31 Disney Villains for 31 days of October

 

1. 1938 Snow White 

          The Evil Queen

Yes, that beloved movie Snow White was made in 1938 but it’s still a classic. I grew up watching this movie (along with the other princesses) over and over. One of my favorite songs came from the movie, “Someday my prince will come.” I would sing that all the time in my living room while pretending to dance with forest animals.

The Evil Queen was such a beautiful character, until she became a haggard old lady with a poison apple. Since 1938 there have been many recreations of Snow White. Including a great live action with Kristen Stewert, Charlize Theron and Chris Hemsworth called Snow White and the Huntsman. There was also a show made called, Once Upon a Time, where a whole bunch of fairy tale characters get thrown into a spell and brought to the “real world”, the evil queen in that show was named Regina. Great name, just saying. The Evil Queen has been portrayed in so many different ways, but one thing remains the same she is always absolutely beautiful!  

2. 1940 Pinocchio 

          Honest John & Gideon

 These two are evil and silly characters. With the live action of Pinocchio coming out in 2022 we got a good look at what Honest John and Gideon would look like in our world. If you ask me, they were cute and creepy all balled into one.

The name Gideon actually means “one who cuts down”, quite interesting seeing as how he never even says a word in the entire film, but he does help to “cut down” Pinocchio. The name Honest John speaks for itself, we all know how honest he was. These two definitely help make the story flow but man they were mean and I'm pretty sure Gideon was drunk the whole time. Who am I to judge. 

3. 1941 Fantasia 

        Chernabog

This character scared the shit out of me when I was younger, but I was a kid obsessed with music and art so I couldn’t get enough of Fantasia (most times I would skip his part.) He was a demon that had the ability to unleash other evil spirits and demons from hell. I mean come on Disney that’s not scary at all. He is also known as one of the most powerful and destructive evil villains that Disney has ever created. Anyone who comes in contact with him is automatically fearful of him. No shit! 

4. 1941 Dumbo 

        The Ringmaster

This guy was definably a real-life villain. He was evil in the most human way, with hate and being unkind. He was the main reason why Dumbo was taken from his mother. Besides the fact that I hate Clowns and felt like they were the villains in this movie he was one person I wanted to jump through the tv and smack the shit out of. Sometimes being a villain is as simple as not having any empathy or respect for others, he wasn’t lacking in that department.

5. 1951 Alice in Wonderland 

         Queen of Hearts

I loved the Queen of Hearts! She was sassy, evil and funny, I mean come on yeah, she was a villain, but she was so good at it. I loved seeing the Queen being the higher power over the king. In the live action Alice in Wonderland, they created such a funny character, like most of the villains on the list they weren’t born evil, something happened in their lives that cause them to take the evil path. Still doesn’t make how they act towards others okay, but it gives us a great idea of why they became that way. Some of them are just assholes with no hidden secret, just jerks. I know quite a few people like that. 

6. 1953 Peter Pan

         Captain Hook

Let’s be honest Captain Hook has every reason to be pissed. This fairy-like, young boy who never wants to grow up caused his hand to be bitten off by a crocodile. That’s pretty fucked up and I'd be mad too. On top of that it's like he stuck in a loop where every day its, “let's find Pan and try to kill him”, and every day he finds Pan and end up hurting himself and his crew but never Pan. I think he’s one of those villains we should let have his issues without passing too much judgment. 

7. 1955 Lady and the Tramp  

        Aunt Sarah and Si & Am (the cats)

These cats pissed me the fuck off! First off for those that have seen Lady and the Tramp you know how mean Aunt Sarah was to Lady. All Lady was trying to do was protect the baby and these fucking cats kept well fucking shit up. In the end of their terror that precious dog gets blamed for everything. I wanted to throw these cats outside myself. A few years after seeing this movie a friend of one of my aunts had two Siamese cats, they literally stood at the top of the dark ass stairs and watched me the whole night I was at their house. I knew they were about to try and blame shit on me, so I kept my distance. I never seen those damn cats again, thank goodness. 

8. 1959 Sleeping Beauty

           Maleficent

We all know the beautiful and evilly enjoyable Maleficent. She can transform from being fantastic in her long gown to becoming a fire breathing dragon. When the live action movie came out, I think it’s safe to say we all had a soft spot in our heart for Angelina Jolies version of Maleficent. We got to see how this crazy revenge seeking queen became the way she was (I mean you chopped off her wings dude, she was justified). Every villain becomes a villain because of something that happened in their lives, whether that something was something good or something bad. She just wanted to be loved and that “love” turned on her. 

9. 1961 101 Dalmatian’s 

         Cruella De Vil

Cruella was a whole cup a fabulous evilness. She had that amazing black and white hair, the best-looking coat around and boy was she evil. Her live action version in the show Once Upon a Time, where we see her as a young girl who eventually goes kind of crazy and becomes the Cruella we know. To the live action movie where we see a young girl whose heart is broken and eventually doesn’t give two fucks anymore and becomes a devilishly great designer and socks it to the evilness that destroyed her life. Cruella is always portrayed as a strong and fabulous woman!

