animals See in Monochrome: Real donkeys likely have dichromatic vision (similar to being red-green colorblind). Donkey, however, is colorblind.
• Ascended Extra: He actually appeared in the original book, albeit only as a brief encounter on one page. Compare this to the movies, where he's one of the undisputed main characters.
• Babies Ever After: The ending of the second film shows he and Dragon had a litter of donkey-dragon hybrid babies.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Donkey instantly becomes loyal to Shrek when they first meet because Shrek defended him from Farquaad's guards and allowed him to keep his freedom. Even if Shrek is mean to him afterwards, Donkey stays because it's the nicest thing anyone has done for him.
• Beta Couple: With Dragon, as they have a more stable marriage than Shrek and Fiona.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He is tolerant to Shrek's insults throughout most of the movie, but he's had enough towards the end and calls him out on it - though it's mostly because Shrek's missing his chance to tell Fiona how he feels.
• Butt-Monkey: Donkey takes a lot of comedic abuse throughout the movies, such as falling from high places three times throughout the first movie, getting repeatedly upstaged by Puss in Shrek 2, being stuffed in a locker with a "kick me" sign stuck on his butt and later getting body-swapped with Puss in Shrek the Third and getting whipped and forced to pull the witches' carriage in Forever After.
• The Cameo: Appears briefly in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish as the Wolf causes Puss's lives to flash before his eyes.
• Captain Obvious: Donkey at first seems to be acting like this in the first film while talking with Shrek, as he says "I think this whole wall thing is a way to keep somebody out" when Shrek states he will build a wall around his swamp. However, the rest of the conversation makes clear what he really meant: he wasn't pointing the wall's purpose, he wanted to know why Shrek would put it in the first place.
• Chubby Chaser: Implied by his karaoke version of Baby Got Back from the "Shrek in the Swamp Karaoke Dance Party", which he sings with Dragon dancing in the background, showing off her own big butt.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Donkey can be an oddball.
• Cuckoosnarker: As eccentric as Donkey is, he can also be sarcastic at times, especially towards Puss in the second film.
• Cool Horse: After drinking the potion in the second film, Donkey turns into a "noble steed" the next day, and serves as Shrek's mean of transportation throughout the movie. He voices his disappointment when he turns back into his initial donkey form at the end of the day.
• Cowardly Sidekick: When in action. He forgets to be afraid while talking, which kicks off his relationship with Dragon. Interesting how his best friend is an ogre...
• Dark and Troubled Past: He implied in the third film that he was bullied in school. And at some point, he was taken in by an owner who was implied to be abusive towards him and tried to sell him to Farquaad's soldiers.
• The Defroster: Donkey is the first one to begin working on thawing out Shrek. By the end, Shrek begins to genuinely reciprocate his friendship.
  "You know,... when we met, I didn't think you was just a big, stupid, ugly ogre."
• Determinator: Donkey is determined to break through Shrek's shell and become his friend. After rather annoying Shrek through his persistence, he is successful.
• Deuteragonist: He primarily plays this role in the first and fourth films, whereas he shares it with Fiona in the second.
• Did You Just Romance Cthulhu?: In the first movie, when he gets cornered by Dragon, he starts complimenting her when he realizes she's female in order to buy some time and convince her to let him go. It works a bit too well, as Dragon sees it as flirting and falls head over heels for Donkey before taking him back to her den.
• Doting Parent: Donkey loves his dronkies and has settled into fatherhood well, much easier than Shrek did too.
• Dumbass Has a Point:
  • In the second movie, he rightfully calls out Shrek on walking away from Fiona when the Fairy Godmother manipulated him into believing that Fiona loved Charming instead.
  • In the same movie, he's quick to lampshade King Harold's hypocrisy in regards to his disapproval of Shrek marrying Fiona despite being a frog who married a human woman. While Shrek admonishes him for it, Harold doesn't hesitate to admit Donkey is completely right.
  • When meeting Puss in Boots for the first time, Donkey is the one point out that he has a sword and looks very dangerous, something Shrek happily ignores until it's too late.
  • In the third movie, Donkey kindly tells Shrek that the latter needs to change his approach when it comes to convincing Artie to be willing to be king. Shrek softly agrees with him.
  • In the fourth movie, the AU version of Donkey rightly tells Shrek that the latter should have never signed a contract with Rumplestiltskin.
  • In the same movie, the AU donkey asks Shrek why he signed over his life to Rumplestiltskin if Shrek’s life was so perfect.
• Excellent Judge of Character: Donkey is very good at seeing past external appearances. He quickly befriends Shrek despite the latter being a "terrifying ogre", and goes on to woo and eventually marry the giant, fire-breathing Dragon.
• Expressive Ears: His ears often flop down when he's upset, and stick upwards when he's happy.
• Friendless Background: By his own admission, he never had friends before meeting Shrek.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Donkey annoys everyone (especially Shrek and Puss) with his constant singing and talking and they consider him a real pain in the ass. However, he is Shrek's best friend for a reason. He remains an important member of the team and his friends do in fact care about him deeply.
• The Genie Knows Jack Nicholson: Though pretty much every character in Shrek invokes this trope to some degree, Donkey is the most frequent thanks to his penchant for singing popular modern music.
• Gleeful and Grumpy Pairing: The Gleeful to Shrek's Grumpy. Shrek is a grumpy, sarcastic loner while Donkey is a kind, cheerful friend.
• Good Parents: He and Dragon are nothing but doting and loving to their five dronkey babies.
• Goofy Buckteeth: The buck-toothed Donkey consistently plays the role of the comedic relief.
• Happily Married: As the Beta Couple, he and Dragon enjoy a more stable relationship than the two ogres...
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Shrek — despite their occasionally rocky relationship, they're ultimately really good friends who'll always have each other's backs.
• Hidden Depths: Despite appearing to be an annoying simpleton, he's much smarter than one might assume. Not only does he see past physical appearances quite well (especially considering he ends up falling in love with a dragon) but he provides the crucial What the Hell, Hero? moment during the finale of the first film to wake Shrek up from his depression.
• Honorary Uncle: To Shrek and Fiona's children. When Fiona announced to Shrek that she pregnant, Donkey was elated that he was going to be an uncle. He proves to be this by playing with them and bringing his kids over for playdates.
• Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action: Obviously implied by his choice of life partner and his four 'little mutant babies!' It’s best we don't think about it.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: The reason why he keeps annoying Shrek in the first film and doesn't understand that Shrek wants his privacy. He's just happy to hang out with someone.
• Informed Flaw: While begging for his previous owner not to sell him off, he promises that he won't be as stubborn as a mule again. After this scene, Donkey rarely, if ever, proves himself to be a stubborn character, in fact coming across as more agreeable than his other friends.
• Ink-Suit Actor:
  • He was created to look like a cross between Eddie Murphy and a Real Life donkey called Perry.
  • This role translates surprisingly well into the Latin American dub, where Donkey manages to act very much like an animated Eugenio Derbez.
• Innocently Insensitive: While he never means any offense, Donkey has a tendency to speak his mind regardless of what others might think. He has no problem calling Fiona's ogress form ugly in the first movie and casually admits in the second that everyone who meets Shrek (who at that point was distraught over King Harold trying to have him killed) wants to kill him.
• Interspecies Romance: With Dragon. She's a dragon and he's a donkey.
• Jerkass Ball: He's usually pretty friendly, but there are a few isolated moments where Donkey acts like a jerk for the sake of Rule of Funny. In Shrek 2 alone, Donkey goes out of his way to annoy Shrek and Fiona during the long trip to Far Far Away by repeatedly popping his mouth, and later on, he helps Shrek steal a nobleman's clothes.
• Keet: Donkey is a hyperactive, talkative, funny, sensitive donkey. He enjoys singing, idle chatter and often speaks ebonics, but proves to be rather annoying to those around him (especially Shrek).
• The Lancer: Whether he's much help to The Hero varies, but he's always by Shrek's side nonetheless and plays off the ogre's grumpy personality.
• Large Ham: He is extremely outgoing especially in The Third and Forever After.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Despite him being incompetent most of the time in the film series, he does have a few heroic feats, especially in Shrek 2 where he prevented the magic potion from breaking, and in Shrek Forever After by carrying the main allies in a cart.
• Light Is Good: Briefly turns into a white horse in the second movie.
• The Load: Though friendly and well-meaning, Donkey's naivety and incompetence almost always lead him to become a liability to the heroes. In the second film, when Shrek tries to steal Fairy Godmother's potions and asks him to keep watch of the room's door, Donkey proceeds to open the door and accidentally alerts the guards. Later on, when the heroes are spying on Fairy Godmother and King Harold, Donkey is surprised to find out Charming is the villainess' son and yells, giving away their position.
• Loose Lips: Twice in the second movie. The first was when he revealed to Fiona’s parents that Shrek is from a swamp. The second was when he (as a stallion) blurted out "mother" when he, Shrek and Puss in Boots were spying on Fairy Godmother, Prince Charming and King Harold.
• Magical Negro: Despite being a donkey, he lives up to this trope subliminally being voiced by a Black man and speaking with frequent AAVE. He fulfils this trope only in the first film of the series when he helps Fiona as well as Shrek to have more confidence in themselves and by judging them by their values and not by their physical appearance.
• Manchild: While Donkey is a fully grown, adult animal, he still behaves like a very hyperactive child.
• Moment Killer: When Shrek and Fiona lean in for an Almost Kiss, his head pops in between and he states how romantic the atmosphere is.
• Morality Pet: To Shrek, as his determination to become friends with him eventually led Shrek to become a nicer, more open person.
• Motor Mouth: Which annoys everyone, especially Shrek. Not even covering Donkey's mouth will stop him. It's summed up when he meets Fiona.
  Donkey: Hi, Princess!
  Princess Fiona: It talks!
  Shrek: Yeah, it's getting him to shut up that's the trick!
• Never Learned to Read: In Shrek the Third, he has trouble pronouncing Worcestershire, which is the name of the high school, but when Shrek tells him the correct pronunciation he says "Like the sauce?" implying he couldn't read it rather than not knowing how to pronounce it.
• Nice Guy: As grating as he can be, Donkey is a loyal and kind-hearted being.
• Non-Action Guy: Unlike Shrek, Donkey prefers to stay away from combat or conflict whenever he can, which makes sense given he's just a talking donkey. The few times he does get into action, it's when he has no other choice but to fight.
• Non-Human Sidekick: To Shrek, being a talking donkey to his grumpy ogre.
• No Sense of Personal Space: He loves getting up in Shrek's face, apparently oblivious to the latter's discomfort whenever he does so.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Whenever he stops being jolly, you know things are serious, like during his What the Hell, Hero? moment towards the end of the first movie.
• Plucky Comic Relief: His main role in the film series is to relive tension with his comical actions and statements.
• The Pollyanna: If his stories are to be believed, he hasn't been very well treated in the past. Despite this, he shows pretty much enthusiasm over everything and is never put down by Shrek's sarcastic insults. This could be that he's Sarcasm-Blind, but the calling out he does to Shrek at the end of the first film could imply that he's fully aware of Shrek's bad demeanor; he just chooses to ignore it.
• Positive Friend Influence: Donkey's annoying, that much is certain, but he's also a great supporter who knows what to say when his friends are feeling down. This helps him help Fiona feel better about herself when he accidentally discovers the nature of her curse, and while he and Shrek start off the wrong foot - mostly on Shrek's end - Donkey's friendship allows the ogre to develop into a nicer character by the climax of the film.
• Rude Hero, Nice Sidekick: The Nice Sidekick to Shrek's Rude Hero. While his talkativeness can be grating at times, one would be hard-pressed to find a friendlier and more caring guy.
• Sanity Ball: Shrek will occasionally try to do something mean and receive a glare from Donkey.
• Sarcasm-Blind: Much to Shrek's irritation.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Does this in Scared Shrekless during Puss's version of the story they were telling.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Donkey is the Sensitive Guy to Shrek's Manly Man. Shrek is blunt, strong and unapologetically crass, while Donkey is kind, loyal, and very attuned to others' feelings.
• Shipper on Deck: For Shrek and Fiona.
• Sidekick Creature Nuisance: Small only by comparison to Shrek, but he fits this trope, right down to being called a "Dense, irritating, miniature beast of burden". He lampshaded this in Shrek 2.
  Donkey: (to Puss) I'm sorry, the position of Annoying Talking Animal has already been taken!
• Smart Ball: In Forever After, the alternate Donkey tells Shrek about his knowledge he knows about Rumpelstiltskin's contracts, and at one point gives Shrek the answer by folding the ogre's contract, suddenly finding the clue to Shrek's situation.
• Stubborn Mule: He is implied to be one of the stubborn donkeys from Aesop's fables, as the first time we see him he is about to be sold into bondage by his owner, promising to never be stubborn again. After this, Donkey's stubbornness is mostly an Informed Flaw, as he's generally pretty agreeable and willing to do some dangerous feats. He is stubborn in one regard, though - making friends with Shrek.
• Sweet Tooth: Really likes sweet foods, especially parfaits.
• Talking Animal: A talking donkey, and the only non-anthro animal in the series that talks.
• Territorial Comic Relief: In Shrek 2, Donkey is initially hostile toward Puss-in-Boots, believing he's going to take his place as Shrek's Funny Animal Sidekick.
• Those Two Guys: With Puss in The Third.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: The tiny (donkey) guy to Dragon's huge girl.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Waffles, as a result of flanderization based on a comment he made in the first movie. Also parfaits, to a lesser extent — he named one of his children after them.
• Uncle Tom Foolery: One of the only characters in the Shrek film series with an African-American accent besides Cookie in the fourth film. In addition to his accent, he displays traits of this type of character trope by being cowardly, goofy and annoying.
• Undying Loyalty: After Shrek saved Donkey from the knights in the first film, Donkey instantly becomes attached to Shrek. Even after putting up with his abuse and after their falling out, Donkey still is willing to forgive Shrek and is willing to risk his own life for him.
  Donkey: Because that's what friends do. They forgive each other!
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Shrek: they constantly insult and banter with each other but are best friends regardless. It's best shown in their discussion after they drink the Happily Ever After potion in Shrek 2.
  Donkey: And let's face it, you are a lot easier on the eyes. But inside you're still the same old mean, salty, cantankerous, foul, angry ogre you've always been.
  Shrek: And you're still the same annoying donkey.
  Donkey: Yeah.
• Waxing Lyrical: He has a tendency to burst into song. While he does sing rather than just say the lyrics, they always flow naturally from whatever he was previously talking about, so it still counts.
• What the Hell, Hero?: While he is Shrek's best friend, he does lay it into Shrek when he's done something really cold and selfish. In the first film, he called Shrek out for blocking people out and for being a jerk, and in Shrek 2 when he yelled at Fiona in their fight in the castle and generally being inconsiderate.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Donkey is shown to be fearful of heights in the first movie.

