The Top 10 Most Evil Disney Villains

There are so many things that make a great Disney movie, but the most important is to have a great villain. Sure, the heroes and princess’ make the merchandiser’s drool, but what good are these saccharine sweethearts without someone to try and bring them down.

The Breakdown

The score breaks down like this: Did they try to kill someone? Who was it? Why are they so evil? How evil was their sidekick? In addition, are there any interesting tidbits that give them any evil bonuses?

Here is my Top Ten List of those evil doers, those good for nothing bad guys and gals who tried their best to do their worst.

Movie: Cinderella (1950)

As Cinderella’s Wicked Step Mother, Lady Tremaine, is one of the mildest on the list. She didn’t kill or try to kill Cinderella. She was as a social climber, using her two ugly daughters to try and nab a royal title. Not a nice lady, but not the worst.

As for Cinderella’s evil step-sisters; Drusilla and Anastasia are two bumbling, vain nitwits who are minimally useful as sidekicks. She gets some clever help from her wonderfully wickedly minded kitty, Lucifer, who tries to make Cinderella's rodent friends lunch. Who names their cat Lucifer?

In the end, Lady Tremaine is the brains and brawn of the operation and gets bonus points for taking the lady of the house, Cinderella, and turning her into a slave.

Movie: Alice in Wonderland (1951)

Anyone who’s main line is “Off with their head!” deserves a place on the list of villains. She wants to behead just about everyone when she loses her temper, which is more often than not. She's not interested in reason or kindness nor is she interested in being fair. All she seems to care about is pushing people around and screaming orders to behead anyone who doesn't follow her always changing rules.

There doesn’t seem to be any reason for her murderous streak, only in Alice’s world queens are insane. I'm not sure of it's social commentary of our time, but singers like Morrissey would be inclined to agree and then crack a faint smile, because that's all they could bear.

As for the Queen of Hearts, being insane is definitely a bonus. She’d be higher on the list, but she comes across as comical and all the evil she does is easy turned around by her sidekick, the gentle King.

Movie: Beauty and the Beast (1991)

Gaston's a rude, vain, shallow hunter who doesn’t like taking ‘no’ for an answer.

How bad is he?

Gaston drinks, smokes and gets into bar fights, which is a whole lot of badness in a Disney film. It's almost cause for a parental advisory. For a villain, it’s a nice little bonus. Worst of all is his jealous streak, which is when he goes for the jugular. He tried to have Maurice, Belle’s father, committed to an insane asylum unless she married him. Talk about being unable to take rejection well.

In the end he rallied a mob of villagers to kill Beast, eventually stabbing Belle’s love in the back. He is a nasty one indeed.

Movie: Hercules (1997)

He is a killer, but considering he’s Hades, the ruler of the underworld, you shouldn’t expect anything less. So why is he so low on the list? It hurts to have Pain (voiced by Bobcat Goldthwait) and Panic (voiced by Matt Frewer) as your sidekicks. They are pretty inept and that makes Hades look pretty bad considering he doesn’t seem to know what the hell is going on half the time.

In the end, he uses Megara to do his dirty work. Why? He’s jealous of his big brother, Zeus, and wants to be in charge. Not a good sign for someone so powerful. But, he is the ruler of the underworld and that gives him bonus points.

Movie: Aladdin (1992)

Like other villains before him, Jafar craves power and will do just about anything for it. He tried to marry Jasmine, hypnotize the sultan and then uses magic to become all powerful. At least he's goal oriented.

He does try to kill Aladdin and Jasmine, but like every Disney bad guy before and after, he fails. He did send a man into the Cave of Wonders, knowing full well the thief wasn’t the “Diamond in the Rough”, so he does kill someone. What was that theif’s name? Yeah, I don’t know either, but at least the bad intentions were there.

Jafar has a pretty awesome sidekick in Iago (voiced by Gilbert Gottfried), who has a pretty bad attitude and nasty disposition for such colorful bird.

