Characters / Puss in Boots: Rogues' Gallery

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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Introduced in Puss in Boots

Jack and Jill

Jack and Jill

Jack voiced by: Billy Bob Thornton
Jill voiced by: Amy Sedaris

Jack and Jill are a married, outlaw couple in the film Puss in Boots.

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• Age Lift: In the original nursery rhyme, Jack and Jill were two little children. Here, they are two middle-aged adults.
• Bandage Mummy: The credits show that they survived being crushed by the Great Terror, but are in full body casts.
• Battle Couple: An evil version, but they are very effective at fighting.
• Beard of Evil: Jack has one.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: The true villains of Puss in Boots, since Humpty Dumpty was more of a sympathetic villain and was on Puss' side again rather quickly.
• Co-Dragons: Secretly acted as Humpty's right hand henchfolk, although they were planning to betray him from the start.
• Dragon-in-Chief: They are far more dangerous than Humpty and eventually betray him, becoming the true villains of the film. Subverted in that even they ultimately get reduced in the film's climax to a hilariously minor obstacle for Puss to easily put out of commission in the wake of the larger threat of the Great Terror.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: They do seem to genuinely love each other and treat their pigs like their own children.
• Gonk: Both are quite ugly.
• Jerkasses: Mean and greedy, Jack and Jill are two nasty outlaws united in a life of crime.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Zig-Zagged. They are both brutish and violent. However, Jack seems to have a more sensitive side (e.g. he brings up the idea of them having a baby.)
• My Biological Clock Is Ticking: Throughout the 2011 film, Jack suggests to Jill that they settle down and raise a child together, such as his favorite piglet Hamhock. But subverted with Jill, who doesn't want (biological) children at all.
• Outlaw Couple: They rob, terrorize, and murder together.
• Pet the Dog: They also love and treat their pet pigs like their own kids.
• The Starscream: They turn on Humpty despite helping his plan. Subverted in that Humpty was on Puss' side again by this point.
• Same Character, But Different: Another Jill previously appeared in Shrek 2 as one of the trio of young, pretty women who fawn over the human Shrek. She's clearly intended to be a version of the same Jill from the Jack and Jill nursery rhyme, as well, considering that the first thing she does is fetch Shrek a pail of water.
• Trampled Underfoot: Both are crushed by the Great Terror during the climax, although the credits show that they lived.
• Unholy Matrimony: Despite being an outlaw couple, Jack and Jill have a genuinely loving marriage.
• Unrelated in the Adaptation: Jack and Jill in the nursery rhyme are siblings; here, they're a couple. Hopefully, it doesn't have any implications...
• You Don't Look Like You: Jill is a big case, if she's assumed to be a version of the same Jill who previously appeared in Shrek 2 as mentioned under Same Character, But Different above.

The Comandante

The Comandante

Voiced by: Guillermo del Toro

The merciless head of the military in San Ricardo who sees Puss as nothing but a troublemaker in Puss in Boots.

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• Black-and-White Insanity: How he views the world. If you do something bad, you are automatically a bad person and must be arrested.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: He's not a nice guy, but he is moved to tears when Puss (as a kid) saved his mother from a rampaging bull, which (temporarily) put him in the Comandante's good graces.
• Good is Not Nice: He's the head of the authorities in San Ricardo, but if you get on his bad side, he will be the biggest jerk there ever was.
• Inspector Javert: He stops at nothing to capture Puss in Boots.
• Misplaced Retribution: Granted, Puss did technically help Humpty rob the San Ricardo bank, but the fact that Puss was tricked into it was probably something the Comandante should have considered since Puss has rescued his mother and also should have considered Humpty deceiving Puss into doing so.
• No Name Given: His real name is never given, he's simply referred to by his job profession.
• Police Are Useless: Averted. You would think his obsession with capturing Puss would make him qualify for this trope, but in truth, he's very good at enforcing the law and actually takes his job seriously, if a bit too seriously.
• This Is Unforgivable!: He sees Puss robbing the bank as a horrific act and refuses to see any good in him as a result.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Even after Puss saves the city of San Ricardo from being destroyed by the Golden Goose, the Comandante and his guards still try to arrest him.
• Villainy-Free Villain: His grudge against Puss isn't due to malice but rather a, albeit excessive, misguided need to do his job as head authority of San Ricardo.

Introduced in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

The Governor of Del Mar

The Governor of Del Mar

Voiced by: Bernardo De Paula^{Foreign VAs}Vladimir Novosardov (Russian), Ole Ornered (Swedish)

"No, su casa es mi casa! Arrest these filthy peasants, and bring me the head of Puss in Boots!"

The tyrannical governor of Del Mar.

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• Antagonistic Governor: He is an oppressive governor, who treats his people poorly and tries to kill Puss when the cat invades his house and throws a party inside it.
• Baldness Angst: The governor hides his lack of hair with a long white Rococo wig.
• Bald of Evil: Downplayed. Without his wig, he is left with a few white strands of hair.
• Hated by All: The people of Del Mar, including his guards and secretary don't have a good opinion on him hence why they always laugh when Puss screws him over.
• Jerkass Has a Point: To be fair to him, he has every right to be angry that Puss organized a party in his home without his consent and wrecked his house.
• Karmic Butt-Monkey : He has his house invaded, is humiliated by Puss who strips him off his clothes, is forced to beg for Puss to save him from the giant and has his boat stolen by Team Friendship at the end of the movie. Although, given his disdain for the "peasants", he deserves most of it.
• Kick the Dog: As he's about to board his ship for his vacation during the epilogue, he kicks a nearby seagull for no good reason.
• Save the Villain: Puss reluctantly saves him from the Sleeping Giant of Del Mar.
• Starter Villain: He serves as the first antagonist Puss clashes with in The Last Wish.
• Villainous Valour: When the fight breaks out between Puss and his guards, he also swings a sword and attempts to fight. Not that he manages to be a threat, but points for trying.

The Sleeping Giant of Del Mar

The Sleeping Giant of Del Mar

A giant who Puss accidentally awakens during his raiding at the Governor's home.

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• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: He is a giant earth monster who attacks the town of Del Mar upon being awakened.
• Berserk Button: Being awakened causes the Giant to attack the Governor's home.
• David Versus Goliath: The Goliath to Puss in Boots David.
• Fingore: Puss introduces him to the "Spanish Splinter" during their fight, driving his rapier into underside of the Giant's fingernail. Becomes a Brick Joke when Puss and Kitty use that same move against a giant Jack Horner during the movie climax.
• Glowing Eyes: His one eye glows a bright blue.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: His eyepatch and the bell he uses as a weapon are used against him by Puss who covers his other functioning eye with it and removes it just in time when the giant can't avoid getting hit with his bell.
• Horned Humanoid: A ginormous giant with a humanoid body and large antler-like horns coming out if his head.
• Horns of Villainy: His head has two pointy trees that serve as this.
• Improvised Weapon: During his rampage he uses the Del Mar's church's bell as an improvised whip.
• Our Giants Are Bigger: The giant is an one-eyed humanoid larger than an entire palace whose body is made out of earthly elements, possessing a rocky skin covered with green and two horns made out of long, gnarled trees.
• Small Role, Big Impact: He appears only at the beginning, but the bell that he uses in his fight against Puss indirectly causes the cat's eighth death, kickstarting the rest of the plot.
• Starter Villain: He's awoken by Puss' fireworks in the beginning, and his defeat precedes Puss first encountering The Wolf.
• Throat Light: His mouth emits a bright blue glow.
• The Worf Effect: He's introduced as a huge terrifying monster, but Puss is able to defeat him with stylish ease, demonstrating to the audience that he isn't all talk and can back up his arrogant boasting with genuine skills.
• Would Hurt a Child: He kidnaps a little kid during his rampage, presumably with the intent to eat him later on.

The Wolf (Spoilers)

The Wolf / El Lobo / Death

Voiced by: Wagner Moura (movie), Adam Gifford (DreamWorks All-Star Kart Racing) ^{Foreign VAs}Marco Delgado (EU Portuguese), Roberto Encinas (EU Spanish), Kenjiro Tsuda (Japanese), Sérgio Moreno (BR Portuguese), José Roberto Pisano (Latin American Spanish), Björn Bengtsson (Swedish), Michael Lott (German), Patrick Chouinard (Canadian French), Doudou Masta (EU French), Lin Qiang (PRC Mandarin), Lai Kar Hay (HK Cantonese), Fu Shuang (TW Mandarin), Stanislav Shapkin (Russian)

"I just LOVE the smell of fear."

"Everyone thinks they'll be the one to defeat me. But no one's escaped me yet."

A savage wolf who is one of the antagonists of The Last Wish. After Puss loses the eighth out of his nine lives, the Wolf shows up attempting to claim his final life, with Puss believing that he's a bounty hunter who's after the reward on Puss' head.

As revealed before the final confrontation, this is only half true because the Wolf's true identity is Death itself, and he's become sick of Puss frivolously wasting his extra lives. As Puss finds out the hard way, when you make it a habit to "laugh in the face of death," Death might just take it personally...

