The 30 best Disney villains of all time
Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the baddest of them all? Will it be the Maleficent? Captain Hook? Cruella? Or Melissa McCarthy's live action take on Ursula?
Film Features Gilbert Gottfried
With the live-action version of The Little Mermaid now swimming in the calm blue waters of Disney+, audiences can see Melissa McCarthy camp it up as Ursula in all her glory. It makes us wonder, do villains really have more fun? Disney films certainly wouldn’t be as lively without them. These big bads don’t have to abide by silly morals and the rules of civilized society. They do what they want to get what they want, and they don’t care who gets hurt in the process. Of course, they’re often afflicted with fatal flaws like greed, vanity, jealousy, and a hunger for power—which, more often than not, lead to their deaths—but you can’t say they don’t have a hell of a time, right up until their last moments.
So in honor of Disney’s rogues’ gallery of sinister characters, we’ve ranked their 30 best villains, from animation and live-action, based on a combination of factors, including character design, vocal performance, impact on the story, and overall villainy. Bear in mind that some of them aren’t revealed as villains until the end of their films, so there be spoilers ahead.
Now, with all that out of the way, read on dearies, for the absolute best of the worst.
93 Comments
How do you talk about Ursula with zero mention of the fantastic voice acting performance?
I’m glad Pat Carroll got one more chance to voice the character in the new Mickey Mouse cartoons.
With all respect to whoever is playing her in the remake, Pat Carroll was a treasure who cannot ever be topped in that role. Miss her already.
This is live action though right? I doubt I will ever see it. As a 40 year old man I am not the target audience. I do have a 6 year old daughter, but she is very weird about movies. She’s still afraid of most of them. She watched the cartoon version not too long ago and did not like it one bit.
Yeah the live action. Well I’m a woman in her 20s so I should theoretically not stand out, but I’m not gonna see it. I own the original why bother very few of these remakes are any good. I won’t disrespect the cast, they just can’t beat people like Caroll.
Where’s Walt?
He would have been on the list, but this is a G/O Media site. Unions didn’t get a vote in this poll
Right here.
You spelled #25’s name wrong throughout the entire paragraph. “Narcissa” was a Harry Potter character.
Susan Sarandon played Narissa in “Enchanted.”
Rest assured, it’s still spelled incorrectly in the “updated” article eight months later.
This blatant anti-Hunchback bias will not stand.
Lots of competition, but Hellfire has to be the best villain song.
Claude Frollo is top 3 at minimum. Tony Jay was a legendary voice actor but he was never better in the role of demented religious horny judge from hell. Hellfire goddamn it!
I’m starting to suspect that the AV Club isn’t aware that this film exists.
these are all cartoon characters where are the Disney execs? they are the real villains
Big Hero 6 isn’t a film I particularly like, but I can’t help notice a certain resemblance of the main villain to Bob Iger.
slideshow is the worst villian. fuck all yall.
As a little gay boy, Cruella was my fave Disney princess.
I have a Dalmatian and the first thing I thought when I picked him up when he was a puppy and his coat was so soft was “oh god, Cruella had a point”
They shed like mad, though. Cruella must have stock in 3M’s lint roller division.
We prefer the term “Dally Glitter” and have accepted it as an immovable part of our lives.
Kill two for matching clogs!
I saw snow white the play at Radio City Musical Hall in the late late 70’s or early 80’s and lets just say even the life action Evil Queen will always be the #1 villian to me. My god was she scary as that old hag.
Evil Queen wins this contest hands down.1. It isn’t enough to kill Snow White the first time, she wants the Huntsman to bring back her heart so she can keep it as happy reminder of her ordering the murder of a 16 year old girl.2. When she finds out Snow White is still alive, she doesn’t just want to poison her. She wants to make it look like she is dead, so she is buried alive. She repeats this plan practically screaming and laughing “Buried alive!”
3. She walks in her dungeon (her dungeon full of DEAD bodies) and see a skeleton reaching for a a cup that is just out of reach. So she INTENTIONALLY placed a cup of water just out of reach of this prisoner when he was alive. Now she sees it and thinks it’s HILARIOUS and makes a joke and then kicks his arm and cup away and just howls with laughter.She is without question the scariest villain. Chernabog would cross the street if he saw the Evil Queen walking towards him.
I freely admit that when I saw Sleeping Beauty as a child and she transformed into a dragon, I was terrified.
Chernabog looks cool, but does he actually do anything evil or villainous? He mostly just stand on the mountain looking threatening.
Well he gets stopped at the end, just before he’s finished. The piece is clearly building towards something, but what we’ll never know.
