WARNING! THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR 10 DIFFERENT DISNEY MOVIES!
To celebrate Halloween and International Animation Day, I felt that it was only fitting to do a Top 10 Favorite Disney Villains countdown list. However, I will only do Villains created at WDAS (Walt Disney Animation Studios), so I won't include Bill Cipher, Syndrome, Dr. Doofenshmirtz, or any live-action villains. With all that said, let's see who made it into my Top 10 Favorite Disney Villains list!
10. Yzma
Featured In: The Emperor's New Groove (2000)
Voice Actress: Eartha Kitt
Supervising Animator: Dale Baer
Villain Bio: Yzma was once Emperor Kuzco's advisor, but he fired her for running the country behind his back. As revenge, she plans on poisoning Kuzco at a dinner party so she can assume the throne. However, Kronk, her slow-witted flunky, mixes up the potions and turns Kuzco into a llama. Yzma orders Kronk to put Kuzco in a bag and throw him off a waterfall. Kronk, however, feels like it is wrong to kill Kuzco, so he places the bag on a cart belonging to a villager named Pacha. When Yzma discovers that Kuzco is still alive, she and Kronk journey across the country to find Kuzco and kill him. After a climatic battle over a potion that would turn Kuzco back into a human, Yzma gets turned into a kitten, and Kronk gets a double job as a chef at a local restaurant and camp councilor.
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While Yzma isn't the most threatening Disney Villain out there or to have the most compelling backstory, she sure is one of the funniest. Just about everyone who's seen The Emperor's New Groove has a favorite scene featuring Yzma. My personal favorite scene in the movie is right after Kuzco has been turned into a llama, and she gestures to Kronk to knock him unconscious while Kuzco talks up a storm.
Interestingly, Yzma's supervising animator was originally going to be Andreas Deja, who previously worked on Gaston in Beauty and the Beast, Jafar in Aladdin, and Scar in The Lion King. However, when Yzma got rewritten to be more silly, Deja left the project and went to work on Lilo & Stitch, in which he animated Lilo Pelekai. Here's a sketch of Andreas Deja's Yzma.
9. The Coachman
Featured In: Pinocchio (1940)
Voice Actor: Charles Judels
Supervising Animator: Charles Nichols
Villain Bio: After selling Pinocchio to brutish puppeteer Stromboli, Honest John and his dimwitted feline companion Gideon talk to a mysterious man with a British accent and tell them about their scam. The Brit, simply known as the Coachman, tells them that if they want real money, they have to send Pinocchio to Pleasure Island, a theme park where naughty boys can do whatever they want: Eat junk food, smoke, destroy buildings, hurt people, drink beer, and play pool. However, the alcohol that the boys consume turn them into donkeys, and they get sold to the circus and the salt mines! Luckily, Jiminy Cricket, Pinocchio's unofficial conscious, warns the wooden head about the situation, and they escape Pleasure Island and return to Geppetto's workshop... Only to find out he and his pets Figaro and Cleo aren't home, but that's another story.
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The Coachman is probably one of the most cruel Disney Villains out there, even more so than the likes of Gaston, Scar, and Grimhilde! As mentioned earlier, he takes naughty boys and turns them into donkeys, and we still don't know what the Coachman does with the donkeys who can still talk!
While other Disney Villains may get killed, imprisoned, or have a valuable possession taken from them, the Coachman is one of the few Villains to actually get away with his evildoings. Rather than report him to the police, Pinocchio and Jiminy escape Pleasure Island without rescuing the other boys.
8. Queen Grimhilde/The Evil Queen
Featured In: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Voice Actress: Lucille La Verne
Supervising Animator: Art Babbit
Villain Bio: Once upon a time, there was a princess named Snow White. Every day, her stepmother Queen Grimhilde consults with her Magic Mirror to find out who the fairest one of all is. As long as the mirror said that the Queen was the fairest, Snow White was safe. Fearing that Snow White's beauty would surpass her own, the Queen dresses the princess in rags. One day, the Queen sends a huntsman to kill her, rip out her heart, and place it in a box. However, the Huntsman finds it wrong to kill Snow White, so he instead, kills a pig and gives its heart to Grimhilde. Enraged by this, she goes to her dungeon to find a spell that will kill Snow White: She dips an apple in poison, transforms into an ugly old hag, and gives the apple to Snow White. The princess takes a bite out of the apple and falls victim to Sleeping Death, which can only be cured by True Love's First Kiss. Unfortunately for the Queen, while trying to crush the Dwarfs with a boulder when cornered on a cliff, the cliff she stands on gets struck with lightning and makes Grimhilde fall to her death.