Princess Fiona

Princess Fiona

Voiced by: Cameron Diaz (films, Shrek the Halls and Scared Shrekless), Holly Fields (games and Shrek: Thriller Night) ^{Foreign VAs}Nuria Mediavilla (EU Spanish), Dulce Guerrero [speaking], Diana Alonso [singing] (Latin American Spanish), Barbara Tissier (EU French), Norika Fujiwara (Japanese), Fernanda Crispim (Brazilian Portuguese), Esther Schweins (German), Jiang Duhui [1], Angela Chang [2 onward] (TW Mandarin), Tsang Sau Ching (HK Cantonese), Helena af Sandeberg (Swedish)

Appearances: Shrek | Shrek 2 | Shrek the Third | Shrek Forever After

"By night one way, by day another, this shall be the norm. Until you find true love's first kiss, then take love's true form."

^{Click here to see her human form.}

^{Click here to see her in the alternate timeline.}

Princess Fiona is the princess of Far Far Away, the daughter of King Harold and Queen Lillian, and Shrek's wife from the end of the first film on. She begins the series as a beautiful princess who transforms into an ogress every night when the sun sets. At the end of the first film, the transforming spell is broken and she permanently takes the form of an ogress when she realizes that Shrek is her true love.

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• Action Girl: Unlike princesses of fairy tales, she is an expert in hand-to-hand combat with knowledge of Japanese martial arts. Apparently, it came from her mother.
• Adaptation Species Change: Played With. While her book counterpart was an ogre from the start, Fiona in the movies was born a human and only turns into an ogre at night because of a witch's curse. However, at the end of the first movie, she becomes an ogre full-time, bringing her in line with her book counterpart.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Shrek's love interest in the book was as hideous as Shrek there. But Princess Fiona is beautiful both as a human and as an ogre. Unlike Shrek with his prominent gut and top-heavy build, Fiona's build as an ogre is relatively stocky and muscular, a possible "translation" of her small and lithe build as a human.
• Adipose Rex: Happens to her, along with Shrek when they were filling in for the King and Queen, as well as next in line for the throne in The Third.
• Affectionate Parody: Fiona is initially portrayed as the archetypal princess from fairy tales, speaking formally in matters of courtship and presenting high expectations of how she is to be rescued, who is to rescue her, and so forth.
• Almost Kiss:
  • With Shrek in the first movie, before Donkey ruins the moment.
  • She has this twice with Prince Charming in the second film while she thought he was Shrek, both interrupted by Fiona putting a rose in her mouth and the real Shrek barging in, respectively.
• Amazonian Beauty: Her alternate self from Forever After is the warrior leader of an Ogre Resistance against Rumpelstiltskin's reign, and she's shown to be just as bulky as she is beautiful.
• Animal Lover: She's on good terms with Donkey, for one thing; while her alternate self treats Puss well pampered like a housecat, for another.
• Ascended Extra: While an ogre princess did appear in the book, it was only near the very end. Here, she's a distinct character in her own right and happens to be one of the main characters of the series.
• Babies Ever After: By the end of the third film, she has three kids (two boys and one girl) with Shrek.
• Badass Adorable: Beneath the facade of an innocent Princess Classic lies a headstrong Ladette with amazing kung-fu skills, whether as a human or an ogre.
• Beautiful All Along: Throughout the first film, she shows to be self-conscious of her ogre form and believes that she's a monster. Not only is she not hideous like she believes, Shrek affirms that he loves her for who she is and she's beautiful all the same.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: Fiona is very kind and caring as she is cute, pretty and beautiful.
• Beware the Nice Ones: While she may indeed be a kind, compassionate and loving woman, accustomed to that of a Fairytale Princess, she has a bit of a quick temper and can throw down with the best of them if you irk her too much.
• Big Beautiful Woman: When she's an ogress. However, it may be because she's muscular looking; as revealed with her alternate self in Forever After.
• Braids of Action: Of the single braid variety.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Gentle Girl (kind and nurturing) to Shrek's Brooding Boy (secretly insecure and lonely).
• Character Development: Goes from wanting a cliche fairytale ending of having her Prince Charming slay the dragon guarding the castle she was imprisoned in, to learning to love Shrek for who he is. She even becomes an ogre full-time.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: She did throw a mermaid that was kissing Shrek into shark-infested waters. To be fair though, she was making out with Shrek before the tide came in.
• Comedic Sociopathy: From singing so high to make birds explode in the First Chapter to tossing a mermaid to a gang of sharks in the Second Chapter.
• Cute Monster Girl: She's still quite pretty for an Ogress, lacking the comical ugliness she had in the original storybook in favor of very soft features.
• Damsel out of Distress: She went along with her parents' suggestion, even when that meant imitating the classic Damsel in Distress, but ever since she roughed up Robin Hood it's been clear that she's actually the other kind.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Cursed by a witch and was forced to live in a secluded tower for her own protection.
• Dating What Daddy Hates: In the second film, Shrek correctly predicts the hostility her father will show him for being an ogre. He gets better, though.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Starts off grouchy and bitter towards Shrek for failing to meet her dream fairytale standards, but quickly warms up to him after the two realise each other's Hidden Depths - Shrek and Fiona eventually fall in love and get married, and Fiona becomes a Nice Girl for the rest of the series.
• Doting Parent: Fiona adapts quickly to motherhood and loves her children dearly.
• Easily Forgiven: She does not hold it against her parents at all that they locked her in a tower, and is surprised when they do not accept her ogre self as an adult.
• Et Tu, Brute?: In The Third, the betrayal of her and the other Princesses by Rapunzel, who was in love with Prince Charming.
• Everyone Has Standards: Fiona is one of the nicest characters, but even she is shown to get fed up with Donkey's talkative nature. This is shown well in scenes of the second movie when Donkey keeps asking if everyone is "there" (Far Far Away) yet (heck, if you pay close attention to the "are we there yet" scene, you can hear Fiona answer "no" to Donkey in an angered tone).
• Expository Hairstyle Change: While the hairstyle change itself isn't seen in-universe, she wears her hair down in Forever After's alternate universe as part of the ogre warrior clan.
• Fiery Redhead: Stated outright by the Magic Mirror in the first movie. That said, most of Fiona's petulant behavior is just after she's been rescued; she evolves to be rather calm and compassionate despite her ogre-like manners (and later appearance), and isn't as temperamental as her husband (who is bald as an ogre and brunette as a human). Played straight with her Alternate Universe counterpart in the fourth movie, where she is way more quick-tempered than her main counterpart.
• Gasshole: One of the first things she and Shrek ever bond over is belching ability.
• Girl in the Tower: She's been resigned to a secluded tower in the first movie because of her curse. Shrek is assigned to rescue her.
• Girls With Mustaches: In Shrek 2, she has a quick visual gag of her shaving her face alongside Shrek. Justified since she's an ogre.
• Girly Bruiser: Being a graceful princess doesn't stop her from being a good fighter who can defeat Robin Hood and his crew on her own.
• Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: Being born as a princess, Fiona acts like a Proper Lady, has a sweet personality, wears dresses, and likes fairy tale romances. It's revealed over the course of the first movie that she's also a martial arts expert with gross manners that one wouldn't expect from a girl, like the ability to burp even louder than Shrek. She and Shrek resultantly get along very well, and she loves her life with him as an ogre in his swamp.
• Good Parents: With Shrek at the end of the third film, and the start of the fourth. She loves her children dearly and has a much easier time adapting to parenthood than Shrek.
• Happily Married: With Shrek, even through the tough times.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: She is really petite compared to Shrek, even when one or the other switches species.
• Ink-Suit Actor: Somehow manages to be this in both her forms. She even provides the page image.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: She's more innocent and gentle than Shrek, and has the light blue eyes to match.
• Interspecies Romance: With Shrek when she's still human during the day.
• Involuntary Shapeshifting: The nature of her curse meant she transformed into an ogre at sunset and back into a human at sunrise, with there being nothing she could do to influence the transformation. The only known ways to control the transformation were True Love's Kiss (which locked her into her ogre form) and the Happily Ever After potion (which caused her and Shrek to become human until midnight).
• Kiai: She exclaims a lot when showing off her martial arts, taking a few notes from Bruce Lee.
• Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: She doesn't take off her dress to do martial arts, not that it ever impedes her.
• Kind Hearted Cat Lover: For all her jerk behavior towards Shrek in Forever After, she's revealed to have adopted Puss whom she adores and is very affectionate towards like any cat owner.
• The Lad-ette: Shrek brings this nature out of her as the two bond over his messy activities in his swamp.
