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Characters / Puss in Boots: Jack Horner

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"Big" Jack Horner / "Little" Jack Horner

Voiced by: John Mulaney Foreign VAs

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jack_horner__puss_in_boots__the_last_wish__by_smashupmashups_dfvkdag.png
"Oh, what a good boy am I!"

"Little Jack Horner didn't have ANY magic. He was a pathetic, buttered baker's boy. Little Jack's dead... I'm BIG Jack Horner!"

One of the antagonists of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Jack Horner is a pie maker and crime boss with a vast collection of magical weaponry. Once the titular main character of his nursery rhyme, he was born into wealth and privilege, but after his performance gets upstaged by more popular fairy-tale characters, Jack grew envious and bitter at the one thing he never had — magic. Jack finds the map to the titular Last Wish, which gets his factory raided by Team Friendship and Goldilocks. Leading his Baker's Dozen to beat them to the wish, Jack's desire is for all the magic in the world for himself and only himself.
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  • Abnormal Ammo: He has a crossbow loaded with baby unicorn horns instead of regular arrows or at least adult unicorn horns, because baby horns are less heavy, twice as sharp compared to adult horns, and can make people explode into confetti.
  • Accidental Murder: Jack (unintentionally) kills his first henchmen of the Baker's Dozen by shooting them in the butt with unicorn horns. However, he's not particularly bothered by this, as he has an arsenal of magic items at his disposal and plenty of men still.
  • Adaptational Jerkass: As bad as he is in the film, he is far worse in the junior novelization, which drastically changes his Laughably Evil persona to emphasize on his cruelty, most notably making him deliberately mistreat the Baker's Dozen for his own fun (instead of simply getting most of them killed by accident like in the film) and giving the Ethical Bug the full scope of his selfish wish and how it would destroy the magical world of Shrek.
  • Adaptational Villainy: While the original Little Jack Horner nursery poem has been interpreted as a critique of a child's spoiled behavior, it's never implied that Jack Horner himself would grow up to be a sociopathic mafia boss with evil plans to steal all magic in the world.
  • Age Lift: The nursery rhyme happened a while before the events from The Last Wish, and thus the film shows an adult version of the character, which is even reflected by him changing his title to "Big" Jack after he decides to steal all magic for himself.
  • All for Nothing: His entire adventure to claim the Wishing Star has him lose all of his Bakers Dozen, a majority of his magical items, and his life. To add insult towards his losses, he even loses his pie factory to Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Of course, it's hard to feel sorry for him since he's an unrepentant villain.
  • Ambiguously Human: He has pink skin that almost doesn't look natural and bizarre proportions, with the upper half of his body being considerably larger than the lower half. He's also much bigger than the other humans seen throughout the series, which may imply that he's actually some sort of giant — which would be ironic, given his resentment of fairytale creatures.
  • Antagonistic Offspring: Jack mentions that he had a loving family who cared for him, but it doesn't matter considering he is an Ungrateful Bastard who considers his parents to be on a list of "useless crap" that will never truly satisfy his desire to Take Over the World.
  • Asshole Victim: "What did I do to deserve this? I mean, what specifically? "
  • At Least I Admit It:
    • About the only positive Jack has is that he possesses an immense degree of self-awareness and doesn't even make an attempt to frame himself as a good guy. Upon the Ethical Bug declaring Jack to be irredeemable due to his heinous nature and crimes, Jack is unfazed by the accusation and merely annoyed with the Bug not realizing it earlier before flicking him away.
      Ethical Bug: (horrified by Big Jack's casual mistreatment of his henchmen) Oh... Oh, that was horrible! Your wish is horrible! (angrily points to Jack, who makes an evil smile) YOU'RE HORRIBLE!! You're an irredeemable monster!!
      Big Jack: (mock surprise) Wha-Wha-What took you so long, idiot?! (flicks the Bug away)
    • This is even exemplified in his place in the Central Theme. Nearly every key character wants the wishing star for a selfish or hypocritical reason and doesn't quite see the big picture or appreciate what they already have until after the climax, while Jack also has an extremely selfish wish, has more than he could ever need, and is quite open and nonchalant about it.
    • Also in the end, when he inadvertedly meets his demise:
      Big Jack: What did I do to deserve this? ...I mean, what specifically?
  • Attention Whore: His hatred of magical beings comes from the fact that the public paid more attention to them than they did to his performances promoting his family's business.
  • Bad Boss:
    • He rules his Baker's Dozen mostly through fear rather than respect, and when most of them end up meeting their doom in the Dark Forest, he's not the least bit bothered by it, even chuckling that "I'm not really stressing about the manpower". Eight of them die just because he uses them as a human bridge to cross a chasm, then tries to have his carriage driven over them as well. He considers leaving a ninth to fall to her death, sparing her only on her assurance that she wasn't "chatty" (he later leaves her to be disintegrated by the Wishing Star's barrier).
      Jack: Flex those glutes! I want a solid surface.
    • When contracting the Serpent Sisters to find the map for him, he promised that they'll be given "their weight in gold". When broaching the subject of payment, he lets Jo turn herself to gold with his Midas Touch hand, then "pays" Jan in the solid gold body of her sister. While it could be assumed that he only did so because Jo repeatedly annoyed him and made fun of him to his face, the fact that he specifically promised them "their weight in gold" implies that he never intended to pay them to begin with and would have just turned them into gold statues anyway.
    • His utter lack of regard for the lives of his men (even killing most of them through sheer accident), wanton cruelty, and unnecessary abuse of everyone around him is what eventually leads to everyone turning against him.
  • Bad People Abuse Animals: He keeps an arsenal of baby unicorn horns that he uses as ammunition for his crossbow, and the carriage he rides is pulled not by ordinary horses, but by unicorns with their horns cut off. He also makes it a point to complain how he hates talking fairytale animals when throwing a trident at Puss and Kitty, and is more than happy to fire his unicorn horns at other animals, as seen when he threatens to kill Perrito in an attempt to coerce Puss and Kitty in handing over the map to the Wishing Star. And that's not getting into how he treats the Ethical Bug and phoenix.
  • Badass in a Nice Suit: He wears a stylish purple suit all the time, even as he tears his way through the Dark Forest to get his wish.
  • Badass Normal: He has no magic of his own, but he owns a collection of magical artifacts and is able to use magic indirectly through them. In addition, he is a juggernaut of a man with enough Super-Strength to proficiently wield Excalibur, still encased in its rock pedestal, not as a sword, but as a maul.
  • Bag of Holding: He carries one around to hold his entire collection before setting off to the Dark Forest, and it enables him to be a have quite the Hyperspace Arsenal, which includes:
    • The mythical trident of Poseidon as a throwing spear
    • A hand from a gold statue of King Midas, still capable of turning anything it touches into gold
    • A crossbow loaded with unicorn horns that cause whatever they hit to explode into confetti
    • The magic pumpkin (from Cinderella) which he converts into a mechanized tank
    • The legendary Excalibur (which is still embedded in its boulder)
    • A living phoenix, which he wields as an improvised flamethrower
    • A wizard (possibly Merlin's) staff, which he uses like a semi-automatic rifle
    • Poisoned apples from Snow White... which function like high-explosive grenades
    • The hatchet used to cut down the magic beanstalk, though he doesn’t really get the chance to use it.
    • The shrinking potion and enlargement cookie from Alice in Wonderland, the latter of which he actually eats to make himself gigantic in the final battle.