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• Aesop Enforcer: He's not a fan of the idea of nine lives to begin with, and he's had to watch Puss recklessly squander eight of his, mocking death and arrogantly treating himself as immortal every step of the way. This angers Death so much, he decides Puss doesn't deserve to live his ninth and final life, and sets out to claim it personally.
• Affably Evil:
  • Despite posing the biggest threat of the film's antagonists, Death's sole motivation for hunting Puss is to punish him for frivolously wasting his past lives while treating death like it's all one big joke. When Puss ultimately proves that he has learned his lesson, Death gives up his pursuit and leaves in peace, sincerely asking that Puss live his last life well until they inevitably meet again.
  • Initially, he puts on a Faux Affably Evil front, first acting as a Loony Fan while hiding his utter contempt for Puss' hubris in wasting his eight lives and laughing at death to think he is immortal and proceeding to act in a sinister manner that highlights his sinister intentions to kill him. When Puss finally does act humbly, he initially shows frustration before becoming a Graceful Loser.
• All for Nothing: Played With. His goal was to hunt down Puss and take his last life as punishment for living frivolously and mocking death. By the time he and Puss have their final battle, Puss had come to better appreciate his life and is willing to fight for it. While he technically wins their final fight, Puss admits he can't actually defeat Death but won't stop fighting. At that point, Death throws a tantrum over Puss' Character Development before accepting that Puss has changed. He departs with a parting promise that they will meet again.
• Allegorical Character: Defied. The Wolf represents Puss' anxiety and despair over his newfound fears of death and not being as invincible as he thought he was, but after Death reveals his true identity to Puss, he leaves clear that he isn't being metaphorical or symbolic and that he really is the literal, physical embodiment of death.
• Always Someone Better: While Puss is one of the most infamous rogues of the setting, the Wolf is much stronger and more skilled, to the point that Puss does not want to risk another duel with him until the end - by which point, he's more fighting for the sake of a point, because it's clear by that point, it may be physically impossible for Death to lose.
• Always with You: Played for Drama and horror. Being Death means he has always been there with Puss since the beginning, even in the most inconspicuous places, so no matter where he runs or how much time passes, he will find him and reap him. It's just a matter of when.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • It's unclear how he goes completely ignored by other people prior to his final encounter with Puss on the Wishing Star. Puss and the audience can always see and hear the Wolf, but the final duel between them is the only time anyone else actually reacts to his presence. Whether Wolf is always visible and just goes unnoticed or actively chooses to only appear to Puss until the end is left unanswered.
  • Whether or not The Wolf ever actually intended to kill Puss. It's shown early on that he's the cat's physical superior and that he could've easily taken him down at the start. Not only does he allow Puss to escape, Wolf also doesn't really "chase" him at any point. On the other side of the coin, the final fight with Puss is very intense and there's killing intent from both parties, culminating in Death throwing a little tantrum when he sees that Puss is no longer afraid to die, angry that he played with his food and took so long. The jury's out on how much of all this was a test of character and how much was Death seriously coming to collect a soul.
• Angel Unaware: Puss initially believes him to be another bounty hunter out for his blood. Only much later down the line does he realize that this pursuer is none other than Death himself.
• Animalistic Abomination: He's not actually a Funny Animal like Puss and company, but rather death itself in the shape of a wolf. This is shown by his unnatural red eyes and more animalistic appearance compared to the other bipedal animals of the Shrek world.
• Animal Jingoism: Implied. Of all the forms Death could have picked to confront someone who irks him as much as Puss, he chose a wolf, with his disdain for the concept of felines having nine lives being suggested as the reason for this: a canid nemesis for an arrogant cat.
• Anthropomorphic Personification: His true identity is Death, assuming physical form to punish Puss.
• Anti-Villain: For all of the menace and terror he brings to the story, Death's motivations to kill Puss once and for all are largely sympathetic given how much of a colossal blowhard the cat has been, disrespecting Death at every possible turn and flaunting his perceived immortality. Once Puss makes peace with his mortality and stares Death down in earnest, Death's just as quick to abandon the chase and urges him to live the best life he can and to live it well as he departs.
• Arch-Enemy: In a sense as he takes on a physical form to actively antagonize Puss for his defiant attitude and unknowing disrespect. After this first battle, Puss has become genuine afraid of dying for the first time in his life that he runs away. Throughout the film before the reveal, Puss continues to see the supposed bounty, fueling his desperation to get more lives in an attempt to get away from him, which only intensifies when he learns that this is Death wanting to personally kill him out of a vendetta. However, once Puss faces him one last time after learning to value his life and loved ones, Death becomes upset to see Puss isn't afraid anymore and that even if he did kill him, his lack of fear takes away any satisfaction he could have had. Death leaves Puss afterward, dropping this entirely.
• Armor-Piercing Question: When Death confronts Puss on the Wishing Star and Puss looks at the map and the incantation to make his wish, Death asks Puss if he really intends to take the coward’s way out by "running away to more lives", or if he’s going to fight for the last life he still has. This gets Puss to think about what he still has in his life and what makes it worth living, causing him to forgo making his wish and finally allowing him to face his fear and fight Death.
• Ax-Crazy: Downplayed. While Death enjoys sadistically toying with his food, both physically and psychologically tormenting them, it never gets in the way of his work, with him ultimately admitting defeat when Puss learns to stop running.
• Badass Boast: When we first meet him, he brags that despite many foes thinking they could defeat the wolf, none have. The wolf refers to himself as Death while going through Puss' Kill Tally. And he then clarifies that he doesn't mean that "metaphorically, or rhetorically, or poetically, or theoretically, or any other fancy way". He is Death, straight up.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Downplayed, as while he doesn't succeed in killing Puss, it's only because he gives up the chase himself after seeing that Puss now sees the value of his life, which was Death's entire reason for hunting him. Still, their final confrontation remains inevitable.
• Baddie Flattery: After his duel against Puss, he sees Puss staring him down and challenging him again. He tries to test Puss's newfound appreciation for his final life and angrily concedes that Puss has actually learned his lesson. He parts ways with Puss and tells him to "live your life Puss in Boots. Live it well".
• Barefoot Cartoon Animal: Compared to the similarly bipedal Puss and Kitty, who both wear boots, the Wolf is notable for not wearing anything on his feet.
• Berserk Button: There's two things that really seem to irk him: cats having nine lives (which he calls "absurd"), and more importantly, frivolously wasting your life while laughing at death (that is, at him). Unfortunately for Puss he's combined the worse of those two traits, blowing through eight of his lives without appreciation or concern for what he had, which pisses off Death enough to cut through the middle man and just take his last life himself.
  • This is subtly showcased during his first encounter with Puss: when the cat spouts his arrogant catchphrase, you can see the wolf's claw tear through the poster he had been tapping. He manages to maintain his composure, but it probably took all the willpower he has to not eviscerate Puss right where he stands.
• Big Bad Ensemble: He is one of the big antagonists of the film, although unlike Jack and Goldilocks, he's not interested in the star... he wants to claim Puss' last life.
• The Big Bad Wolf: Subverted. He’s called this throughout promotional material but never in the movie proper, presumably because the Shrek franchise already introduced the Big Bad Wolf as a separate character. Still, it makes sense upon the reveal he’s actually Death — as in, the literal personification of it — in the form of a large, scary wolf.
• Black Eyes of Crazy: The Wolf has red irises and black sclerae, highlighting his vicious nature and foreshadowing his nature as Death incarnate.
• Blasé Boast: Justified he's Death. While he sometimes makes quips to show how confident he is, he doesn't outright say he is Death until Puss figures it out and even the closest thing he has to an outright bombastic boast is just him clarifying that he doesn't think of himself as death, or has been viewed as death. He is Death, and frankly does he need anymore?
• Blood Knight: While he says he loves the smell of fear and visibly enjoys terrifying Puss throughout his appearances, the Wolf seems to enjoy a good fight just as much. Whenever he manages to disarm Puss, he kicks the cat's sword right back at him and goads him into continuing the fight. In their final encounter, Puss reclaiming his sword with renewed determination makes a delighted smile stretch across Death's face. Of course, intense fighting brings one closer to death than ever before, so it makes sense he would appreciate one, given he presumably doesn't make a habit of reaping so directly — it's not like the outcome will truly matter in the end anyway.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: He's not chasing after Puss for money and couldn’t care less about the Wishing Star (aside from disgust at Puss' wish). He's literally Death itself, taking both his role AND the value of life very seriously — which is why Puss's reckless squandering of his lives and claims of "laughing in the face of death" convinces him that the cat doesn't deserve his last one. However, once Puss undergoes Character Development, Death sees that killing him now would be pointless and thus spares him justly, as they'll inevitably meet again anyway.
• Bounty Hunter: Subverted. Since he introduces himself to Puss by pulling out a wanted poster for an "autograph", Puss assumes he's a bounty hunter and the Wolf doesn’t bother to deny it. His appearances throughout the first half of the film are full of Double Meaning and Exact Words that let Puss keep believing he's just fighting another bounty hunter (albeit the only one he's ever met who ever made him bleed), but they gain a far deeper meaning after the revelation that he's actually The Grim Reaper.
  Death: "Everyone thinks they'll be the one to defeat me, but no one's escaped me yet."
• Brutal Honesty: He's basically the literal embodiment of a hard reality check for Puss and the meaninglessness of his glory-hogging frivolous lifestyle, and in the Cave of Lost Souls, he pulls no punches on the nature of their situation.
• Canon Character All Along: In regards to the fairytales the Shrek universe is based upon; The Wolf at first doesn’t seem to bear relation to any distinct fairy tale character aside from the multiple versions of The Big Bad Wolf — but it's later revealed that he’s actually Death, who has appeared in the Brothers Grimm fairy tales.
• Character Tic: Has a habit of occasionally spinning his sickles in both hands towards each other, making them create sparks.
• Climax Boss: Through Jack Horner returns afterwards to settle the conflict over the map with the various parties, his solo fight with Puss serves as the emotional and physical climax of Puss' journey throughout the film, and is presented as coming far closer to killing Puss from just his raw skills than Jack ever does.
• Coins for the Dead: In his second appearance to Puss, The Wolf taunts him by placing two gold coins over his own eyes then points at Puss. This is also foreshadowing of his true identity.
• Composite Character: Him being a wolf comes from the Big Bad Wolf, and he was even referred to as such in promotional material to avoid spoiling his true nature, but being the embodiment of Death in a Fairy Tale world who cares deeply for his job and hates those who do not respect fate is like Death in the story Godfather Death.
• Dare to Be Badass: During the final confrontation with Puss, he inadvertently does this, revealing he kept the former's sword and tossing it at Puss, daring him to stand his ground and fight him for the last life he has left instead of using the Wishing Star's power to "Run away to more lives". It works.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Despite his menacing attitude, terrifying appearance and antagonistic role, Death ultimately isn't evil, just a force of nature that got annoyed at Puss failing to value the time he had.
• Deadpan Snarker: He’s got a pretty dry and nonchalant attitude, even when he’s being threatening.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of the Knight of Cerebus. Make no mistake; being the literal embodiment of Death itself in the Shrek franchise, the Wolf is a genuinely chilling antagonist that instils pure fear into even Puss in Boots himself, a quality fully Played for Drama. However it's this very element that drives Puss' Character Development and to drop his arrogance to face Death himself. Realizing this, the Wolf drops the act and even briefly throws a comical tantrum. It's implied afterwards by that sudden show of normality that he’s in fact a snarky amicable guy just doing his job, but making it personal with Puss and going full-on with the scary and sadistic villain act actually ruined his rightful opportunity to take his final life rather than empowering him in any way.
• Determinator: He stalks Puss throughout the movie and is hell-bent on punishing him for being so reckless with his other 8 lives. Considering he's literally Death, he doesn't really need any downtime like a living person might.
• Don't Fear the Reaper: He is simply a force of nature who will leave people alone to meet him on their own terms if they value their life. Even though he hates that cats get nine lives, he won’t hold it against cats who do actually respect and value their time. When you don't, however...
• Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: He's with everyone from cradle to grave. Puss pissed him off enough to make him physically manifest after making one too many arrogant Badass Boasts of "laughing in the face of Death", while squandering his nine lives so recklessly that it became personal. Death will not wait for Puss to die a ninth time, and there's no way he'll let Puss get to the Wishing Star.
• The Dreaded: Whenever Puss hears the wolf's whistle after being on the receiving end of his Curb-Stomp Battle, Puss stops moving, his fur begins to stand on end, and he immediately tenses up. This only gets worse once the wolf reveals himself as Death incarnate.
• Dual Wielding: His weapons are a duo of sickles, and he can combine them into a Double Weapon.
• Early-Bird Cameo: He makes a brief appearance near the beginning of the film during Puss's fight with the giant. When the townspeople cheer on Puss by doing the wave, the Wolf is watching from an alleyway behind the crowd. He did say he was present at each of Puss' previous deaths, didn’t he? The corners of the numbered cards denoting each of Puss's deaths are also stylized to appear like a cloaked Wolf and his sickles.
• Enraged by Idiocy: The cause of his grievance against Puss in Boots is that the latter was blessed with nine lives and he threw 8 of those 9 lives away on deaths that were completely avoidable and idiotic, such as stopping to flirt with a woman while running from bulls, lifting weights without a spotter, having an oven on too hot, walking off a tall building to prove how cats always land on their feet, eating shellfish despite having a severe allergic reaction and refusing to stop or get treatment, and firing himself out of a cannon because it would “revolutionize travel”.
• Establishing Character Moment: The Wolf first appears to Puss in a bar, reveals that he wants him dead, and disarms him of his sword just as he starts to say his famous "Fear me... if you dare!" Catchphrase. What follows next is Puss being on the receiving end of a nasty Curb-Stomp Battle as the Wolf toys with him and becomes the first opponent to actually strike fear into Puss's heart by nicking his forehead and making him bleed. While this scene doesn't reveal his true identity as Death, it does let both Puss and the viewers know that the Wolf is actually an opponent that should be taken seriously as a threat.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Despite tormenting Puss over the movie and hunting him down with the intent to take his last life before he can carelessly throw it away like the rest of them, once he sees that Puss has changed for the better, he does the honourable thing and spares the cat until they have to meet again — ultimately unwilling to go against his duty for the sake of petty vengeance.
  • He's there for Puss, and Puss only, not once threatening the cat's companions and leaving everyone else present at the Wishing Star out of their confrontation. Despite his deep distaste for the fact that cats get nine lives, he has no apparent beef with Kitty, and when he erects a wall of hellfire to prevent anyone from interfering, Perrito is blown away without being harmed.