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Say what you want about Snow White, but this movie served as the seed for the animated feature film: It has a story that sticks true to its source material, animation that still holds up more than 80 years after its release, engaging characters, and memorable songs. And Queen Grimhilde is a true villain that sits comfortably alongside Ursula, Gaston, and Scar. As mentioned earlier, the Wicked Queen wanted the Huntsman to kill Snow White and rip out her heart. That's downright barbaric, even by 1930s standards!
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| Grimhilde handing the Huntsman the box to place Snow White's heart in. |
In a way, Queen Grimhilde is like a predecessor to Gaston from Beauty and the Beast: She's beautiful on the outside, but a complete monster on the outside, and her Peddler form certainly reflects that.
Appears In: The Great Mouse Detective (1986)
Voice Actor: Vincent Price
Supervising Animator: Glen Keane
Villain Profile: Ratigan is the self-proclaimed ‘world’s greatest criminal mind’, but is thwarted every time by Basil of Baker Street, his sleuthing nemesis. One day, he captures toy builder Hiram Flaversham to force him to build an animatronic queen in an elaborate attempt to rule all of Mouse-Dom! When Basil and his acquaintance David Dawson start investigating Hiram’s disappearance, Ratigan and his flunkies set up a trap to capture Basil and Dawson and dispose of them with an anvil, a gun, a crossbow, and a mousetrap. Ratigan is, yet again, thwarted by Basil, and he kidnaps Hiram’s daughter Olivia and escapes in his blimp, which crashes into Big Ben. In a climatic chase inside the clock tower, Ratigan grabs Basil and plans to finish him off once and for all, but Big Ben strikes 10, making Ratigan fall off the hand of the clock and onto the streets of London. Luckily, Basil survives by grabbing a propeller from the blimp.
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The Great Mouse Detective truly lives up to its title: It has decent character animation, likable characters, and a story perfect for its length. It’s proof that even if a movie is short, it can still give audiences enough time to know about the characters and their world. And Ratigan is no exception: He’s charismatic, threatening, entertaining, and at times, scary.
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| Ratigan squeezing apart a doll Hiram made especially for his daughter, Olivia. |
Whatever you do, don’t call him a rat, or he’ll feed you to his cat Felicia, even if you aren’t part of her diet.
Let's not forget Ratigan's catchy underrated villain song, 'The World's Greatest Criminal Mind'!
Even though An American Tail (which was released the same year) had more vibrant colors and a better score, 'Mouse Detective' has a better story, more engaging characters, and a better villain. I'm sorry American Tail fans, but Warren T Rat (the antagonist of An American Tail) just pales in comparison to Ratigan.
Voice Actress: Betty Lou Gerson
Supervising Animator: Marc Davis
Villain Bio: Cruella was once a classmate of Anita (no maiden name given) Radcliffe, but is now a smoker who kills animals and wears them as coats. When Perdita, Anita's dog, gets pregnant with her husband's dog Pongo, Cruella drives over and asks when the puppies will be born. On one October's night, Perdita gives birth to 15 puppies, and Cruella storms in to check on the puppies. However she thinks they're ugly, but when hearing the puppies will get their spots within a few weeks, she immediately asks if they're for sale. However, the Radcliffes don't want to sell them, so Cruella gets her flunkies Horace and Jasper to kidnap them when they're old enough while the parents, human and canine alike, go on a walk. Pongo and Perdita rescue their children, along with 84 additional puppies, and Cruella's car crashes into Horace and Jasper's car while chasing the moving truck the Dalmatians are on.
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What makes Cruella different from other Disney Villains is that most of her dirty work is handled by her flunkies Horace and Jasper. Jasper is skinny and is the self-appointed leader of the duo, while Horace is short and stout, and thinks that dogs are smarter than they look. Both of them like the game show What's My Crime, a spoof of the early game show 'What's My Line'.
Voice Actor: Richard White
Supervising Animator: Andreas Deja
Villain Bio: Gaston is the town hero of a French village, and among the many single women in town, he wants to marry Belle, who's the only person in town who wears blue and reads books for amusement. After Belle turns down Gaston flat, he makes a deal with the local asylum keeper to blackmail Belle into marrying her, or else they'll throw her father Maurice in the asylum. A few days earlier, Maurice told everyone that Belle got captured by a hideous beast, and everyone just laughed their heads off. Belle, however, proves that Maurice isn't crazy, as she previously met the Beast, and pulls out a magic mirror to prove that the Beast does exist. However, everyone else is repulsed by the Beast's ugliness, and Gaston rallies up the townsfolk to storm into his castle and kill the Beast. They lock up Belle and Maurice in their cellar, and when Gaston arrives at the castle, he picks on the forlorn Beast, who is mourning over letting Belle free to save Maurice from the cold. However, when Belle and Maurice escape from the cellar and arrive at the castle, Beast regains his confidence and threatens to drop Gaston off the side of his castle. Gaston pleads to the Beast that he'll do anything, and he lets Gaston go. When Bell and Beast reunite, Gaston stabs the Beast with a knife, but soon falls off the side of the castle and dies in the moat. Beast dies, but Belle's love for him breaks the curse, which turns everyone back to their normal selves and brings Beast back to life and back into a human.