• Lady of War: Feminine and graceful while doing her Waif-Fu. This is a major reason Shrek falls in love with her.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: The fact that she's a female ogre^note albeit being originally human, but locked into this form due to her True Love's Kiss being from Shrek was probably the biggest twist of the first film, but it's common knowledge for anyone who started watching since at least the second film.
• Letting Her Hair Down: As the leader of the ogre resistance in Forever After, Fiona has her abandoned her regal braids in favor of having a Barbarian Longhair.
• Like Parent, Like Child: With her mother Lillian. Both are very feisty and assertive and talk to their husbands in a similar way. Fiona also seems to have inherited her fighting skills from her mother.
• Locked Out of the Loop: For the majority of the second film, she has no idea about Shrek's quest to try to become someone that her parents would approve of, and by extension, the true plan of the Fairy Godmother.
• Meal Ticket: To Lord Farquaad, who only wanted her title. The same was true with Prince Charming, who only wanted to marry her to become king of Far Far Away as well as his mother, the Fairy Godmother, who wanted to rule as queen mother.
• Modest Royalty: Despite being the princess/would-be-queen of Far Far Away, Fiona would rather live with Shrek and their ogre babies in their humble swamp.
• Morality Pet: For Shrek. Thanks to her, he turned from a grumpy ogre who wanted to be left alone to a hero of Far Far Away.
• Ms. Fanservice: As a human; she's modeled after her voice actress Cameron Diaz, who was very popular at the time for her attractiveness. Human Fiona has a notably pronounced chest and derriere, and wears a rather low-cut dress in the first movie. Also, her ogress form has an even larger chest, and shows more cleavage.
• My God, What Have I Done?: A minor one in the first movie. She initially expresses her resentment towards Shrek due to how she was rescued by an ogre, and not a handsome prince as she had thought she would. She then eavesdrops on Shrek and Donkey in the middle of the night, and listens to Shrek's sadness over how virtually everyone treats him like dirt due to being an ogre. Remorseful over her behaviour, Fiona makes Shrek and Donkey breakfast as an apology, and soon begins to like Shrek for real.
• Nice Girl: Fiona has a sweet and compassionate character which balances out Shrek's more abrasive personality.
• Nighttime Transformation: A witch cursed her to transform into an ogre every night and revert back to a human at sunrise.
• Only Sane Woman: While she can have her naïve or stubborn moments, she's the generally more level-headed and wiser person in most scenarios. Also, she is more patient toward Donkey than others.
• One-Woman Army: After having enough of Monseiur Hood and his Merry Men's song, Fiona attacks them and beats down every single one of them without any difficulty.
• Out of Focus: In Shrek 2 and Shrek the Third, she serves as a supporting character.
• Pregnant Badass: In Shrek the Third. She isn't any less of an Action Girl when she becomes pregnant and even starts a rebellion with the other princesses.
• Pretty Princess Powerhouse: She establishes this by taking out Robin Hood and his Merry Men by herself in her beautiful green dress. As an ogre, she's even stronger.
• Princess Classic: Deconstructed; she does possess most of the traits you'd see of the archetype, being kind, beautiful, innocent, and destined to marry her true love. But the expectations of living up to this have completely consumed her life, and she starts to panic when the events of her rescue-her rescuer being an ogre and who wants nothing to do with her at first. And the fact that she's an ogre, something clashing with the "ideal" princess image, causes her endless anxiety.
• Protagonist-Centered Morality: She probably didn't mean to feed Ariel to the sharks for accidentally frolicking with Shrek. The fairies, though... she's perfectly fine trapping them in jars.
• Rags to Royalty: A Snow White, kept in a tower until her curse is reversed.
• Redhead In Green: Her most iconic outfit is a green dress. Bonus points for green skin in her ogre form.
• Rescue Introduction: Shrek and Donkey meet Princess Fiona when they rescue her from her tower.
• Rescue Romance: Shrek was meant to rescue her so she could marry Lord Farquaad, but they ended up falling for each other instead.
• Seduction-Proof Marriage: Fiona has had admirers when she was a beautiful human. But even when offered the chance to be with other men, she is clearly only interested in Shrek.
• Shapeshifter Mode Lock: She was originally cursed to turn into an ogre at night, only to turn back into a human during sunrise, which was something she had no control over. Kissing Shrek, and eventually falling in love with him, causes her to take the form of her true love - in this case, an ogre.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Fiona fell in love with Shrek after she overhears his speech and realizes that he's actually a kindly guy.
• Slapstick: Fiona can sometimes fall victim to this.
  • In the first film, she gets shaken out of her sleep by Shrek who came to rescue her and gets carried by Shrek for not wanting to be rescued by him and even shaken by him and he then drops her. She and Shrek later get into a playful shoving fight and it ends with Shrek forcefully shoving her down.
  • In the second film, she gets dropped again by Shrek when Donkey appears again. She also gets pestered by the possessed objects when she meets the Fairy Godmother.
  • In the third film, when she was filling in for queen, she had her nose hairs plucked, a corset tightened on her and a collar forcibly put on her neck.
  • In Forever After, when she and Shrek spar, she gets attacked a few times, comically like Shrek.
• Suddenly Always Knew That: She had to keep busy somehow while locked away. Guess that Dragon allowed her some personal space.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: She stands several heads taller to Lord Farquaad, the man who sought to marry her. But it's subverted once she realizes she loves Shrek.
• Tomboy Princess: In the first movie, Princess Fiona was already The Lad-ette even before she turns into an ogre permanently. However, she almost loses this trait as of Shrek 2.
• Took a Level in Badass: In the alternate timeline in Forever After, after spending years locked inside the dragon's keep with no one to come and rescue her, Fiona took matters into her own hands and escaped herself, which forced her to survive on her own. She ended up becoming a warrior strong enough to be the leader of the ogre resistance against Rumpelstiltskin's rule over the land.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: In Forever After, the Princess Fiona of the alternate universe became a stern, serious Rebel Leader after she stopped believing fairy tales from waiting forever in Dragon's Keep for her true love to come.
• Tritagonist: To Shrek's protagonist and Donkey's deuteragonist, although this role is shared with Puss in the sequels.
• True Love is Exceptional: Fiona was a princess who wanted a cliché fairytale ending of having her Prince Charming slay the dragon guarding the castle she was imprisoned in, rescue her from the highest room in the tallest tower, and giving her a True Love's Kiss that would break the curse on her (turning into an ogre at night). She ends up with Shrek, who is as far from Prince Charming as you can get, and their kiss ends up turning her into an ogre permanently (which she's actually okay with). Then the sequel comes along and Fiona is offered the chance to be with Shrek forever — in human form. Her answer?
  "I want what every princess wants. To live happily every after... (Shrek leans in to kiss her, but she stops him.) ...with the ogre I married."
• Tsundere: In the first movie, she is this towards Shrek; being distrustful and fiery towards him before she overhears his conversation with Donkey, apologizes for her behavior and gives him a chance. This trait comes back in Forever After, since she never was rescued by Shrek, doesn't trust him and is very rude with him (giving him a taste of her fighting skills along the way). Thankfully, she warms up to him during the course of the movie and falls in love with him all over again.
• Unexplained Accent: Her parents and most of Far Far Away speak with English accents but she speaks with a Hollywood American accent for some reason. It could be from growing up in the tower and not being around anyone.
• Unwitting Pawn:
  • In the first movie, Lord Farquaad only wanted to marry Fiona so his plan of becoming king will work. Shrek explained this to her at the near end of the film.
  • In the second movie, Fiona was unknowingly used by the Fairy Godmother regarding her plan to get her to fall in love with Prince Charming so the latter can be king.
• Uptown Girl: A princess who falls in love with a commoner ogre.
• Violently Protective Wife:
  • In the "Accidently In Love" montage in the second movie, some angry people were able to capture Shrek's foot in a net when he and Fiona were in a forest. Fiona leaped in and kicked the asses of the angry townspeople to protect Shrek.
  • In the third movie, when Fiona learns Charming captured Shrek and plans to have him killed in front of the entire kingdom, she gives a Rousing Speech to the princesses, break out of their jailcell and kick some ass on the way to the castle in order to rescue her husband.
• Visual Innuendo: Princess Fiona licking spiderwebs from her fingers could be innuendo for licking off ice cream after it has already been melted.
• Walking Spoiler: For the first movie: she wasn't revealed to be cursed to be an ogre until midway through the film. Although now everyone knows the twist.
• Warrior Princess: In Forever After, the alternate Fiona, while renouncing her status as a princess, becomes the leader of La Résistance against Rumpelstiltskin.
• Weight Woe: Inferred in the Shrek 2 game, where her character bio states her weight as "top secret".
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: She assumed that her parents would accept Shrek right on the spot, but was proven wrong at the drop of a hat. They do eventually realize that she and Shrek belong together.
• Woman Were-Woes: Fiona's existence as a princess were-Ogre grants her far less autonomy than Shrek is given. At least at first.
• Youthful Freckles: As a human, Fiona always has these.