    • Crystal balls he uses to keep tabs on Puss in Boots and his friends.
    • Jack also has a Magic Carpet in his office that Puss and Kitty use to try to escape from his factory.
    • Aside from all the weapons and gadgets, he also brings himself the glass slipper of Cinderella, which he dismisses as offensively useless, the spinning wheel that Sleeping Beauty pricked her finger on, which he also discards, and the Ethical Bug (an Expy of the cricket from Pinocchio), which he initially mistakes as an evil locust.
  • Bait-and-Switch Comment: As Perrito tries to convince him not to use his wish.
    Jack: It's so cute... (glares) how you think that would work on me!
  • Bait the Dog:
    • As a fearsome criminal boss, he shows himself to have a nasty temper that has terrible ramifications on those who legitimately anger him primarily due to his feeling insecure about being compared to fairytale creatures, can be pragmatic at times, and he partially humors the Ethical Bug with small talk—initially suggesting he’s suffered from his comparison to Pinocchio and wanted to make fairy tale creatures pay for his lack of respect. However, over the course of the movie, he slowly reveals that he is not only an egotistical, power-hungry man who treats his own men as collateral damage, but his insecurity is unjustified as he's largely unaffected by it, due to having a stable company and loving parents to rely on, which he regards as "useless crap" in the long run. He's also fully aware of his vile nature, and proceeds to mock the Ethical Bug for trying to change him.
    • This is condensed into the first few minutes of his screentime, too. The first thing Jack does in the pie factory before being brought the map is simply test the quality of a pie batch with his thumb, declare it satisfactory, and leave his employees to ship it out before welcoming the sisters carrying in the spoils. Pretty reasonable, right? Then he flips out at the sisters doing anything other than bringing him the prize, shows off his vast collection of stolen magical artifacts, and, when one of the sisters teases him about his "lame" nursery rhyme from childhood, "rewards" said sister by turning her into solid gold with the Midas Touch... and THAT'S when you realize what kind of villain he really is.
  • Become a Real Boy: Lampshaded. Seeing a large audience praise Pinocchio, Little Jack throws a temper tantrum, angrily questioning why the audience finds Pinocchio to be impressive when he had always been a real boy.
    Little Jack: What's impressive?! I've been a boy the whole time!
  • Berserk Button: Jo the Serpent Sister mockingly reciting the old nursery rhyme of "Little" Jack Horner (which reminds him of how he was a little non-magical boy who got upstaged by Pinocchio) in front of him really gets under his skin, to the point where his face visibly reddens.
  • Beware the Silly Ones: As laughable as Jack can be, he's still a monstrously strong man with a very large and diverse arsenal of magical weapons at his disposal, and has a cruel and sinister personality to match. He's also got the biggest on-screen body count of all the movie's villains. To put this in perspective, Jack is shown to be more unhinged and destructive than the Grim Reaper himself.
  • Beyond Redemption: After seeing his abuse of his men and the lengths he will go to get to the Wishing Star, the Ethical Bug declares him an irredeemable monster. Jack merely mocks him for not seeing it sooner. Fittingly, he is the only main villain to actually die in the film, with the cricket aiding in his defeat.
  • Big Bad Ensemble: One of the three main threats Puss must face in The Last Wish. However, unlike Goldilocks (who performs a Heel–Face Turn) and the Wolf (who spares Puss out of respect), Jack remains evil to the end.
  • Blunt "Yes": The Ethical Bug is baffled by the fact that Jack is going to shoot Perrito with a unicorn horn, and attempts to give Jack an Armor-Piercing Question to have the latter rethink his actions of murdering Perrito. Contrary to his expectation, Jack gives him a mere "yeah".
  • Body Motifs: Befitting his nursery rhyme, Jack is associated with thumbs throughout the film: his thumb is what first appears on-screen in his introduction as he uses it to pull out a plum, his thumb is constantly purple-stained due to how he taste tests his factory's pies, his hand, making a thumbs up, is what first gets out of his bottomless bag when he emerges as a giant, Puss and Kitty get him to drop the map by hurting his thumbs, and he gives a thumbs down as he succumbs to the crumbling Wishing Star, thus symbolizing his downfall.
  • Boom, Headshot!: He threatens to have Perrito shot in the head with a unicorn horn if Puss and Kitty don't give him the map to reach the Wishing Star. The Ethical Bug questions Jack if he’s going to shoot a puppy, in response Jack blatantly admits to the Ethical Bug that he’ll definitely shoot a puppy with a unicorn horn, in the face specifically.
  • The Bore: Due to constantly repeating his nursery rhyme, Jack quickly became this during his childhood, as shown in the flashback of him having almost nobody watching his performance and his parents looking tired of his rhyme. Considering that he inherited a successful business and claims to have lived in a mansion despite the flashback showing him working at a wooden wagon, the business may have actually thrived because Jack quit singing his nursery rhyme out of spite.
  • Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: Jack has Excalibur as one of his weapons. But because he's a monstrous bruiser unworthy of drawing it from the stone itself, his only option is to swing the entire thing like an improvised club.
  • But for Me, It Was Tuesday: As he meets his end, he asks what he did to deserve his fate. Of course, being as self-aware as he is, he clarifies what specifically.
  • Calling Your Attacks: He tends to call attention to whatever magic weapon he pulls out of his bag. He even lampshades it as a bad habit, after Kitty kicks him into the bag when he announces he's reaching inside it.
    Jack: Aww, I shouldn't have telegraphed it!
  • Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Discussed. He discusses with the Ethical Bug with deciding on whether Puss and Kitty should steal the map or kill them both immediately. The Ethical Bug can only question Jack Horner on whether he truly values life.
  • Card-Carrying Villain: Forget cards — he practically carries a neon sign on his back complete with fireworks, loudspeakers, and a Las Vegas Bellagio-style fountain that screams, "UNREPENTANT VILLAIN" from every angle — and he not only knows it, but relishes in it. When the Ethical Bug calls him "an irredeemable monster," he's not even offended, just annoyed that it took the Bug so long to come to that conclusion. During his death, he wonders which one of his heinous acts specifically was the reason why he deserves his fate because he has done many of them.
  • Carry a Big Stick: Since he couldn't pull Excalibur out and had to resort to digging up the stone it was stuck to, he has to use it less like a sword and more like a mace.
  • Casual Danger Dialogue: As the Baker's Dozen is being devoured and fighting for their lives against a Pocket Full o' Posies, Jack desperately looks inside his magic nanny bag to find magical items to battle against the posies. In the search, Jack finds the Ethical Bug, but when the Ethical Bug has no magical powers that can be used against the posies, Jack continues to look for more magical items. With Jack's men struggling to fight against the posies, the Ethical Bug warns Jack to do something to protect his men. However, he casually talks to the Ethical Bug that they don't matter to him and that all he needs is his magic nanny bag to finish his quest to find the Wishing Star.
  • Character Tics: Just like his nursery rhyme, he sticks his thumb into the pies he eats. Becomes a bit ironic in this being the last action he does before being consumed by the crumbling Wishing Star.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Jack briefly pulls out an "Eat Me" cookie out of his magical nanny bag during the attack of the Pocket Full o' Posies. He plans to use the cookie to battle the posies, but decides against it because he can use it later. Later at the Wishing Star, Jack is pushed inside his magic nanny bag by Kitty and is trapped inside it. Luckily, by not eating the "Eat Me" cookie against the posies, Jack is able to grow in size to escape the magic nanny bag and become the Final Boss to face against Kitty, Puss, Perrito, the Three Bears, and Goldilocks.
