The Representation of Javanese Culture in the “Knight Kris” Animated Movie: Charles Sanders Pierce’s Semiotic Analysis

Knight Kris is an animated movie released in 2017 in fantasy genre. However, in the setting of the story, the characterization and the theme contain of Javanese cultural elements. The focus in this study is how the signs of Javanese culture were represented in Knight Kris animated movie and what are the meanings of it. The qualitative approach and the literature review used were movie as cultural texts, Javanese culture, and semiotics. The representation of Javanese culture in this movie was analyzed using Peirce’s semiotic model and movie analysis framework from Fiske. The results show that Javanese cultural elements in this movie were represented through scenes, characterizations, setting, and background music. Besides that, the representation of Javanese culture about tata paugeraning urip (a way to preserve life) was found as well in this movie. Knight Kris could also be used as media for character learning to introduce ethos and noble values to students.