10. 1963 The Sword in the Stone 

        Madam Mim

Many people might not know the cooky Madam Mim. She is an evil, spiteful, cheating witch that loves to drive Merlin crazy. She loves misery and hates anything that can and will bring others joy (one particular thing she hates is sunshine). With her crazy purple hair and her lovely purple attire, she is both evil and crazy!

11. 1967 The Jungle Book 

        Shere Khan

Shere Khan is one of those characters that is scary both in movies and in real life. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I’d want to come face to face with a tiger of any kind (well maybe the kind with no teeth or claws). Let’s just say he got what he deserved in the end. 

12. 1977 The Rescuers

      Madame Medusa

This was one of Disney’s human villains. The evil owner of a pawn shop with two pet crocodiles (Brutus and Nero). She is everything that you would hate about a person, rude, devious, a liar and extremely unsettling and unstable, just to name a few things. Just like most villains she gets stopped in the end, but boy did she put up a fight.

13. 1981 The Fox & the Hound

        Amos Slade

This is one of my favorite Disney movies, every time I watch it, I need a box of tissues by my side. Amos is one of your more human villains, he’s really just a grumpy old man. He hates that little cute fox that wants to be best friends with his little cute hound. He kind of deserved to get his foot stuck in that bear trap at the end, he should have left Todd alone!

14. 1986 The great mouse detective

        Ratigan

This is a not so well-known villain (well at least to kids today). Let’s just say he was kind of okay until he was called a rat and went batshit crazy. He just wanted to be the top “mouse” and rule the mouse world. Can he just have a little fun with his snazzy top hat and suit. Unfortunately like most villains he just can’t learn to be nice and dies in the end, there was a lot of death in Disney movies.

15. 1989 The Little Mermaid

       Ursula

Ursula was such an awesome villain and boy could she sing. I found out recently that the lovely woman (Pat Carroll) who originally voiced Ursula was from my home area of Cape Cod, pretty cool! She was a bad ass sea witch that just wanted the same respect as her brother King Trident. She uses her beautifully manipulative ways to get what she wants from all those poor unfortunate souls, but also ends up dying in the end.  

16. 1991 Beauty and The Beast

        Gaston

Gaston was such an asshole, which made him the prefect villain (who also gets what he deserves in the end, there’s the death again). He’s full of himself and assumes that every woman in town is automatically in love with him. WE all know that in the end he couldn’t compare to the blue-eyed sweet-talking beast that stole Bells heart away. Sorry Gaston, they didn’t want you to be their guest. 

17.   

         1992 Aladdin

         Jafar

This man was crazy and honestly needed a full bucket of chicken, come on let’s be honest he hasn’t had food in years. He wanted bad to be the head man in charge and force a young girl a quarter of his age to marry him. I mean come on that makes him a pretty shitty person if you ask me. I loved his pet parrot, now he was a funny villain.

18. 1993 The Nightmare Before Christmas

        Oogie Boogie

Mr. Oogie Boogie man, his song was so catchy and made you want to dance and sing along. He was crazy, scary and I’m still not sure what he actually was. He had some spooky kids kidnap Santa and bring him to him so he could kill him. I think that is as evil as evil can get, I mean kill Santa Claus! He was definably a villain in every sense of the word.

19.  

         1994 The Lion King

           Scar

Anyone who kills their brother, makes their nephew think he was the cause of his own father’s death just to take over the family business (after banishing that same nephew) has a special place in hell. Scar was horrible and mean and very evil, enough said. 

20. 1995 Toy Story

       Sid

Sid was just an evil kid who wanted to piss everyone off. I know we’ve all met that one kid in our lives, whether when we were younger or now as “adults”, that you wanted to punch in the face. I hope no one acted on it but it was there in our minds just floating back and forth. As a kid watching this, I was so happy when the toys scared the shit out of him. As an adult watching this, I wanted more terror towards him from those toys (my thoughts were more in parent mode then). If he acts like that to his sister imagine how he acts towards his parents, nope couldn’t be my kid. 

21. 1995 Pocahantas

       Governor Ratcliffe

We all (sort of) learned in history class about what happened between the native Americans and the white settlers. If you grew up like me then you would learn every November about the pilgrims (coming to my home area of Cape Cod) meeting the natives and learning their ways and having a wonderful turkey dinner to celebrate. Well, we learn soon after we were all living in fairytale land and that was just a bunch of bullshit. Governor Ratcliffe was telling us kid, “hey guess what pretty much all of the white guys were dick heads like me.” Disney did a great job making it look like in the end the bad guys were kicked out and all the sweet good white guys swooped in a saved the natives by unifying their cultures and becoming peaceful. Look up your real history people, remember its HIS-STORY, not HERS. 

22. 1996 Hunchback of Notre Dame

        Claude Frollo

This guy definitely gave me the same vibes as Jafar from Aladdin. They both looked like they were starving and could use a good old chicken dinner with all the fixings. They both like to creep in the dark with their big ass heads and they both got defeated in the end. This movie made me so sad to watch as a child, but I was so excited to get one of the gargoyle cups from Pizza Hut! 

