Disnovember - Top 5 Disney Villains

 

Well, here we are at the end of the inaugural Disnovember, and there’s just one question I bet you’re asking – who are my favorite Disney movie villains? With so many to choose from, this list was easily the hardest to write. Do I pick the evilest or the most cunning or even the funniest ones? I tried to pick ones from across the board, like the one that made me laugh the most or made me outright hate them for the stuff they did.  I think I’ve got a great group here to fill your every need.  So let’s take a look at the worst of the worst!

5. Mad Madam Mim – Sword in the Stone

There’s something incredibly gratifying when you have a villain who’s just crazy, who doesn’t have an evil plan, but just likes raising mischief wherever she goes. When Arthur is turned into a bird and inadvertently makes his way into her cabin, she sings him a song about her powers and how she plans to use them to kill him. Merlin shows up to save him and gets caught in a magical duel with Mim, in which she cheats, of course. I just like how she wasn’t even doing anything when Arthur shows up – she wasn’t planning an attack or anything. She’s just hanging out, sees an opportunity to piss off her nemesis, Merlin, and takes it. She’s just a simple, yet mad villain.

4. Judge Doom – Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Yeah, I’m probably riding the line including him in a list of cartoon villains, but when it’s spelled out in the movie that he is one, it counts. Christopher Lloyd does such an incredible job spending most of the movie as the straightest of villains. No sense of humor, not even a hint of a smile. And then at the end of the movie, after he survives getting run over by a steamroller, he’s revealed to be a Toon himself and hams it up. It’s such a huge turn he would have easily gotten a spot on my Top 5 Villain Portrayals if only he’d actually said more once he started trying to kill Valiant in earnest.

3. John Silver – Treasure Planet

I talked about this guy in the portrayals list where he goes from being a mentor to Jim Hawkins to an enemy and finally redeems himself at the end to save him. Part of the reason I like him so much is that change, but the other part is how cool he looks. The way they were able to combine the 2D and 3D animation in his arm and leg looked incredible. I would still like the character if he was fully 2D, but he wouldn’t be this high on the list without it.

2. The Horned King – Black Cauldron

John Hurt does a fantastic job bringing to life the most grotesque villain Disney has put out to date. The Horned King is like nothing before or after it – a truly terrifying monster, his flesh mottled and rotten, his face constantly in a sneer. Not to mention his plan to bring to life an army of undead warriors to take over the kingdom. Like I said in the previous list, there’s no wonder it took Disney so long to bring this out on home video. It’s the first Disney feature to be rated PG-13, and most of that falls squarely on the Horned King’s ghoulish shoulders.

1. Lyle Tiberius Rourke – Atlantis

It’s no wonder that Atlantis is my favorite Disney movie. Forgoing the songs and cutesy design of many of Disney’s previous movies, we’re presented with a story that has one of Disney’s highest body counts, with almost the whole crew of a massive sub dying on screen, not to mention most of Atlantis being destroyed in the first few minutes of the movie.

  

We’re introduced to Rourke as the commander of the ill-fated expedition, all business while barking orders, but still taking time to show respect to his lost crew. Only once they find Atlantis still living underground do we get a hint at his nefarious plan. “This changes nothing.” Stealing the crystal-infused princess at the end, he dooms all of Atlantis to death. He turns on his second-in-command and tries to kill her. And just as he deserves, Rourke suffers two deaths at the end, turned into the monster he really is before exploding.  

So who are your favorite villains? Do you like normal human villains like Cruella De Vil? Magic-users like Jafar? Or just crazy monsters like Chernobog? Speak up and let me know!