  • Although he claims that it's Puss's life he's after, he leaves the poor cat be when Puss goes into hiding by becoming a regular pet. Given that the Wolf delights in beating Puss at his own game in order to teach him a lesson on humility, it can probably be assumed that he would have been satisfied with killing the legend after their initial confrontation and leaving a now thoroughly terrorized Puss to his new modest life as a house cat. Noticeably, the Wolf only resumes the chase after Puss decides he's ready to go on another outing to change his fate and not a moment sooner when "Pickles" would have been easy pickings.
  • A supernatural entity, he's strictly amoral and plays by the rules, even if he disagrees with them. Puss (and the other cats) were given 9 lives as Resurrective Immortality, and while Death doesn't like the arrangement he'll comply with professionalism. His grievance with Puss in Boots is that Puss bit the hand that feeds him by being so wasteful with his 8 lives and arrogantly calling himself immortal.
• Evil Is Bigger: He's a wolf and Puss is a cat, so that's a given, but even so, the Wolf is so tall that he makes Puss, a full-grown cat, look like a kitten. In some shots, he appears to be taller than the average person.
• Evil Is Petty: Downplayed, but still somewhat present. Even though he has a point regarding Puss being arrogant and how he has wasted his nine lives, simply letting Puss go to an early grave for hubris is not enough. Death insists on personally terrorizing and killing Puss rather than letting his arrogance do him in like it did with his previous eight lives.
• Evil Laugh: He gives off a few taunting chuckles when chasing Puss for the final time. As Puss runs through a crystal cave, Death's face appears in the crystals, his laugh echoing through the cave. It ties into Death's Sadist tendencies, and his self-admitted flaw of "playing with his food" before getting the job done. Given that he hated Puss for laughing in death's face, this might be invoked karma on Death's part.
• Evil Overlooker: One poster (pictured on the main page) shows his blood-red eyes peering from the shadows.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Appropriately, he speaks with an incredibly deep and intimidating growl.
• Evil Sounds Raspy: Downplayed, as the Wolf's voice is more deep and smooth than anything else, but there is still an appropriately animalistic growl to it. Also, how evil he is is a matter of perspective, since he's simply a natural part of life and only targets Puss because Puss is taking his life for granted.
• Evil Virtues:
  • While he’s more managing than evil, he displays a lot of patience with Puss despite the cat wasting his eight lives, presumably because he’s hoping that Puss will learn his lesson and stop being so careless and arrogant about death. It’s only when Puss continues to act arrogant that Death finally loses his patience and seeks the cat out.
  • After Puss finally stands up to him and even humiliates him a little, the Wolf is furious to the point of a tantrum. However he is furious with himself, acknowledging it was his own hubris and "playing with his food" that gave Puss his second wind, and accepting that Puss is deserving of surviving a little longer. The Wolf may resent Puss' arrogance to the point of pettiness, but he can accept when his own arrogance came to bite him too.
• Eye Am Watching You: When he spots Puss after he escapes Jack Horner’s pie factory, he puts two coins over his eyes and makes a V sign with his fingers to point to himself and then Puss.
• Fair-Play Villain: He allows his opponents a chance to fairly stand up and fight him head-on one-on-one, using no tricks or deceptions to gain the upper hand, just his raw skills. Most notably, he only uses hellfire to make sure nobody interferes with the duel between him and Puss, and despite being able to teleport never exploits it in combat.
• Fatal Flaw: Sadism. The Wolf loves the smell of fear, and loves taunting Puss instead of just going straight for the kill. This indirect approach allows Puss to undergo enough Character Development to come to respect Death and what he means. This makes Death go into a Foreign-Language Tirade when Puss is willing to stand up to Death and face him head on, giving a speech about how he knows he can never truly defeat Death, but won't stop fighting for the time he has left. The reason Death is so angry is because he wanted to take down an arrogant legend who thought he was invincible. By letting Puss consistently get away, the Wolf ensured that Puss came to respect him, and thus Death's desire to defeat an arrogant legend ended in failure because of his own sadistic streak.
  Death: ¿¡POR QUÉ DIABLOS FUI A JUGAR CON MI COMIDA?! (Why the hell did I go play with my food?!)
• Fights Like a Normal: Despite being the literal personification of Death himself with supernatural powers like summoning Hellfire and apparent teleportation, he fights solely with his sickles and combat skills. Given that's still enough to give a Curb-Stomp Battle to Puss, he doesn't really need much more than that. He even chastises himself later for "playing with his food". He only uses his powers to keep others out of the fight.
• Foil: To Perrito. They are both canines with Perrito being a Chihuahua and the Wolf being... a wolf. Perrito cares and supports Puss despite how much standoffish he is to him while Wolf hates Puss but does stops hunting him when Puss learns to value life. Perrito went with Puss and Kitty because he wanted to tag along on an adventure with his newfound friends and thus only values the Wishing Star in that his friends will get a wish, while the Wolf only wants Puss dead already and sees the Wishing Star as a means for Puss to keep cheating him.
• A Form You Are Comfortable With: Inverted. Every physical aspect of the Wolf is unnerving, intimidating and unnatural, the better to toy with his enemies – in this case, Puss. Played straight with everyone else, who just see him as any other anthropomorphic wolf.
• Foreign-Language Tirade: Upon seeing that Puss finally learned his lesson, he angrily growls before slamming his sickles against each other and yelling at himself: "¡¿Por qué diablos fui a jugar con mi comida?!"^Translation"Why the Hell did I go play with my food?" .
• Foreshadowing: The film gives many subtle hints about his true identity as The Grim Reaper, and what his intentions are:
  • The numbered cards during the Death Montage have the Wolf with his cowl up and his sickles on the four corners. As he points out to Puss, he was there for every one of his deaths, but Puss's disregard of the consequences of dying due to having multiple lives meant he never recognized him when he appeared before him.
  • The doctor reminds Puss that "Death comes for us all". In the very next scene, Death takes the form of the wolf and comes for Puss personally while he's at a bar.
  • He makes his first entrance by suddenly appearing right next to Puss with ghostly silence, hinted at only by a candle near Puss blowing out. The doctor who informed Puss he was on his last life similarly blew out a candle to emphasize Puss's mortality.
  • When asking for Puss's autograph on his wanted poster, the Wolf asks him to sign "right here" while tapping the word "Dead" in "Dead or Alive". The noise when he does it is also similar to the sound of a ticking clock, a common metaphor for mortality.
  • There's a reason the Wolf's preferred weapons are a pair of sickles. And he shows up with a cowl. Both are very common imagery relating to the Grim Reaper.
    • This also applies to his physical appearance. While the Grim Reaper is often portrayed as a skeleton, he is otherwise a white figure in a black hood- the only difference of him being a Wolf is for scare tactics.
  • Whenever the Wolf prepares his sickles, the camera is often positioned in a manner such that Puss appears enclosed within the blade, emphasizing his goal.
  • He's the only character, and most notably the only antagonist, who does not have his own Wanted poster despite Puss assuming the Wolf to be a bounty hunter out to kill him.^note An alternate interpretation is that he did have a wanted poster introduction all along— he just used Puss's own poster to do it. In that same scene, he states that nobody has been able to escape him — because he's not a criminal, a bounty hunter, or even a mortal. He's Death itself, taking a rare personal hand over matters. Nobody's ever escaped him because nobody will ever escape him.
  • When Puss claims he "laughs in the face of Death", the Wolf's claw slightly scratches the poster in what appears to be a momentary flash of anger before he removes his cowl, saying "So I've heard.", hinting that he's Death and is not happy with Puss's flippancy towards mortality.
  • When he manages to cut Puss with a blade for the first time in his life, forcing him to recognize his own mortality and how close he came to dying for good, he visibly relishes his opponent's fear and takes sadistic enjoyment out of prolonging Puss's terror. However, as he advances on him, he sarcastically asks the shaken Puss if his lives (emphasis on the plural) are flashing before his eyes with an expression that mixes contempt with pity in an almost solemn manner. As the Grim Reaper, he knows full well how valuable life is and how most people cherish the one single chance they're given, with Puss recognizing how valuable his was only right as he's about to lose it eliciting a small bit of sympathy for his quarry's foolishness. This also hints as to ultimately how Puss defeats him: not by out-fighting a foe as inexorable as Death, but by recognizing and accepting the value of what life he has remaining, convincing Death to wait for his natural mortal ending instead of reaping him early for his arrogance.
  • When Puss hides from the Wolf behind a locked door, the Wolf's shadow impossibly creeps across the floor, as if the door wasn't there.
  • In Puss's second encounter with him, the Wolf places two stray coins over his eyes as he watches him leave. Ancient Greeks buried their dead with coins over their eyes so they would have money for passage to the Underworld.
  • The Wolf keeps appearing out of thin air with seemingly no one but Puss (initially) able to see him, and during the Travel Montage of the parties heading to the Dark Forest in search of the Star, he is the only one not shown. Furthermore, whereas Goldilocks and the bears track Puss through his scent and Jack Horner tracks him by using a crystal ball, it is never shown how the Wolf manages to find Puss so quickly. As Death is always close to you, he doesn't need to travel to reach his target, nor is his goal the Star.
  • He's the only character who doesn't appear on the Wishing Star map, which tracks all other living beings that enter the Dark Forest. As he's not technically alive or even physically present in a single location aside from his wolf avatar, this is to be expected.
  • The grey stripe on his facial fur is in the shape of a wolf skull, hinting at his sheer danger level and true profession, and when he appears behind Puss at the riverside battle, the surrounding rocks and the white mist that outline him line up in the shape of a skull, hinting as to what he truly is. In fact, given the Dark Forest is affected by the heart of those who hold the map, it's implied that the noticeably-darker and symbolic surroundings around him were Death's presence literally affecting the environment to spell out to Puss what he was.
  • During the battle against the Baker's Dozen, when Puss suffers Shell-Shock Silence when a unicorn horn-inflicted explosion of confetti occurs right next to him, he still somehow hears the wolf's whistle clear as day, despite being able to basically hear nothing else. This hints that he's very much tied to something closer to Puss than just physical space.
  • Following from the above, the confetti explosion that occurred before the Wolf's second appearance was the death of a baker minion, courtesy of Jack's poor aim. And in the previous scenes where the Wolf appears, it's either before or after a death has occurred onscreen: for the first, with Puss himself losing his eighth life by being crushed by the bell in the beginning; and for the second, after one of the Serpent Sisters is turned by an annoyed Jack Horner into a golden statue. In the climax, the Wolf arrives at the Wishing Star after the last of Jack's minions dies due to his callousness. He sees Puss' Character Development and leaves him and the others in peace, but Jack dies shortly thereafter thanks to the interference of Puss and company. So while Death may not have gotten what he wanted in the first place, he isn't leaving empty-handed after all.
  • His eerie whistling is likely a reference to El Silbón, a legendary figure from Colombian and Venezuelan folklore; much like the Wolf, if you hear El Silbón whistling, you're about to die.
• Four Is Death: He has four fingers on each paw, compared to Puss and Kitty's more human-like five.
• Fractured Fairy Tale: Notably subverted: unlike the vast majority of characters in the franchise, Death is not a parody, but actually play fairy tale tropes straight. Rather his pursuit of Puss and reasons behind it fit the mold as a fairy tale being used as a cautionary fable against certain vices or bad behavior. In this case, hubris and taking life for granted. Especially symbolic, as fairy tales with a wolf as the antagonist or involving Death often are of the cautionary tale variety.
• God's Hands Are Tied: Death doesn't actually kill people in the movie, as shown by how Puss caused his own deaths and how Jack Horner killed people through sheer ruthlessness and his own carelessness. Death just takes over after the person dies and handles it from there. With Puss in Boots, however, Death makes an exception and takes a corporeal form so he can claim Puss's 9th and final life because he was offended by Puss's hubris and constant mockery of him. Even then, he ultimately gives up the hunt when Puss proves that he’s outgrown his arrogance.
• Graceful Loser: Played With; Death briefly throws a tantrum and curses in Spanish upon seeing Puss' newfound resolve to preserve his last life, stating he wanted to hunt down "an arrogant legend who thought he was immortal." But Death quickly calms down and walks away, saying that they'll meet again. Puss acknowledging this fact makes Death smile, satisfied that Puss truly isn't that arrogant legend anymore, and Death leaves without any further trouble.
  Death: Live your life, Puss in Boots. Live it well...
• Greater-Scope Villain: While he actively pursues Puss with the intent of killing him personally, Death is a force of nature that inevitably awaits everyone. Puss seeks the star to have his spent lives back before Death can claim him for good, but even if he succeeds at delaying his demise, Death will still come for him in the end.
• The Grim Reaper: His true identity. And he makes it crystal clear this is no metaphor, he is Death with the capital D. He’s been with Puss each time he’s died, and now that he’s on his last life, he’s going to finish him off for good as punishment for being an arrogant cat who thought he would live forever.
  Puss: You're no bounty hunter… You are…
  The Wolf: Death. And I don't mean it metaphorically, or rhetorically, or poetically, or theoretically, or any other fancy way. I'm Death. Straight. Up. And I have come for you, Puss in Boots.
• Hell Is That Noise: He alerts Puss to his presence by whistling an eerie tune.
• Hero Killer: His introduction has him curbstomp Puss in direct combat, and even draws actual blood from Puss' forehead. He probably could have killed Puss long before their final fight if he'd just stopped toying with his prey. There's also the inherent problem of trying to fight off The Grim Reaper himself, and that no one has truly escaped him, not even heroes of old.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: A self-confessed fault of his is that he plays with his food, giving it an opportunity to escape. That's what happens with Puss, whom he let run to make him more fearful, but instead made him braver and more respectful of life and death, so he lets him off.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: While not doing so in combat, during the Cave of Lost Souls confrontation, Death stops pretending to be a mortal wolf and shows off his true supernatural power, doing things like casually teleporting around, even when Puss is looking directly at him, and hijacking the entire cave and seemingly manifesting inside all the crystals around Puss until he leaps out of nowhere. He goes back to restraining his power for the final confrontation, but it still makes it clear he's been holding back the entire time and never actually goes all out.
• I Am the Noun: When he officially introduces himself as Death, he goes on to say that he doesn’t mean it in a hyperbolic manner. He is Death, the very thing that Puss initially mocked.
• I Can't Sense Their Presence: Whenever the map to the Wishing Star is opened, it shows the locations of everyone in the forest...but Death never appears on it, even when he just appeared to Puss, further hammering in Death is beyond even the Wishing Star.
• Implacable Man: He will claim Puss' life, and shrugs off any attempt to harm him that he doesn't just dodge; demonstrated most blatantly when he casually walks through the Wishing Star's life-killing barrier. Justified in that he's Death itself, and We All Die Someday.
• Implied Death Threat: When the Wolf first meets Puss, he pulls out Puss' "Wanted!" Poster while asking for an autograph. He asks that Puss sign, "right there" while tapping the word "Dead" in "Dead or Alive".
• In the Hood: He often has his black hood pulled up over his head. This helps give him the classic Grim Reaper appearance even after his true identity is revealed.
• Invincible Villain: Justified, given he's Death itself. Puss has no chance to actually defeat him; he's not only a function of life itself, but an inevitability as one meets their own mortality. This is emphasized when he enters the Final Battle by casually walking through a barrier the Wishing Star had generated at its edges like it was made of water, a barrier that had previously been shown to disintegrate those fully immersed in it into nothingness. The best Puss can do is, through Character Development (and a brief fight better than his first showing), learn to respect what Death actually means and why one should value their life to their fullest, which in turn convinces Death that Puss is not the same arrogant blowhard that wronged him for so long and decides to part ways amenably. However, Death does so while saying that they'll inevitably meet again.