  • Childish Villain, Mature Hero: He's constrasted as the Childish Villain to both Puss (in a standard case of the trope) and Goldilocks (in a villain-to-villain variant).
    • Puss is an outlaw Anti-Hero who, despite his pride and selfishness towards his allies, nobly fights for the people and is resourceful enough to outwit his foes. Meanwhile, Goldi is a wanted criminal who, while having a notorious criminal record, confronts her victims reasonably as long as they don't try to defy her, and cares for the Three Bears as her adoptive family (even if she plans to separate herself from them because she thought she was the outcast among them). Both Puss and Goldi also give up on their respective wishes upon learning the big picture by the time of the climax.
    • Jack, on the other hand, is a spoiled Psychopathic Manchild who, on top of having a front for his crimes, is driven by envy of fairy tale creatures, wants to have control of all the magic in the world (with no intention of sharing any of it), and doesn't care about who has to die (whether it be his enemies or underlings) to get his wish.
  • Collector of the Strange: Has a hobby of collecting magical objects and artifacts; from baby unicorn horns to Cinderella's glass slippers, to a gold statue of a hand containing the "Midas Touch", he's got them all and he is not afraid to use them.
  • Color Motif: He has a pink and purple motif as shown by his pink hair and his pink necktie. He also wears a purple suit, purple lights, and purple smoke. His thumb also has a pink taint, due to his Character Tic of sticking it in his pies.
  • Combat Stilettos: His boots have small heels attached to them.
  • Comedic Sociopathy: The sheer disregard he has for his men's lives winds up becoming darkly hilarious.
  • Comically Missing the Point: In his childhood flashback, he fails to see what makes Pinocchio's act more successful than his own, with the fact that Pinocchio is a magic living puppet apparently flying right over his head. Though judging by his hatred of magical creatures in the present, it seems he eventually figured it out.
    What's impressive?! I've been a boy the whole time!
  • Composite Character: In addition to the nursery rhyme, Jack takes a number of traits from the Jack of The Friar And The Boy, the fairytale that the rhyme was likely based on. Like the Jack in that story, he seeks payback on those who wronged him (though in movie Jack's case, the wrongs are imagined), wishes factor in, and has magical items at his disposal.
  • Conflict Killer: Jack might've been one of the many who wanted to use the Wishing Star for his own selfish purposes, but he was still just one of many who were doing the same thing. As the movie goes on and the antagonists either turn over a new leaf (Goldilocks and the bears) or decide to leave the heroes alone (The Wolf), Jack's unrepentant villainy, as well as his nigh-apocalyptic wish, convinces everybody to put aside their differences and stop him from getting his wish at all costs.
  • Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To Humpty Dumpty from the first Puss in Boots film. Both are characters who originate from nursery rhymes rather than fairy tales and are criminals on the run, but otherwise they're drastic opposites to one another.
    • Humpty is a Tragic Villain who grew up a penniless orphan, used to be best friends with Puss (a fairy tale character) until they had a falling out, and is driven by a desire to feel belonged. Jack was a spoiled rich kid in his childhood (an upbringing that he isn't grateful for), has hated fairy tale characters all his life due to always being upstaged by them, and seeks to take all the world's magic just to be the center of attention, on top of being proud of his villainy.
    • Humpty is a lot greyer than his flunkies, Jack and Jill, as most of his bad deeds are a result of his anger at Puss. Jack Horner, on the other hand, is the most evil of The Last Wish's antagonists (contrasted by the more noble Goldilocks, the Three Bears and the Wolf) and sees Puss as a mere obstacle in getting what he wants.
    • Humpty is publicly known as a criminal, and his falling out with Puss was because of a failed heist. Meanwhile, Jack despises fairy tales for beating out his family's plum pie business in the past, but nowadays runs a legitimate, successful company as a front for his criminal activity.
    • Humpty is a fragile egg person who relied on his wits and inventions, and needed Jack and Jill to do the heavy lifting for him. Horner is a hulking man and has no problem getting his hands dirty, employing stolen magical artifacts and relatively weak henchmen whom he constantly throws to the slaughter.
    • While Humpty has change of heart and redeems himself with a sacrifice, Jack remains irredeemable as he meets his death.
  • Crazy-Prepared: His immense collection of magical artifacts gives him an answer to just about any situation, to the point that he is completely unconcerned about losing his goons since he believes he has more than enough items in his possession to finish his quest alone. This sometimes ends up working against him, since he has so many tools at his disposal that quickly finding the right one for a situation can be a right pain in the bum.
    I really did overpack...
  • Cuteness Proximity: Subverted. He's not affected by Perrito's Puppy-Dog Eyes (plus pointing out the nosebleed he got while doing it), but it is enough to distract him from Puss and Kitty giving him the Spanish Splinter.
    They're such pools of vulnerability... it's so cute... how you think that would work on me! Don't you know I'm dead inside?!
  • Cutting the Knot: His solution to overcoming any obstacle in his way is to simply use a lot of manpower and magical items.
    • He managed to find Excalibur but he wasn't worthy enough to remove the sword from the stone, so he chose to unearth the stone from the ground and now wields Excalibur with the stone still attached as a bludgeoning weapon.
    • Although it's possible to get through the flowers in Pocketful of Posies by taming them with kindness as shown by Perrito beforehand (which he did when Puss and Kitty also tried to dodge them without actually attacking them), the only solution Jack can think of is using his Baker's Dozen to cut the plants up. The result is that the posies fight and devour the bakers formidably due to their replicating capability; seeing the grim situation his henchmen are in, Jack improvises by using a phoenix as a flamethrower.
  • Death by Irony:
    • Jack owns a phoenix that symbolizes eternal life and rebirth, as noted by the Ethical Bug. However, Jack mistreats both the phoenix and the cricket, causing both of them to turn on him. The two play a role in Jack's defeat by making the last move that gets him killed.
    • To further twist the irony, Jack is the only major character to have never met or seen Death, yet is the only one who ends up dying.
  • Death by Materialism: After being outshined by Pinocchio as a kid, Jack grew up to become egocentric and greedy to the point where he stole magical artifacts, imprisoned the Lilliputians by putting their ship in a bottle, abused animals by cutting off unicorns' horns, and showed no appreciation or value of life. His wish is to own all the magic so "no one else gets any", and he rhetorically asks the Ethical Bug "Is that so much to ask?". Fittingly, Jack does get his wish, but not in the way he wanted it. Goldilocks, Kitty, and Puss decide that they aren't going to let Jack have the wish, and the Ethical Bug destroys the map with the Phoenix, to which the ground beneath Jack falls under him and he sinks into it. The star then launches into the air and explodes, killing Jack for good.
  • Devil in Plain Sight: Throughout the Ethical Bug's adventure with Jack, the former hopelessly tries many times to have Jack redeem himself. Once Jack's increasing cruelty becomes too much for the Ethical Bug, the latter ultimately declares him an "irredeemable monster". Jack is simply annoyed by the Ethical Bug's statement because the cricket was too oblivious to clearly see his true nature.
  • Disney Villain Death: Double subverted. Jack falls inside his magic nanny bag and is assumed to be dead. Suddenly, he begins to grow in size out of the bag by eating a "Eat Me" cookie to grow in size. When the Wishing Star starts to crumble, Jack attempts to make his wish by using the torn up map, but it fails due to the Ethical Bug and the Phoenix taking the last fragment and destroying it as repayment for their mistreatment, which destroys the map itself and causes the Wishing Star to start collapsing. In the end, Jack sinks down the crumbling Wishing Star, swallowing him whole before it explodes, getting him Killed Off for Real.