Movie: One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)

She’s a nasty piece of work throughout the movie and hunts down puppies like the predator she is. I guess when a woman loves fur that much there’s not much she won’t do for it.

Her two sidekicks, Jasper and Horace Badun, are bumbling fools, but you don’t have to be smart to kidnap then skin puppies. In the end, she doesn’t get her puppy coat, but Cruella gets major bonus points for this line alone:

“Poison them. Drown them. Bash them in the head. You got any chloroform?” Are you kidding me?

Did she really say that? The woman has no heart at all. Of course, that’s why in the movie Roger sings, “The world was such a wholesome place until Cruella…Cruella…De Vil”.

Movie: Sleeping Beauty (1959)

She’s a fairy with an axe to grind. Maleficent gives Aurora the gift of death on her sixteenth birthday. Nice present, huh? Her gift is thwarted by Merryweather, one of the three good fairies.

Why?

Maybe the King and Queen should have been more considerate and invited her to their daughter’s christening. That or she’s evil to the bone and not afraid to show it.

She also has the best sidekick of all time: Diablo, her Raven familiar, but gets brought down a little bit by having bumbling goons who search for an infant when the princess is already a teen. She gets extra bonus points for mind screwing the King and Queen. They get to spend sixteen years tormented about Aurora’s downfall, while she waits around and Goths up her castle. She’s my personal favorite, but there are other Disney Villains that top the scale.

Movie: The Princess and the Frog (2009)

He’s a voodoo man and he’s only too happy to use black magic to get his way. Anyone who’s known as The Shadow Man is one to be feared.

He gets major kudos for being one of only two villains who actually succeed at killing a major character (the loveable Cajun firefly, Ray); a rare feat in the world of Disney.

He gets bonus points for using voodoo, tapping into demonic forces and controlling shadows. Now that’s a bad guy doing his best to be the worst.

Movie: Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937)

She sends her servant to kill Snow White then bring the girl’s heart back in a box. There’s a whole lot of ugliness behind that beautiful exterior.

Her only companion is Magic Mirror, who is actually a slave and only able to answer questions when asked. This makes him the perfect sidekick since his lack of humor and honest approach make him pretty darn creepy. If you've ever put on the DVD, he eerily talks until you start the movie. That alone is worth the price of having to listen to Snow Whit's shrill voice throughout the movie.

But the Evil Queen is only interested in one thing: how beautiful she is. In the true traditions of a pageant queen, when you’re the ‘fairest in the land’ you will do whatever it takes to keep that title. This includes tricking the newest pretty girl into eating a poisonous apple to kill her. So what does

The Evil Queen do when she figures out Snow White will not die, but only go into a deep sleep? She cackles, “The dwarves will think she's dead. She'll be buried alive!” She’s not called The Evil Queen for nothing.

Movie: The Lion King (1994)

Everything about this lion is dastardly and wicked. He wants to be the King and nothing, not his older brother or his nephew will stop him from that.

Being the big thinker that he is, killing two birds (or lions as the case may be) with one stone (or herd of wildebeast) was the way to go. He was successful in killing his older brother, the great Mustafa, and sent is sidekicks, Shenzi (voices by Whoopi Goldberg), Banzai (voiced by Cheech Marin and Ed to kill the only remaining heir.

The crazy hyenas failed to kill Simba, but they gave it an honest effort. In fact, they are so nasty and vicious they eventually kill him. You are the company you keep.

Dirty and deadly. Be Prepared indeed.

Sure there are some other memorable villains not on this list. Like Ursula from The Little Mermaid, but she actually gave Ariel what she wanted even though they were for nefarious reasons. She would have been equally contented to have Ariel completely on land and out of the way. There’s also Captain Hook from Peter Pan. He’s a dastardly pirate who also came across as a buffoon more often than not and poor, sweet Mr. Smee doesn’t help any.

Love them or love to hate them, a good villain can’t help but steal the show. Did I miss any? You think one should rate higher than another? Evil, like art, is subjective, or so these villains would like us to think.