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Much like the aforementioned Wicked Queen, Gaston is handsome on the outside, but a monster on the inside. As Belle puts it, he’s rude, conceited, and brainless. Just look at how he puts his feet on the table and gets mud all over the book!
Gaston is also quite a hunter: All the animals mounted to the wall in the town’s tavern are ones Gaston personally killed.
| "I got antlers in all of my decorating!" |
As mentioned earlier, Gaston blackmails Belle by threatening to send Maurice to the asylum unless she marries him. Not to mention he wanted to have six or seven kids with her along with a few dogs! How many other WDAS characters blackmailed others?
While Gaston has a gun, he only uses it twice in the whole movie: During the ‘Belle’ number when he shoots a goose, and in the tavern during the ‘Gaston’ number, in which some bullets end up in a beer dispenser. When he fights Adam (aka the Beast), he uses a crossbow and knife.
4. Mother Gothel
Featured In: Tangled (2010)
Voice Actress: Donna Murphy
Supervising Animator: Nik Raniri
Villain Bio: Once upon a time, a single drop of sunlight fell from the heavens, and from this small drop grew a magic golden flower. It had the power to heal the sick and injured, but a woman named Gothel hoarded its healing power to stay young forever. Centuries later, the kingdom of Corona grows from the ground up, and Queen Arianna was sick and pregnant, so the guards uprooted the flower, turned it into medicine, and fed it to Arianna. A healthy baby girl was born that day with beautiful golden hair, and her name was Rapunzel. One night, Gothel broke into the castle and stole Rapunzel, who now has the magic healing powers of the flower, locked her in a tower, and tricked Rapunzel into thinking the outside world was cruel, dark, and selfish. Every year on Rapunzel's birthday, Arianna and her husband King Frederic release thousands of lanterns into the sky, hoping that one day, their lost princess would return.
On the eve of Rapunzel's 18th birthday, Rapunzel, who's sick of living in the tower, tricks Mother Gothel into searching for rare seashells that would take her up to three days to obtain so she can find the lanterns herself, with the help of wanted criminal Flynn Rider. When Gothel spots palace horse Maximus with no rider in the forest, she hurries back to the tower and discovers that Rapunzel is gone, but also found a tiara, which Flynn secretly smuggled into his satchel, along with a wanted poster. She makes a deal with the Stabbington Brothers, who were Flynn's former partners in crime, that if they helped Mother Gothel get Rapunzel back, the twins would get revenge on Flynn Rider. They trick Rapunzel into thinking that Flynn ran off with the satchel, when in reality, tied him to a boat and sent him to the Corona guards. Gothel brings Rapunzel back to the tower, but Rapunzel discovers that she is the lost princess all along, and that Gothel is the true villain. With the help of some thugs, Flynn escapes from being hung and saves Rapunzel by cutting her hair. With no magic hair, Mother Gothel starts aging rapidly and gets reduced to dust.
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Up until Raya and the Last Dragon, Tangled would be the last WDAS movie to have a traditional villain, and Mother Gothel doesn't disappoint! She's a bit like a tamer version of Judge Claude Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, as both villains tricked their film's protagonists into thinking that the outside world is dangerous.
| "And stop no more, you'll just upset me!" |
Even when Gothel isn’t ‘playing the Bad Guy’, she insults Rapunzel by calling her less beautiful than Raps (And look! You’re here, too.), grubby, gullible, naïve, and chubby, even when she’s none of those things. Let’s not forget how she said ‘You are not leaving this tower! EVER!’
As stated earlier, Gothel helps the Stabbington Brothers, who were once Flynn’s partners-in-crime, get revenge on him. However, she seems to end up double-crossing them instead, as the next time we see the brothers, they’re in the same jail as Flynn.
Another thing to notice in Tangled is how Gothel’s dress differs from all the other character’s clothing. Her dress is from the Renaissance Era (the 15th and 16th Centuries), while all the other characters look like they have 18th/19th Century clothing.
3. Percival C McLeach
Voice Actor: George C Scott
Supervising Animator: Duncan Majorbanks
Villain Bio: Percival C McLeach is the most wanted poacher in Australia, and after a boy named Cody falls into his trap, he notices a feather on his backpack. McLeach knows that the feather belonged to a rare golden eagle, as he already killed her mate. He kidnaps Cody and traps him with his other Australian animals and won't let him go until Cody spills the beans on where Marahute, the rare eagle, is located. One morning, McLeach tricks Cody into thinking that Marahute is already dead so he can follow him to her nest. McLeach captures Marahute, along with Cody, an adventurous kangaroo rat named Jake, and Bianca, a Hungarian-American mouse who works at the Rescue Aid Society in New York, and plans on feeding Cody to hungry crocodiles. Luckily, Bernard, a plump mouse who started working at the RAS as a janitor, rescues Cody, Jake, Bianca, and Marahute while McLeach falls off a waterfall and meets a watery grave.
