"Big" Jack Horner

“	"Little" Jack Horner didn't have ANY* magic. He was a pathetic, buttered baker's boy. "Little" Jack is dead... I'm "BIG" Jack Horner!*	”
—"Big" Jack Horner explains his story to the Serpent Sisters after one of them calls him "Little Jack".

Jack Horner, nicknamed "Big" Jack Horner and formerly known as "Little" Jack Horner, was a feared Pastry Chef and Crime Boss who had a history of stealing various magical items, creatures and people ever since he was snubbed of fairy-tale fame. He planned to reach the Wishing Star in order to enact his wish to harness all magic on the planet, racing with Puss in Boots, Kitty Softpaws, and Goldilocks for the wish.

Appearance

"Big" Jack Horner was a very tall man in stature and heavy in weight, both in body and in cheeks disproportionately larger than the rest of his face. He had pink bob hair and blue eyes. He wore a long purple jacket over a light purple buttoned shirt with a double triangular cut, a white shirt, a pink tie, brown trousers and black boots with small heels. His legs were much smaller than the rest of his body. His right-hand thumb was permanently maroon- possibly from all the times he's stuck it into cakes, pies and other pastries while reciting his nursery rhyme.

When he was a child, "Little" Jack Horner was already overweight, even if his cheeks weren't fat yet, and already had pink hair in a bob. Instead, he wore a white long-sleeved shirt over dark brown trousers with suspenders and black boots.

Personality

"Big" Jack Horner was a cruel, sadistic and irredeemable megalomaniac- whose desire to control all magic in existence bordered on obsession that stems from his petty jealousy of how his story is nothing more than a nursery rhyme compared to actual fairy tales. He would also bitterly recall how people ignored him in favor of magical beings, like Pinocchio. As a result, he became obsessed with collecting and hoarding magical objects, weapons, tools, and even creatures or their parts (having a large collection of horns from baby unicorns). Although, Jack had little interest in what he collected other than their magical nature and usefulness. For instance, he thought the Ethical Bug was a magical locust and didn't even know what using his unicorn horns would do to his victims. He was pleasantly surprised to see them burst into glitter and confetti (which also killed them) as a result. He also hates being reminded of his nursery rhyme, as he killed one of the Serpent Sisters by using the Midas Touch to turn her into gold after she stupidly recited his rhyme- as well as a twisted play on his promise to reward them with "their weight in gold".

He cared nothing for the lives of others, even those of his own subordinates, whom he views as disposable cannon fodder in his quest for power. Even more vile is that he has no appreciation for the good things in his life. He claimed to have not much as a boy other than "loving parents, stability, a mansion, and a thriving baked goods enterprise for him to inherit", even calling them "useless crap". When the Ethical Bug denounces Jack as an "irredeemable monster", Jack doesn’t deny it at all and even calls the Cricket an "idiot" for taking so long to realize it. This indicates that Jack had full awareness of his vile actions and had no remorse for the pain he had caused. His vile behavior/nature and obsession with both the star and map led him to his own demise.

Movies

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

"Big" Jack Horner is introduced in the film, judging his company's new pie connoisseur, when he is joined by the Serpent Sisters, who have brought him the map to the Wishing Star as requested. Jack Horner takes them to his trophy room where he shows them all the magical memorabilia he has collected and collected over the years, but still calling them "trinkets" compared to the Wishing Star. While viewing the map, savoring the wish with which he would become the master of all magic; however, one of the Serpent Sisters asks him about the rhyme for which he became famous. This reminds him of when as a child he used to perform on the streets in his classic nursery rhyme calling himself "Little Jack Horner" and being overtaken by magical creatures like Pinocchio. "Big" Jack Horner claims that now that side of him "that had nothing magical about it" is long dead.

When paying the Serpent Sisters, Jack offers them the Hand of King Midas so that one of them will be turned into gold, as he promised "their weight in gold". One of the sisters, Jo, falls for the trick and touches the hand turning into gold and meeting her demise. At that moment, Baby Bear bursts into the room, causing Goldilocks, the Three Bears, Puss, and Kitty to face Jack. The latter immediately recognizes Kitty, having worked for him in the past, but in the confusion generated by the Three Bears, the two cats escape with the map. Jack tries to stop them, aiming his trident at the flying carpet and throws it, hitting the carpet and pinning it to a wooden beam and calls his henchmen over to stop them from escaping. Puss and Kitty still manage to escape, and Jack decides to gather the Baker's Dozenand takes all his magical objects and creatures and puts them all inside his bag. Having transformed a pumpkin into a tank, he set off in pursuit of the enemies by locating them using a crystal ball.

