# Who's the most Evil Disney villain? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 17, 2019, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-evil-disney-villain/843576 "2019-11-17T14:57:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2019, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-evil-disney-villain/843576/81 "2019-11-20T07:01:44Z")
> [@edspellman](#): > > 3 categories of Disney villainy: > > 1.) Extreme Cruelty/Sadism : Cruella de Vil, Mother Gothel, probably Frollo. > > 2.) Actual murder: Scar (fratricide!). Also Syndrome has his robot kill multiple supers. > > 3.) Uses black magic/implies allied with dark forces: the Evil Queen, and Malificent. _Extreme Cruelty/Sadism : Cruella de Vil_,: Wait a minute: we skin sheep, cows, mink, rabbits etc for their fur/skins. This was set in the 30’s or so,when furs were “in”. How is that “extreme”? Now sure, puppies are really cute and in Western society\* we dont eat or skin them, so yeah, she’s weird. - But in the east they eat them. With relish. Or maybe soy sauce. Adding to #3 is Dr Facilier, Ursula, and of course Hades. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2019, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-evil-disney-villain/843576/82 "2019-11-20T07:18:00Z")
Hades isn’t so much “allied” with a dark force, as “is” a dark force. ---
**Author:** ![Wrenching\_Spanners](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecb155/32.png) [@Wrenching\_Spanners](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wrenching_Spanners)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2019, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-evil-disney-villain/843576/83 "2019-11-20T11:36:31Z")
Third vote for the Horned King from The Black Cauldron. Dude wanted to raise an army of undead soldiers to take over the world. I’m surprised no one’s mentioned Governor Ratcliffe from Pocahontas (unless I missed it). ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2019, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-evil-disney-villain/843576/84 "2019-11-20T15:12:27Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > what the fuck are you talking about? 😕 I don’t know why you’re confused. I quoted the post I was referring to. And I stand by what I wrote. ---
**Author:** ![Trancephalic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trancephalic/32/380_2.png) [@Trancephalic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trancephalic)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2019, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-evil-disney-villain/843576/85 "2019-11-20T15:23:59Z")
The Mad Doctor wanted to do far more twisted things to Pluto than what Cruella wante to do with all those dogs. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2019, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-evil-disney-villain/843576/86 "2019-11-20T15:27:54Z")
The San Francisco pizza shop in _Inside Out_: they put broccoli on their pizzas! ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2019, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-evil-disney-villain/843576/87 "2019-11-20T15:29:27Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > 2nd runner up: the Beagle Boys > > 1st runner up: Black Pete > > Top: Gladstone Gander. He may not technically be Evil, but he is certainly a jerk. But what about… The Phantom Blot??? ---
**Author:** ![Trancephalic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trancephalic/32/380_2.png) [@Trancephalic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trancephalic)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2019, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-evil-disney-villain/843576/88 "2019-11-20T15:34:52Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > But what about… The Phantom Blot??? Small potatoes compared to Shadow Blot. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2019, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-evil-disney-villain/843576/89 "2019-11-20T16:06:28Z")
> [@Wrenching\_Spanners](#): > > I’m surprised no one’s mentioned Governor Ratcliffe from Pocahontas (unless I missed it). I think that’s because everyone “missed it.” The movie, _Pocahontas_, I mean. ---
**Author:** ![ebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c57346/32.png) [@ebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ebb)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2019, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-evil-disney-villain/843576/90 "2019-11-20T16:36:29Z")
I think a lot of these villains get a bad rap because Disney movies with animal protagonists straddle this illogical gray zone where some of the humans treat the animals like animals, while we the audience know that the animals are as fully intelligent as humans, just lacking thumbs. Killing a hundred dogs isn’t a really noble thing, but it’s far worse if those dogs all have human-like thoughts and personalities. But Cruella doesn’t know that; she can’t, by the rules of the universe. Non-Disney, but are the farmer and his wife in the movie Chicken Run evil just because they want to turn the chickens into pot pies? If they knew the chickens were sentient, then sure. But there’s no way for them to know that – it would break the movie if they could. Are the adults in Toy Story evil for throwing a box of toys in the incinerator? Nope. Presumably they’d treat the toys differently if they knew they had thoughts and feelings, but they’re not allowed to know that. Chef Louis in The Little Mermaid just wants to kill and cook a crab. That’s his damn job. Turns out the crab is lovable super-genius crustacean Sebastian, but I don’t think we can hold that against Louis. If Sebastian didn’t want to get eaten he should have just started tapping out prime number sequences with his claws or something, or have a spider spin out a message for him. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2019, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-evil-disney-villain/843576/91 "2019-11-20T17:23:59Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Hades isn’t so much “allied” with a dark force, as “is” a dark force. True. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2019, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-evil-disney-villain/843576/92 "2019-11-20T17:25:24Z")