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McLeach is one of my favorite Disney Villains out there. While he obviously doesn't have the most in-depth backstory, he is one of the most cruel: McLeach kills animals so he can sell them for profit, and is, as stated earlier, considered one of Australia's most wanted criminals.
If you look around McLeach's hideout, you can see crocodile skins hanging on the walls, and a tortoise shell used as a footstool. It's a miracle that Joanna, his pet goanna, hasn't been killed yet.
And it just doesn't stop there! After capturing Marahute, McLeach ties Cody to a rope and attempts to feed him to the crocs! If that's not cold-blooded, I don't know what is.
Interestingly, veteran animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston didn't really like The Rescuers Down Under during their lifetimes. They stated that "Not enough had been done in the story to make the boy an appealing character or a sympathetic victim, and McLeach was not quite convincing as an interesting spellbinding member of the cast... he lacked that touch of charisma that would hold the audience."
However, this was 30 years ago, and now RDU is almost as respected as every other Disney
Voice Actress: Pat Carrol
Supervising Animator: Ruben Aquino
Villain Bio: Ursula is an octopus mermaid who was banished and exiled from Atlantica, a mermaid kingdom as beautiful as the Great Barrier Reef. Now living in her own skeletal lair, she waits to plot revenge on King Triton and rule the ocean. Whenever a mermaid/merman asks her for help, she makes a potion that will grant their wishes, but always turns them into polyps if they don't meet Ursula's quotas. Ariel, Triton's youngest daughter, meets Ursula so she can turn into a human for three days, and if her crush Eric falls in love with Ariel and kisses her, she'll become human permanently. If Ariel doesn't, however, she'll turn back into a mermaid and belong to Ursula. Ariel sells her voice to Ursula, who keeps it in a nautilus shell on her necklace, and in return, turns her into a human. On the second night, while Ariel and Eric are in a canoe across a glade, Sebastian, Triton's royal court composer and Ariel's crab sidekick, rallies up the other animals, like ducks, turtles, flamingos, frogs, and even crickets, to play a romantic ballad.
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If Ratigan in The Great Mouse Detective was threatening, then Ursula is a force to be reckoned with. She is desperate to take over the underwater world and have Triton wriggle like a worm on a hook.
One of my favorite scenes with Ursula is right before she tries to marry Eric, and she throws a hairpin on an angel engraved in her mirror. As she's singing about how she'll rule the ocean, Ursula looks in the mirror, and both her and Vanessa can be seen on screen together.
Voice Actor: Jeremy Irons (Speaking), Jim Cummings (Singing)
Supervising Animator: Andreas Deja
Villain Bio: Scar is the younger brother of wise lion Mufasa, king of the Pridelands. When Mufasa's wife Sarabi gives birth to a cub named Simba, Scar is jealous and upset because he wants to be king. After Simba learns how to walk, talk, and get into trouble, Scar sets up an elaborate plan to kill both Mufasa and Simba so he can become king: He and his hyena lackies start a wildebeest stampede, which kills Mufasa in the process, and blames it on Simba. Scar tells Simba to run away and send the hyenas to kill him. Simba escapes the hyenas, luckily, but Scar tells the other lions that both Mufasa and Simba have been killed in the stampede, and he inherits the throne. His first decree is to integrate lions and hyenas, causing the Pridelands to spiral into ecological disarray. Years later, the Pridelands have become a desolate wasteland with no food or water. Sarabi tells Scar that the only way to solve the dilemma is to move somewhere else, but Scar doesn't want to leave, sentencing the Lion pride to death. After Scar slashes Sarabi in the face, Simba, who is now grown up and has learned from his 'mistake', appears in the flesh. After finding out that Scar is actually responsible for Mufasa's death, a fire spreads by a bolt of lightning, and during an intense fight, Mufasa defeats Scar by throwing him into the fire, which kills him and the hyenas in the process.
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This honestly isn't much of a surprise, as Scar is a true villain in every sense of the word: He is manipulative, charismatic, and threatening. Not to mention he has one of the best villain songs ever, Be Prepared.
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| "If you were half the king Mufasa was..." |
Honorable mentions go to Jafar (Aladdin), Chermabog (Fantasia), Judge Claude Frollo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), Captain Hook (Peter Pan), and even Namaari (Raya and the Last Dragon).
Well, that concludes Top 10 Favorite Disney Villains! On November 3rd, I will start posting my awaited Pokemon story, Rise of Rainbow Rocket!