Once they arrive in the Dark Forest, they find Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Jack pulls out the Excalibur, which is still stuck in the stone. Jack positions himself on the carriages side and then hits the bears off the road using Excalibur like a club and laughs as he watches them fall down the hill continuing on to the field of flowers, the first evidence of the map wielded by Perrito. As Jack continues on, he arrives at the Pocket Full of Posies. On his arrival, giant roses emerge from the ground and block his path. Jack orders his subordinates to cut them down, but before one of his men can chop one up the rose descends its head above him and strips of his flesh, leaving only a skeleton, and spits out the ax that he was holding, which nearly hits Jack. Another member is attacked and grabs Jack's shoulder, beseeching him to avenge her while having half of her body inside the mouth of one the posies . Jack shoves her which causes her to fall and looks up, witnessing another one of his bakers get tangled and taken away by the posies. Jack jumps off his death tank while narrowly being eaten by one of the roses and decides to resort to his weapons. He searches through his bag and eventually brings out what he thinks is a magical locust and orders it to eat the plants, but it turns out to be the Talking Cricket. Jack questions the cricket, trying to find out what it is where the cricket reveals that he is Jack's conscience. Suddenly one of Jacks men gets attacked by another rose and urges Jack to help him before getting flung by the rose, which leads the cricket to try to convince him to help his subordinates despite Jack saying he doesn't want to bother with what happens to his subordinates casually talking to the cricket amidst all the chaos. After that, Jack takes the Phoenix out of his endless bag and holds its neck and legs, forcing it to shoot torrents of fire from its mouth, using it like a flamethrower, burning the plants to the and thus being able to continue his journey with his men.

Once they get to the River of Relaxation, Jack kidnaps Perrito and, threatening him with the unicorn's horn despite the Talking Cricket trying to dissuade him, as he tries to persuade Puss and Kitty to give him the map, suddenly Goldilocks and the Three Bears throw one of Jacks men at him and threatens to throw another if they don't get the map. This leads to Jack saying that he doesn't even have the map, insulting Goldilocks by calling her "Little Bo Creep". In response the bears throw the baker at him which causes him to drop Perrito. As the bears charged down the hill, thed bakers followed suit causing a free-for-all battle to ensue. Jack tries shooting Puss using the unicorn horns on his crossbow, but ends up hitting three of his underlings, killing them and exploding them into confetti, to the shock of both Puss and the Talking Cricket. Eventually, Kitty is distracted by seeing Puss running away and Goldilocks takes the map, changing locations and separating from the other two groups, despite Jack Horner trying to shoot her and the Three Bears with unicorn horns.

As he continues his journey through the Dark Forest, Jack keeps an eye on the cats and Goldi while looking through his orb, pondering whether to let the cats retrieve the map and then kill them or kill them all and forget about it, all while traversing a ravine using his subordinates as a bridge. This leads the Talking Cricket to ask him about his past hoping to bring out the good in him, but Jack claims he's always had junk like "parents, stability and a business to inherit one day" and that only after expressing wishing to have all the magic in the world just to himself would be truly happy, which leaves the Talking Cricket totally shocked. Jack Horner ignores this and still takes his tank through the bridge of his underlings, which doesn't hold and ends up collapsing along with the tank, with all of the Baker's Dozen dead except for one underling, who clung to the ravine in time, leaving the Talking Cricket speechless and renounces to giving up on changing Jack and defines him as an "irredeemable monster". For his part, "Big" Jack Horner tells him that it took too long to understand this and sends him away, only to save his only surviving subordinate after asking "You're not chatty, are you?".

Jack Horner and his last underling make it to the Wishing Star just before Puss can make his wish in front of Kitty and Perrito, claiming it for Jack. However, upon the arrival of Goldilocks and the three Bears, a free-for-all battle ensues to take possession of the map. "Big" Jack Horner uses a magical scepter to shoot first at Puss and then Kitty to take the map from him, but as he attempts to shoots at Kitty with his staff he ends up shooting his last subordinate knocking her into the edge and eventually ends up getting disintegrated from the edge of the star, despite her having asked Jack for help and him, while avoiding an attack by one of the bears, ignored her. As Mama Bear takes the map Jack prepares to shoot her with his staff but is knocked down by Baby Bear who threatens to kill him and steal his dress. Jack hits Baby by firing his magic scepter at him and knocking him off the edge, distracting Goldilocks, Papa and Mama who go to rescue him and allowing Jack to retrieve the map. Kitty manages to get it out of his hand by kicking which infuriates him. Jack than tries to hit her with apple-shaped bombs, but the cat takes one with her velvet paws and throws it at Jack Horner, sending him to the ground. Jack than tries to use a hatchet to attack her, but Kitty with a double kick sends him falling into his endless bag and locks him inside, trapping him.

After the battle between Puss and Death, "Big" Jack Horner reemerges from the endless bag after eating an "Eat Me" cookie, growing as large as a giant. After taking the map from Puss and Kitty, he prepares to grant his wish to take all magic, but just before succeeding he is distracted by Perrito who, using his bewitching gaze, tries to convince him to give up his wish. Jack Horner does not fall into the trap because he defines himself as "dead inside", but Perrito confesses that it was just a way to distract him so that the "Team Friendship" could attack him. In fact, with a combined attack Puss, Kitty, Goldilocks, and Baby Bear manage to take the map from Jack Horner's hand and having recovered it, Puss, Kitty and Goldi destroy it just before Jack could recover it, as they no longer need the wish already having what they want. Jack Horner is desperate and tries to recover the pieces of the map as the Wishing Star collapses and everyone flees. Jack manages to recover most of it, but a piece is taken by the Talking Cricket who, resigning his conscience, uses the Phoenix to destroy it, causing the destruction of the map and the total collapse of the star. "Big" Jack Horner, wondering what specific thing he did to deserve his fate, crashes into the Wishing Star and dies in the star's explosion.