• It's Personal: Death understands the value of each life and while he disagrees with cats having nine lives, he tolerates it. It's the combination of Puss having nine lives and wasting eight in pursuit of reckless vainglory that led to Death personally going after Puss himself.
• The Juggernaut: As Death himself, he cannot be stopped. Not even the Wishing Star's barrier, which draws in and disintegrates anyone that touches it, can do a thing to stop him, as he just casually walks through it. Even when Puss manages to knock him down, the cat admits he can't actually stop him and Death will eventually win no matter what he does. Death only stops because Puss learned his lesson, but both are well aware Death will still be waiting for him at the end of his life.
• Jump Scare: He does this twice in the Cave of Lost Souls.
  • The first time, just as Puss is ditching his past lives, Death comes out of nowhere right in front of the cat. Notably, every other time Death enters a scene, he precedes it with his whistle. This is the only scene where he doesn't, making his appearance all the more abrupt.
    Puss's Past Life: Oh, you think you are better than us? Without us, you will always live a life of—
    Death: Fear.
  • The second time is when Puss tries to escape. During this, all of the crystals in the cave glow red and begin to show reflections of Death laughing at a very frightened Puss. Just before he makes it out, the real Death suddenly lunges at the camera and grabs Puss's cape.
• Just Toying with Them: Puss can only match Death in single combat because Death is choosing to limit himself so he'll enjoy taking Puss's last life. He even admonishes himself for this when Puss goes through Character Development and respects that he has one life to live, as Puss wouldn't have learned that lesson had Death chosen to be more pragmatic.
• Karma Houdini: Even though his job is to collect the souls of death, Death oversteps his boundary by going after Puss while he's still alive, something he admits. What higher powers there are in the Shrek universe don't seem to care about this blatant violation of natural laws. Perhaps they agree with him.
• Kill Tally: He's got one on his sickles. There's eight scratched-in images of Puss in Boots with an X crossed through them, for each of the eight lives that the cat has lost.
• Knight of Cerebus: Compared to Goldilocks and Jack, he is played surprisingly seriously and explicitly spells out to Puss that he's Death in the flesh. Notably, he's the only villain, and about the only character, in the entire franchise to never be played for laughs at any point beyond his snarkiness. And it's telling that the line where he explicitly spells it out to Puss is the closest he gets to a full-on humorous moment (aside from his brief tirade just before he ceases his hunt of Puss), and it's a bone-chilling reveal of his true nature. He even provides the trope image.
• Lean and Mean: He has a very slim physique and is also presented as the film's Knight of Cerebus from the moment he's introduced, and it's later revealed that he's Death itself.
• Leitmotif: He whistles his theme music that announces his arrival and presence. Once you hear that whistle, you can be sure that things are gonna get serious.
• Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: He's only out for Puss, nothing and nobody else. And so, when Death shows up at the wishing star, he creates a Hellfire barrier around him and Puss to keep others outside and the cat inside so it is only the two of them who fight. Since Puss uses the dagger Kitty gave him earlier, he technically does use some outside assistance, but it's not cheating since he had it on him before the fight started.
• Lightning Bruiser: He towers over Puss and can move at least just as fast. And as Death himself, he's stronger than any living being and impossible to stop.
• Loony Fan: He's introduced rather creepily admiring Puss in a bar, making the latter really disturbed and inching away. Though it's quickly subverted once he brings out Puss' wanted poster for an "autograph", and how later reveals show that he deeply resents Puss.
  "Sign riiiighhht here." (taps his claw on the "Dead" of "Dead or Alive")
• Loophole Abuse: Death is so furious at Puss for his arrogance and flagrant disregard for his own life, that he decides that he doesn't deserve the privilege to live it. He acknowledges that claiming Puss' life before it reaches it's natural end is technically breaking the rules, but by manifesting himself in the form of a fearsome wolf bounty hunter looking to collect, he can make Puss' natural end come at the moment he kills him personally.
  The Wolf: I find the very idea of nine lives absurd — and you didn't value any of them. So... why don’t I do us both a favor, and take this last one now?
  Puss' second life: THAT'S CHEATING!
  The Wolf: [tosses his sickle into the crystal, shattering it] Shh... Don't tell.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: It's ambiguous whether Death is causing Puss' visions of the past, either from sheer proximity to The Grim Reaper or as a deliberate act, or whether he's just able to tell from someone's eyes when they're having such an experience.
• Never Heard That One Before: Implied. His clarification of how he's Death itself and not a mortal using a fancy allegory suggests that he's heard countless souls try to justify his existence as such.
• Noble Demon: He’s certainly sinister throughout his pursuit of Puss and clearly enjoys preying on fear and arrogance, but as Death, he has his own sense of honour and fair-play that he abides by. He detests those who try to cheat him or squander life thoughtlessly, and was willing to bend his rules to take Puss’s ninth life himself for those very reasons — but once he sees Puss has learnt his lesson, he gives into them and spares the latter, albeit somewhat begrudgingly.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: His first fight with Puss is him effortlessly throwing the cat around like a ragdoll and traumatizing him to such an extent that all he can do is run in fear. Their second battle, while more evenly matched, is still just Death toying with him, as it's likely he could easily kill Puss with a snap of his fingers.
• No Name Given: Despite trailers calling him The Big Bad Wolf, he is actually not referred to as such and is just called "the wolf" or "lobo". Of course, his true name is Death.
• Nonchalant Dodge: His first meeting with Puss and Curb-Stomp Battle begins with him swatting the cat's sword from his grip, followed by effortlessly dodging each attack when Puss tries to get serious.
  The Wolf: Slow. Sloppy. Sad.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Most animal characters in the franchise are either sapient talking animals like Donkey and the Three Bears or Funny Animals like Puss and Kitty. The only other sapient wolf, the actual Big Bad Wolf, falls into the latter category. Not Death, he falls somewhere in the middle and looks more like a werewolf. This highlights the fact he's not a normal creature by any stretch.
• No-Sell: Anyone else who gets fully engulfed by the Wishing Star's barrier is instantly disintegrated. Before the final fight with Puss, Death walks through this barrier without even reacting to its presence.
• Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught: When his identity as Death itself is revealed and he explains how he is going to take Puss' last life himself instead of letting him live it until its natural end, the Crystal of Puss's second life accuses him of cheating. He notably does not deny this accusation, simply shattering the crystal with a Slasher Smile and tauntingly whispering "don't tell".
• Not Hyperbole: When he reveals himself to be Death, he adds on that "[he doesn't] mean it metaphorically, or rhetorically, or poetically, or theoretically, or any other fancy way." He's Death. Straight up.
• Not So Above It All:
  • Despite being a massive Knight of Cerebus that kills almost all of the comedy as he appears, once Puss finishes his Character Development and affirms his resolve, Death drops all of the menace he's built up as he throws an uncharacteristically petty tantrum as he gripes with himself, in Spanish, as to why he just had to play with his food.
  • His defeat even ties Death indirectly into the film's Central Theme. Despite being an Outside-Context Problem who has no interest in the Wishing Star, he still has a selfish, somewhat self-contradicting ambition like everyone else (in his case wanting to kill Puss for his arrogance, but insisting on humbling him first, thus killing his motive in the process). Like all the mortal characters, Death's goal is still self-defeating from his own irrational hubris, only realising and accepting that he already got what he wanted in a roundabout sense (to quash Puss' arrogance and be taken seriously) when he finally reaches the Wishing Star.
  • He's a playable racer in Dreamworks All-Star Kart Racing (via DLC), and is clearly enjoying the competition like everyone else. Even Death will gladly partake in Go-Karting with Bowser.
  Wolf: I came here....to race!
• Obviously Evil: A large wolf with red eyes wearing a black cloak isn't exactly good guy material. Even when getting Drunk on Milk, Puss is rightfully wary of him, though he believes the Wolf to be a mere bounty hunter. However, while still a prominent villain in the story, the Wolf is shown to be much less malicious than he looks by the end of the movie.
• Offscreen Teleportation: A final hint at the Wolf's true identity right before The Reveal is that while talking to Puss in the Cave of Lost Souls, at one point he goes from standing right in front of Puss to stepping out of the shadows behind him immediately after the camera view moves so that where he was standing is just off-screen, without even pausing in his speech. Puss actually does a Double Take at this. Unlike most examples, Puss was actually looking directly at him when he did it.
• The Omnipresent: Being he's Death, he's everywhere. When he reveals who he really is to Puss, he makes it clear he's been with Puss every single time he's died. He demonstrates this as he briefly shows his full supernatural might, namely via surrounding Puss in the Cave of Lost Souls at all angles.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The marking point that Puss has turned around his character during the final battle. Unlike before, Puss battles the Wolf steel faced, causing the Wolf to show increased signs of confusion and frustration, even lowkey panicking after Puss slashes his scicle in half. By the end of it, the Wolf straight up breaks his sinister composure for the first time and throws a comedic tantrum, complaining that the no-longer-arrogant Puss has spoiled all the fun for him.
• Out of the Inferno: Inverted example. His last scene in the movie is him walking through the fire barrier he created around himself and Puss for their final confrontation.
• Outside-Context Problem: In a world that shamelessly parodies fairy tales, The Grim Reaper played totally straight is so wildly out of place in the setting that it isn't funny — which is on purpose. Puss' past lives are initially presented as comedic, and you'd expect the darker implications to be left to interpretation like everything else in the series. Death is less kind, presenting Puss's lack of respect for life and death as the serious problem it really is, and makes no bones about displaying that to the audience. His entrance into the Final Battle even plays this completely straight to up his intimidation factor, casually walking through the disintegration barrier at the edges of the Wishing Star like it was nothing and completely putting a standstill to the ongoing multi-melee brawl over the map from the remaining combatants with his presence alone as everybody becomes wary of this mysterious interloper. The most he cares about the Wishing Star is anger that Puss would use it to get his lives back.
• Pet the Dog: Upon confronting Puss in the Wishing Star, Death creates a ring of flames surrounding himself and Puss so that no one will interfere. However, while Perrito is caught in the fire, he’s only knocked back and without any harm done to him from touching it. While sadistic and ruthless, Death himself refuses to hurt someone else (especially a helpless puppy) in the crossfire of his pursuit against Puss. He even spares Puss when the latter learned his lesson about valuing his life with humility and appreciation.
• Physical God: He's the physical embodiment of death, and only lowers himself from being the Powers That Be because he's grown tired of Puss dying due to his own hubris and wants to be the one to personally take his final life. Despite holding back, it's shown he's a Reality Warper on a casual level, as opposed to the active magic all other characters tend to use. Notably, it's implied he's beyond the power of the Wishing Star itself, as he can both No-Sell its barrier and the map to it can't detect his presence.
• Playing with Fire: He slashes the ground with his sickles to summon a ring of (presumably) hellfire around himself and Puss for their final confrontation.
• Plot-Irrelevant Villain: Sort of. While he is integral to Puss' personal character growth in The Last Wish, none of the other characters even know that he exists (well, at least, not this version of him) up until near the end of the movie. The chase to the Wishing Star would have more or less gone the same whether or not the Wolf was involved. So, irrelevant to the plot, but indispensable to the theme.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Downplayed. He admits to Puss that he's "not a cat person", mainly because he finds the concept of one having nine lives when most only have one "absurd". Unfortunately for Puss, the combination of him having nine lives and frivolously throwing away eight of them on reckless stunts is what earns him Death's ire, and it's only after besting Death in a duel does Puss earn Death's respect and the right to live out his final life.
• The Problem with Fighting Death: When the Wolf flatly states that no one has ever escaped him, he's not kidding — as Death, a visit from him is inevitable. Whether Puss gets his wish for more lives or not makes little difference to Death in the end, since Puss will eventually die for the final time sooner or later. It's Puss' arrogance and conviction that he's untouchable that's angering Death enough to take direct action. Puss acknowledges this in their final battle, even after he manages to beat Death back, saying that the Wolf can never truly be stopped, but he'll keep fighting for his final life. It is this respect for death, along with his new value of life, that convinces Death to let Puss live out his last life instead of taking it by force.
• Psycho for Hire: His introduction paints him as one, being a bounty hunter who just loves the smell of his quarry's fear. Though it's later revealed he's never after the money, and is a lone wolf acting for personal reasons.
• Psychopomp: Being the franchise's version of The Grim Reaper would automatically make him one.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Zig-zagged. Although in some ways the Wolf is just performing his duty as Death in hunting down Puss, he makes it clear that he feels particularly insulted by Puss' flagrant disregard of his past lives while "laughing in the face of death", and is enacting a personal vendetta in taking him down. He essentially admits that coming after Puss while he's still alive goes beyond the scope of his duties, but Puss angered him so much he doesn't care about "cheating".
• Rage Breaking Point:
  • Downplayed; Death has long since crossed the point of sheer rage at Puss' years of showboating and arrogance, and is chillingly calm in his quest to kill Puss, but it's clear during their first meeting that Puss mentioning again how he "laughs in the face of death" is almost enough to set him off.
  • He also reaches this upon realizing he cost himself his own chase by toying with Puss over the course of the movie rather than just killing him straight out the gate, thus allowing Puss to become a humbler person who Death has no good reason to take before his time — cursing in Spanish then indignantly telling Puss he “ruined this for [him]” before collecting himself.
• Real After All: For most of the film it's ambiguous whether he actually exists, or he's simply an entity who appears before Puss specifically. Most of his appearances either have him alone with Puss or otherwise completely unnoticed by everyone except Puss, not to mention he has a habit of appearing out of nowhere not unlike a figment of the imagination. The film's climax confirms that he is a real physical being that everyone can hear and see, so it's more likely that he simply has the ability to pick and choose who can perceive him.
• Reality Warper: Being Death that is a given, although it's a bit more subtle at the start (his shadow crept impossibly past a closed door) and it's made ambiguous whether Puss was hallucinating after their initial meeting or if Death was literally present for all of it. Later, Death physically appears and hijacks the Cave of Lost Souls, which was created by the Dark Forest from Puss's mind, and he does No-Sell the Wishing Star's barrier (which itself presumably has massive reality warping capabilities) and can't be detected by its map.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: The Wolf gives a villainous, but accurate one to Puss when he reveals that he is Death. He explains that it already annoys him enough that cats are allowed to have more than one life, but Puss not bothering to value or appreciate any one of his out of an arrogant belief he’d always have another life to fall back on is what has invoked him to personally come put the cat in his place... and in the ground. He even tells Puss that he would’ve recognized him from the start if he hadn’t treated his deaths so frivolously.