Puss in Boots

Puss in Boots

Voiced by: Antonio Banderas (films, Shrek the Halls and Scared Shrekless, English, Italian, EU and Latin American Spanish), Eric Bauza (The Adventures of Puss in Boots Netflix series, The Trident, and DreamWorks All-Star Kart Racing), André Sogliuzzo (games and Shrek: Thriller Night) ^{Foreign VAs} Sergio Gutiérrez Coto (trailers, Scared Shrekless, and Donkey's Caroling Christmas-tacular), Luis Daniel Ramírez [The Adventures of Puss in Boots] (Latin American Spanish), Manuel Tadros (Canadian French), Boris Rehlinger (EU French), Naoto Takenaka [Puss in Boots], Koji Yamamoto [The Last Wish] (Japanese), Benno Fürmann (German), Alexandre Moreno (Brazilian Portuguese), Jin Yonggang (PRC Mandarin), Ku Ming Wah (HK Cantonese), Chen Xusheng [speaking], Wang Xihua [singing] (TW Mandarin), Wojciech Malajkat (Polish), Andrey Bibikov (Russian), Rafael Edholm (Swedish)

Appearances: Shrek 2 | Shrek the Third | Shrek Forever After | Puss in Boots | Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

"Fear me, if you dare!"

"He was known across the land by many names: 'The Stabby Tabby'! 'El Macho Gato'! 'The Leche Whisperer'! To some — an outlaw. To more — a hero. To all — a legend."

Your favorite fearless hero. Loosely based on the fairytale character Puss in Boots as well as being a kind of parody of Zorro, he is a smooth-talking cat with a Spanish accent, usually wearing a cavalier's hat, a belt with a sword, a small black cape, and small Corinthian boots. Puss first appears as a supporting character in Shrek 2, and has been a major one ever since the later installments rolled around, including two spin-off films and a television series dedicated to him. He often overpowers his enemies by distracting them with his "cute kitten" looks. He also exhibits common cat behavior such as coughing up hairballs and chasing spotlights, usually resulting in his defeat or capture.