  • Dramatically Missing the Point: Combined with Comically Missing the Point due to the Black Comedy nature of his character. Jack blames magical creatures for taking the public's attention away from his own shows in his childhood. Due to magical creatures already being commonplace in this world, and even having suffered Fantastic Racism in some places such as Duloc, it's clear the real reason the public moved on from Jack was that his entertainment "routine" was just repeating his nursery rhyme and nothing else. It's shown that even his parents were starting to get tired of his shtick after a while. By contrast, while being a magical talking puppet definitely helped, Pinocchio's routine involved fancy dance moves, a light show, and confetti, and was therefore simply more entertaining to watch.
  • Driven by Envy: Jack is entirely motivated by his jealousy over magical creatures for getting more attention than him and playing a part in the failure of his disastrous career as a child entertainer. He already has a pretty good lot in life, but he's so driven by envy and greed that he can't see it.
  • The Dreaded: No one would be that foolish to cross with Jack Horner. Even Goldi and Puss knew how bad that would be.
  • Dreary Half-Lidded Eyes: His eyes are constantly half-closed and they empathize his Lack of Empathy for whatever heinous crime he commits that horrifies other characters.
  • Dub Name Change: Since the "Little Jack Horner" nursery rhyme isn't as well-known as other traditional stories outside of the English-speaking world, a few translations changed up his name so that it would better fit in their respective languages.
    • The Brazilian Portuguese dub changes his name to João Trombeta, since João (John) is the translation of "Jack" and it is often similarly used as a general by-name for an indeterminate person due to its widespreadness, naming many folktale characters (like João Pestana and João Galafuz and in the translation of many foreign fairy tales to Portuguese, like "Jack and the Beanstalk" and "Hansel and Gretel"), whereas "Trombeta" literally means "Horn", as in "trumpet".
    • The Polish dub renames him to Jacek Placek (literally "Jack Pie") — named after two main characters from the Polish children's-book-turned-movie "The Two who Stole the Moon". Besides the connection with pies, the name fits with Jack's character and motivations in the film, as the book is about two selfish children who plot to take the Moon for themselves, much like Jack in the film has stolen countless items from fairy tale characters.
  • Entitled Bastard: All he cares about is possessing and hoarding whatever magical item he can find. He also managed to find Excalibur and get it by unearthing it from the ground rather than pulling the sword from the stone. This ultimately shows how Jack views magical artifacts; he neither knows nor cares about the item's history, significance, or meaning as long as he can own it and not share it with anyone else.
  • Evil Counterpart: Can be seen as one to Puss. Both of them start off in the film as selfish, egotistical people who squander what life has given them away on trivial things (in Puss's case his fame, and Jack's his wealth), and do not feel they'd be fully satisfied until they obtain the Wishing Star for their own separate purposes. In the end, Puss learns to make the most of what he already has by giving up on the star, and obtains real acquaintances throughout the adventure, while Jack still clings onto getting the star, and loses all of his assistants due to his carelessness or selfishness.
  • Evil Is Bigger: They don't call him "Big" for nothing. Even before he eats the "Eat Me" cake, Horner was a pretty big guy. He pretty much dwarfs every character in the movie in comparison.
  • Evil Is Petty: Jack is determined to use his wish to take all of the magic in the world, all because Pinnochio upstaged him while Jack worked as a child performer. Jack wasn't even financially impacted by it as he's still pretty wealthy in the modern day; he just can't tolerate the bruise to his ego.
  • Evil Sorcerer: Obsessed with acquiring magic power. Jack also appears to be proficient at using wands and staves.
  • Excalibur in the Stone: He has Excalibur inside his magic nanny bag, but there's no way a villain like him would be actually worthy of pulling it from its stone — so he just dug up the stone and uses the whole thing as an impromptu club.
  • Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: His cherub-like face contrasts massively with his cruel and ruthless nature.
  • Fantastic Racism: He has disdain towards magical creatures, especially if these are talking animals.
  • Fat Bastard: A top-heavy crime boss, who likely got to his size from all the pastries and pies he eats.
  • Fatal Flaw: His cruelty was a double-edged sword. While it did make him a feared crime lord, it's ultimately the reason he lost.
    • Jack had claimed the Wishing Star but he couldn't resist taking the opportunity to mock Perrito who actually counted on this allowing the others to grab the map and destroy it.
    • His horrendous treatment towards his subordinates either resulted in them dying or had them turn on him, leaving him without any support. The Ethical Bug and the Phoenix returned and destroyed the map after they had enough of his abuse.
  • Faux Affably Evil: When he accidentally brings the Ethical Bug along for his search for the Wishing Star, Jack seems to be surprisingly patient and good-humored around the bug, even if the latter's feeble pleas and appeals to morality fall on deaf ears. It's clear during their last interaction, however, that this was more just to mess with the bug than any genuine attempt at friendship, and, once the Bug deems him a lost cause, Jack swiftly mocks him before flinging him away violently.
  • Fearless Fool: Jack is brave in facing down his foes and plowing through any obstacle in his path, but in no way does it hide his dimwittedness. He's so fearless that he will in fact walk and roll his carriage on his own bakers as an improvised bridge, not thinking of the possibility that their grip could break at any moment, causing their deaths and potentially Jack's or the carriage's destruction.
  • Final Boss: After he eats the "Eat Me" cake, he becomes a giant and is the final enemy Puss must face after Death spares him and Goldilocks makes a Heel–Face Turn.
  • Flat Character: Jack's entire character can be summed up as a simple Jerkass Card-Carrying Villain. He has little Hidden Depths, no actual Freudian Excuse, and he's not even a "Well Done, Son" Guy. He's just evil for the sake of it, but his one-dimensional villainy is often Played for Laughs and makes him one of the most entertaining characters in the film.
  • Flat "What": Can only manage to squawk out a brief "Wha?" when The Ethical Bug and the Phoenix destroy the map, right before he starts getting absorbed into the Wishing Star.
  • Foil:
    • To Puss. Both are selfish individuals who want to claim the Wishing Star to achieve glory, with Puss trying to reclaim his legend after losing nearly all his lives and Jack enviously trying to covet the world's magic for himself. However, Puss learns to value his newfound friends and appreciate his one remaining life rather than frivolously waste it trying to get the other eight back, whereas Jack's sociopathy makes him blatantly disregard his comrades and lose any and all support while refusing to see how good his life is already.
    • To the Wolf/Death. Both are part of the Big Bad Ensemble and are actively trying to kill Puss. The Wolf hates Puss for mocking him and wasting his 8 lives frivolously but stops antagonizing him after Puss learns his lesson and never intended to claim the Wishing Star, whereas Jack wants to kill Puss for getting in his way in claiming the Wishing Star and remains like this until his end.
    • To Goldilocks. Both are human antagonists to Puss' quest for the Wishing Star and each lead their own respective teams (Bakers Dozen for Jack, the Crime Bear Family for Goldilocks). However, Goldilocks genuinely cares and values the Bears while Jack doesn't care about any of his underlings. She later gives up the Star to save Baby Bear and realizes the Bears were her true family all along. Jack still attempts to get the Star through violence and murder, not growing or learning, with his attempts ending up futile as the Ethical Bug and the Phoenix team up to get back at him and burn the last piece of the torn-up map.