  The Wolf: Sorry to crash the party with your past lives — or, your past deaths, as I like to call them. [raises his sickle, revealing a Kill Tally of Puss' deaths] I was there to witness all of them. Each. Frivolous. End. But you didn't even notice me, because "Puss in Boots laughs in the face of death", right? But you're not laughing now. [...] Y'know, I'm not a cat person. I find the very idea of nine lives absurd — [points a sickle at Puss, glaring at him] and you didn't value any of them. So... why don't I do us both a favor, and take this last one now?
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: He has red eyes and a black cloak, and while he's not the most evil character in the film, he's definitely menacing and has a personal score to settle with Puss.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: His eyes are a piercing red. And in the right light, his irises turn from black to white, to further make his eyes look menacing.
• Red Herring: In promotional material, the wolf was credited as "The Big Bad Wolf". The reason for this was to avoid spoiling his true identity.
• Relieved Failure: Despite not collecting his nemesis' soul, Death smiles at Puss' acceptance of his future end and willingness to embrace his short life, beaming at the sight of the once-cocky feline's newly found humility before leaving on better terms.
• Sadist: As the wolf notes, he loves the smell of fear. Whenever Puss runs away from him, he intentionally lets the cat get a head start, just for the sake of chasing him. The wolf even gives away his presence a few times with his whistle, just to let Puss know he's watching and is still on the hunt. After the reveal that the wolf is the personification of death itself, he slowly stalks a terrified Puss with an Evil Laugh. That said, it's also implied to be something he's doing just to Puss to punish the arrogant cat for his disregard of life. It's also Death's Fatal Flaw, as giving Puss a chance to gain respect for what death really means allows Puss to overcome this fear; as soon as he notices this change, he can no longer bring himself to finish Puss off but actively chastises himself for giving him the chance to change for the better.
• Savage Wolf: He's a wolf and an antagonist. As shown by the Curb-Stomp Battle against Puss, no one has ever managed to defeat him, and losing to the wolf strikes fear into the cat's heart. As revealed later, this is because he's literally Death, so no one will ever defeat him. Even so, Death is a Sadist who delights in scaring people.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Supernatural Powers!: Death is fully aware that he is overstepping his bounds by attempting to kill Puss before it's his time to die, but he is so angered by Puss' flippant, arrogant attitude towards death that he's willing to break, or rather bend , those rules just to personally teach the ungrateful cat a lesson in humility. This is even lampshaded by his exchange with one of Puss' past lives.
  Wolf: [chuckles sinisterly] Y'know, I'm not a cat person. I find the very idea of nine lives absurd [points a sickle at Puss, glaring at him] and you didn't value any of them. Sooo, why don’t I do us both a favor, and take this last one, now?
  Puss' 2nd Life: That's cheating!
  Wolf: [throws a sickle behind him into that Puss' crystal] Shh, don't tell.
• Seen It All: Well, he IS Death, so literally. His first meeting with Puss sees him brushing off the cat’s bravado as nothing he hasn’t seen before from everyone else who thinks they can defeat him, and he couldn’t be more nonchalant about his pursuit of Puss happening through a magical forest with the endpoint of a giant crystal star from space. Pivotally and ironically, however, this changes in the climax when he is genuinely caught off guard by Puss overcoming his fear of death — allowing the cat to bring their duel to a standstill.
• Sinister Scythe: He dual-wields twin sickles that he can combine into a glaive. After all, he wouldn't be the Grim Reaper without one.
• Sinister Whistling: Announces his presence to Puss by whistling an eerie tune.
• Slasher Smile: Death spots a pretty wide, blood-chilling one several times, most notably when he shatters the Crystal of Puss's second life for hypocritically accusing him of cheating, and when Puss resolves to fight him rather than wish for more lives.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Even though Death isn't directly involved with the movie's main plot, he was the one who motivated Puss to embark on his quest to find the Wishing Star, leading to many of the story's conflicts when all of the story's main characters unexpectedly meet up with each other at Jack's pie factory.
• The Spook: He has no introduction and nobody acknowledges him other than Puss. He spells out why he's so mysterious in the Cave of Lost Souls; he is Death itself, and he's hunting down Puss specifically because he never treated him with respect.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Often abruptly appears out of nowhere while whistling. Justified since he's actually Death personified. He can literally appear out of nowhere. He even does this mid-sentence just to clue Puss in on his true identity during their confrontation in the Cave of Lost Souls, disappearing from in front of Puss only to suddenly reappear from the darkness right behind Puss. Puss even does a double take at this.
• Super-Persistent Predator: As he's the personification of death itself, he isn't held back by anything that would deter a normal being and he can appear at any time anywhere to hound Puss (as the possibility of dying could exist around any corner during an adventure). The only time he makes no appearance at any point is during Puss's 10-Minute Retirement at Mama Luna's, where the only thing Puss can suffer under the care of a Crazy Cat Lady is a long and agonizingly slow death of boredom, and thus seemingly cannot appear to claim him—although, it is possible that he simply chose not to as leaving him in Mama Luna's care would have been A Fate Worse Than Death in the eyes of someone like Puss anyway.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: When Puss calls him a bounty hunter, the Wolf doesn't bother to deny it, letting Puss believe that he's a bounty hunter until they meet again in the Cave of Lost Souls where the Wolf reveals his true identity as Death.
• Swiss-Army Weapon: The Wolf carries twin sickles with blades that can fold forward over the handles for storage or use as knuckle blades. In Puss' final fight with him, he links the sickles' pommels together and extends them to form a double-bladed scythe.
• Sword Beam: He creates the Hellfire barrier around himself and Puss with a wave of his sickles.
• Sword Drag: Another habit he has besides twirling his sickles is scraping them against the floor to create sparks. He also does this move before he creates a ring of hellfire around Puss for their second fight.
• This Cannot Be!: He goes into a tirade after realizing toying with his food allowed Puss the opportunity to mend his ways and change for the better. In a strange way, one soul did escape Death - the arrogant self-absorbed feline who thought himself immortal and always mocked Death; because of the technicality that soul is no more. Puss has changed into a better person who truly values his life, and wants to share it with his comrades, and friends.
• Token Motivational Nemesis: He's only here for Puss. He doesn't have a wish to make, and his pursuit of Puss is independent of the Wishing Star.
• Tranquil Fury:
  • He hides it really well behind his demeanor for the most part, but Death's whole motivation for seeking to claim Puss's last life personally stems from his sheer hatred for the arrogant cat due to his continuous disregard and disrespect of him and what he's supposed to mean despite reaping him for each of his eight prior deaths. Letting his cool mask slip during his "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Puss shows just how much Death despises the cat so much as to break his own rules and claim his last life early.
  • In their very first meeting, Puss' only reaction to being threatened is to once again reiterate that he "laughs at death". While the Wolf responds casually to conceal his true identity, you can spot him drag his claw across the countertop when Puss says this. Death is pissed.
• The Unblinking: He never blinks naturally for the entire film, and only closes his eyes once or twice as part of different expressions. It's one of the early indicators that he isn't a living being.
• The Un-Smile: Gives Puss a toothy one of these when first greeting him in a pseudo-friendly manner, which of course only serves to unnerve the former immediately. This then becomes a Slasher Smile in the ensuing Curb-Stomp Battle he inflicts on Puss.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: He appears out in the open among the crowd of people when Puss, Kitty and Perrito are escaping from town where Jack's pie factory is located, and no one in that crowd is fazed by the ominous-looking wolf in a cloak. It makes it look like only Puss can see him, but that turns out later to not be true.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The reason he decides to hunt down Puss himself is due to his arrogance over his reputation as a "legend" causing him to waste 8 of his 9 lives while "laughing in the face of death" and never truly valuing his life. By the time Puss is in the Cave of Lost Souls, Puss has had enough Character Development that he has begun to lose his arrogance and value his friends, wanting to meet back up with them instead of going to the Wishing Star on his own while questioning if he even needs to get his lives back anymore, and him outright referring to his previous arrogant lives as "jerks". However, when Death confronts him in the cave immediately after this, revealing his true identity to him and why he's hunting him, he horrifies Puss enough that he chooses to run to the Wishing Star and wish for his lives back, causing a Third-Act Misunderstanding between Puss and Kitty.
• Vengeance Denied: He bent his rules to hunt down and take his hate out on Puss for being an arrogant fool who thought himself immortal and mocking Death. By the time of their final battle, he finds that Puss isn't trying to escape him anymore and is willing to fight to keep his last life. He loses his temper and realizes that Puss is no longer that same feline he came to kill, and therefore no longer has any right to take his life.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: He's by far and away the most intimidating villain in the Shrek franchise, with almost nothing about him being played for laughs.
• Villainous Breakdown: Downplayed. In the climax, after it has become clear to him that Puss isn't afraid of him anymore, the Wolf turns around from their confrontation and starts throwing a tantrum because he has encountered a soul who overcame the fear of death and isn't facing the same feline from before. After letting it all out, he collects himself and gains a Villain Respect for Puss.
• Villain Ball: His decision to torment Puss rather than just kill him immediately allows Puss the time to learn to appreciate the one life he has left, thus negating Death's motivation for going after him in the first place. Death lampshades this in his Foreign-Language Tirade after he realizes this.
• Villain Has a Point: A lot of what Death says is perfectly true:
  • For one thing, he's inevitable for every living thing and that's final, because he's death itself and no one can avoid death forever.
  • For another, Puss has been arrogant, reckless, foolish, and disrespectful by squandering eight of his nine lives (which is far more than most people ever get) in incredibly stupid ways, all while "laughing in the face of death", and believing himself to be immortal, which he isn't, never has been, and never will be. By treating his lives so frivolously as if they were all part of some big game, and so arrogantly laughing at death as if it were one big joke, Puss has disrespected both the value of life itself and the very concept of death. So it's no wonder Death has decided Puss doesn't deserve to live out his ninth and final life, and wants to claim it personally. That is, until Puss's Character Development.
  • Death also quite rightly denounces Puss's initial intent to wish for more lives as "the coward's way out" of his problems.
• Villain Respect: For Puss by the end of the movie, which is also the only way the cat is able to "defeat" him (something that briefly pisses him off upon realizing) — by showing that he's no longer the "arrogant little legend" who disregards the value of life that Death came for, and that he will continue to fight for his real one even if he knows it's a battle he'll eventually have to lose. Thus, Death walks away, disgruntled at the loss but ultimately satisfied Puss got it together.
• Visible Invisibility: Before his last encounter with Puss, his physical presence and his creepy whistling were only registered by Puss while everyone else completely ignored him. It's unclear if this is an ability he has as The Grim Reaper.
• Weapon Twirling: He has an habit of twirling his sickles, frequently making them clash against each other and throw Sword Sparks in the process.
• Weirdness Censor: Death takes the form of a wolf to hunt Puss in Boots and it takes a while for Puss to figure out who the wolf really is. It's only when Death appears at the star that his presence is acknowledged by someone other than Puss. The form Death takes does make him appear out of place in a regular setting in the Shrek franchise, with his red eyes and odd behavior toward Puss, but it's hardly outlandish or disturbing because he appears like any other anthropomorphic animal in the series.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Sort of. Death's vendetta against Puss is quite personal, as he's furious at the cat for constantly disrespecting him. However, he does genuinely believe that he's going to do both himself and Puss a favor by ending the cat's final life now and personally rather than let him pointlessly waste it in another frivolous adventure.
• We Will Meet Again: After seeing Puss' character development, he leaves, having gained some respect for the cat for learning to value his life, but not before reminding Puss that they will certainly meet when his time comes.
  Death: You know we will meet again, right?
  Puss: Sí. Hasta la muerte.
• When He Smiles: He spends the majority of his screen time giving out some truly menacing and sadistic grins as he relishes driving Puss over the deep end, not helped by his wolf features. However, after Puss finally overcomes his fear and impresses Death with the humble acceptance of his morality, he gives Puss a genuine, approving smile before leaving.
• White and Red and Eerie All Over: He's snow white with bright red eyes, fitting the feeling of an incarnation of Death even before the reveal.
• White Wolves Are Special: He's got a white pelt and stalks Puss, a smart cat, with little trouble. It's a fitting color considering his true identity.
• Who's Laughing Now?: His primary motivation. He is sick and tired of seeing Puss throwing away his lives on reckless stunts and his constant mockery of him by claiming to "laugh in the face of death" that he deems Puss unworthy to live his final life and manifests into the mortal plane to personally claim his last life. He even throws Puss' claim of laughing in the face of death back in his face when he confronts him in the Cave of Lost Souls to clue him in on his true identity.
  Wolf: I was there to witness all of them. Each. Frivolous. End. But you... didn’t even notice me, because "Puss in Boots laughs in the face of death"... right? But you’re not laughing now.
• Willfully Weak: Being Death, he's obviously got a lot of supernatural power, such as teleportation, summoning Hellfire, and being able to No-Sell the Wishing Star's disintegration barrier. But in combat, Death restrains himself solely to his sickles and combat skills. Given that's more than enough to handle Puss, he doesn't need to do anything else. The Cave of Souls confrontation, the only time Death stops pretending to be bound by physical laws, makes it clear that even in the final battle, Death is never actually fighting seriously. At the end, Death chastises himself for "playing with his food," as this robbed him of a kill, and implies it's something he's done with his previous haunts.
• World's Best Warrior: Even without bringing up his otherworldly nature, Death is by far the strongest and most skilled fighter, contrasting Jack's reliance on magical weapons and Puss' Weak, but Skilled fighting style.
• Worthy Opponent: Zig-Zagged. At first, Death is utterly disappointed with Puss' prowess, smugly telling him that he doesn't live up to his own legends. Later, after Puss promises to make the most of his final life with his friends, Death gains some respect for him and decides to spare him for now... but reminds Puss that We Will Meet Again, since Puss is mortal.
• Wrong Context Magic: Magic is nothing new to the franchise, but all other magic users need magic wands, ingrediants, incantations, rituals, deals, or at least some level of visible effort to actually use theirs. Death needs none of these things and can perform magical feats entirely on a whim and is a straight up Reality Warper, highlighting he's in a completely different league.
• Xanatos Gambit: He either succeeds in killing Puss or manages to convince him to respect his life and inevitable death. Either way, he proves his point.
• You Don't Look Like You: The Reveal that he is an incarnation of Death is able to shock both Puss and the audience, because he doesn't look that much like the typical depictions of Death. Most notable is that he isn't a skeleton, human or otherwise, nor does he have a gaunt or pale appearance (barring his white fur). While he does wear a black robe, it doesn't reach down to his feet or cover his arms as the Grim Reaper's robe usually does. Word of God says that Death's more pragmatic style reflects the inspiration the movie takes from Western genre films.

