My Top 5 Disney Villains

Good Monday,

Yesterday was a thesis submission deadline. This semester I’m contracted to write 30 pages per month. I sent 54. Here’s to productivity.

Anyway, the final scene was from my villain’s perspective. That got me thinking about villains, which reminded me of this post I wrote about villains. After submitting my pages, I decided I was done with writing for the night. That got me to wondering if I wanted to watch a movie. That got me to considering my collection of Disney movies, which in turn got me to thinking about Disney villains.

I didn’t end up watching a movie, but I did think a lot about Disney villains. That led to realizing that I hadn’t written a purely fun blog post in a while.

So that’s what I’m doing today. I present my Top 5 Disney Villains.

-5) Jafar – Aladdin

I haven’t watched Aladdin since I was about 14. The reason I have not watched Aladdin since I was about 14 is because the scene where Jafar throws Aladdin in the water with the weights scares the crap out of me. I’m having a panic attack just thinking about it.

*breathes*

Needless to say, there’s a very good reason why Jafar is on this list. With my reaction above, you might wonder why he’s not higher on the list. Yes he was a jerk. Yes he was power-hungry, and yes, he turned into a genie and rained down destruction on Agrabah. He never got around to killing anyone, and really, Jasmine was onto him the entire time. Great villains keep the good guy in the dark about their true intentions.

-4) Ursula – The Little Mermaid

Her appearance on this list has nothing to do with the fact that I love her, Pat Carroll, or “Poor, Unfortunate Souls.”

*cough*

Where Jafar wasn’t fooling anyone (with the possible exception of the Sultan), Ursula pooled one over on Ariel. What’s more, though it is never said in the movie, Ursula and King Triton are siblings. That means that Ursula tried to take out her niece. So why slot 4? She too never got around to killing anyone. I know. These are kid movies. Please, hold the “villain didn’t kill anyone because it’s a kids movie” argument till the end. Aside from that, Ariel was not in the best mindset when she made the voice/legs exchange. Perhaps she would have realized how evil Ursula was if she had been. The woman wasn’t exactly subtle.

-3) Claude Frollo – The Hunchback of Notre Dame

I have not seen this movie in a very long time. Despite this, Frollo still wins some kind of jerk of the year award. He manipulated Quasimodo, making him feel as if he couldn’t leave the bell tower. Frollo was also a general sicko. Don’t believe me? Watch this video of the song “Heaven’s Light, Hell Fire.” He’s a sick man. This movie was not meant for kids, but that’s an entirely different blog post. Lastly, he tried to kill Esmeralda because she wouldn’t become his sex kitten/slave/whatever. Not only is he evil, but he’s gross.

-2) Mother Gothel – Tangled

My second ever lockbox post was about Tangled. I talk about Gothel there, but I’ll talk about her again. See above, anyone who forces someone else to live in a tower and uses powers of manipulation to keep said person in said tower wins a spot on this list. As I touch on in my Tangled post, Gothel takes a chunk of the cake because she cared about no one and was willing to do whatever it took to live forever. This includes leaving Eugene/Flynn Rider to suffer and die. If Rapunzel hadn’t spoken up, that’s exactly what Gothel would have done. That wins some kind of b*tch award right there.

And 1….

*drum roll*

-1) Scar – The Lion King

Did you read my post about villains? Of course you did.

In case you haven’t, I’ll recap a tiny bit. Good villains make us hate them. Great villains make us hate them and wonder. Scar makes me wonder.

What did he do that makes him evil? Let’s see. He killed his brother. He would have killed his nephew if the hyenas hadn’t let Simba get away (it’s so hard to find good help). Putting aside the question of whether or not he controlled the weather, he brought death and destruction to the Pride Lands because “I am the king. I can do whatever I want.” And possibly worst of all, he made Simba (a kid and his own nephew) believe he was responsible for Mufasa’s death. If it’s not already apparent, manipulating the mind of an innocent does not sit well with me.

Any doubts to Scar’s evil potential? Watch this video of his single line “…and now everyone knows why” in multiple languages. Then argue with me. 

So what makes me wonder? Scar has the sense of a tortured soul. I want to write his story so badly. I have it all worked out, but…time. And copyright issues. All that aside, though, there is something in Scar’s childhood that made him this way. He’s fighting his own demons, and that is why he takes spot #1. Behind all the terrible things he did, there is a lion cub who could have grown up all right if he’d just turned left instead of right somewhere. If I ever get to write his story, you’ll see what I mean.

There they are—my top 5. Thoughts?

As always, thanks for reading.