This thread about Maleficent got me wondering… who are your favorite Disney Villains?
(I’m arbitrarily restricting this thread to hand-animated Disney movies, not Pixars, and not Frozen/Tangled/etc.)
For me, I think it’s definitely Jafar from Aladdin. He manages to be interesting and have understandable motivations without ever not being totally hate-able, and puts up a heck of a fight. Eventually he goes down not because he stupidly dropped his guard or something like that but because of a genuinely clever trick playing on his hubris. He has some great one-liners (“I see that you are speechless… a fine quality in a wife.”) Plus he has a lovely singing voice.
It depends on how you measure “favourite.” But Claude Frollo from Hunchback is so feasibly believable, in both his motivations and behaviour, he’s one of the most menacing and frightening villain in any film, let alone a Disney animated film. Plus Hellfire is an amazing song.
The Black Cauldron didn’t just deserve a better movie…He deserved a better movie.
One point I’ll give to Scar, though, above all else…a few times, we’ve seen glimpses at least of villains’ kingdoms, usually after they’ve conquered or usurped them. Typically menacing, and tyrannical, sure. But Scar’s administration of the Prideland is interesting in that he’s a bad leader. Maybe he couldn’t help the apparent drought, but he’s either allowed it to be overhunted, or is poorly directing hunting in a food crisis. He’s a poor administrator, he clearly doesn’t have the respect of his subordinates, and an unreliable control of his chain of command aside from (most of the time) his own Praetorian hyenas—and these are from people who honestly believe he’s the rightful ruler, and didn’t do anything wrong to seize the throne.
He’s a tyrant who can’t make the trains run on time. All he knows how or cares to do is hold onto his position of power to the very end, even at the cost of his subjects, supporters, and his own life.
I think that’s probably one of the best portrayals of adictator you’ll see onscreen.
Ursula the Sea Witch. She’s the spitting image of my high school musical director (well, Mrs. Harley had legs), but mostly I love how she’s so thoroughly a villain through giving people exactly what they want. I’ve always had a fondness for evil through contract law.
Frollo is the most terrifying villain, though, because he is so completely understandable. And I still can’t believe “Hellfire” made it past the Disney board.
Tchernobog from the Night on Bald Mountain segment from Fantasia.
I just thought he was utterly cool, the way he orchestrated all the demons, ghosts, goblins, and things that go bump in the night in a grand macabre dance. He commands the thunder and lightning to strike at harrowing downbeats in the music. He uses his wings like Dracula used his cape, striding with menace with just his dark eyes glaring ominously. He’s the dark lord who controls the forces of chaos.
Then, as the sun starts to rise and the morning bell chimes, he recoils from the light and tries to resume his dance, but the second chime reminds him he cannot win this battle. The sun lights his face, which had been cloaked in darkness, and reveals that he’s not just some monster. He has fears and vulnerabilities too. Instead of disappearing in a puff of theatrical smoke, he covers himself with his wings and becomes part of the landscape. His surrender to the dawn was not a defeat, but a show of respect with a quiet exit. Classy.
I like my villains slick, quick, and necks incredibly thick. Preferably if they’re roughly the size of a barge.
Gaston!
Hades is fun too. Ursala is an interesting character. However, I’ve never felt any positive feelings towards Jafar. Too snooty. He knows damn well it’s not Prince Abooboo. I will agree that his demise was pretty clever.
Easy choice: Gaston from Beauty and the Beast. He was the only Disney villain who never saw himself as villainous or evil: he was trying to rescue Beauty from the horrible fate and to marry her because she was the most attractive woman in the village and he was the most attractive man (Note the song “Gaston”). The paradox of villainy is that real villains rarely see themselves as villainous – and Gaston is the only Disney villain who fits that.
Second choice: Mother Gothel from Tangled. Her passive-aggressiveness was a wonder to behold, as was her emotional manipulation. She would constantly cut down Rapunzel – sometimes viciously – and then add “I’m just teasing” as though it would fix it. She is scary because she’s by far the most realistic villain – people do behave that way.
Third: Hades in Hercules. Disney’s only purely comic villain. In most films, the bad guy wad dead serious. Hades cracked jokes constantly, yet still managed to be sinister.
“Man” from Bambi, perhaps? Do Jumba, Pleakly and Captain Gantu from Lilo & Stitch count as villains? They’re certainly in an antagonistic role, and I’m certain they don’t see themselves as villains. But I don’t know that the movie-going public would consider them to be villains, either.
It was also a particularly good villain in that you got a real sense of the neediness that drives that sort of person in real life. Mother Gothel was driven as much by a fear of being alone again, as by desire for access to Rapunzel’s magic, which gave her a certain level of sympathy.
It was one of the reasons I was so disappointed in the ending. They did such a good job of showing a realistic relationship between a daughter and her truly awful mother, and then she resolves it by kicking her off a parapet and running off to live with her real parents. That woman was the only mother Rapunzel ever knew - as evil as she was, that was her mom. Such a simple and brutal conclusion seemed a betrayal of the earlier nuance. I was really hoping that the movie would end with the with broken, powerless, alive - and totally alone.
Acting-wise, John Hurt can do no wrong. Whatsoever.
Right, and there’s something else in there too. When Simba’s still a cub, he seems to think that being king means getting to do whatever he wants. Of course he doesn’t realize that being a good ruler is more complicated than that–because he’s a kid. (Well, cub.)
But that’s Scar’s philosophy of kinghood in a nutshell–and HE’S an adult. When Sarabi tries to get him to see beyond his own wishes to the good of his people, his only retort is, “I am king! I can do whatever I want!” That’s what happens when absolute power ends up in the hands of someone who’s emotionally still a petulant child–and it’s a perfect object lesson for Simba in how NOT to be a king.