23. 1997 Hercules

             Hades

Hades was fucking hilarious. He was evil, devious and sly but so funny. His interaction with people was so comical. Yes, he was the devil but that didn’t make him less funny. James Woods did such a good job with this character. Overall, I loved the movie, it was the first time I got to see my roots in a Disney movie through the gospel singers. I was excited to see something portrayed that I took part in on a weekly basis. Gospel singing was not something you would see in any kids movies let alone a Disney movie, all the songs were so catchy. 

24. 1998 Mulan

       Shan Yu

Let’s be honest, in general, he was a creepy character but kind of boring. I love this movie very much (I sang the Cristina Aguilera song in middle school for a talent show), but Shan Yu was the least exciting part. He made a great villain for that particular movie and setting but not one of my favorite villains.

25. 1999 Tarzan

        Clayton

More so like the evil white men from Pocahontas, Clayton gave me the same vibes. The only real difference was the natives in the movie were gorillas not humans, but let’s be real they had human qualities and one of them literally raised a human. I feel like Clayton was a good filler for the movie but once again not one of the better villains Disney has created. 

26. 1999 Sleepy Hollow (correction the cartoon version came out in 1949 the live action came out in 1999) 

        1949 The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad

          The Headless Horseman

This villain still gives me nightmares. Once again, growing up in Massachusetts you hear about these types of legends all the time. I knew about the Headless Horseman prior to even seeing the movie. It’s a villain that sort of can’t die, which made him even scarier. Ichabod was not only a funny name but a funny looking character who startled very easily, which brought humor into a scary cartoon. I love the live action version with Jonny Depth and Christina Ricci. The live action version definitely brought life to the headless horseman. 

27. 2000 The Emperor’s New Groove

        Yzma

Yzma was a funny villain with a great voice. I love villains that are evil and funny all mixed into one, it makes you want to love and hate them at the same time. Disney does such a great job mixing the dark side and light side with a lot of their villains. Overall, this movie was more of a “hey I’m bored let’s watch something” kind of film. Fun fact the lovely woman who played Yzma (Eartha Kitt) is the original singer of the song “Santa Baby”, I love her voice!

28. 2001 Monsters Inc

       Randall Boggs

My kids absolutely love Monsters Inc (even more so the sequel Monsters University). Randall was such a fun villain, with his camouflage abilities (he couldn’t disappear he could camouflage) and his squinty eyes (which we learn is due to him needing glasses). He was funny and just wanted to fit in, this is another character whose back story gives us insight into why they became such an asswipe. Overall, I love this villain and plus Steve Buscemi is hilarious and did great job bringing this character to life. 

29. 2009 The princess & the frog

           Dr. Facilier

Dr. Facilier is in my kids’ top 5 villains. Every now and again our house goes into Disney music mode (usually because of me cooking in the kitchen and wanting to listen to music) we ask Alexa to play different Disney songs and we just jam out. I can expect to hear “Friends on the other side” at least 2-3 times throughout our jam session with my oldest daughter singing the loudest (she’s 15 years old). “I’ve got voodoo, I got hoodoo, I got things I aint even tried!”, I love Keith David as an actor, he brought life to Dr. Facilier that I’m not sure anyone else could have! 

30. 2010 Tangled

        Mother Gothel

This is another Disney Villain that my oldest daughter loves because of one of her musical numbers. The fact that the song she sings is “mother knows best” and my daughter loves it makes me love it even more. Mother Gothel is a bat shit crazy “mom” who apparently knows best (until she doesn’t). Tangled is such a fun movie filled with such great music. I grew up on Mandy Moore so hearing her voice as Rapunzel and sing those songs was very nostalgic for me. I also LOVE Donna Murphy, she played in one of my all-time favorite movies “Center Stage”, and therefore I loved her long before Tangled. I think she did such a great job with this Disney Villain.

31. 2013 Frozen

          Hans

For all my girl parents out there, show of hands, who wanted to body slam Hans for what he did to Anna? I know I did. He was not only a villain but a straight up super asswipe! I’m glad he was the youngest and didn’t get shit because he had like 30,000 other brothers. He was one villain that truly pissed me off, mostly because I have three daughters and thought to myself, “I wish some asshole would try this shit with one of my kids.” I have to admit though “Love is an open door” was one of my favorite songs, my husband and I have sung it together a few times, but Hans is still a super jerk!  

There you have it, 31 Disney Villains that can either make your skin crawl or just simply piss you off. From demons raising other demons from hell to asshole men that think they can rule the world simply because they are men. Disney took the word villain and used it in so many different ways. 

One thing I can say I’ve noticed a lot more since I’ve been an “adult” is that Disney used a lot of death in their movies. Its strange to me as a child I never really paid much attention to the fact that just about all these villains were being killed in the end and I was cheering on the good guy. 

Question though, are they still good guys even though they killed someone? 

I mean some of them (like the beast) were simply defending themselves, right? 

Oh well, what’s done is done. 

Let’s see what villains Disney brings our way next!