    • To Perrito. Perrito grew up in a dysfunctional household where his former owners abused him, yet is The Pollyanna and does not seem to want much of anything except friendship, while Jack grew up very privileged with loving parents, but still is unsatisfied and wants more and only cares about himself.
  • For the Evulz: Jack's main motive. He's totally aware of how evil he is and absolutely loves it and was satisfied when the cricket finally told to his face so.
  • Former Child Star: He bitterly remembers that he used to perform for his family when he was little, but the public decided to ignore him in favor of magical beings such as Pinocchio as a result of being bored with his nursery rhyme.
  • Freudian Excuse: Despite him actively denying it and insisting that he's just wholly evil, he does have one, even if it's not exactly very traumatizing: Pinocchio is shown getting much more attention and praise than him, leading to a lifetime of resentment of magic and fairytale creatures.
  • Freudian Excuse Denial: When the Ethical Bug pesters Jack about his childhood story, hoping to find a Freudian Excuse to explain his evil behavior, Jack bluntly tells him that his childhood was quite privileged with no drawbacks and the only reason he's after the Wishing Star is because even that wasn't enough to satisfy his greed.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: He used to be a little kid with a failed act. As he flat out admits, he's not even from a fairytale, but from a nursery rhyme. Now he's an extremely dangerous, psychopathic monster who came close to becoming what amounts to a god.

    G-L 
  • Genius Ditz: Downplayed. Jack is Stupid Evil to the bone and prefers to use brute force in fights, but he's also a successful businessman. Even if he inherited it, it would still take a lot of work to keep a large pie factory running, and Jack personally makes sure the pies it produces are top-quality.
  • A God Am I: Should he succeed at getting his wish and siphon all the world of magic into himself. It's mentioned in the film's novelization that this would kill every magical creature in the world, a fact that doesn't really bother him.
  • Godhood Seeker: His wish is to have all the magic in the world be his and his alone, effectively making him a capital-G God at the expense of killing every magical creature in the world.
  • Gonk: He has a very bizarre design that makes him stand out from the other characters, with a fat baby face sitting upon a tall, top-heavy body.
  • Good Parents: Jack mentions to the Bug that his parents did love him, despite his constant showboating. However, that did not saisfy him, as he lists them among the things that were "useless crap" to him.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: The reason for his Fantastic Racism towards fairy tale creatures is because Pinocchio was more popular than him in acting during his childhood.
  • Hates Small Talk: In response to the Ethical Bug calling him an "irredeemable monster", Jack calls the Bug an idiot for not noticing his Obviously Evil nature and constantly trying to redeem him with moral speeches. After mocking the Ethical Bug, Jack flicks him away from his shoulder before asking the last member of the Baker's Dozen to not be chatty towards him like the Bug.
  • The Hedonist: He states that even with loving parents, wealth, and a pie baking enterprise to inherit, that's not enough for him, and he'll do anything in order to gain more, including total control of the world.
  • Heel Realization: Played for Laughs when he pulls out the Ethical Bug from his bag and sees what he does, to which he states that he "really did overpack."
  • Hidden Depths: While he's every bit as vile as he acts and appears, he seems to care that the pies he churns out at his factory are delicious, even taste-testing one from each batch to ensure their quality, though this is likely just to ensure the money keeps rolling in.
  • High-Pressure Emotion: His face gradually becomes red from hearing Jo mock his nursery rhyme.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Kitty tries to inflict this on him by knocking him into his own magic bag. But because of the Wonderland treats, it doesn't work. What does work, however, is the cricket and phoenix he packed with him burning the map and causing his death.
  • Honest Corporate Executive: Downplayed. As bad as he is, he does at least make an effort to have his pie factory ship out only delicious pies, personally making sure to taste test one in every batch. However, given to how he mistreats his employees, this is only just to churn up enough money for his factory.
    Jack: (after tasting a pie batch) I pronounce this batch... delicious! (smiles) Ship 'em out!
  • Hostage for MacGuffin: He threatens to shoot Perrito in the head with a baby unicorn horn, in case Puss and Kitty refuse to give him the map for the Wishing Star. Luckily for Puss and Kitty, they don't have to make the Sadistic Choice, because of Goldilocks and the Three Bears' intervention.
  • Humans Are the Real Monsters: The final most dangerous threat of the movie isn't the three large bears with immense strength working with Goldilocks nor is it the lupine bounty hunter who turns out to be The Grim Reaper himself, but rather the monstrously apathetic and cruel normal human who is willing to do anything to get power (including causing the deaths of his own men) due to envy originating from wounded petty pride and a lust for power.
  • Improbable Weapon User: Part of Jack's humor comes from his irreverent use of legendary magical objects as crude weapons. For example, he squeezes a phoenix's throat to use it as a flamethrower, uses Excalibur (with the stone attached to its end) as a club, uses baby unicorn horns as crossbow bolts, and uses a magic staff as a rifle.
  • Inferiority Superiority Complex: Jack goes out of his way to appear big and powerful. His entire self-worth seems to be tied to owning things, and his entire motivation is to become the only person in the world with any magic. It is heavily implied that this stems from feelings of inadequacy or self-loathing, as Jack derides his past self as "a pathetic buttered baker's boy" who "didn't have any magic."
  • I Just Want to Be Special: Ties into Inferiority Superiority Complex mentioned above. Jack developed a massive chip on his shoulder because when he was a kid, no one cared about him or his act, instead flocking to the much more interesting Pinocchio. Having never gotten over this, Jack overcompensates by hoarding magical items, and his goal throughout the movie is to steal all the magic in the world so that he can be the only person who has any.
  • Informed Poverty: Inverted. Jack himself says to the Ethical Bug that he owned a mansion when he was a young child in his Surprisingly Normal Backstory. Despite mentioning a mansion, Jack is never shown having one in the past. In Jack's flashback as a young child, he used to be a street performer attracting only a small group of people, being outclassed by Pinocchio's popularity.
  • Inspirational Insult: Upon being called "horrible" and an "irredeemable monster" by the Ethical Bug, the only reaction that Jack Horner makes is to act as a Smug Smiler, proud of his villainy and calling the Ethical Bug an idiot for not noticing it.
  • It Amused Me: It's implied the only reason he put up with the Ethical Bug's attempts at appealing to his inner humanity was so Jack could see the moment the bug realized all his efforts were pointless.
    Ethical Bug: You're an irredeemable monster!
    Jack: Wha- wha- what took you so long, idiot?!
  • It's All About Me:
    • He's self-centered and selfish, caring about only getting his wish and using his minions as literal stepping stones. When Puss says Death is coming after him, the only thing his minuscule mind comes up with is that Puss is talking about him.
    • As a kid, it seemed like Jack didn't understand that his family was running a pie business, as the performances of his nursery rhyme that he puts on were more about him wanting attention from passerbys rather than wanting to help the business. It got to the point where even his parents were tired of it, and when real performers like Pinocchio attract a larger crowd, Jack wonders why it doesn't work for him.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: After he finishes talking about his Surprisingly Normal Backstory, he appears to be smiling in a genuine manner, as he prepares to admit the wish he desires that will bring him true happiness. The Ethical Bug starts to feel enlightened that Jack is finally going to reveal his good side, only to be harshly subverted by the fact that the latter's desired means to feel true happiness is to harvest all the magic in the world and leave its inhabitants with none of it. The reveal of Jack's true goals only shocks the Ethical Bug by how selfish Jack truly is.
