Favourite Disney Villains?

[FredWolfLeonardo]

One of the most iconic parts of Disney films are their villains who often steal the show and are pretty charismatic. Who are your favourites?

I have a rough list of my favourites, which are as follows:

1. Shere Khan from the Jungle Book (1967). My absolute favourite for being extremely powerful but also classy and polite at the same time. Even though he doesn't appear until 2/3rds of the film is done, his presence is built up so much by the other characters and that creates alot of suspense around him.

2. Zira from The Lion King 2. Personally, I like her more than Scar. Not only is she cunning, but also downright fanatical in her devotion to him, and her original Deleted Scenes are some of the most fascinating things I have ever seen as they show a Disney villain committing suicide on purpose, something that I don't think has been done before.

3. Sabor from Tarzan. Another Big cat villain based on my favourite animal, the Leopard. Sabor may not have Shere Khan's class or Zira's ideology, but she has the most animalistic traits, acting solely on instinct. She is also pretty ruthless, and her animated scenes showcase this very well when she fights Tarzan or other gorillas.

4. Hades from Hercules. I love how he talks like a lawyer, and its pretty amusing how he goes from salesman to hothead in a matter of seconds. He also has a pretty dynamic design and cool set of powers.

5. Frollo from the Hunchback of Notre Dame: Very powerful and threatening, along with Tony Jay's unforgettable voice.

6.Gaston: Always very memorable, and I like how he was designed as someone who infact, looks like the typical Disney prince. It really puts an interesting spin on a common cliche.

[Leo656]

Scar's a big one, but points for giving credit to Lion King 2, which I feel is one of the only decent straight-to-video sequels.

Sykes from "Oliver & Company" was pretty goddamn vicious. Everybody always forgets that movie since it was the last one to come out pre-"New Disney Renaissance" and was made in "the old style", more of a "smaller", more humble type of movie before "The Little Mermaid" came out and made everything all grand, sweeping and majestic for the next decade-plus. But "Oliver" is still a really good movie, I feel, and the soundtrack is awesome. And Sykes was a really "good" bad guy, and met a particularly grisly end. When I saw the movie in theaters when they brought it back in '96, when he got hit by the train I overheard one of the Moms near me tell someone sitting next to her, "This is pretty violent for a Disney movie."

[The Deadman]

Zurg from Toy Story

[oldmanwinters]

I have always liked to loathe Cruella DeVille, and I think her climatic car chase inspired the finale of Sykes in Oliver & Co
Glenn Close played her so well as a live-action cartoon.

[Leo656]

Originally Posted by oldmanwinters

I have always liked to loathe Cruella DeVille, and I think her climatic car chase inspired the finale of Sykes in Oliver & Co

Very possibly. There are some subtle similarities between 101 Dalmations and Oliver & Company. Past the fact that the central protagonists are mostly talking dogs, there's also that static "rough sketch" art style that was used for the backgrounds of many scenes in either movie.

[neatoman]

Bob Iger.

The guy actually bragged about tricking George Lucas into giving absolute control of Lucasfilm to him, if that ain't villainous behavior then I don't know what is.

But if we need a fictional example... Magica De Spell, gotta love that her entire goal is to steal a ten cent coin from someone who has an indefinite amount of money.

[FredWolfLeonardo]

Originally Posted by Leo656

Scar's a big one, but points for giving credit to Lion King 2, which I feel is one of the only decent straight-to-video sequels.

Sykes from "Oliver & Company" was pretty goddamn vicious. Everybody always forgets that movie since it was the last one to come out pre-"New Disney Renaissance" and was made in "the old style", more of a "smaller", more humble type of movie before "The Little Mermaid" came out and made everything all grand, sweeping and majestic for the next decade-plus. But "Oliver" is still a really good movie, I feel, and the soundtrack is awesome. And Sykes was a really "good" bad guy, and met a particularly grisly end. When I saw the movie in theaters when they brought it back in '96, when he got hit by the train I overheard one of the Moms near me tell someone sitting next to her, "This is pretty violent for a Disney movie."

I agree that Lion King 2 was pretty decent. With just a little higher budget and the inclusion of the deleted scenes/concepts, I think it could've given the first a run for its money.

I've never seen Oliver and Company. Seeing as how I'm a sucker for traditional 2D Disney films, that's definetly on my to-do list.

[Leo656]

Whaaaaat. I mean I know Disney doesn't really push it hard since it under-performed at the box office (twice), but it's still an underrated classic. I honestly enjoy it a lot more than some of their "bigger/better" films.

[DarkFell]

Ursula The Sea Witch.
The Horned King (The Black Cauldron.)
Maleficent (the older version.)
Scar and Vitani.
Judge Doom.
Chernobog (He showed up in Fantasia.)
McLeach.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

Ooh, fun topic! My top five (in no particular order): Hades, for pretty much the reasons others have stated, Frollo, for being the biggest creep/hypocrite Disney ever animated, Gaston, because he's THAT GUY that we've all met at least once who thinks he's the greatest thing on earth but- isn't, Dr. Facillier(sp? ugh!) because he's creepy, conniving, and absolutely believable as a con-man/evil sorcerer type, and Ursula, for pretty much the same reasons, plus she's a total diva!

Others I love- Sykes as just an all-around criminal monster, Zira for that psycho-mom out to control everybody vibe, and Cruella, for actually having the chutspah to kill and skin puppies!! (EEK!!)