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• 10-Minute Retirement: In The Last Wish, his near-death experiences pushes him to retire to live with a Crazy Cat Lady, and over the course of time, he loses his dignity and grows a shaggy beard. When Goldilocks comes looking for him and he finds out he has a chance to get his lives back with a wish, he comes out of retirement to track the Wishing Star down.
• Absurdly Sharp Claws: Puss is often seen cutting neat holes in glass windows with a single claw.
• Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: He only wears a hat, a belt, and boots.
• Adaptational Badass: His fairy tale counterpart did kill an ogre, but only by tricking him into turning into a mouse and eating him. This version, however, took on Shrek (who'd been established as an excellent fighter by the time of their confrontation) in personal combat and nearly won fair and square. And his other feats throughout the franchise show that this was not a fluke. This stands in contrast to the literary Puss, who never showed any kind of exceptional combat prowess, and got ahead purely through guile.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: He makes a cameo in the musical, even though it's based on the first movie.
• Adaptational Nationality: He originates from an Italian (later French) fairy tale, but he's depicted as Spanish in the Shrek movies. Played straight, as he is from San Ricardo, in Spain, and Antonio Banderas gave him a Spanish accent and voiced him in English, Spanish and, from Shrek the Third to Puss in Boots, in Italian.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: When he's at Shrek's mercy after trying to assassinate him, Puss comically begs for his life, all the while trying to come up with a sob story that he was Only in It for the Money to support his family.
• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: A Drunk on Milk example. Puss' third death has him fall from a great height after getting tipsy from drinking so much milk.
• Amazon Chaser: After learning that the masked cat, Kitty Softpaws, was a woman, he was immediately impressed by her skill.
• Ambiguously Bi: In the second movie, when he hears the Ugly Stepsister describe how handsome Prince Charming is, he replies with "Mmm. He sounds dreamy." Also, his behaviour during his dance-fight with Kitty, even before realizing she's a woman, could be interpreted as flirtatious, with Puss asking her if she "could feel him" being interpreted as a way of Puss attempting to create a romantic atmosphere. That being said, he also flirts with Fiona and has a female love interest in his spin-off films.
• Anti-Hero: When he first appeared, he had no qualms about murdering Shrek for money. However, he shows a clear sense of ethics by joining Shrek in gratitude for saving him and quickly becomes a good guy for the rest of the series. The Last Wish presents an iteration of him that is a more genuinely heroic figure but also one who's let the adoration he's received go to his head, giving him a new character arc to go through.
• The Anti-Nihilist: Down to his last life and being hunted by Death himself, Puss has earned a new fear of dying, but after bonding with Perrito and rekindling his relationship with Kitty, he learns to appreciate his life. When Death comes one last time, Puss decides to not run and fight to live, even starting to gain the upper hand, but what he says that earns the Wolf's respect makes him this:
  Puss In Boots: I know I can never defeat you, Lobo, but I will never stop fighting for this life.
• Art Evolution: Puss takes on a more stylized appearance in The Last Wish compared to his design in previous installments in order to fit with that film's aesthetic with Painted CGI elements. The most notable change, however, comes in the form of his eyes, which have become larger and more expressive compared to previous films. His outfit also received some updates, with the sun-shaped button on his cape being replaced with a larger, cat-shaped one and his belt now being black instead of brown. Also, while previously he barely wore his cape because it was difficult to animate, this time he gets to keep it for almost the entire movie.
• The Artifact: He initially appears in the franchise when approached for his experience as an ogre-slayer, a reference to the original Puss in Boots fairytale in which the main villain is an ogre. After quickly befriending Shrek, his long career as a killer of the protagonist's species never comes up again. While his prequel film had the working title Puss in Boots: The Story of an Ogre-Killer, that aspect of his past is never mentioned.
• Awakening the Sleeping Giant: Played With in two of his battle encounters in The Last Wish.
  • At the beginning of the film, he inadvertently awakens the Sleeping Giant of Del Mar with the fireworks he lights at the Governor's house (which he was using as a (flashy) tactic to fight an already ongoing fight with the Governor and his men), causing the giant to go on a rampage where Puss ends up paying with his eighth life.
  • As it turns out, Puss' reckless handling of his nine lives's importance has reached such a boiling point, Death, the ultimate neutral in the afterlife, has thrown away any of his regulations to just reap Puss' last life while indulging in sadistic relish at instilling fear into the erstwhile braggadocious feline, all the better to prolong his agony.
• Badass Adorable: Well, he IS a cat, but also one of the most feared and skilled in the series.
• Badass Boast: In The Last Wish, the opening number and a few other times have Puss bragging that he's "never been touched by a blade" in any of his fights. He's even spun around on a wheel with party guests trying to stab him, and no one can land a hit. This lasts until his first battle with the wolf, who manages to get a cut on the cat's forehead. Though the cut only drew a single drop of blood, Puss recieves it hours after he learns he is on his last life, which causes him to lose his nerve and run off.
• Badass Cape: Dons one from time to time. He has a tendency to lose it in the earlier films due to it being difficult to animate, but advances in technology during the 11-year Sequel Gap with the first Puss in Boots film allows him to keep it for most of The Last Wish.
• Baritone of Strength: Has a deep and husky voice in spite of being a cute little cat, courtesy of Antonio Banderas, and while maybe not the physically strongest character, he is nonetheless an experienced sword fighter who can take on enemies much larger than him.
• Beard of Sorrow: In The Last Wish, he grows a shaggy beard during his time living with Mama Luna. He tries to maintain it after coming out of retirement, arguing that it's "distinguished", but eventually gets so sick of how itchy it is that he begs Kitty to get rid of it midway into the film.
• Because You Were Nice to Me:
  • In his youth, Puss defended Humpty from bullies because the former defended Puss from said bullies.
  • In The Last Wish, he initially finds Perrito to be a nuisance and a way to get to the Wishing Star. However, after Perrito helps Puss calm down from a panic attack and offers advice on his issues, Puss begins to appreciate and become protective over his new friend.
• Big Brother Mentor: During his stay in San Lorenzo in the Netflix series, he took up this role for the children of that town (to their glee and to the ire of Senora Zapata.)
• Blasphemous Boast: Puss always brags of how he 'laughs in the face of death', which on hindsight, is very dangerous to do in a world where myths and fairy tales are real, and concepts can take physical form. Sure enough, The Wolf who's been hounding Puss is revealed to be none other than The Grim Reaper himself.
• Bravado Song: He gets one in The Last Wish, "Fearless Hero".
• Break the Haughty: The beginning of The Last Wish is dedicated to this: after he loses his eighth life, he refuses to retire despite the doctor's suggestion, but is then on the receiving end of a Curb-Stomp Battle courtesy of a bloodthirsty bounty hunter Wolf. He loses his rapier trying to escape and, realizing his next death will be permanent, chooses to retire and become an ordinary housecat at Mama Luna's, losing his dignity in the process. It gets even worse once he realizes the bounty hunter that's chasing him is actually Death himself coming to collect him for his prior arrogance, which unnerves him so significantly he nearly abandons all of his nobility and friendships just to save himself with the wish. It's only after finally realizing he's more than just the legend he's built himself up to be thanks to the people around him over his journey that Puss finally pushes himself out of the terror he's going through and returns to form as he confronts Death with newfound courage to fight for his last life in earnest, literally.
• Breakout Character: He was a supporting character who first appeared in Shrek 2 as an assassin on Shrek and Donkey's life before making amends and joining them as a trio in all the other sequels. Audience and critics alike gave him credit for stealing the show and he received his own spin-off movie as a result, which performed well enough for him to later get a TV series and an even more ambitious sequel film.
• Brought Down to Badass: In the altered timeline of Forever After. Even after gaining some serious weight due to being pampered for years, he is able to kick butt during the climax after putting his gear back on.
• Bullying a Dragon: Puss repeatedly mocked the literal Grim Reaper by putting himself in dangerous situations while saying he always laughs at death. Puss did this out of hubris because he had the knowledge that he had his remaining 9 lives to fall back on if he doesn't make it. When he's down to his 9th and final life, Death himself decides to pay Puss a visit and believes that since Puss always laughed at him, the least Death can do is kill Puss in a final blaze of glory through a duel.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Shrek the Third had Puss receiving his fair share of mishaps from ending up wet and poofy after the shipwreck to swapping bodies with Donkey for the majority of the chapter to being accidentally diapered by Shrek and being handled roughly by the ogre triplets (the latter which he reluctantly accepts in Shrek the Halls).
  • Puss also gets the short end of the stick in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. He suffers humiliation during his retirement at Mama Luna's house^note Named "Pickles", sprayed for his non-catlike behavior and wearing mittens, his "distinguished" beard doesn't do it for him^note It gets stuck in one of the pie factory's machinery and ends up itchy, followed by receiving humorous knockouts ^note Kicked in the face by Kitty and suddenly receiving a blow by Papa Bear, and ends up covered in confetti gore of Jack Horner's Baker's Dozen more than once.
• Calling Your Attacks: He has one named attack, the "Spanish Splinter", wherein he stabs a giant character in the thumb under the nail. Though he sensibly only calls the attack after it finds its mark.
• Captain Ersatz: Of Zorro, another character that Banderas portrayed at one point and which Disney was also connected to; this one is pure Affectionate Parody. In Forever After's alternate universe, he becomes a Garfield expy.
• The Casanova: Towards female cats. And human women, as it turns out.
• Cats Have Nine Lives: As shown in The Last Wish, he had nine lives, but lost eight of them due to his arrogance and bravado clouding his judgement. His goal in the film is to find the Wishing Star to restore his previous lost lives. By the end of the film, he comes to accept his mortality and truly cherish his life and the people in it, and no longer seeks to wish for more lives.
• Character Catchphrase:
  • "Pray for mercy from Puss... in Boots!"
  • "Fear me... if you dare!"
  • "Holy Frijoles!” He says this in both of his solo films when he is surprised.
  • "Watch!" is his catchphrase for when he's specifically Tempting Fate. Every time he's said it after making a boast, he's either failed comedicatly or outright died from whatever he was attempting.
• Character Development: He starts off as a very heroic and humble outlaw in his first film. However as he became more beloved, he developed an ego. During the events of The Last Wish, Puss comes to realize how lonely his life is and how selfish he had been to prioritize his legend over his friends and romance with Kitty. Upon given the choice to fight off Death or wish for more lives, Puss thinks back to what he's experienced, and comes to cherish reuniting with Kitty and his friendship with Perrito, so he chooses to fight. Upon disarming Death for the first time, Puss admits he'd never truly defeat him yet will fight for his last life. This earns Puss a chance to live his last life out to its fullest, accepting that he will die for real someday, and spend his last life with the people he cares for.
• Characterization Marches On:
  • He's introduced in Shrek 2 as an Boisterous Weakling assassin hired to take out Shrek, only to be quickly and pathetically taken out after coughing a hairball and only participating in a smattering of minor fights on behalf of the ogre. Then the first Puss in Boots fleshes out his backstory as a legendary outlaw who's defeated countless foes, making his ineffectual first appearance a bit jarring. The Last Wish tries to rectify this contrast by explaining he had a Heroic BSoD between his first film and Shrek 2 because of his guilt from leaving Kitty at the Altar.
  • In general, Puss in Boots has primarily been portrayed as a staunch Anti-Hero who does morally dubious things for the sake of benefiting himself or helping someone he cares about. By contrast, The Last Wish depicts Puss as a legitimate hero willing to save others, even if he is still as pompous and aloof as before.
• Cheaters Never Prosper: The second way he lost a life in The Last Wish was by cheating in a poker game against four dogs.
• Chick Magnet: The ladies, either human or feline, are smitten with him.
• Combat Pragmatist: Puss is more than willing to use underhanded tactics to win whatever fight he's in, ranging from attacking his foes' weak points with his claws to using his adorable appearance to distract them.