  • Karmic Death: He's killed in the explosion of the very star he sought to grant his selfish wish, with his own cricket delivering the final blow on him.
  • Kick the Dog: Amongst many, many examples of him doing this throughout the film, to the point of being responsible for the deaths of several of his underlings either intentionally or through sheer disregard towards them in at least every scene he appears in, he literally threatened to shoot the optimistic, kind and selfless Perrito to force Puss to hand over the map. When the cricket asked him if he was really willing to kill a defenseless literal puppy to get what he wanted, Jack casually admits he would in a completely blasé tone of voice, even making it clear he'd shoot him right in the face to boot.
  • Lack of Empathy: Oh, he doesn't just lack it; he will mock you for even thinking he had it. Just ask the Ethical Bug.
    • He couldn't care less about who or how many people got killed by the Serpent Sisters in their mission to obtain the map to the Wishing Star, to the point where he shouts down every attempt by Jo to mention it.
    • He is so careless with his men that even the ones he kills by accident don't faze him. When the Ethical Bug tries getting Jack to help them, he blatantly states he's not concerned due to all the magical artifacts he took with him. His ignoring his last baker's pleas for help is probably the worst example.
    • The Ethical Bug tries to find any empathy or sympathy in Jack's personality and is disappointed to see he has none. After showing how ungrateful he is towards his own parents, he shows the bug via a crystal ball that his only desire for happiness is to have all the magic in the world while everyone else has nothing, and seeing how it could destroy a lot of people and things doesn't concern him at all.
    • This is also why Perrito's cuteness stare failed to work on him, since he says it himself that he's dead inside. Unfortunately for him, he did get distracted like Perrito intended, which led to his end.
  • Large and in Charge: He's as large as his "Big" title might suggest, and is the head of a pie-baking factory.
  • Laughably Evil: Callous and cruel as he may be, there's no denying that he's a good source of humor and Black Comedy.
  • Leitmotif: "Horner Heist" plays when he shows up.
  • Lethally Stupid: A majority of the Baker's Dozen are killed by Horner's own carelessness than by any of the protagonists or other villains. For example, in the middle of a battle, he arms himself with a crossbow using unicorn horns as ammunition; since he was never trained to actually use the weapon, he ends up shooting three of his henchmen. Later, he makes eight of his bakers lie down across a cliff to form a bridge for him, but he then has his vehicle driven across it, inevitably causing the remaining bakers to be reduced to just a single member in one fell swoop.
  • Lock-and-Load Montage: An entire montage has him recklessly throw many of his magical items into the magic nanny bag that he plans on using to overcome whatever obstacle that gets in his way.
  • Loophole Abuse: He couldn't pull Excalibur out of the stone as he wasn't a virtuous man who would lead others by example. Didn't stop him from uprooting both sword and stone from the Earth and using it to club people to death.

    M-Z 
  • Magic Pants: He lampshades this when he grows to the size of a giant.
    I was worried for a second I would come out naked, but my clothes grew too! Cool!
  • Make My Monster Grow: Uses the "Eat Me" treat to grow giant-sized for the final battle, both to escape his bag and to overpower the heroes.
  • Man of Wealth and Taste: Jack is rich because of his inherited wealth and thriving bakery, but that isn't enough for him due to his insatiable greed and jealousy for the fairy tale creatures' magic. The only thing Baby Bear compliments about Jack in a conversation with Goldi is his fancy suit, which he later mentions to Jack's face in an attempt to threaten him.
    Baby: You know that suit Jack Horner wears?
    Goldi: Yeah.
    Baby: I'm gonna have one of them.
    Goldi: Yeah?
    Baby: Only mine will be purpler. Like twice as purpler.
    Goldi: The purplest.
  • Muggle with a Degree in Magic: An otherwise normal man with no powers, Jack Horner has dedicated all of his efforts into collecting knowledge of Magical artifacts that he uses for himself in a bid to gain more power.
  • Murder by Inaction: He gets all of his Baker's Dozen henchmen killed by being Lethally Stupid and having Skewed Priorities. There are two instances where Jack gets them killed in a Cruel and Unusual Death.
    • In the first instance, Jack ignores the fact that his bakers are getting eaten and beaten up by plant monsters. In return, he focuses on finding magical weapons to deal with the plants. While he does manage to burn the plants with his phoenix, Jack accidentally burns some of his henchmen too.
    • The second instance has the last member of the Baker's Dozen swallowed by the Wishing Star's deadly wall because Jack had ignored her pleas for help with the excuse that he’s too busy fighting his enemies.
  • Near-Villain Victory: Jack manages to make it to the Wishing Star, steal the map, and is just about to recite the incantation needed to make his wish. Then Perrito comes and distracts him long enough for Puss, Kitty, and Goldilocks to steal the map and tear it apart, and while he almost manages to rebuild the map, the Ethical Bug commands the Phoenix to burn the remaining piece at the last moment, destroying the map for good and dooming Jack.
  • Neck Lift: Jack holds Perrito on the neck, so that Perrito can be used as a hostage to force Puss and Kitty into making a Sadistic Choice into handing him the map.
  • Never My Fault: Unsurprisingly for a spoiled brat all grown up, not once does he ever take responsibility for any misfortune that befalls him or his Baker's Dozen. Set on fire by a phoenix? They were too busy getting eaten by monster plants to move out of the way. Turned into confetti by baby unicorn horns? The sight on his crossbow was off. His carriage fallen into a ravine? Not enough men to hold it up. The last one got blasted? She walked right into that one. His last words are to ask everyone what he's done to deserve death, despite having antagonized and tried to kill them throughout the journey to the star. Everyone can only glare at him in disgust. Subverted, as he then clarifies that he knows he's done plenty of awful things to deserve it, he's just wondering which one specifically.
  • No Brows: Jack's brows have no hair, making his face look weirder and more infantile.
  • No-Sell: Zig-zagged. He shrugs off the intoxicating Cuteness Proximity Perrito tries to give him because he's too dead inside to be emotionally moved by it. However, by choosing Kick the Dog metaphorically, he falls for Perrito's actual reason for doing it and costs Jack his Near-Villain Victory and, subsequently, his life.
  • One-Hit Kill: As he finds out (by accidentally shooting one of his own men), baby unicorn horns used as bolts have the ability to turn anyone into confetti if they're hit.
  • One-Winged Angel: He consumes his magic cookie to become giant sized for the final battle.
  • The Phoenix: He has a phoenix caged up, which he stuffs in his magic nanny bag for his trip to the Wishing Star. When his men are getting devoured by the monstrous plants at the Pocketful of Posies, Jack uses the phoenix to burn the plants while laughing in the onslaught. The phoenix eventually turns on him in the climax.
  • Practically Joker: He's a purple coat-wearing maniac who shows absolutely no regard for the lives of other people, including his own henchmen, and even laughs while doing it.
  • Pragmatic Villainy: As a horrible Bad Boss he is, Horner makes it clear for his pie factory to sell delicious pies on the market by personally tasting each batch, only just to keep the money rolling for profit and nothing else.
  • Psycho Pink: He has pink hair and a pink tie. Horner is a ruthless businessman who's more than willing to sacrifice anyone to get the wish he desires.
  • Psychopathic Manchild: At his heart, he's a spoiled and bratty Attention Whore spreading death and misery over not being the center of attention.