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Goldilocks

Goldilocks

Voiced by: Florence Pugh, Kailey Crawford (young) ^{Foreign VAs}Mafalda Luís de Castro, Inês Conde [young] (EU Portuguese), Vera Bosch (EU Spanish), Shoko Nakagawa (Japanese), Julieta Nair Calvo, Julia Kuschevatzky [young] (Latin American Spanish), Véronique Marchand (Canadian French), Lison Daniel (EU French), Ronja Peters (German), Zhang Biyu (PRC Mandarin), Janice Vidal (HK Cantonese), Mu Xuanming (TW Mandarin), Elizaveta Ebanoidze (Russian), Matilda Smedius (Swedish)

"That was not 'just right'!"

An orphan girl who was adopted by three bears after sneaking into their cottage and eating their porridge. She's one of the antagonists in The Last Wish, seeking out the Wishing Star along with the bears.

Not to be confused with the Goldilocks that debuted in Shrek Smash N'Crash Racing.

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• Accent Adaptation: In the Latinamerican dub, she sports a thick Argentinian accent, as well as her bear family.
• Actor Allusion: At one point during the final battle, she strikes the exact same "fighting pose" that Yelena (played by Florence Pugh) was making fun of in Black Widow. Also, similar to Midsommar, Florence Pugh is once again an orphan taken in by a morally dubious group of individuals in a movie where bears play an important role and most of the film takes part in a sunny field filled with flowers (as long as Perrito holds the Wishing Star mao, that is).
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In the original tale, Goldilocks was just an insensitive or spoiled child who ran into the bears' cottage. In this tale, she is an orphan who lived in an implied Orphanage of Fear before being taken in by the bears.
• Adaptational Badass: In the original tale, Goldilocks is just an ordinary girl who accidentally wanders into the bears' home. In this retelling, she's the leader of a crime family.
• Adaptational Villainy: In the original fairy tale, Goldilocks was at best a mischievous child and at worst an inconsiderate Spoiled Brat who broke into a house unaware that it was occupied. Here, she is depicted as a renowned criminal who goes after Puss to prevent him from getting the Wishing Star.
• Adoption Angst: Implied. Despite being Happily Adopted by the Bears and genuinely loving them, Goldi wants the wish to get a human family. While it wasn't explored thoroughly, her statement of not being a bear and her body language implies she has some amount of insecurity over being the adopted human daughter in a family of bears.
• Adoption Diss: Whenever she fights with Baby, the latter will often insult her by bringing up she isn't part of the family or his "real" sister because she's adopted.
• Affably Evil: Incredibly. She's sweetly joking or riffing with the Bears for most of her screentime and she even ends up taking a liking to Perrito when they take him hostage. Even though she never abandons the life of crime, she's so affable that she drops any animosity she's developed with Puss over the course of the film.
• Affectionate Nickname: Her family sometimes refers to her as "Goldi".
• Age Lift: Whereas she was a little kid in the fairy tale, here she's a young adult. Justified, as it turns out Goldilocks was a little girl when she first met the three bears, who adopted her as their own.
• Animal Motifs: Bears, obviously. Her two bows on her head hint at the ears of a bear, she has a ferocious attitude similar to that of real bears, and as the film progresses her clothes get dirty, turning a brown color similar to the fur of a bear.
• Anti-Villain: Unlike the Wolf and Jack Horner, Goldilocks is portrayed much more sympathetically with more redeeming qualities, wanting the Wishing Star not out of malice but wanting to have real human parents. On the one hand she's a wanted criminal, but on the other hand, she's never shown using lethal force to get what she wants, as her weapon of choice is a stick. It's fitting then that during the finale, after realizing that the Three Bears really are her family, she and the Bears are quick to side with Puss and his entourage to stop Jack Horner.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: She and Baby don't usually get along, and she even bites and wrestles him for the map back. After revealing her wish to have a "proper family", she's torn at seeing Baby genuinely heartbroken that she wants to "get rid of them". During the final fight, she ends up giving up her wish in order to save Baby when he calls for her help. They'll bicker and fight, but despite it all, Goldi does care for Baby.
• Big Bad Ensemble: She is part of one alongside "Big" Jack Horner and the Wolf, bent on stopping Puss from finding the Wishing Star to restore his nine lives.
• Big Sister Bully: Constantly snipes and physically grapples with Baby when given the chance.
  Baby: Yeah, cause I got a plan!
  Goldilocks: (laughs) You've got a plan?
• Big Sister Instinct: Even with being a Big Sister Bully to Baby, she ends up giving up her wish to save him from being pulled into Uncertain Doom and even gives him a playful noogie for it after the final fight to calm him down.
• Brains and Brawn: Usually refers to herself as the "brains" of the operations.
• Canon Immigrant: Before her appearance in the movie, another Goldilocks appeared in the game Shrek Smash N'Crash Racing as an unlockable racer.
• Character Catchphrase: Just like the fairytale she's based off of, she constantly refers to things she approves of as "Just right".
• Dark and Troubled Past: Goldilocks was an orphan living in an Orphanage of Fear before meeting the bears.
• Even Bad Women Love Their Mamas: While Goldi is shown to love all the bears, she seems to be particularly close to Mama Bear. Unlike Papa and Baby, Goldi never uses her staff to roughly handle her mother. Whenever she speaks with her, Goldi's tone is noticeably gentler compared to Baby and Papa. And after she reveals her intentions to wish for a new, human family, the bears are understandably hurt by the revelation. When Baby and Papa express their sadness, Goldi attempts to reason why she can't stay (although, her expression gives away she doesn't fully believe it). However, when Mama states (while holding back tears) that they'll help get the wish if it makes her happy, Goldi cannot say anything to Mama and has nothing but a guilty My God, What Have I Done? expression on her face.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite being a grizzled criminal, she genuinely loves and is deeply attached to her foster family, and when given the choice between claiming her wish or saving Baby Bear, she ultimately chooses to rescue her adoptive brother.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • A rather comical version. She's a gruff and unpleasant gang leader and Big Sister Bully to her adoptive brother whom she constantly argues with and berates with putdowns and insults. But when Perrito goes on an expletive laden rant of Innocent Swearing aimed at her and her family she's noticeably appalled into wide eyed, open mouthed Stunned Silence.
  • She and the bears aid the protagonists in stopping Big Jack Horner for obtaining his wish as it is the most selfish one which would be dangerous for everyone.
• Evil Brit: She speaks with a British accent and runs a crime family.
• Fangs Are Evil: It's hard to notice, but Goldilocks' teeth are pointed similar to a bear. She's also the leader of a crime family.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: Her outfit is not the same on either side. She wears different earrings; different shoes and her dress has a multitude of colors.
• Foil: To Perrito. They are both orphans, but Perrito values Puss and Kitty immensely and immediately asserts himself between them while Goldi doesn't feel she fits in with the Bears and wants a human family, even though she genuinely loves them. Perrito is The Heart of Team Friendship who has no wish but makes the forest far easier to traverse, while Goldi is the leader of the Bears and is the only one of them to have a wish to make. They are both different species to their companions, Perrito being a chihuahua and Goldi being human; Perrito doesn't see this as getting in the way of his friendship with Puss and Kitty, but Goldi is upset (with it being implied to be from insecurity) about this to the point she wants a new, human family. Perrito initially came from and was loyal to a family who tried doing anything to get rid of him, while Goldi's admission for a new family hurt the bears, with Baby claiming she was getting rid of them. It's fitting that it was Perrito who helped Goldi realize the Bears were the family she wanted.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The Responsible to Baby's Foolish. Goldi is the "brains" of the family and the most focused while Baby is the most rash and argumentative member of the family.
• Friend-or-Idol Decision: During the climax, she is faced with the choice of either claiming her wish or saving Baby Bear from being sucked into an uncertain doom. She chooses the latter, cementing her acceptance of the bears as her true family.
• Happily Adopted: Despite intending to wish for a new family, Goldi is still perfectly comfortable living with the bears and ultimately chooses to stay with them.
• Heel–Face Turn: Once she realizes that she had a true family in the bears, she sides with Puss in a final battle against Jack Horner rather than trying to get the wish for herself. It's Played With in that she and the Bears are still clearly committed to a life of crime, but any animosity with Puss has concretely ended.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: You'll notice that when Goldi holds the map it doesn't point to the Wishing Star. It takes her straight to an illusion of the Bear's home. This is because Goldi already has her wish - a loving family.
• I Choose to Stay: Goldi ultimately gives up her chance at getting the Wishing Star and remains with the bears, fully accepting them as her Family of Choice.
• Ink-Suit Actor: Goldilocks looks like a blue-eyed caricature of her voice actor, Florence Pugh.
• Interspecies Adoption: She was an orphan human girl who was adopted by the bears when she wandered into their cottage.
• It Was with You All Along: Her wish for the Wishing Star was to have a real family. The map hints to her that she did have a real family in the Three Bears, and she comes to realize this in time to have a Heel–Face Turn and help Puss and friends defeat Horner.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Goldi is the leader of a crime family, and as expected, she can be ruthless, bossy, and blunt with others (including her family). However, she is an Anti-Villain with redeeming qualities, mainly with her genuine love for her adopted family.
• Lean and Mean: She's the skinniest of her adopted family and is arguably the most ruthless.
• Leitmotif: Goldilocks and her family are accompanied by a tune most proeminently in The Three Bears Crime Family.
• London Gangster: She leads a crime family and speaks with a thick London accent.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: She's a short and skinny human but is able to wrestle Baby, who is a full-grown bear, with ease.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Well, Anti-villain, but while at first it was because she wanted the Wish for herself, its because Goldie tried to get Kitty and later Puss involved in the caper to steal the map from Jack that would eventually lead to the three to saving the world from Jack.
• Not Blood, Not Family: She initially feels that the Bears aren't her actual family.
• Offstage Villainy: She runs a crime mob, meaning she and the bears would have done stuff such as murdering, robbing, and smuggling. Outside of robbing, she hasn't been seen doing any serious crimes on screen.
• Picky Eater: Implied. When she and the Bears encounter an illusion of their cottage, Mama excitedly tells Goldi about porridge for her but Baby states that no matter how it's made, Goldi won't like it.
• Raised by Wolves: Confirmed to be an orphan in The Last Wish who was adopted by the Three Bears. When fighting with Baby, she calls herself more of a bear than he is.
• Related in the Adaptation: Downplayed. In the original fairytale, Goldilocks is nothing more than an unwanted intruder to the Bears. For this adaptation, she was Happily Adopted by them.
• The Runaway: Of the "Abused Runaway" and "Orphan Runaway" varieties. While her life before meeting the Bears is not explored, it's implied she lived in an Orphanage of Fear and ran away to find a "proper" family that was similar to the one in her favorite childhood book.
• Sailor's Ponytail: If you look behind her pigtails, she wears a long tied-up ponytail.
• Shorter Means Smarter: Justified and downplayed. For the former, Goldilocks is a human girl adopted by a family of bears, a species that are bigger than humans in real life. For the latter, while Goldilocks tends to be more focused than the bears, none of them would qualify as stupid.
• Sibling Rivalry: She and Baby Bear do not get along on account of Goldi being adopted into the family after she broke into their house. However, she chooses to save Baby in the end when forced to pick between him and her wish.
• Staff of Authority: She wields a wooden staff that has pearls on them. She's also the leader of the Crime Bear Family and uses the staff as a weapon.
• Super Mob Boss: She leads the Three Bears, her henchmen, into battle but is not above joining them in fighting their enemies.
• Token Human: Goldi is the sole human member of the Crime Bear Family.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Goldi and Baby argue constantly and Goldi often acts as a Big Sister Bully toward Baby when things don't go her way, but several scenes make it clear that their insults are all in harmless fun and they love each other a lot in spite of their arguing. Best shown when Goldi, realizing that her wish to have a real family was with her all along, gives up the Magical Map to save Baby from being sucked into the Wishing Star's vortex.
• Wants Versus Needs: She wants to get to the wishing star because she wants to wish herself a human family, thinking that the Bears can't be her family due to their species divide in spite of how close they all are. When given the opportunity to either make her wish or save Baby Bear from an Uncertain Doom, she chooses the latter, realizing that they are all she needs.
• You Don't Look Like You: She looks much different from her first appearance in Shrek Smash N'Crash Racing with the Goldilocks in the game wearing one purple dress and having less puffy hair.

The Three Bears

Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Baby Bear

Papa Bear voiced by: Ray Winstone^{Foreign VAs}Jorge García Insúa (EU Spanish), Axel Kuschevatzky (Latin American Spanish), Kusumi Naomi (Japanese), Douglas Welbat (German), Tutehameng (PRC Mandarin), Wong Man Wai (HK Cantonese), Lin Guzhen (TW Mandarin), Oleg Mchedlishvili (Russian), Adam Fietz (Swedish)
Mama Bear voiced by: Olivia Colman^{Foreign VAs}Gemma Martín (EU Spanish), Patricia Echegoyen (Latin American Spanish), Ryōko Gi (Japanese), Bianca Krahl (German), Cheng Yujie (PRC Mandarin), Chan On Ying (HK Cantonese), Wang Reiqin (TW Mandarin), Sofia Gabelia (Russian), Annica Smedius (Swedish)
Baby Bear voiced by: Samson Kayo^{Foreign VAs}Òscar Kapoya (EU Spanish), Mariano Chiesa (Latin American Spanish), Subaru Kimura (Japanese), Leonhard Mahlich (German), Hao Yingjie (PRC Mandarin), Michael "MC" Cheung (HK Cantonese), Zhang Teng (TW Mandarin), Levan Gochelashvili (Russian), Emil Smedius (Swedish)

Left to Right: Mama, Goldilocks, Baby and Papa

Three ferocious bears who are part of a crime family led by Goldilocks in The Last Wish. They are not to be confused with the completely different Three Bears who appear in Shrek.

