One last quick little list, a totally disposable one: since we all know that the villains are the best part of any given Disney movie, I thought I'd go ahead and present my ranking of all the bad guys in all the Disney features. Sort of.
It's not so easy to say who the "villain" is any given film (and a number of the films lack a real villain, anyway): a lot of them have henchmen, and are we supposed to count them separately? I elected just to ignore any case where there is a clear primary villain and one or more secondaries, even when I'd say that the sidekick is a significantly better character than his boss (such as Sir Hiss vs. Prince John in Robin Hood). And making things just that much more fun is the idiotic number of villains in Pinocchio. It also took me way too long to conclude that I should not put the leopard from Tarzan on the list; he would have been #28.
What follows the jump is based on all sorts of things: voice acting, design, animation, quality of the fiendish plot, and how entertaining he or she is to watch. You will note, by the way, that I do not dispute the cliché that Disney's lady villains are typically the best.
In a more perfect world, I'd have given each one of these a little paragraph defending my choice, but I am really tired of typing by this point. (Links are still to the reviews).
1. Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty)
2. Cruella De Vil (One Hundred and One Dalmatians)
3. Chernabog ("Night on Bald Mountain", Fantasia)
4. Lady Tremaine (Cinderella)
5. Ursula (The Little Mermaid)
6. The Queen/The Witch (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)
7. Shere Khan (The Jungle Book)
8. Scar (The Lion King)
9. Stromboli (Pinocchio)
10. Yzma (The Emperor's New Groove)
11. Lucifer (Cinderella)
12. Jafar (Aladdin)
13. The Coachman (Pinocchio)
14. Ratigan (The Great Mouse Detective)
15. Captain Hook (Peter Pan)
16. Monstro (Pinocchio)
17. Kaa (The Jungle Book)
18. The Wolf ("Peter and the Wolf", Make Mine Music)
19. The Queen of Hearts (Alice in Wonderland)
20. Honest John & Gideon (Pinocchio)
21. Hades (Hercules)
22. Mother Gothel (Tangled)
23. Dr. Facilier (The Princess and the Frog)
24. The Headless Horseman ("Sleepy Hollow", Ichabod and Mr. Toad )
25. Madam Medusa (The Rescuers)
26. Justice Claude Frollo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame)
27. Gaston (Beauty and the Beast)
28. Shan Yu (Mulan)
29. Bellwether (Zootopia)
30. Prince John (Robin Hood)
31. Alameda Slim (Home on the Range)
32. Madame Mim (The Sword in the Stone)
33. John Silver (Treasure Planet)
34. King Candy (Wreck-It Ralph)
35. Bowler Hat Guy (Meet the Robinsons)
36. McLeach (The Rescuers Down Under)
37. Clayton (Tarzan)
38. Yokai (Big Hero 6)
39. Governor John Ratcliffe (Pocahontas)
40. The Horned King (The Black Cauldron)
41. Willie the Giant ("Mickey and the Beanstalk", Fun and Fancy Free)
42. The Carnotaurs (Dinosaur)
43. Prince Hans of the Southern Isles (Frozen)
44. Commander Rourke (Atlantis: The Lost Empire)
45. Mr. Winky ("Wind in the Willows", Ichabod and Mr. Toad)
46. Sykes (Oliver & Company)
47. Edgar (The Aristocats)
12 December 2009
13 comments:
Just a few rules so that everybody can have fun: ad hominem attacks on the blogger are fair; ad hominem attacks on other commenters will be deleted. And I will absolutely not stand for anything that is, in my judgment, demeaning, insulting or hateful to any gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or religion. And though I won't insist on keeping politics out, let's think long and hard before we say anything particularly inflammatory.
Also, sorry about the whole "must be a registered user" thing, but I do deeply hate to get spam, and I refuse to take on the totalitarian mantle of moderating comments, and I am much too lazy to try to migrate over to a better comments system than the one that comes pre-loaded with Blogger.
Great list! I'm glad the coachman and Monstro from Pinocchio made it on. Interesting that "Man" in "Bambi" didn't make it. (Wasn't "Man" one of AFI's top villain picks?)
ReplyDeleteIt seems a cheat to me to put Man on the list, given that we never see aught of him but a tent.
ReplyDeleteSad that Dr. Facilier wasn't higher. I was absolutely overjoyed by his presence. But I'm so glad someone agrees with me about Cruella.
ReplyDeleteI still maintain Shan Yu is the scariest villain in Disney. I suppose that doesn't necessarily mean 'best' overall, but man, none of them terrify me like him.
ReplyDeleteI kind of can't believe how low Scar is, because he's pretty much freaking amazing, but I have to concede all the ones above him are excellent too.
I might have switched the Top Two but it's a bit like deciding which was better: Sunset Boulevard or All About Eve--you're rather spoiled for choice. It's a case of Too Close To Call, but that list does look good. However, I would have added Man from Bambi.
ReplyDeletei thought dr. facilier was pretty lame, actually, and i think gaston should definitely be higher than him... but i suppose that's why it's an opinion piece.
ReplyDeleteThe slaver from Pinnochio seems like an odd omission.
ReplyDeleteAh, but he's there: the Coachman. He is indeed the second-highest Pinocchio villain.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how I missed that. If IMDB is to be trusted, his name is "J. Worthington Foulfellow."
ReplyDeleteArgh. My discombobulation is complete. Still, it makes more sense that the coachman should go unnamed, since he's clearly the devil himself.
ReplyDeletePutting Frollo at 22 seems awfully unjust to me, especially below the Wolf from Make Mine Music and Lucifer from Cinderella. I'd have him pegged as a top ten villain EASILY. Stromboli above the Coachman seems questionable to me, as well. The Coachman--his whole presence and what he does is terrifying.
ReplyDeleteBut it's too easy to dissect someone else's list. Once I finish the canon project, I'll have a list of my own to defend.
I'm surprised Claude Frollo isn't higher on the list since you seemed to really like The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I thought Frollo's motivations were a bit more complex than the usual Disney villain and that he had a very strong intimidating presence whenever he entered the room. Tony Jay also did a terrific job with voice acting.
ReplyDeleteIs there any reason in particular why Frollo is at 26?
Why is Chernobog on the list but the Firebird is absent? They both fill the same "position" in their respective Fantasia.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, how come the Bowler Hat Guy is the sole credited villain of Meet The Robinsons? Should DOR-15 (the hat) not also be credited?