The big, bad… grim: personification of death in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

ABSTRACT

Animated death has historically remained in specific categorical boxes with elements connected to Western ideology. One of the most consistent of these elements is the presentation of death as an obstacle that can be overcome – a presentation that satisfies the death anxieties of the surrounding culture. DreamWorks’ newest film in the Shrek franchise uniquely communicates death as a frightening, evil hindrance to life and the fulfilment of happiness through the personification of death as a menacing rendition of the Grim Reaper. Using specific cinematic and symbolic strategies, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish challenges specific Western notions about life and death at the same time that it reiterates the most enduring in animation: death is innately frightening.

KEYWORDS:

• Mortality
• personification
• animation
• death anxiety
• mediated death

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marissa Lammon

Marissa Lammon is a PhD candidate at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she specializes in mediated death and children’s media.