• Commended for Pushback: Puss stands up to Death, who is the authority on when it's everyone's time to die, and tells him he's not afraid of dying anymore and values his final life. Death spares Puss out of respect, acknowledging he has changed.
• Commitment Issues: Played for Laughs in Puss in Boots, where the movie starts with him mismembering the name of a cat he was spending the night with. Played for Drama in The Last Wish, where it's revealed that he stood Kitty up on their wedding because he was scared of settling down. This caused a rift in his and Kitty's relationship and became one of Puss' biggest regrets.
• Composite Character: He is a composite of the fairy tale Puss in Boots (name and species) and Zorro (wardrobe, swordsmanship, and suavity).
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Compared to Shrek, Puss is different from the ogre in every way.
  • Whereas Shrek is an overweight, relatively ugly ogre, Puss is a cute and slim tabby cat.
  • By personality, both the ogre and cat are smart-mouthed and well-meaning, but Shrek has a short temper while Puss is more calm.
  • From their backgrounds, Shrek's childhood was rough as he was raised by a somewhat monster of a father who once tried to eat him. Later growing up, he was shunned by the world for how he was judged by his appearance and he lived with it ever since. Puss, on the other hand, was a kitten found on the doorstep of the San Ricardo orphanage and happily raised by his adopted mother Imelda. As a teenager, he was branded a hero after saving the Comadante's mother from an escaped bull up until he was roped in for robbing the town's bank and had to run from the law, along with carrying that burden with him since then.
  • In combat, Shrek relies on his strength. Meanwhile, Puss has advantage in his agility and rapier sword.
  • On ethnicity, Shrek speaks in a Scottish accent, while Puss has a Spanish accent.
• Cool Cat: An orange tabby cat who is also a swashbuckling, cool-headed, charismatic Dashing Hispanic who is popular with the ladies.
• Cool Sword: A traditional rapier. He upgrades to a more ornate model featuring a cat head on the pommel for his spin-off films.
• Cute Kitten: He is a small housecat and pretty adorable as a result, which he's been known to exploit. Multiplied ten fold in the flashback to his childhood, where he's a literal kitten.
• Cuteness Proximity: The common reaction to his "kitty" mode is this trope. It even works on Shrek!
• Dance Battler: As displayed in his Dance-Off with Kitty in his film, he can seamlessly blend dancing and fighting, all while perfectly in time with any music playing in the background.
• Dark and Troubled Past: His spinoff movie delves into his previous life — he was abandoned as a baby and was taken into an Orphanage of Love where he was raised by the kindly caretaker and befriended Humpty. However, his life became more troubled when his friend tricked him into stealing his home's money. Unable to explain the situation, he fled, and ended up as a feline Gentleman Thief. And later on, he somehow ended up as an assassin for hire.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Especially after his Heel–Face Turn.
• Dashing Hispanic: As voiced by Antonio Banderas. Puss comes from the Shrek universe's version of Spain and has a noticeable accent to go with it. He is also a swashbuckling adventurer who can take on enemies much larger than him. He is also pretty suave and popular with women, cat or human.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of the Showy Invincible Hero. Puss' devil-may-care, irresponsible, and self-celebrating lifestyle is taken apart from different angles in The Last Wish. For one thing, he's blown through eight of his lives and now needs the Wishing Star for them to be restored if he wants to keep being an adventurer. Not to mention the many careless and outright stupid ways Puss has died along with his claim of "laughing in the face of death" literally pisses Death off to the point where the Grim Reaper wants to personally end his final life. Meanwhile, it's also revealed that Puss and Kitty Softpaws were to marry, but they both got cold feet and never showed up at the church: Puss because the responsibility scared him, and Kitty because she felt Puss could never love her or anyone else as he does his own legend. She therefore wants the Wish for someone she can count on. Puss eventually comes to realize just how sad his situation is when confronted with images of his lost lives.
• Defeat Means Friendship: In Shrek 2, Puss is hired by King Harold to assassinate Shrek. However, unlike his fairy tale counterpart, he does not try to trick the ogre into changing into a mouse, but instead makes a direct, frontal assault on Shrek, which works up until the feline gags on a hairball, spitting it up. Shrek and Donkey spare his life, and Puss proposes to the ogre he owes a life debt to him, in thanks. Although there is some tension/rivalry between Puss and Donkey (who seems nervous that Puss is taking his place as "annoying talking animal"), the three eventually become close friends and allies.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: At the climax of The Last Wish, Puss says to Death's face that he's no longer scared of him and accepts his duel, and ends up triumphing over Death fair and square. Although he still concedes that he can't truly defeat Death, he also states that he will not stop fighting for his final life.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Downplayed. Puss knows he ultimately can't win and is just delaying the inevitable, but punching, disarming and fighting off The Grim Reaper himself has got to count for something.
• Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: Puss made a legacy for himself by putting himself in danger and telling the people that he laughs at death. After losing eight of his nine lives, Death challenges him to a duel for insulting him and forces Puss to retreat after backing him into a corner.
• Do Not Go Gentle: This trope forms the climax of his Character Development near the end of The Last Wish. Trapped in a barrier of Hellfire by Death himself, the latter taunts Puss asking him if he will use the Wishing Star and "Run away to more lives" or if he will stand up to him and fight for the last one he has left. Flashing back to his journey with with Kitty and Perrito reignites his fighting spirit, so he drops the map, picks up his sword and performs what is, without a doubt, the greatest feat of his nine lives: Fighting Death to a standstill and earning his respect.
• Doorstop Baby: He ended up this way as a kitten, when the winds carried his basket right to the doorstep of Imelda's orphanage.
• A Dog Named "Dog": A pussy cat named Puss.
• Drink-Based Characterization: Milk. Whenever he's shown drinking in an establishment, particularly a bar, Puss can always be seen with glass of milk. Justified, as since he's a cat, he would love milk.
• Drunk on Milk: Despite the high amount of milk he drinks, this has only happened to him once, and it was when he lost his third life in The Last Wish. After going tipsy after drinking too much milk, he tries to show that cats always lands on their feet and walks off a building, that turns out to be a tower.
• Dual Wielding: In the climax of the last battle with Death, Puss manages to turns the tide by bringing out Kitty's gatito blade and going on the offensive by attacking with both his rapier and the dagger, managing to disarm Death of his sickles.
• Dub Name Change:
  • In the French dub, he's known as "Le Chat Potté" (or just "Potté" for short). The reason behind this is, because he signs his name with a P (for "Puss in Boots"), the translators had to find a way to make his name start with that same letter. And they did so by making it a Punny Name : in French, Puss in Boots (as in, the original fairy tale character) is known as "Chat Botté". But since Puss also wears a hat, they decided to go with that pun because "Chat Potté" sounds exactly like "chapeauté", which is an adjective meaning "hat wearing". His Spanish accent further accentuates this, because a Spaniard saying "chat botté" out loud would pronounce it in a way that sounds like "chat potté".
  • In Polish dub, while he is still usually referred to simply as a "Kot" ("Cat/Puss") or "Kot w Butach" ("Cat/Puss in Boots"), his actual name is "Puszek Okruszek". The former literally means "fluff" and it is — appropriately enough — a common name for a cat (or other fluffy housepet) in Poland, while the latter translates to "crumb" (as in "a crumb of bread", for example). He introduces himself thusly in his very first scene in Shrek 2 when fighting eponymous hero. The reason why translators came up with that name is the same as above — it suits the zorro-esque "P" sign he carves with his sword, while simple "Kot" does not.
• Earn Your Happy Ending:
  • His spin-off stories reveal a tragic Dark and Troubled Past where he was abandoned as a baby, betrayed by his best friend who framed him as a thief, and despite experiencing several adventures as a hero, he still ends up as an assassin in Shrek 2. However he befriends Shrek in that film which leads him to become a beloved member of the family, and for the first time in years Puss is able to relax around people he can trust.
  • Again in The Last Wish; after losing eight of his nine lives and spending years so immersed in his own ego that he didn’t believe his life had any meaning if he wasn’t a famous legend, so much so it even cost him his relationship with Kitty Softpaws, he is forced to literally fight for his last one when the literal personification of Death itself shows up to take it personally. Fortunately, after a Heel Realization, he snaps out of his funk and manages to win the right to live out his life, getting a new friend/therapy dog in Perrito and reconciling with Kitty.
• Easily Forgiven: After beating the ever-loving crap out of Shrek, the latter does not do much in revenge other than threatening to kill him. Shrek agrees to let him help them out.
• Enemies with Death: In The Last Wish, Puss's greatest personal adversary ends up being The Grim Reaper himself in the form of the Wolf, who he's been unknowingly pissing off due to arrogantly wasting the extra lives he gets as a cat and claiming himself an immortal legend who "laughs in the face of death" — thus, Death decided to test that notion and tries to take his last life personally. This conflict ends amicably, however; once Puss shows Death he's undergone Character Development and humbly accepts his mortality in the climax, the latter gives into his honor and spares Puss, wishing him well with his final life until they inevitably meet again.
• Entertainingly Wrong: A non-comedic example in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. When he first meets the Wolf as the latter takes out a wanted poster of him and points to the word "Dead", Puss immediately comes to the conclusion that the Wolf is a bounty hunter who wants to kill him to claim the reward on his head, which the Wolf does not deny. It's not until they meet again in the Cave of Lost Souls that Puss finds out to his horror that the Wolf is actually Death himself.
• Everyone Has Standards: While Puss wanted nothing to do with Perrito (at first) and was very annoyed that he followed him on his journey, Puss is appalled when Perrito explains (without realizing it) that his previous owners attempted to drown him.
• Expansion Pack Past: Thanks to having two spin-off movies and a TV show that lasted for four seasons. Puss has been an assassin, a thief, a wandering hero, protector of a small town, has had several "true loves" and multiple places he calls home, has his own Rogues Gallery...
• Face Death with Dignity: A literal example. When trapped in a ring of Hellfire by The Grim Reaper himself in the form of a deadly Wolf, Puss is given a choice: take the coward's way out by wishing for his eight lost lives back, or pick up his sword and fight Death himself. After reflecting on the events of the last life he has and realizing the value in it, Puss chooses option 2. Even then, although he fights as hard as he can and manages to temporarily disarm Death, Puss acknowledges that he can never truly defeat him, thus accepting his own mortality. This earns him Death's respect and mercy, as the reason Death wanted to take Puss's final life himself rather than let him die naturally was to punish the cat for arrogantly believing he was immortal. When Death warns him We Will Meet Again, Puss acknowledges this without fear or hesitation, showing that he's fully accepted that We All Die Someday, even a legendary hero like him.
• Fatal Flaw: Pride. Puss believes himself to be a Showy Invincible Hero, and he's not exactly wrong when he believes that he's good at what he does. But this consistently gets Puss in trouble.
  • In Shrek 2, the antagonism and upstaging of Donkey ends up making Shrek's quest harder since the two animals are constantly at each other's throats. It takes Shrek screaming at the two of them and seeing how badly things are going that finally convinces Puss to back off.
  • In The Last Wish, he's wasted eight of his nine lives on frivolous pursuits and really dumb ways to die. So when Puss meets a Bounty Hunter on his final life that puts him on the wrong end of a Curb-Stomp Battle, the cat's belief of invincibility is shattered. And considering that the bounty hunter in question is actually The Grim Reaper, Puss can never truly defeat him. Also, Kitty Softpaws calls Puss out on how the only person Puss loves is himself, given that he's arrogantly trying to avoid any consequences of his actions by wishing for his lives back and left her hanging at the altar because he was too scared of committment to anything except his legend as a badass.
• Fat Comic Relief: In Shrek Forever After, the alternate Puss has retired and taken on a few pounds along the way. His weight gain is a prime source of humor in the fourth chapter.
• Fearless Fool: In The Last Wish, Puss is shown to casually disregard threats to his life such as running bulls or having people stab knives around him while spinning on a roulette table, all the while boasting about how fearless he is. This ended up making him lose eight of his nine lives, and is what angers Death enough for him to hunt him down personally.
• Fire-Forged Friends: At first, he was hired by King Harold to kill Shrek, but it didn't take long before he became a loyal friend to the latter.