> [@Wrenching\_Spanners](#): > > Third vote for the Horned King from The Black Cauldron. Dude wanted to raise an army of undead soldiers to take over the world. > > … The actual name is Arawn. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2019, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-evil-disney-villain/843576/93 "2019-11-20T19:11:46Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > The actual name is Arawn. He was the villain in the Black Cauldron novel (and at least background evil in all of them). But the movie was really the result of mashing the first two books together. ---
**Author:** ![SmellMyWort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SmellMyWort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmellMyWort)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2019, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-evil-disney-villain/843576/94 "2019-11-20T21:29:16Z")
How many innocent playing cards lost their heads to the whim of the Queen of Hearts? And I’ll also nominate Ernesto de la Cruz for straight up murdering Hector in Coco. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2019, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-evil-disney-villain/843576/95 "2019-11-20T21:56:31Z")
> [@SmellMyWort](#): > > How many innocent playing cards lost their heads to the whim of the Queen of Hearts?.. If you read the books- none. The little King went around afterwards pardoning them all. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2019, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-evil-disney-villain/843576/96 "2019-11-20T22:06:28Z")
Never mind. I was beaten to the Michael Eisner joke. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2019, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-evil-disney-villain/843576/97 "2019-11-20T22:46:45Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > 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). In Roberto Benigni’s 2002 version of _Pinocchio_, the coachman pauses for a moment and says, “Look at these boys. They wouldn’t go to school. They wouldn’t learn a trade. Now they’re only fit for donkey-work.” It was not random Bad Guys doing random Evil Deeds. It was an allegory of Sloth vs Industry, Ignorance vs Education. The boys were facing the consequences of their own choices. (I admit, this is non-Disney. I don’t know if it is in the book or not.) > [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Concur. > > Jafar, for all his moustache twirling, wasn’t interested in Jasmine sexually or personally. He didn’t even make it weird that way until she’d turned on the sex appeal to distract him. In the original story in _1001 Nights_, the vizier is an antagonist, but hardly evil at all. The princess is betrothed to the vizier’s son, long before Aladdin ever shows up. At Aladdin’s bidding, the genie’s treatment of the vizier’s son is just slightly short of homicidal. I’m not sure why Hollywood always turns [Jafar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ja%27far_ibn_Yahya) into a villain. In the original _1001 Nights_ stories, he was usually one of the good guys. ---
**Author:** ![Trancephalic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trancephalic/32/380_2.png) [@Trancephalic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trancephalic)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2019, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-evil-disney-villain/843576/98 "2019-11-20T22:47:29Z")
Um John Lassiter? ---
**Author:** ![squidfood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a87d85/32.png) [@squidfood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squidfood)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-evil-disney-villain/843576/99 "2019-11-21T00:56:22Z")
If we rate insects up there with puppies or people, Hopper enslaves an ant colony for years then plans to completely starve it. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-evil-disney-villain/843576/100 "2019-11-21T11:28:29Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Gaston is one of Disney’s best villains, but I wouldn’t call him evil. He’s just full of himself. He’s not doing anything bad – he wants to rescue Belle because he thinks that they were made for each other. But his pursuit of her shows he wants to change her mind, not force her to do what she wants. He’s deluded, but does respect Belle enough to try to convince her by his actions and words and, though he doesn’t give up, he accepts her “no” – for now. Annoying to her, certainly, but not evil. > > He’s a great villain because he thinks he’s the hero. From his point of view, he’s going after a terrible monster who, let’s face it, forces Belle to come to his castle. There is also the compelling argument that [Belle would have been better off marrying Gaston](https://observer.com/2017/03/beauty-and-the-beast-why-belle-should-have-chosen-gaston/). > [@TimfromNapa](#): > > Cruella de Vil > Cruella de Vil > If she doesn’t scare you > No evil thing will > To see her is to take a sudden chill > Cruella Cruella de Vil I’ve often thought that Cruella would have taken Roger for everything he owned - including the puppies - in a defamation lawsuit. He literally wrote a hit single about how horrible she is (and bear in mind that he didn’t know about the dognapping - he just didn’t like Cruella). That’s a pretty easy case for her to win. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-evil-disney-villain/843576.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-most-evil-disney-villain/843576.md?page=6)