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Tropes that apply to all of them

• Accent Adaptation: The Latinamerican dub gave them a thick Argentinian accent. This choice makes sense when you remember that Puss already speaks with a heavy Spaniard accent and Perrito uses a Mexican one, which prevented the Latinamerican dub from using any of those accents for the bears.
• Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: While they don't wear clothing, they each have some kind of accessory; Papa wears a scarf, Mama wears a pink beret and different earrings on each ear, and Baby wears a chain necklace with a doorknob, a cog and a knife on it.
• Adaptational Badass: In the original tale, the bears are a (relatively) regular family. Here, they are a menacing crime family.
• Adaptational Relationship Overhaul: In most other versions of the three bears, they respond angrily to Goldilocks intrusion, scaring her off at best and eating her at worst. In here, they take an affinity to her when they find her sleeping and she becomes Happily Adopted.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: With their relationship with Goldilocks. In the original fairytale, the bears either chase Goldilocks out of their house or kill her. The bears in this movie instead become her surrogate family.
• Adaptational Villainy: In modern versions of the fairy tale, they are just a happy family of three bears who understandably get angry at a little girl breaking into her house and scare her to make her leave. Here, they are depicted like members of a crime family who go after Puss to prevent him from getting the Wishing Star.
• Affably Evil: Despite looking like scary bears and running a crime family, they are nonetheless friendly and polite as long as you're not in their way, such as speaking politely to Mama Luna asking if she’s seen Puss.
• Anti-Villain: They’re a crime family, and are antagonists in Puss' quest for the wishing star. However, they aren't shown to be particularly malevolent compared to, say, Jack Horner. They rarely, if ever, use lethal force against those in their way - for instance Papa Bear merely swats Puss away during the fight in Horner's pie factory instead of mauling, even though Puss is basically defenseless at that moment. And while they'll resort to threats to get information, their idea of torture is to stuff someone into a piano and play a jaunty little tune. Plus, their entire motivation is to get the wish for their adoptive daughter - sibling in Baby's case.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: On their own, they're bumbling and easily get distracted by things around them. Such as Mama Luna's house, asking Jack Horner for pies and indulging in the illusion of their cabin during the "Pines of Nostalgia". It's clear the only thing keeping them on track for the Wishing Star is Goldi.
• Bait-and-Switch: They're first introduced doing nothing but growling with unfocused, animalistic expressions. This leads one to believe that they're simply three dumb animals that Goldi trained, only for it to be revealed that they're all intelligent, can speak, and are in fact the ones who raised Goldi rather than vice-versa.
• Bears Are Bad News: They don't look very friendly, considering that they are part of a crime family.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Despite being menacing bears and decent fighters (mainly Papa), they are not as cunning or well-planned as the other main villains. Puss even calls them amateurs.
• Butt-Monkey: Baby Bear suffers some misfortune from either Amusing Injuries or abuse from Goldi, be it verbal or physical.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: They and Goldi contrast Jack and Jill from the first Puss in Boots film, as groups of criminal relatives with Leitmotifs involving a banjo.
  • Jack and Jill are a human couple who are raising one of their farm's baby pigs as an adopted son, out of the former's desire to start a family. Papa and Mama Bear are anthropomorphic animals who adopted the human Goldi as their daughter, in addition to their biological son Baby Bear.
  • Jack and Jill have Southern American accents, while Goldi and the Bears (befitting their aesthetic inspiration from British crime films) speak in cockney-accented English.
  • Jack and Jill are always content with one another and don't have any internal conflicts together. Goldi has a considerably weaker relationship with the Bears for most of The Last Wish, as, in addition to her vitriolic relationship with Baby, unintentionally causes a familial strain with the Bears when they learn about what she wanted to use the Wishing Star's wish for.
  • For the majority of their film, Jack and Jill worked for Humpty Dumpty until they double-cross by demanding him the Golden Goose after their promised payment. Goldi and the Bears tried to hire Kitty to help them get to their goal only for her to backstab them; they end up making a Heel–Face Turn and ally with the heroes for real once they agree to help them fight against Jack Horner in his final threat.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: For all their talk about becoming a big crime family, by the end of the movie, they decide to take over Jack's pie factory, a legitimate business that turns in a nice profit.
• A Dog Named "Dog": All of their names relate to their position in the family followed by their species.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Although they're remorseless criminals, they are still very loving and protective of each other and Goldilocks.
• Even Evil Has Standards: They along with Goldilocks aid the protagonists in stopping Big Jack Horner for obtaining his wish as it is the most selfish one which would be dangerous for everyone.
• Evil Brit: They speak with British accents and comprise the crime family.
• Evil Is One Big, Happy Family: Or as Mama likes to call them: "A big-time crime family".
• Good Cop/Bad Cop: Papa and Mama try this respectively with Mama Luna. They both fail due to taking it too far on both ends. Papa Bear asks Mama Luna very nicely where Puss is only for him to be whacked by a broom. Mama Bear threatens to hurt Mama Luna if she doesn’t tell them what they want only to cause the poor woman to faint.
• Heel–Face Turn: Once Goldilocks finally realizes they are and accepts them as her family, they join her in aiding Puss against Jack Horner. Like Goldi, it's Played With given how they are still committed to being a crime family but end their rivalry with Puss' group to help defeat Jack Horner.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: A platonic and familial example. The bears agree to help Goldilocks get to the star so she can wish for a new family, even if it means having to give up their adopted daughter. Goldilocks ultimately chooses to stay with them, realizing they were the family she was looking for all along.
• Leitmotif: "The Three Bears Crime Family" is a folksy track that plays during their scenes.
• Nice Mean And In Between: As shown during the interrogation of Mama Luna, Papa is the Nice (asking gently for puss' wearabouts), Mama is the mean (threatening to disembowel the old lady) and Baby is the In-Between (complaining around and not partaking in the interrogation). It gets a little more complicated after that, as we start to see Mama's kinder side manifest more.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: They are for the most part bumbling comedic villains who easily get distracted. Especially Baby, who's the story's Butt-Monkey. However, they're still bears, and therefore are a force to be reckoned with in fights. Whenever Puss is actually forced to physically confront them, Papa easily swats him away.
• Off Screen Villainy: They're bears that run a wanted crime family, but their most villainous deeds are not shown — the worse they do on-screen is trying to steal the map for the wishing star (which had already been stolen by Jack Horner), wishing to eat Perrito in Baby's case, and vandalizing an old lady's house and threatening her for information - and stuffing her into a piano.
• Parental Favoritism: At the heart of the feud between Baby and Goldi is that, for as much as the latter was just an orphaned intruder when they first met, Papa and Mama do agree that she's far more mentally capable than their biological son.
• Phrase Catcher: They occasionally use Goldilock's "just right" when they talk with her.
• Related in the Adaptation: Downplayed. In the original fairytale, the Bears are complete strangers to Goldilocks. In this film, they are her adoptive family.
• Smarter Than You Look: While they look more bestial and animalistic than other animal characters, and roar like normal bears, they're just as intelligent as every other sapient character. Papa Bear is outright eloquent and Wicked Cultured.
• Would Harm a Senior: They use a piano to stuff Mama Luna inside while playing it and the fact they call it the "piano treatment" implies they've done this before.
• You Don't Look Like You: They look much different from their appearance in the first Shrek film. It's possible they are three different bears altogether, given that the Three Bears captured by Lord Farquaad weren't criminals, their Baby Bear was shorter, and their Mama Bear was made into a pelt rug.

Tropes that apply to Papa Bear

• Actually Pretty Funny: His response to Perrito's Innocent Swearing at them is to say he likes the cut of his jib.
• The Big Guy: Papa's both the largest and the toughest member of the family, not even flinching when Mama Luna breaks a broom over his noggin. He seems to be the least affected by pain or fatigue among the Bears during their quest for the Wishing Star.
• Berserk Button: As Puss learns it the hard way, don't poke him in the nose.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Parodied. Papa obliges Goldi's wish to make the harmless old senior Mama Luna talk by...giving her the "piano treatment," i.e. stuffing her in a piano while he plays a jolly tune. It doesn't affect Luna in the least.
  Mama Luna: My cats can play better than you!
• Dope Slap: When Baby claims Goldi isn't his sister, but an orphan, Papa smacks Baby over the back of the head and insists that Goldi is his sister.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Ray Winstone puts his deep, gravelly voice to excellent use.
• Eye Scream: Papa Bear is visibly blind in his left eye with a scar running over it.
• Face of a Thug: Downplayed as he is still an unrepentant criminal, but the fierce, scarred mug obfuscates the fact that Papa's quite easygoing. He's notably introduced going "too soft" on Mama Luna, rearing up to her with a threatening look before abruptly, and very politely, asking if she's seen Puss.
• Gentle Giant: He's the biggest of the family, but is also the most easygoing and docile of the three (at least to Mama Luna).
• Handicapped Badass: Being blind in his left eye doesn't stop him from fighting with his family.
• No-Sell:
  • While trying to sweet talk Mama Luna for Puss's whereabouts, she breaks a broom over his head. Papa doesn't so much as blink.
  • It happens again when Puss pokes him with a stick (with which he had effectively downed Mama and Baby just beforehand), to which Papa simply wipes his nose and knocks Puss aside with his paws.
• Papa Wolf: Well, Papa Bear, but still fits. He is always there to cover his family from impending danger. While heartbroken about Goldi's wish to have a human family, Papa is determined to get Goldi the wish to make her happy. And despite being annoyed with Baby Bear, Papa (along with Mama), does what he can to save Baby from the star's uncertain doom.
• Pre Ass Kicking One Liner:
  Papa Bear: [after Puss in Boots hits him with a stick] You shouldn't'a done that, mate.
• Really Fond of Sleeping: Always the first of the bears to suggest taking a load off so they can hibernate. In Nostalgic Pines, the very first thing he does is lay out on his chair and nod off.
• Wicked Cultured: Papa is a talented pianist as well as a villainous bear.

Tropes that apply to Mama Bear

• The Dragon: Of the three Bears, she has the closest relationship to Goldilocks and is the most supportive of her wish, even when the nature of her wish is revealed.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: If you look closely, Mama Bear wear different earrings on both ears.
• Mama Bear: As befitting her name, she's very protective over her children.
  • She regularly reassures Goldilocks that they'll get her wish, even if it means losing her.
  • When Jack clubs the bears and Goldi down a hill with his stone-lodged Excalibur, Mama makes sure to grab onto Goldi to cushion her fall.
  • She also does everything she can to save Baby from being sucked into uncertain doom.
• Shared Family Quirks: When threatening Mama Luna, she extends one of her sharp claws. Baby does the same to threaten Perrito.
• Token Good Teammate: The kindest and affable out of Papa, Baby, and Goldi, or at least the most devoted to her family.
• Undying Loyalty: Downplayed. All the Bears are equally and deeply loyal to Goldi, genuinely thinking of her as family. However, Mama is adamant on getting the wish mainly for Goldi's sake. And when Goldi reveals her wish for a new family, both Papa and Baby attempt to dissuade Goldi in their own ways, but a tearful Mama tells Goldi that they'll help her if it makes her happy.
• Vocal Dissonance: She's a huge, scary-looking bear with Olivia Colman's warm, motherly voice.
• Would Harm a Senior: Though she might've just been bluffing, she threatens to gut Mama Luna if she doesn't reveal Puss' position to them.

