Just like heroes, some villains are better than others are. When it comes to Disney (I will admit that I am biased to the older, hand-animated ones) I have two that top the list.
I have to give points to the evilness of Cruella de Vil from the original One Hundred and One Dalmatians. First because she has the psyodellic black and white hairdo. Second . . . come on, she kidnaps puppies so she can kill them and make a fur coat! That’s just plain cruel and devilish!
My favorite though is Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty. What makes her wicked? She wants to kill a kid because she didn’t get invited to the party. (Some people have no manners). Why is she awesome? She calls herself the “Mistress of All Evil,” hangs with her raven familiar Diablo, wears horns and to top it off she can turn into a dragon. The dragon part alone is hard to beat. That guy from *Mulan *doesn’t cut it for me.
maybe it’s bias, but i’ve found that the LAMEST villain was “man” in bambi. another weak one was the ringmaster in dumbo (what was up with the cumberbund schtick?).
i agree that maleficent was pretty good as far as villains go. my FAVORITE villain is Gaston from Beauty and the Beast. his song cracks me up to no end. a dark horse for “evil” (for me anyway) goes to Governor Radcliffe from Pocahontas. the way he was animated was pretty repulsive.
Gaston in Beauty and the Beast. He was the one villain who never once thought he was doing anything villainous and (in his own lights) was trying to help Beauty to a better life. It made for a great villain. My wife hates him because he’s far too real as a character.
All other Disney villains are Richard II “I’m baaaad,” which can be fun, but is far easier to do and far less interesting.
Second choice would be Hades, Disney’s first comic villain.
Worst would probably be Maleficent, who was too overstated to have any interest whatsoever. She was just so predictable that I didn’t care. It didn’t help that Sleeping Beauty is one of their weakest features.
I would have to go with Ratigan and Captain Hook. Vincent Price and Hans Conried – two marvelously over-the-top comic heavies. (Honorable mention: Jafar, Ratcliffe, and Forte.)
My absolute favorite is Ursula. Tricking a child into signing a binding contract in order to maim/enslave said child and usurp the throne? And nearly marrying Prince Eric and getting his throne in the process? If all went as planned, she would have been the absolute ruler of land and sea. She had ambition, intelligence, and a sense of humor.
Second favorite is Gaston.
I like the Poacher in Rescuers Down Under because he’s so fucking mean.
Ursula is a wonderful villain. She is, in her own evil way, very charming indeed. Plus, of course, she’s clearly Made Plans and Worked Towards Her Goals, and she appears to have done a lot of studying.
I think that Frollo is a better villain, though. He does think that he is on the side of good, and he struggles with his lust.
I like Cinderella’s stepmother. I don’t think she considers herself in the right, but she seems to feel entitled to behave the way she does. She’s manipulative and ruthless, and she always creeped me out as a child.
Mother Gothol in their latest, Tangled, was interesting. She selfishly tries to keep a magical artifact to herself to in order to keep herself young but when that power is permanently transferred to the infant Rapunzel, Gothol first attempts to merely steal a lock of the child’s magic hair. It is only because the severed hair looses it’s magic, that she’s driven to out-and-out kipnapping.
Her villainy plays on some especially contemporary evils like youth obsession and plastic surgery addiction (she’s constantly pulling her skin taut while checking her reflection).
I wouldn’t count him. Touchstone IS, for all intents and purposes, Disney (it’s not even a separate production or distribution company, it’s just a brand), but it’s not Disney-branded. So he’s not really a “Disney villain”.
Another vote for Scar. There’s nothing like Jeremy Irons’ voice to exude pure manipulative evil. And the song is perfect, with the animation becoming Nazi-esque in the marching.
The Judge is an excellent villain, and the whole movie is awesome (Roger can’t get out of those cuffs at any time, he can only do it when it’s funny), but I would not consider this to be a Disney film.
The Judge gets extra villain points for his resurrection.
Much love for Facilier. I think he’s got one of the better villain songs (Although I agree Frollo and Scar have better ones, but I have serious issues with the ‘re-ending’ of Hunchback.), and I’m a sucker for the evil magician / soul-seller archetype.