• First Injury Reaction: In his Bravado Song at the start of The Last Wish, Puss boasts that he's never been touched by an opponent's blade. This changes soon after when he meets the Wolf, who manages to outclass him in combat and get a nick on his forehead, complete with blood. This experience, combined with the knowledge that he is down to the last of his nine lives, traumatizes Puss and sends him scurrying for his life and leaves him terrified of the Wolf, to the point that one encounter sends him into a full blown panic attack.
• Formerly Fit:
  • In the alternate universe of Shrek Forever After, Puss gave up on being a swashbuckling adventurer and became Fiona's house cat, gaining a lot of weight in the process and losing his athletic abilities.
  • In one of his past lives, Puss was really into physical fitness and had a very muscular build, but he arrogantly claimed to not need a spotter when attempting to bench press a massive weight, which led to his death. He's never been that bulky before or since.
• Friend to All Children: Puss has a fondness for children. He doesn't steal from orphans, happily takes the Three Diablos under his wing for a while to show them the right path, allows himself to be the Butt-Monkey for Shrek and Fiona's children, and specifically promises a child in The Last Wish he will save him.
• Fully-Dressed Cartoon Animal: In the prequel.
• Funny Animal: He can walk like a human, hold a sword in his paw, and dress himself.
• Furry Reminder:
  • He's prone to meowing and purring, randomly coughing up hairballs and getting distracted by spotlights and small objects.
  • In moments of fear or surprise, he'll hunch over on all fours as his hackles raise.
  • He drinks from a glass like a cat would from a saucer, lapping it up with his tongue.
  • Picking him up by the scruff will leave him completely defenseless.
  • In The Last Wish, his hair bristles when he gets scared, most precisely of The Wolf.
• The Gadfly: He became a hero of the people by targeting the rich, powerful, and corrupt members of society. But everything he did was because he felt safe because of his nine lives, if something went wrong for him then he could just use another life and try again.
• Glass Cannon: Cats are very fast on their feet, and Puss has the power to match with his sword. However, he's easily defeated if caught off-guard — he had Shrek on the ropes during their initial confrontation in Shrek 2 until he coughed up a hairball, leaving him helpless for Shrek to pick up.
• G-Rated Drug: Occasionally with catnip serving as a substitute for marijuana, at one point claiming it's for his glaucoma.
• Gratuitous Spanish: And then some.
• Guyliner: in The Last Wish, black streaks go down his face when he cries, meaning he wears some kind of eye make up.
• Hating on Monday: Puss claims he hates Mondays while having a drink at the Poison Apple.
• Hats Off to the Dead: Zigzagged in Shrek the Third during King Harold's passing. As he has a few Disney Deaths before expiring, Puss switches between having his hat on and taking it off.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: Downplayed. When he infiltrates Jack Horner's pie factory to take the map, he has to resort to using a stick as his weapon after he left behind his blade out of fear for the Wolf. It looks useless, but during the escape from the factory, he actually manages to use it to defend himself against Baby and Mama Bear. Unfortunetaly, the same trick doesn't work so well against Papa Bear.
• Heel–Face Turn: He starts out as a hitman who gets paid to assassinate Shrek, but after being defeated, he allies up with him and Donkey for the rest of the series.
• Hero of Another Story: He's the main character in his own movies.
• Hitman with a Heart: He's introduced in Shrek 2 as an assassin, but it becomes clear pretty soon after his introduction that his heart is really not in that sort of business, including befriending his target.
• Human Cannonball: Deconstructed. Puss' fifth death has him literally fire himself out of a cannon, claiming it would "revolutionize travel" (and apparently because he didn't want to admit that Kitty saved him from being fired out a cannon by pirates). Since this is shown in a Death Montage, it doesn't end well.
• Hypocrite Has a Point: The fact that the second past life who calls out the Wolf for cheating the rules of life and death by claiming his last life early died due to cheating at a game of poker doesn't change that Death is absolutely overstepping his boundaries. Tellingly, Death just casually shatters the crystal with that life, somewhat mockingly saying "Shh... Don't tell."
• Iconic Outfit: The hat, the cape, and of course the boots are all essential to his look, and most characters in the series recognize it as such. He goes so far as to bury the outfit when he decides he's not worthy of the legend anymore.
• Iconic Sequel Character: He made his debut in Shrek 2 and has become one of the most beloved and important characters of the franchise, to the point he got two spin-off movies and a TV series all for himself.
• Idiot Hero: Although he isn't completely stupid compared to the likes of Donkey (who is illiterate, known to mispronounce words, and is often portrayed as a fearless fool) and Pinocchio (who is a child desperate to be a real boy), Puss in The Last Wish is shown to be arrogantly wasteful and lacking foresight. Eight of his nine lives were wasted on deaths that were completely avoidable and increasingly idiotic, ignoble, and frankly disappointing for someone who calls himself a "fearless hero". His deaths range from being trampled by bulls after stopping to flirt with a woman, to firing himself out of a canon to “revolutionize travel”. These deaths were so idiotic that death itself took corporeal form to challenge him to a duel for mocking him and undervaluing his nine lives.
• I Hate Past Me: In The Last Wish, while trapped in the Cave of Lost Souls, being mocked for his Jerkass Realization by his past lives, Puss straight up tells them that they are jerks, which he admits gives him very conflicting feelings.
• In Name Only: While most of the other fairy-tale characters in the Shrek series are direct parodies of their original (and Disney) counterparts, Puss has nothing in common with his namesake aside from being a cat that wears boots. He has a completely different backstory, neither of his solo films adapt his source material in any way, and while the original character was a cunning manipulator and con-man that didn't do any fighting, this version of Puss is a honourable, swashbuckling action hero.
• Interspecies Romance: He is entirely happy to flirt with human women. And they are, it seems, entirely happy to flirt back. Best not to think about it.
• I Owe You My Life: In Shrek 2. After Shrek spares his life, Puss feels indebted to him and joins him until he pays off his debt during the climax of the movie. Having bonded with Shrek and Donkey during this time, he sticks around for the rest of the series after this.
• Ironic Echo: When first hunted by the Wolf in The Last Wish, the Wolf kicks Puss' sword back to him and demands that he pick it up to continue the fight. Puss instead runs for his life. In the climax, as Puss is fighting the Wolf (who had told him to be Death himself beforehand) for his last life, he kicks one of Death's sickles back to him and tells him to pick it up. Puss does this to show Death that he knows he can't win, but he'll keep fighting him.
• Irony: He states he is "nobody's lap cat" in The Last Wish... but funnily enough was Fiona's (out of all people) lap cat in the alternate timeline from Forever After.
• I Work Alone: Deconstructed in The Last Wish. He desperately wants to live up to being a legendary icon, but this leads him to a devil-may-care, irresponsible, and self-celebrating lifestyle where, despite being adored by the masses, is completely alone. Especially since he got cold feet when he was about to marry Kitty Softpaws; as Kitty says, he loved his legend more than he coud love anyone else. Being in the Cave of Lost Souls and meeting his past lives forces Puss to realize this flaw within himself.
  Puss: ...Yeah, Puss in Boots works... alone. Was the legend so big... there was no room for anyone else?
• Jerkass Realization: During The Last Wish, he encounters phantoms of his previous lives in the Cave of Lost Souls...who tell him to abandon his friends and that he works best alone when he asks them for directions to said. He is horrified when he realizes just how arrogant and callous he's been.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
  • Puss is arrogant and morally flexible at times, but he's heroic and caring for his allies and loved ones, and is always willing to protect the innocent.
  • Puss in Boots: The Last Wish goes deep into this trope, as it shows that Puss can also be quite egotistical and selfish when it comes to his desperate desires. His "heart of gold" side is played up during his Character Development in the film, especially after he opens up to Perrito.
• Ladykiller in Love: Puss is a huge flirt with the ladies (human or cat), but he finds true love with Kitty Softpaws.
• Latin Lover: A Dashing Hispanic voiced by Antonio Banderas who is portrayed as being quite the ladykiller among cats and even among human women.
• Large Ham: He'll never pass up a moment to act larger than life be it singing, dancing, playing with his opponent in a duel, or dropping a Catchphrase whenever he can.
• Leitmotif:
  • "Annoying Talking Animal" from Shrek 2, more specifically, the first 30 seconds. This part is heard in the recurring gag of him making cute eyes to plead with someone or lower their guard.
  • Last Wish gives him "Favorite Fearless Hero", a boastful and festive theme that plays in the beginning number and can be heard in other pieces of the soundtrack.
• Living Forever Is Awesome: A variant, Puss in Boots has 9 lives and he's been using those lives as an adrenaline junkie who made his catchphrase "Puss in Boots laughs in the face of Death". However, when he's down to his 9th and final life, Death decides that since Puss has been so ungrateful and unappreciative for having 9 lives, Death may as well take the last one personally through a duel.
• Lonely at the Top: In The Last Wish, it's implied by the conversation he has with the Doctor that while Puss is very popular and seen as a town hero, he doesn't have any real friends outside of Shrek and Donkey, and has nobody to rely on in his hometown during his time of need because he was incredibly selfish and took his friends for granted.
• Lovable Rogue: Puss is an outlaw and a former assassin who's been known to steal and even has a bounty on his head. That said, he is also really cute, entertaining and charismatic and ultimately has a strong moral code and sense of honor. He also didn't exactly enter a life of crime by his own volition at first, being influenced and manipulated by his friend Humpty as a child and teenager.
• Mad Libs Catch Phrase: In Forever After, after retiring and taking a few pounds:
  Puss: [to Shrek] Feed me... if you dare!
• Manly Tears: Seeing his current life flash before his eyes when Death confronts him for the final time, making him remember his journey and bonds with Kitty and Perrito causes him to shed a Single Tear, which also reignites his fighting spirit and makes him declare that he's done running.
• Master Swordsman: He's skilled enough to duel several men in a sword fight at once, and quick enough that he can slice through almost anything in the blink of an eye. The Last Wish, in order to put him in a more vulnerable state through the plot, takes away his sword, depriving him of his most valuable tool. At the end, he gets it back, and with his renewed resolve, he actually duels Death to a draw. While he can't ultimately beat Death, as he freely admits, he intends to give him the fight of his existence for this life, and thus does more than enough to earn the Wolf's respect.
• Momma's Boy: Puss has nothing but deep love and respect for his adoptive mother, Imelda. His alternate self from Forever After is also very loyal and caring towards Fiona.
• Morality Pet: A literal example to the Alternate Fiona from Forever After. While she's rude and cold towards Shrek, she's nothing but a loving and caring owner towards Puss.
• Mortality Phobia: His main struggle in The Last Wish is with the realization that he is on his last life and has an extremely dangerous bounty hunter who is literally Death on his tail. Puss goes into a 10-Minute Retirement the second it hits him that he could very well die permanently, and he goes on his journey to find the titular wish so he can wish for his wasted lives back. He somewhat overcomes it by the end, at least enough to fight Death head-on despite knowing he cannot possibly win. Thankfully, this manages to earn Death’s respect — as well as take away any satisfaction he would get from claiming Puss’s final life — deciding to leave him alone.
• Mundangerous: Puss is established as a heroic, badass daredevil who's among the best swordsman in the realm. Yet one of his deaths is from 4 seemingly normal dogs (as normal as they can be in such a fantastic world) who presumably gang up and rip him apart. That's like Bruce Wayne getting beat up by 4 common street thugs.
• My Greatest Failure: In The Last Wish, he gets one that hangs over his and Kitty's relationship for much of the movie. They were supposed to get married, but he got cold feet and left her at the altar. He's been too ashamed to face her since then.
• Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Inverted. Some of the franchise's most heartwarming and/or funny moments come from when his eyes start to widen and dilate, even to the point where the soundtrack slows to a soothing melody.
• Noodle Incident: How he became famous for killing ogres has yet to be shown in his prequel stories, though presumably it was in similar events to the original fairy tale.
• Not Afraid of You Anymore: What ultimately proves to Death that Puss is no longer the egotist who thinks he's untouchable anymore. Upon their final confrontation, instead of becoming terrified or his claims of "laughing in the face of Death", Puss just stares down with intent to fight for his life.