Tropes that apply to Baby Bear

• Age Lift: While in the original fairytale, Baby is a cub, in this version he's a young adult around the same age as Goldilocks and is as tall as his parents. Justified, as it takes bears less time than humans to grow into adulthood, and the movie is outright stated to take place a few years after the events of the original fairy tale.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: He and Goldi regularly trade barbs with one another, with Baby constantly trying to undermine Goldi and point out she's not really his sister. But when Goldi reveals her wish was to have a "proper family", Baby is grief-stricken as he asks if her "just right" was getting rid of them. During the climatic fight Baby even calls Goldi "sis" and cries when he realizes she gave up her wish to save him. They'll bicker and fight, but Baby does love Goldi.
• The Baby of the Bunch: Fitting given his name, Baby is the youngest of the family and the most immature.
• Big Eater: Usually thinks about his next meal or wanting to eat something. Goldi admonishes him over always thinking about his stomach when he thinks about eating Perrito.
• Big Little Brother: It's hinted that Goldi is the older sibling between them but Baby towers over her. Justified, as she's a human and he's a bear, and bears are bigger than humans.
• The Brute: Not as physically imposing as his parents, but fits the trope personality-wise, being the most inclined to simply smash whatever's in front of him.
• Butt-Monkey: Usually suffers from some amusing injuries due to his own clumsiness, or Goldi. When she insults him for having "dingleberries", Baby claims he doesn't but Papa immediately pats his son and telling him he does have dingleberries.
• Character Catchphrase: Telling their enemies when they got "crimed" by the Crime Bear family. He also uses the phrase "no crime backs", after Kitty rescues Perrito from the bears and switches him with a dummy she made.
• Distressed Dude: Gets blasted away by Jack and almost gets swallowed whole by the wishing star. It takes the joint efforts of Papa, Mama and Goldi to save him.
• Dumbass Has a Point: In spite of being a rash and impulsive Dumb Muscle, Baby proves to be insightful at times.
  • He correctly assumes that Goldi's intentions with the wish aren't for the family and angrily demands the truth. She emotionally responds with the answer, which breaks his (and their parents') hearts.
  • Baby's idea for the family's next job is to take over Jack Horner's pie empire, because as he states, the latter is dead and said empire will need new management. His family happily agrees with his idea.
• Dumb Muscle: Baby, like his parents, is a strong bear but is not the brightest among them. Goldi makes fun of the idea of him having a plan and Papa plainly states he's not "equipped for brains". They're proven right when his plan to sneak into Jack Horner's house is not subtle or sneaky.
• Ear Notch: Baby is missing part of his right ear.
• Extremely Protective Child: When Jack is about to blast Mama, Baby immediately pushes him away and threatens to skin him alive and wear his clothes.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The Foolish to Goldi's Responsible. Baby is the most rash and argumentative member of the family while Goldi is the "brains" of the family and the most focused.
• Inelegant Blubbering: He's reduced to a tearful mess after Goldi and Team Friendship destroy the map, realizing the sacrifice she made to abandon her wish in order to save him from his Uncertain Doom.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: He has large blue eyes unlike his parents, but it reflects how naive and foolish he can be, something that Goldi regularly points out. They also represent "baby eyes", which is fitting for his character.
• The Nose Knows: Justified. In Real Life, bears have a great sense of smell and Baby has proven to be a great tracker by scent.
• The Pig-Pen: During her barrage of insults towards Baby, Goldi mentions having Lyme disease, is flea-ridden and has dingleberries. Even their father agrees with her about the last insult.
• Sapient Eat Sapient: He doesn't want to eat Perrito, he just wants to pet him with his teeth.
• Shared Family Quirks: When threatening Perrito, he tells him he'd gut him and extends one of his claws, just like Mama did to Mama Luna.
• Sibling Rivalry: Baby gets into arguments with Goldilocks a lot over Goldi being adopted into the family after she broke into his family's home. When annoyed by Goldi, he constantly points out how she isn't really his sister. During the final fight when he's almost pulled into his death, Goldi forfeits her wish in order to save him. He's left a mess of tears afterwards when he realizes the sacrifice she made for him.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Of his two parents, Baby has more of Mama's looks.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Goldi and Baby argue constantly and Goldi often acts as a Big Sister Bully toward Baby when things don't go her way, but several scenes make it clear that their insults are all in harmless fun and they love each other a lot in spite of their arguing. Baby actually cries once the realization hits him that Goldi gave up her wish to save his life.
• You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: The few times Baby refers to Goldilocks as "sis" are when he feels a genuine sibling-like bond toward her. When Baby is almost pulled into the Wishing Star's Uncertain Doom, he calls Goldi "sis" as he yells for her aid. After she rescues him, he tearfully says, "You saved my life, sis.".

"Big" Jack Horner

"Big" Jack Horner / "Little" Jack Horner

Voiced by: John Mulaney ^{Foreign VAs}Nicholas Savard L'Herbier (Canadian French), Guillaume Bourboulon (EU French), Eduardo Bosch (EU Spanish), Omar Perez Reyes (Latin American Spanish; credited as "Faisy"), Anders Öjebo (Swedish), Oliver Kalkofe (German), Sanho (Japanese), Chen Zhe (PRC Mandarin), Gary Lee (HK Cantonese), Meng Qingfu (TW Mandarin), Bartłomiej Nowosielski (Polish), Giorgi Vardiashvili (Russian)

"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 (implied to belong to Mary Poppins) 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...
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Although not that gruesome, his demise is about as nice as Jack himself. He gets sucked into the Wishing Star, crushed when it collapses, and finally vaporized as it explodes in the sky.
• 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.
• 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.
• I Regret Nothing: Says it non-verbally in his final moments, as he gives one last thumbs-down before he's consumed by the Wishing Star.
• 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.
• 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.
• Satanic Archetype: Big Jack Horner could easily fit the bill for this archetype. He commits all Seven Deadly Sins, especially Pride, Greed, and Envy, his wish is to become a god-like ruler where he has all the world's magic for himself, is driven by a narcissistic need to be the center of attention, is proud of being the embodiment of irredeemable evil while also playing himself as a victim, and is killed by a phoenix, which is symbolic of Christ's resurrection and eternal life.
• 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]

The Serpent Sisters

Jo and Jan

Jo voiced by: Betsy Sodaro^{Foreign VAs}Dafne Gallardo (Latin American Spanish), Tan Jun (PRC Mandarin), Ng Mui (HK Cantonese), Liu Ruping (TW Mandarin), Tiffany Kronlöf (Swedish)
Jan voiced by: Artemis Pebdani^{Foreign VAs}Mariana Ortiz (Latin American Spanish), Wang Jingyu (PRC Mandarin), Keung Ka Lui (HK Cantonese), Wang Zhenling (TW Mandarin), Bianca Kronlöf (Swedish)

A pair of sisters who were hired by Big Jack Horner to steal the Map to the Wishing Star.

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• All There in the Script: Their names are only shown in the credits.
• Acquaintance Denial: Once she realizes how throughly Jo has pissed off Big Jack, Jan tries to distance herself by pretending she doesn't even know her sister. Jo calls her out on this.
• Asshole Victim: Jo not only unwisely mocks Jack, but seems very eager to brag about how many people they murdered to get the map to the Wishing Star, and in what ways they died. So nobody feels too upset when she turns into gold, not even Jan.
• Ax-Crazy: Implied by Jo, who seemed pretty eager and excited to speak about all the murdering that had to be done to get the map, although she dies before she can display any on-screen moment of insanity/malevolence.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: After Jan complains to Jack that they were promised their weight in gold (suggesting that Jack had always intended to betray them this way), Jo foolishly grabs the Midas Touch hand barehanded — and turns into solid gold. Jan more or less accepts her (now solid gold) sister as payment.
• Bullying a Dragon: Just as he's about to get his hands on the map, Jo interrupts to call Big Jack "Little Jack" and ask him to "do the thumb thing, like in the fairy tale"; when Jack snaps that it wasn't a fairy tale, she proceeds to make fun of the rhyme itself. As Puss unlocks the chest, Jan can be heard in the background assuring "Mr. Big Jack Horner, sir" that she barely knows her sister.
• Expy: Their appearance, antics, and even voices sound very similar to Ruffnut & Tuffnut.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Jan is the responsible sibling, who is aware about being cautious with Jack and just wants to get the job done while Jo is the foolish one, making fun of Jack unaware of how dangerous he is and touching things without questioning it first.
• Karma Houdini: While Jo gets a dose of laser guided karma, Jan leaves the factory after Jack dismisses her with her gold-transformed sister, meaning she escapes punishment for taking part in the murders.
• Lack of Empathy: They feel zero remorse for the murders it took for them to get the map as Jo tries to happily brag to Jack about it before he cuts her off and Jan doesn't even call her out on bragging about it.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Jo spends the majority of her screen time openly mocking her boss and trying to brag about how much "murdering" it took to get the map. Naturally, the end of her time on screen sees her carelessly touching the Hand of Midas and getting her just reward.
• No Name Given: Their first names are Jo and Jan, but it is never mentioned in the movie outside of the credits.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Jan decides to get out of Horner's factory upon witnessing her sister's demise, as well as Goldilocks's family and Puss in Boots sudden arrival.
• Sibling Team: Two sisters who are deadly criminals for hire.
• Taken for Granite: This is the fate of Jo, as she's transformed into a golden statue.
• Tattooed Crook: Both sisters have tattoos of snakes on their foreheads and arms.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Jan can only groan, facepalm, and shake her head when her attempts to stop Jo from provoking Jack fall on deaf ears.
• Too Dumb to Live: Did Jo really think it was a good idea to openly mock Jack, a ruthless crime lord, by calling his fairy tale (well, nursery rhyme) "lame" and mockingly singing it to his face, as well as reaching out to grab an artifact of someone known to turn things (and people) into solid gold with a touch?
• Uncertain Doom: They never appear again after their introduction, leaving it ambiguous whether getting turned to gold by Midas' hand is a curse that can be reversed or if it actually killed Jo.
• The Unfought: Puss never actually has to fight them as their contract with Jack is fufilled right before the map is stolen.
• Villain of Another Story: They apparently had to kill a lot of people to get the map to the Wishing Star. Jo is eager to tell Jack about it, but he shuts her up every time.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Jo is turned into gold a few minutes after her introduction, to establish Jack's cruel personality. Afterwards, Jan wisely chooses to leave without further ado with the gold statue the moment she sees an opportunity.
• Would You Like to Hear How They Died?: Played for Laughs. Jo giddily tries to tell Jack just how many people they killed to steal the map, but Jack shuts her up each time she tries to give more details.

The Baker's Dozen

The Baker's Dozen

A group of bakers who serve as "Big" Jack Horner's henchmen.

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• 13 Is Unlucky: A baker's dozen refers to the number thirteen. Each member would suffer horrific misfortune during their mission to obtain the Wishing Star for their Bad Boss.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: The final member desperately begs Jack to save her from getting disintegrated by the wishing star's magical barrier. Unfortunately for her, he was busy at the moment and she ends up meeting her end shortly thereafter.
• Alas, Poor Villain: In spite of serving Jack Horner for his pie business and their deaths being played for Black Comedy, the latter's treatment towards them is taken seriously. This is first shown when Jack tries to shoot unicorn horns at Puss, only to be end up striking some of his bakers by accident and causing them to explode in confetti; even Puss himself is completely shocked by this. The Ethical Bug is also shocked to see a majority of the bakers falling to their gruesome deaths on a cliff, which prompts him to declare Jack "an irredeemable monster" for this. Even the last remaining member ends up being disintegrated by the Wishing Star's barrier, all because of Horner's refusal to pay attention to her.
• Big "NO!": One of the bakers yells it out when he sees one of his co-workers (whom he calls "Jerry") become the first to fall victim to the Pocketful of Posies' giant flowers.
• Blind Obedience: They always follow Jack to their own detriment, even expecting him to help them in their time of need despite it being clear from the get-go that he would sacrifice them for any reason he can think of.
• Blood for Mortar: A good number of them die because Jack was Lethally Stupid in seeing the problem in walking and rolling his carriage over them like a bridge.
• Call a Smeerp a "Rabbit": A rare botanical example. One of the bakers (referred to as "Jerry" by another one) briefly refers to a flower in the Pocketful of Posies as a "Ficus lyrata" before being Stripped to the Bone by it. Ficus lyrata is a type of fig tree and looks nothing like the Posies, which resemble blue (carnivorous) roses more than anything else.
• Cast of Snowflakes: Each man or woman of the group has their own distinct design, even though their only role in the movie is to serve as cannon fodder.
• Chef of Iron: While they are somewhat proficient in combat, however, they drop like flies in the Dark Forest.
• The Chew Toy: They serve as this collectively — their main narrative purpose is to die in darkly funny ways for the audience's amusement and to reaffirm Jack's status as an irredeemable villain.
• Deader than Dead: The final member gets hit with Jack Horner's magic staff, knocking her into the magical barrier of the Wishing Star. She holds on for dear life and begs a preoccupied Jack to help her, but she gets sucked in and is disintegrated.
• Dwindling Party: Each of them gets killed by either the obstacles to the Star or accidentally by their boss until they all die.
• Empty Piles of Clothing: The ones that get shot by unicorn horns explode into confetti with their clothes being left behind.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: They're a group of men and women alike with surprisingly diverse skin tones and hair colors, and serve the evil Jack Horner. Not that it stops them all from being killed by him.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The first baker who dies onscreen gets eaten alive by a posy, and a comrade mournfully yells for him.
  Baker: I'm gonna chop the heck outta this Ficus lyra-
  (CHOMP)
  Another baker: JERRY, NOOOOOO!!
• Improbable Weapon User: Their weapons are all based on kitchen utensils. While some are more conventional like meat cleavers or knives, most are unusual, like pizza cutters or a giant egg beater.
• Killed Mid-Sentence:
  • The first baker who dies onscreen is Stripped to the Bone by a flower in the Pocketful of Posies as he declares that he's going to chop it down.
    "I'm gonna chop the heck outta this Ficus lyra-" (CHOMP)
  • Combined with Major Injury Underreaction, another baker yells at Jack for accidentally shooting her with an unicorn horn before exploding into confetti.
    "Ah, you shot m-" (POOF)
• Major Injury Underreaction: One of the bakers who gets shot by Jack only goes "Ah, you shot m-" in an annoyed tone before poofing, as if Jack had just spilled a drink on her instead of shooting her with a guaranteed One-Hit Kill projectile.
• Mauve Shirt: The last surviving Baker gets the most characterization compared to the rest because they had all fallen down a giant chasm. Unfortunately for her, she gets killed by the Wishing Star because Jack was too busy fighting his enemies.
• Mooks: Their entire purpose is to show how apathetic Horner is to his own allies.
• Punny Name: Their group name is based on the "baker's dozen" term used to refer to a group of thirteen loaves, while according to a tweet by Heidi Jo Gilbert, the film's head of story, their individual names are based on baking ingredients, pastries and brands/companies.
• Replacement Artifact: The movie's previous title seems to indicate that they were going to be Ali Baba's 40 thieves, and were changed to a group of bakers later in development.
• Satellite Character: Since they only exist to show Jack's apathy, they lack any real characterization.
• Shot in the Ass: The first henchmen to die by Jack gets accidentally shot in the butt by a unicorn horn.
• Stripped to the Bone: One of them gets eaten by a posy, and all that's left in the result is his skeleton.
• Tattooed Crook: Many of them have their arms covered in tattoos.
• Undying Loyalty: They are somehow, unwaveringly loyal to Jack (likely out of fear). Unfortunately for them, the respect is not returned on their boss' end, as he uses them as literal bridges for his selfish desires.

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