Secondary Characters Saturday: Disney Villians

Well, I’ve got a kind of Disney thing going for February, so I thought I’d do Disney villains today. There are plenty of characters to choose from (“125 different villains from films, sequels, television, video games, books and even the Disney Parks” [disney.wikia.com.)

I did a totally unscientific survey by asking my friends on FaceBook who they though deserved the Disney Villain crown. The major culprits seem to be:

• Maleficent — curses an infant to prick her finger on a spinning wheel and die before the sun sets on her 16th birthday. Then she imprisons and tortures Prince Phillip.
• The Evil Queen — Queen Grimhilde is another child killer in the making. She’s a shape shifter too.  She employs magical, talking furniture to spy on her subjects. According to disneyvillians.net she ranks #10 in the American Film Institute’s list of the 50 Best Movie Villains of All Time.” The scene where she create the poisoned apple is still one of the scariest scenes out there.
• Ursula — She’s manipulative and sinister. She can shape shift. She’s shrewd when she striking a bargain (some might even say she cheats.) She has magical powers which includes turning people and merfolk into worms should they fail to fulfill the terms of their contract.

• Cruella De Vil— Unlike the first three on this list Curella is fits squarely into the HUMAN category. She has not supernatural powers, she’s not a witch or magician. She’s a villain by her sheer ability to be bad, vain and greedy. She’s used to getting what ever she wants and in 101 Dalmatians what she wants is a coat made of dalmatian puppy fur. Any woman who hates puppies this much strikes a chord of horror in any young girls heart. She scored high in the survey, especially in those of us of certain age group who remember seeing the animated film when it first came out in the theatres.
• Gaston &  Claude Frollo — Cruella wasn’t the only human to make the list. Gaston and Claude Frollo bring a male perspective to villainy. While Gaston is all brawn and misogyny Claude Frollo is lechery and hypocrisy.

So who made you quake in fear as a kid? Who do you think holds the crown as best Disney villain?

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All images courtesy Disney Corp.