Leah lists her top Disney Villain's
Did yours make the cut?
Since its creation in 1923, Disney has been scaring adults and children alike. The Walt Disney Company has had many films with a massive amount of villains cackling with mischief. With a large proportion of Disney film being animation, you can guarantee that these fairy-tales and movies have more villains than you can shake a stick at. With that knowledge in mind, you can understand just how hard it was to select my choices. But as let’s ascend to the throne of evil and countdown Disney Top Five Animated Villains;
Coming from the book by Dodie Smith: The Hundred and One Dalmatians, Cruella’s first on-screen appearance was in 1961 in the Disney animated film One Hundred and One Dalmatians, and later came to be seen in two live films and a television series. Her main aim is to collect Dalmatian puppies in order to skin them before their fur becomes too coarse to be made into a coat, and she is aided by her two henchmen Horace and Jasper Badun. But why is Cruella rated to be so evil? Because anyone who wants to steal 101 cute Dalmatian puppies, kill them and skin them, must be rather villainous. Her name is a pun, created by the words ’Cruel’ and ‘Devil’ pretty fitting for her, reiterated in the song “Cruella de Vil” sung by Roger Radcliff in other to portray how evil she is. Any villain with their own song is high on my list.
Staring in the animated film Sleeping Beauty in 1959, Maleficent was ranked number one In Ultimate Disney's top 30 Disney Villains countdown. She curses the Princess Aurora, all because she wasn’t invited to her christening. Overreacting slightly, I think. The curse stated that before Aurora’s 16th birthday she will prick her finger on a spindle and die, however a fairy called Merryweather weakened the spell so she would only fall into a deep sleep and would only be awoken by the kiss of her true love. She also captures Aurora’s true love, Prince Phillip, and threatens to keep him locked up for 100 years. Phillip escapes with the help of the fairies and Maleficent goes after him, using all of her powers to transform herself into a dragon to devour him, but with the aid of fairy magic Prince Phillip manages to kill her.
Maleficent is often portrayed as the lead villain in many Disney crossovers, and is set to be the protagonist of a live action film about Sleeping Beauty, due to release in July 2014. She’s a witch with a serious jealous streak and horrendous anger issues!
Captain Hook is the Captain of the brig Jolly Rodger, sailing the seas of Neverland (second star to the right and straight on till morning.) He makes it his life aim to capture and kill Peter Pan, the boy who never grew up, swearing revenge as Peter fed a crocodile Hook’s hand. With a serious chip on his shoulder, Hook will do whatever he can to get his revenge. This includes; capturing all of Peter’s friends, trying to kill him with a bomb and challenging him to a sword fight where Peter eventually wins and Hook is chased into the distance by the crocodile that ate his hand. Captain Hook is one of my favourite villains because of his humour. Although he is clearly evil, he is also quite funny and is one of those bad characters that the audience does not want to die.
Peter Pan has been extended into a musical, 2 films and several TV series. There is also a film, scheduled to be released in Spring 2014, called The Pirate Fairy; where James, only then a cabin boy, befriends and then betrays the misunderstood fairy Zarina, and will be voiced by Tom Hiddleston.
(Ed: And let’s not forget numerous amounts of Pantomine with Hasslehoff or something.)
2. HADES!
Hades, the God of Hell himself, features in both the film and TV series Hercules. Unlike mythical Hades, the animated Hades is fast paced, easy to anger and EXTREMELY sassy.
Zeus: So, Hades, you finally made it. How are things in the underworld?
Hades: Well, they're just fine. You know, a little dark, a little gloomy. And, as always, hey, full of dead people. What are you gonna do?
In the Disney film, he looks to overthrow his brother Zeus and rule Mount Olympus. However, he is told that if Zeus’s son, Hercules, was to fight Hades, Hades would not succeed in his goal. So Hades sends his two henchmen; Pain and Panic, to give baby Hercules a potion to make him mortal. If not all is drunk, he retains his god-like strength. The rest of the film focuses around Hercules and his relationship with Meg. This is a shame unfortunate because Hades owns her, uses her and kills her all for Hercules to give up.
The main reason Hades is considered to be so evil is well, obviously, the fact that he is ruler of the underworld who punishes people by sending them to hell and basically just making life difficult for everyone. But my favourite thing about Hades is his sassiness, the fact that he always has some quick-witted remark or sarcastic comment to make which makes him absolutely comical to watch.
1. Scar
It was this evil lion that caused me countless nightmares as a child. Constantly, I relived Mufasa falling to his death and Simba’s poor, sad face as he mourns his loss. You have to be truly evil to kill your own brother in such a horrible way so that you can become the new leader of the pride. He tells the story that both Mufasa and Simba were killed by the stampede of wildebeests and becomes king of Pride Rock, joining in allegiance with the hyenas and eventually turning the Rock into a wasteland. Eventually, as we all know, Simba returns to Pride Rock, battles Scar and beats him.
Scar: Well, as far as brains go, I got the lion's share. But, when it comes to brute strength... I'm afraid I'm at the shallow end of the gene pool.
Scar has all of the qualities of a good villain: Cockiness, sass and sarcasm, a hunger for power, a jealous streak and a gang of sidekick hyenas. Scar, if it wasn’t for you I would have had many restful nights as a child, instead of hiding under the covers scared that an evil lion with a Scar down his face is going to come and eat me.
Sweet dreams guys!
Whose your favourite villain?
Tell us in the comments!