• Not So Stoic: Throughout Shrek 2, Puss generally acts as a stoic, fearless warrior that's loyal to Shrek at all times. Yet, when Shrek and Fiona affirm their love for one another as ogres instead of humans, even Puss himself is Trying Not to Cry at what's happening.
• Oh, Crap!: To say that Puss is struck with fear everytime he hears the whistle from Wolf is an understatement. He gets broken every time he hears it.
• Only Friend: Humpty lampshades that Puss was his only friend in their hometown.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Puss experiences this during The Last Wish. After his near-death experience with the Wolf, who later reveals to him to be Death himself, Puss, known for being a Fearless Fool, experiences genuine terror for the first time, coupled with his various panic attacks when he sees the Wolf throughout the movie, and his terrified confession to Kitty about why he's trying to get the wish near the climax.
  Puss: (terrified) Kitty, Death is after me!
• Out of Continues: The Last Wish confirms that after recklessly wasting his other eight lives, Puss is now on his ninth and final life, and consequently suffering Mortality Phobia, hunting for the Wishing Star to get his lives back - though being hunted down by a thoroughly irate Death does rather contribute to this. By the end of the film, he stops being afraid and decides to accept it, intending to live this life to the full.
• Papa Wolf:
  • In The Three Diablos, Puss becomes rather protective of the titular diablos after their Heel–Face Turn, especially when he encounters their Bad Boss The Whisperer.
  • In The Last Wish, Puss starts to care for and protect Perrito after warming up to him and learning his Dark and Troubled Past.
• Personality Powers: Puss is an adrenaline junkie who loves gaining the admiration of people by performing dangerous feats. So it would make sense that he would have 9 lives as a form of Resurrective Immortality. When he loses all but the very last of them in The Last Wish, he ends up undergoing significant Character Development.
• Playing Up the Stereotype: Puss's signature move is to give people Puppy-Dog Eyes so that people will do as he says and/or spare him due to viewing him as cute and innocent, like a stereotypical Cute Kitten.
• Plot Allergy: One of his nine lives was taken by an allergic reaction to shellfish.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: Puss has some disdain for dogs, though not to the point of outright hating them. He worriedly claims to Jill that dogs made up the notion cats always land on their feet. In The Last Wish, one of his past lives makes a disgusted comment that Puss has befriended a dog (Perrito); by the time he befriends the mentioned canine, Puss loses this trait.
• Pride: One of his main flaws before meeting Shrek. In The Adventures of Puss in Boots, many problems are caused by Puss insisting he has to be the best at everything, refusing to ask for help, or unwilling to listen, thinking he knows better. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish deconstructs this; his pride and bravado has previously driven him away from friends and allies, caused him to frivolously waste eight of his nine lives, and even offended The Grim Reaper himself enough to personally go after him.
• The Problem with Fighting Death: Puss's catchphrase was that he always laughs at death and omitted the part that he had 9 lives to fall back on if he didn't make it. The problem is that Puss spent those lives frivolously by walking off a tower to prove cats land on their feet, setting an oven too high to prove himself a master baker, eating shellfish despite having an obviously fatal allergy, firing himself out of a canon out of arrogant pride, and stopping in the middle of a running of the bulls to chat up a woman. When he's on his last life, Death challenges him to a duel for insulting him and did this with the full knowledge that Puss didn't have the safety net of a spare life to fall back on. Puss lost in the first duel and had to retreat before Death claimed him and had been running from Death at every meeting. When Death finds Puss at the star, he gives Puss his sword back, and the two duel. With renewed confidence, Puss does actually beat Death but admits that while he can never defeat Death, it won't stop him from fighting for his last life. This ultimately makes Death respect Puss and decides to leave him alone.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: His big sad kitten eyes are very effective; in fact it's what got him on Shrek's good side in the first place. Unfortunately, it isn't quite as effective when he tries to do it in The Third while in Donkey's body.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Doesn't mind Fiona dressing him with a pink bow in Forever After.
• Resurrective Immortality: As The Last Wish shows, Puss has 9 lives, as do the other cats in the franchise, and for the first eight lives he'll always come back with a full recovery whenever he dies. Once he's on his last life, then he can die permanently.
• Retired Badass:
  • The alternate Puss in Forever After had given up his days of being Puss in Boots in favor of being Princess Fiona's housepet.
    Puss: ...hanging up my sword was the best decision of my life. I have all the cream I can drink and all the mice I can chase.
  • He's forced to retire for real at the beginning of The Last Wish, albeit in the form of a 10-Minute Retirement. Having lost eight of his nine lives, he has a near-death experience with the Wolf and decides to give up his adventuring lifestyle for a while to be an ordinary housecat.
• Runaway Groom: As revealed in The Last Wish, at some point following the first Puss in Boots film, Puss and Kitty almost married. However, Puss got cold feet and never appeared at the church.
• Scars Are Forever: In The Last Wish, his first encounter with the Wolf leaves him with a scar on his forehead (over his right eye), which stays visible throughout the rest of the film.
• Sexy Cat Person: As seductive as cats stereotypically are, and voiced by Antonio Banderas himself.
• Shoulder Teammate: Occasionally travels on Shrek's shoulders, especially in Shrek 2.
• Signature Headgear: His yellow-plumed black cavalier hat is a core part of his iconic ensemble (what little of it there is, anyway).
• Signature Move: Puss has a tendency to spin in mid-air usually to show off his acrobatics or right as he's about to attack. Puss learned the move from his teacher El Guante Blanco, and it has an actual name: "The Spinning-through-the-air" trick.
• Sixth Ranger: Or fourth ranger. Joins the original trio and is there to stay.
• Staring Down Cthulhu: After telling Death that he'll keep fighting him to preserve his last life for as long as possible despite knowing he can never defeat him, Puss stares down Death when he growls at him, proving to him that he's no longer the same egotistical cat who arrogantly thinks he's immortal. This earns him both Death's respect and the chance to live out his last life.
• The Smart Guy: To the main cast. He is very clever, cunning and pretty street-smart.
• Talking Animal: A talking cat.
• Temporary Bulk Change:
  • In Shrek: Forever After, thanks to Shrek's reality-altering wish, Puss turns from a slender and agile swashbuckler to an overweight spoiled pet cat.
  • Puss in Boots: The Last Wish shows Puss having been a Fitness Nut in one of his previous lives, with that specific incarnation being much more muscular than his current self. He lost that life by being overconfident in his physical strength, causing him to drop a massive barbell on his chest after he refused to get help from a spotter.
• They Killed Kenny Again: Deconstructed. In The Last Wish, it's shown he has a Resurrective Immortality for nine lives, and will always come back if he has at least one life to spare. The problem is that Puss wasted those lives by doing things he should really know better about doing, like eating shellfish despite having an allergic reaction and lifting weights without a spotter. Death, offended by the fact that Puss was so wasteful with his previous eight lives, develops a vendetta against Puss and decides to claim Puss's last life personally.
• Those Two Guys: With Donkey in Shrek the Third.
• Time-Passage Beard: Combined with Beard of Sorrow in The Last Wish. Puss grows one during his time as Mama Luna's pet. Once he comes out of retirement, however, it's soon shaved off by Kitty.
• Too Dumb to Live: As shown from his Death Montage in The Last Wish, Puss' 8 deaths were completely avoidable if he wasn't arrogant and/or had the common sense of not doing reckless things with predictable results. This is why Death wants to cut out the middle man and take out Puss' last life personally.
• Took a Level in Badass: Since The Last Wish chronologically takes place after both the first Puss in Boots film and the main Shrek tetralogy, Puss' sword skills are magnified – the beginning of TLW has him skillfully take down the governor and his men, plus a sleeping giant, and at the climax of the film he fights Death to a standstill. Quite an upgrade compared to how he was portrayed prior to TLW.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: In The Adventures of Puss in Boots, Puss is portrayed as an extremely competent and clever hero, but naive and comically unintelligent about almost everything that doesn't fall under the purview of "heroing." To the point where he's useless when it comes to, say, making sandwiches. It doesn't help that, while he does have several areas of expertise, he's often convinced he's great at absolutely everything.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Downplayed in The Last Wish. While it is not hard to believe that Puss would come off as an egotistical hero, he's notably a bit more self-centered, irresponsible and narcissistic at the beginning of the film, as opposed to the main Shrek films, where he was almost always chivalrous, kind and loyal. He learns to get out of this attitude as part of his Character Development in the movie - and it makes a degree of sense, since the ego and the obsession with the legend go hand in hand with Puss being a solo act. When he actually spends time around others, he's kinder and more responsible.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Implied. He shows a hankering for gazpacho multiple times throughout The Last Wish.
• Tritagonist: He's interchangeable with Fiona as a trio with Shrek's protagonist and Donkey's deuteragonist.
• Underhanded Hero: He's a stealthy and cunning swordsman, who uses his size to his advantage in a fight, and who is more than willing to use his adorable appearance to throw his opponents off guard.
• Undignified Death: What made Puss's loss of his 8 lives into this trope is that none of them were remotely heroic or fitting for such an infamous rogue. All of them were avoidable, but due to arrogance, negligence, and borderline stupidity, he ends up causing them. They are, in order: stopping to flirt with a woman during the running of the bulls, getting mauled to death after being caught cheating during a card game with dogs, drunkenly walking off a tall tower to prove he can land on his feet, getting crushed by an overloaded gym weight because he refuses a spotter, trying to launch himself out of a cannon due to his impatience winning out over just waiting for his boat to dock^note actually due to not wanting to admit that Kitty saved him from being launched out of it, eating shellfish (which he is clearly allergic to) and continuing to doing so even after realising what it is, burning himself to death by accident due to intentionally overheating the oven, and getting crushed by the bell used in his fight with the giant because he was too busy basking in people's admiration to even notice it.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Averted in the general sense, but played straight at first when it comes to his nine lives. Despite being blessed with 9 lives as a cat and thus having far more opportunities than most people ever get to be alive, Puss never showed any gratitude for such a blessing, and arrogantly wasted his lives in incredibly stupid ways until he was finally on his last life.This is part of the reason why Death wants to kill Puss personally rather than let him permanently die naturally; since Puss didn't value any of his previous lives and has no real appreciation for the last one he has, Death sees no reason to let him keep it. Subverted by the end of The Last Wish, when Puss learns to value the last life he has and proves as much to Death, convincing him to spare Puss until they inevitably meet again for the last time.
• Violation of Common Sense: Subverted in The Last Wish. Puss lacked any appreciation or respect for his life, and relied on his nine lives to keep himself safe when he did various dangerous or idiotic things that resulted in his 8 deaths. Later when he holds the map to the Wishing Star, the Dark Forest's landscape was full of lethal obstacles that relied on him learning to appreciate his life; however, Puss (mostly out of fear) makes Perrito hold it because his journey is safer.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: He and Donkey are like this. They work well together as allies, but they still fight over being Shrek's best sidekick.
• Vocal Dissonance: He's a cute little kitty who uses his big, adorable eyes to trick his enemies... and has Antonio Banderas's husky, deep voice. The Dissonance is even more pronounced when he's talking while using his eyes or when he had that voice as a kitten in Puss in Boots (2011).
• Vocal Evolution: Given that The Last Wish was the first time in 11 years he has voiced the character, Antonio Banderas had aged considerably. As such, Puss has a deeper, more gravelly voice than before.
• Weak, but Skilled: Puss is a very skilled and experienced fencer, but without his sword he can be easily manhandled by humans or ogres. Despite his usual confidence, he comes to understand full well that he won't be able to fend off the Strong and Skilled Wolf forever.
• What Could Have Been: In-Universe. Before settling on his current name, Humpty thought of naming Puss Sparky, Whiskers, and Zoltar.
• Zorro Mark: He homages this in Shrek 2 by slashing a "P" into a tree. He draws a larger one on the ground when he defeats the Sleeping Giant in The Last Wish.

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