  • Purple Is Powerful: He wears a purple suit, owns a bakery that creates purple pies, and has a distinctive purple thumb stained from sticking it in his pies all the time. He's also one of the craftiest and most dangerous villains in the franchise, and his purple clothing highlights his wealthy and privileged background.
  • Put the "Laughter" in "Slaughter": Jack laughs maniacally when he uses The Phoenix as his own personal flamethrower to battle a Pocket Full o' Posies. Although successful in burning down the posies, Jack had accidentally set some of his henchmen on fire, but it didn't matter to him because all he needs is his magic nanny bag to reach the Wishing Star.
  • Quicksand Sucks: He meets his end by sinking into the unstable surface of the Wishing Star after his cricket burns the remaining piece of the map. The moment he's fully submerged, the Star returns back where it came from, taking him with it.
  • Red Baron: During Puss' breakdown to Kitty on how "Death" is after him if he does wish his nine lives back, Jack eventually arrives to the Wishing Star and accidentally thinks that he had gained the reputation of being worthy of being called "Death."
  • Red Right Hand: Downplayed, but his right thumb is stained purple from constantly sticking it in plum pies to test their quality.
  • Redemption Rejection: Repeatedly. Seeing the Ethical Bug's many attempts to redeem him, Jack shrugs the many opportunities of redemption, only wanting to declare himself as a Card-Carrying Villain. Even when Jack gets distracted by Perrito's Puppy-Dog Eyes, he can only insult Perrito, proclaiming he was always "dead inside."
  • Sadistic Choice: Upon finding the latter, Jack holds Perrito by the neck, warning Puss and Kitty that he'll give Perrito a Boom, Headshot! if they don't give him the map of the Wishing Star.
  • Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: The initial battle at the Wishing Star has Jack use a wizard staff to fight his enemies. He says "bang" to every magical blast fired from the staff, until he accidentally shoots his last baker, which he refuses to accept is his fault.
  • Self-Serving Memory: In Jack's flashback, he believes Pinocchio outshined him because he was a singing and dancing puppet, which led to Jack's hatred of magical creatures. In reality, Jack would have been outperformed by anyone because he's done the same routine so many times that his own parents had gotten bored of it. It's even implied by Jack's later comment about growing up in a mansion and inheriting a thriving baked goods enterprise that his family business improved because he quit his musical career.
  • Seven Deadly Sins: Being the embodiment of irredeemable villainy (and proud of it), Jack Horner has committed all seven sins:
    • Pride: He cares more about himself rather than his henchmen and anyone else, and is primarily driven by his need for spotlight attention.
    • Sloth: He uses his men as cannon fodder to do all the hard work for him, and couldn't even bother to save them if it requires more than the minimum effort. Even though he's well aware of himself being pure evil, he refuses to change his ways for the better.
    • Gluttony: Indulges in his appetite for pies and sweets, even resulting in eating a magic cookie that leads him into growing to a monstrous size at the final battle.
    • Envy: He is envious of magical beings for being more popular than him, and he intends to remedy that by controlling all magic.
    • Lust: He has a lust for power, specifically magic, and intends to use the Wishing Star to control all magic in existence.
    • Greed: He has hoarded countless magic objects and put them all in his trophy room despite already being rich. And when he prepares his expedition for the Wishing Star, he stuffs everything (including a useless Ethical Bug) he has in his bottomless nanny bag because he couldn't decide what he actually needs.
    • Wrath: He takes his anger out on his followers, Puss in Boots, and his friends when things don't go in his way. He also flicks away the Ethical Bug after the Bug finally realizes Jack is incapable of being good in any way.
  • Sinister Schnoz: He has a significantly long, pointy nose on his face, and he is a Card-Carrying Villain who wishes to claim the Wishing Star for his own selfish reason to gain more magic.
  • Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: Save for a few brief shots, Jack isn't shown in any of the film's main trailers, and is also not present on any of the posters, despite his prominence as one of the Big Bads.
  • Skewed Priorities: When his last baker is about to get killed by the Wishing Star, Jack ignores her pleas for help with the excuse that he is busy fighting his opponents.
  • Small Name, Big Ego: Jack's fully aware that he's largely overshadowed by the fairy tale creatures and bitterly refers to his song as "only a nursery rhyme". He uses a photo of himself as a logo for his pie business and he treats himself like the main attraction of the business, despite everyone feeling bored with his routine.
  • Smug Smiler: Basically his default attitude throughout the entire film. He is an Attention Whore who believes that he will succeed in claiming the Wising Star to claim all the magic in the world. Even when he kills his own Bakers, all he can do is to release a smug, arrogant smile at their own deaths. As he gets called a horrible person by the Ethical Bug, Jack only smiles in amusement, as if the statement is praising him for his villainy.
  • The Sociopath: What did you expect from someone who refuses to accept responsibility and who is willing to throw away his own men to pursue his goal to literally be the center of the universe?
    Don't you know I'm dead inside?
  • Spoiled Brat: He was a child born into privilege who had everything he could have ever wanted, but he chose villainy because he couldn't stand not being at the center of attention.
  • Start of Darkness: Played for Laughs. During a quick flashback of his childhood when Jack Used to Be a Sweet Kid, he was a performer with a desire to please a crowd of people with his nursery rhyme. However, when Pinocchio proved to be more popular than him, Jack quickly became a Green-Eyed Monster with strong Fantastic Racism towards fairy tale creatures. In order to please his Attention Whore attitude, Jack turned into a ruthless crime boss who collects magical items or fairy tale creatures to gain more and more power for himself.
  • Stout Strength: He's a heavy-set man who is strong enough to swing around Excalibur while it's still stuck in its pedestal (due to him not being of worthy character to actually pull the sword out).
  • Stupid Evil: Whatever accomplishments he may have as a businessman or criminal end up very diminished in hindsight. He inherited his pie business rather than building and maintaining it from nothing, he doesn't know what half of his magical artifacts do despite cramming them all into a bag for his journey, he carelessly wastes all of his goons' lives rather than put them to good work, and he gets outsmarted by the heroes in his final moments.
  • Surprisingly Normal Backstory: At one point, Jack appears to confide in his cricket about a tragic, poor upbringing, seemingly serving as a Freudian Excuse for his evil behaviour in the present. He then goes on to describe a much more privileged and happy childhood, making his cruelty even more petty and unjustified.
    You know, I never had much as a kid. Just loving parents, stability, a mansion, and a thriving baked goods enterprise for me to inherit. Useless crap like that.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
    • A fat, strange collector of items who wants a magical item to be powerful and is based on a nursery rhyme character? Sounds very similar to Jack and Jill, the main villains of the first Puss in Boots film, right down to sharing a name with one of them.
    • He can also be compared to Lord Farquaad from the original Shrek. Both are power-hungry men of high stature and rich means who have a distinct hatred of fairy tale characters (Talking Animals, specifically) and also gather magical artifcats (Farquaad keeps the Magic Mirror while Jack has an entire trophy room of stolen magical items). They're only opposites when it comes to their figures and specific lifestyles; whereas Farquaad is The Napoleon with a manly face and a small body and is a member of nobility, Jack is a Top-Heavy Guy with a plump yet rather small (at least on his body) and youthful face, and is a highly successful businessman.
  • Take Over the World: His goal is to become the master of all magic; the Ethical Bug sees an image of what this would mean in Jack's crystal ball, making him rightfully horrified by what would happen should Jack obtain the wishing star.