Quotes

“	I pronounce this batch... Delicious.	”
—Big Jack Horner's first and most famous line of dialogue after tasting a pie.

“	With this wish, I will finally be the master of all magic.	”
—"Big" Jack Horner revealing his plans should he receive the Wishing Star.

“	I hate talking fairy tale animals.	”
—"Big" Jack Horner blocks Puss in Boots and Kitty Softpaws who were trying to steal his map to the Wishing Star.

“	Assemble the Baker's Dozen!	”
—"Big" Jack Horner orders his underling to gather his best men to search for the Wishing Star.

“	I'll get you, my kitties, and your little dog too!	”
—"Big" Jack Horner as he and the Baker's Dozen begin to pursue Puss in Boots, Kitty Softpaws and Perrito.

“	Well if it isn’t the idiots who tried to steal from me.	”
—"Big" Jack Horner chasing after Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

“	"Big" Jack Horner: Well you know what they say: Can't bake a pie without losing a few dozen men. Talking Cricket: Oh. Oh! That was horrible. Your wish is horrible. YOU'RE horrible! You're an irredeemable monster! "Big" Jack Horner: Oh oh, and what took you so long, IDIOT?!	”
—The Talking Cricket gives up on changing "Big" Jack Horner after seeing him indifferent to his men's deaths and reveals him for the monster he is, only to be chased away by "Big" Jack Horner who is unashamed of who he is.

“	WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE THIS? I MEAN, WHAT SPECIFICALLY?!	”
—"Big" Jack Horner's last words before being sucked into the Wishing Star's crater and blown up.

Gallery

Trivia

The character is based on the popular English nursery rhyme "Little" Jack Horner.
His nickname "Big" is a reference to the nickname "Little" he had as a child and underlines how Jack Horner no longer considers himself the child of the nursery rhyme but a man capable of controlling magic.
"Big" Jack Horner is the sixth villain of the Shrek franchise to die after Lord Farquaad, Fairy Godmother, Prince Charming, Humpty Dumpty, and the Whisperer.
- Out of all of them, Charming is likely to have survived, as evidenced and foreshadowed in the beginning of the third film.
He is the first character of the Shrek franchise to use a crossbow.
"Big" Jack Horner could be seen as the evilest villain of the Shrek franchise due to his extreme disregard for the lives of others (including that of his own loyal subordinates, who he left to die); and his desire for all the magic in the world to destroy all those beneath him. The Ethical Bug, seeing the deaths of Jack's henchmen, defines him as an "irredeemable monster."
- He can also be considered the most dangerous thanks to his intense bloodlust, which is only rivaled by Lord Farquaad- who was the most dangerous prior to Horner's introduction.
A frequent gag in the film is that "Big" Jack Horner doesn't know how to properly use some magical items and uses them incorrectly or with much difficulty. One of these is when he attempts to pull Excalibur out of his bag, causing a holy light to surround him and disappear again and again as he struggles to yank the sword and the stone out together.
When he uses the phoenix to clear a path through the man-eating posies, he holds the bird like a gun much similar to Banjo when he is holding Kazooie.
- Coincidently, both the Phoenix and Kazooie were kept in bags.
During his death scene, his hand was the last to go down into the star's remains, giving a thumbs down, referencing his original nursery rhyme; and parodying the infamous scene from Terminator 2, where the T-800 that saved John Connor gave a thumbs up as he sank into the molten metal.
"Big" Jack Horner is the tallest main villain in the entire Shrek franchise, overshadowing Prince Charming and the Whisperer.
Horner's appearance has similarities to Shrek's; both of them have overweight bodies while their legs are smaller than their arms.
Prior to Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, he was mentioned in the "Baking News" episode of Swamp Talk.
- He was referred to as "Little" Jack Horner and was said to have been pulling out plums from the mincemeat pies at Georgie Porgie's pie shop, ruining the experience for Shrek.
When threatening Puss and his group, he refers to them as "my kitties, and your little dog, too!" This was a reference to a famous threat issued by the Wicked Witch of the West against the protagonist Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.
He is the third villain in the Shrek universe not to have any connection to Princess Fiona or her parents.
He is the only main character not to encounter Death, due to him being trapped in the bag during that time. Though he may have encountered him after being sucked into the void.
Jack Horner is the fourth character of the franchise with the first name Jack after Jack of Jack and Jill, Jack Andy Beanstalk, (Puss in Boots) and Jack Sprat (The Adventures of Puss in Boots).