At the bottom of the list I’d put Cinderella’s stepmother (who’s really only cruel to one person) and Sher Khan from The Jungle Book (who’s desire for Mowgli’s death is arguably self-defense). Captain Hook is too comical.
Cruella de Vil is much more Evil, killing puppy dogs to make a coat.
Frollo from Hunchback of Notre Dame deserves special mention.
Hades from Hercules is a consideration (or maybe he’s just out for revenge).
and then there’s Cernobog from Fantasia who spends his free time playing and tormenting the souls of the damned.
I think Scar has to be up there - kill your brother, blame your nephew, establish a totalitarian fascist state.
BTW, I think that the suggestions should stick to original Disney properties and not acquired properties like Star Wars. Just a suggestion to the OP. Otherwise we will be up to our elbows in Sith.
I was gonna go with Thanos I guess I’ll go with the evil queen from snow white then. Killing a girl and having her heart brought to you in a box just because she’s prettier? that’s evil right there.
Scar is a good one to say because he’s one of the few I can think of that straight up murdered someone…a family member no less.
Cruella gets props because while her crimes aren’t the biggest…they’re the most sadistic.
I think Ursula should get some thoughts too as she made purposely crooked deals to torture and keep souls. Killing someone is bad, but turning them into a brown goop fish thingy and holding them like that for (presumably) all eternity is just cruel.
Mother Gothel from Tangled. All the others are EEEEEE-vil and don’t make any attempt to hide it. She spends 18 years pretending to love Rapunzel and to do what’s best for her. And she has hides it from her with a nasty passive-aggressive personality.
And, of course, the repeated “I’m just teasing,” when she says something particularly hurtful.
Gothel is particularly evil because her villainy is real. You don’t get many people making dalmatian coats, or stealing someone’s voice, or murdering his brother to become king (not any more, at least). But there are real Mother Gothels out there and that makes her worse.
Another one flying under the radar is the Coachman from Pinocchio who buys boys and takes them to Pleasure Island, where they turn themselves horrifically into donkeys, which the Coachman then sells (for a higher price one assumes).
I don’t think he’s the worst of the Disney lot but, to correct the record, his desire for Mowgli’s death stemmed directly from breaking the Law of the Jungle by murdering Mowgli’s parents and then demanded that the Pack hand the infant Mowgli over so he could eat him. Also, Sher Khan’s actions threatened to bring the wrath of the village upon the jungle (thus the prohibition on killing men) and threatened all the inhabitants simply because Sher Khan was feeling too lazy to hunt proper prey.
Even as Mowgli got older, it wasn’t self-defense in the “fight off muggers on the street” sense but “tie up loose ends from a crime” sense plus Sher Khan still feeling entitled to Mowgli as a prize from his hunt. There’s not much grey area in Sher Khan’s deeds.
Is Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Disney-sufficient to count? If so, I nominate Judge Doom, who sadistically killed an innocent cartoon shoe. And Eddie Valiant’s brother or whatever.
Syndrome possible has the largest confirmed deaths, maybe. Percival C. McLeach would be the closest, possibly even surpassing Syndrome, by dint of a huge plot hole that leaves his hoard of prisoners dead by desertion.
Scar had reason to be the way he was. His mother named him Garbage because she liked Mufasa so much better. Syndrome was cast aside as a child. Judge Doom has a deep self-hatred. But Cruella? She was evil just for evil’s sake. Because she liked causing pain and suffering. She gets my vote.
I guess I’ll go with the evil queen from snow white then. Killing a girl and having her heart brought to you in a box just because she’s prettier? that’s evil right there.