  • That Man Is Dead: When Jo the Serpent Sister brings up Little Jack Horner, Jack lets her know that he is no longer that person.
    Jack: Little Jack Horner didn't have any magic. He was a pathetic buttered baker's boy. Little Jack's dead. I'm Big Jack Horner.
  • This Cannot Be!: As he witnesses his map get torn by Goldilocks, Puss, and Kitty, Jack screams in horror for what they have done to it. Jack desperately tries to put back his map together, but as he appears to have succeeded, he finds the Ethical Bug and The Phoenix burn his map. All Jack can do is give a Flat "What" at his burnt map, before sinking down the wishing star and dying.
  • Tiny-Headed Behemoth: Downplayed; he's got a very plump face and neck that would stick out on an average-sized man, but it's offset by his height and shoulders.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Combined with being Lethally Stupid, Jack nearly gets himself killed by walking over a bridge made of his own henchmen. Although Jack succeeds in crossing over the bridge, he tries to have his giant cart be crossed on top of his bakers' bodies. A Surprisingly Realistic Outcome happens because the cart proved too heavy for his men to carry, causing all but one of them to fall over the chasm. Also in the final battle, rather than leave once the Wishing Star begins to collapse like everyone else did, Jack continues to desperately gather the parts of the map to make his wish. An act that, this time around, does lead to his death.
  • Top-Heavy Guy: He's got a very plump face, massive shoulders and arms, a very large belly... and legs that look about as thick as actual peg legs.
  • Trailers Always Lie: Downplayed. Jack Horner actually uses a crossbow in the official film, but he only uses a crossbow during the time he held Perrito as a Hostage for MacGuffin. The trailer on the other hand has Jack pull out a crossbow during the battle for the Wishing Star, which never happens.
  • True Final Boss: Initially just one part of the Big Bad Ensemble with Goldilocks and the Wolf, Jack remains antagonistic till the end even after Goldilocks' Heel–Face Turn and the Wolf sparing Puss, and thus becomes the overall Final Boss. He's also the one whose goals would have the biggest repercussions.
  • Twitchy Eye: When the Ethical Bug and the Phoenix burn the last fragment of the map and seal his demise in the collapsing Wishing Star, Jack's eye twitches briefly as he realizes how screwed he is.
  • Uncanny Valley: Jack's character design and voice deliberately push him into mildly freakish territory to align with his nature as a spoiled brat who never mentally grew up. He has bizarre proportions but is oddly graceful, pale skin and unnatural pink hair by birth, grotesque features next to perfect tailoring, and stark visual hallmarks of both childishness and maturity. He also has a youthful voice matching his chubby face and childish haircut, but contrasting his adult nose, teeth and huge frame. Lastly, he has no eyebrows, making his face look more babyish and less expressive. The intention of all these details is to make Jack look like a creepy, self-assured hulking man-baby clad in the hallmarks of wealth.
  • Uncleanliness Is Next to Ungodliness: Downplayed. He's a Card-Carrying Villain who always has a stained thumb from sticking it into pies, but otherwise dresses neatly.
  • Undignified Death: While sinking down the Wishing Star, Jack acts like an Entitled Bastard by complaining to crimes he committed that had resulted in his defeat. The other characters all look at Jack with disgust by how entitled the latter is acting from dying. Jack in return asks them as to what crime he specifically committed to deserve dying from the Wishing Star.
  • The Unfettered: Nothing will stop him from getting the wish in his POV. Nothing.
  • Ungrateful Bastard: He flagrantly dismisses his incredibly privileged and loving upbringing as "useless crap".
  • Unknown Rival: He has a jealousy towards Pinnochio, but the latter never talked about him or was even aware of his grudge.
  • Unskilled, but Strong: Jack is a hulking brute of a man and armed with a gigantic armory of powerful magical items... but he doesn't have all that much skill at using any of them outside of just spamming them at his foes.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Horner's been indirectly helping Death find Puss in Boots by killing one of the Snake sisters and by accidentally killing the Bakers Dozen through his own carelessness. Death collects the souls of the dead and turns up whenever Puss is surrounded by death.
  • Verbal Tic: He frequently uses "Cool!" to remark new things or phenomena he witnesses for the first time, or give point to his accomplishments.
  • Vile Villain, Laughable Lackey: Exaggerated. Jack Horner is an unrepentant, sociopathic, Card-Carrying Villain that cares for no one and only desires to obtain all the magic in the world, purely to satisfy his Attention Whore attitude. The Ethical Bug meanwhile, is The Conscience sidekick that behaves benevolently in helping Jack Horner find redemption. Their relationship with each other becomes an horrific deconstruction, as Jack's increasing cruelty causes the Ethical Bug to lose hope for Jack's redemption. Everything becomes too much for the Ethical Bug when Jack Horner shows a Lack of Empathy to killing his own men and learning what Jack's wish entails. Their relationship ends with the Ethical Bug calling Jack an "irredeemable monster", but the latter is completely unbothered by the insult and only calls the Ethical Bug an idiot for not noticing his villainy sooner.
  • Villain Has a Point: While he was mocking the Ethical Bug about it, he is not wrong that the bug foolishly took so long to realize how irredeemable he is when all evidence proved it.
  • Villains Want Mercy: Subverted. After Kitty throws back an explosive poison apple at Jack, he appears to be begging for mercy as he crawls back towards the magic nanny bag. However, he quickly pulls out a hatchet (Kitty isn't fooled for a second).
  • Vocal Dissonance: While it fits him a little better as a child, he grows into a towering, bejowled hulk of a man who still has the reedy, persnickety voice of John Mulaney. His voice becomes slightly deeper when he grows giant from the cookie, but not by much.
  • We Have Reserves: He believes his entire Bakers Dozen to be completely replaceable with the magical items stored inside the Magic Nanny Bag. Unfortunately, [[Deconstruction he really doesn't have reserves]], and this eventually bites him in the butt when he has to fight Puss, Kitty, Perrito, Goldilocks, and three bears with only one henchman still alive. If he had more manpower, he would've had a better chance.
    Jack: I'm not really stressing about the manpower. I've got a bottomless bag of magic weapons. These babies are gonna get me that wish, even after the whole team is dead and gone (giggles).
  • Whip of Dominance: In the novelization, one of the ways his status as a Bad Boss is cemented is the fact he carries a whip with him, which he uses to sadistically whip his men and unicorns as they're navigating through a murky swamp.
  • Would Hit a Girl: The first showcase of his abusive behavior is allowing Jo, one of the Serpent Sisters, to foolishly grab the hand of Midas and turn into gold. The female members of his Baker's Dozen are treated no better than the males, with him showing no remorse for their deaths. One of the bakers he shot with a unicorn horn was female, as is his last baker alive whom he blasted and allowed to be disintegrated.
  • Would Hurt a Child: He takes the horns off of baby unicorns. Enough said.
  • You Monster!: Upon getting his men killed by having them fall under a canyon through the sheer weight of his cart, Jack shows no remorse for their deaths and believes it to be necessary to achieve his goal to obtain the Wishing Star and becoming the master of all magic. The Ethical Bug on the other hand is horrified by Jack and calls him an "irredeemable monster." Jack in response, just calls the Ethical Bug an idiot for not noticing his Obviously Evil nature.
    Jack: Wha- wha- what took you so long, idiot?! [flicks the Bug off his shoulder]

"WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE THIS?! I MEAN, WHAT SPECIFICALLY?!"

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