Evil, yes. Villainous, probably not…although we cannot see what those demons are doing inside of those homes.
He scared the living crap out of this Catholic kid.
He torments and possibly destroys a bunch of demons in a mere three minutes of screen time. Okay, so they’re demons, but they appear to be sentient beings that experience fear and pain and he seems to get a lot of pleasure from abusing them.
Prince John! PRINCE JOHN! Forgive me a cru-el chuckle, ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha… mm, Prince John, hmm.
Agree, big miss, as was Madame Medusa from The Rescuers.
You are my people
FUUUUUUCK that. keep her off the list. She was the most terrifying person I’ve EVER watched as a kid. Rescuers was NOT kid-friendly.
THANK you! One of the best and most quotable Disney character. And having Peter Ustinov play him was pure genius. Long live PJ!
Amen. Toss the stupid Angelina Jolie version of Malificent off the list and replace her with Prince John.
Yeah, kinda shitty list making to have Maleficient on here twice at the expense of a villain like Prince John or that war criminal evil scientist from Lilo and Stitch. There’s that asshole from Hunchback of Notre Dame too.
That’s an underrated title in the Disney canon. The falling in love scene is amazing; the way the animators put the look of love in the eyes of Robin and Marian is so expressive. I remember watching this as a little boy and knowing, somehow, although I didn’t understand it at the time, that there was going to be shagging afoot—and soon.
Madame Medusa would like a word.
Maximillian from The Black Hole.Scariest Murderbot in cinema history, and that’s including Terminators.
What other movie robot will literally drag you to hell?
Event Horizon?
He effortlessly kills Norman Bates!
The most meta ending ever:Maximillian Schell ends up in Maximillian’s shell.
You are definitely missing some of the best Disney villains out there. I get you’re counting the live action and animated as two separated characters/villains, but you could have just said Maleficent and Cruella once and put on others, like Frollo from the Hunchback of Notre Dame or Ratigan from The Great Mouse Detective(in my opinion top three best Disney villains), or Clayton from Tarzan, or Madame Medusa from The Rescuers, hell even Perceval McLeach from Rescuers 2.Missed some great, classic Disney villains from less popular series.
Judge Claude Frollo?
Frollo?????
I get the list is opinion based, but listing Maleficent in the movie Maleficent (a movie where she is the protagonist), in a “Best Villians” list is really stupid.
The opposite of protagonist is antagonist, not villian
The Turbo reveal was brilliant. Just a few subtle clues if you were really paying attention, otherwise it caught you completely off-guard.
Agreed. It’s not just a twist for twist’s sake. King Candy’s misdirect works so well because the clues are clever
Okay two versions of some characters is a waste, Maleficient is the best I agree hail Eleanor Audley. But Gaston at 13? The guy somehow gets more relevant every year, he’s French Andrew Tate, at least top ten. Also Betty Lou Gerson is the best Cruella I’ll die on that hill. Also also… FROLLO COME ON!
Gaston is awful because it’s likely impossible to live to 20 without encountering someone like that. And while there are other Disney villains (Madame Medusa, Cruella, and Frollo) who are non-magical and could be similar to people in this world, Gaston commits most of his villainy not only out in the open, but with the full support and backing of his community. Even Frollo hid some of his evil impulses, though he likely would’ve had similar support. And while Ratcliffe did have most of the colonizers backing him up, he didn’t seem like he had their respect the way Gaston does.
Yeah that mob mentality that will always get some people to support no matter what. Its distressing.
That part where Gaston gathers everyone for his wedding and they all laugh about the fact that he hasn’t actually proposed yet. Haha, the woman’s consent is just a formality!
It’s all fun and games until someone takes their courage to the sticking place.
The older I get the more I silently nod at the lyrics, “we don’t like what we don’t understand it and it scares us and this monster is mysterious at least.”
This is a spectacular take and I’d like to subscribe to your newsletter.
That is all very well said.
Thanks for putting this so well. One thing that really stands out about Gaston: his villain song. Almost every villain song is of course sung by the villain, but Gaston’s is mostly sung by OTHER PEOPLE. Gaston gets a little bit in the middle (mostly about how many eggs he eats) but for the most part, it’s the entire community fawning over him. The scary part of most villain songs is that we see how the villain views himself: Gaston’s song is scary because it’s about how everyone else sees him for what he is, AND THEY LOVE HIM.
(And contrast that with the movie’s opening number, where those same villagers all come together to sing about how Belle is a weirdo and they don’t like her, when all she does is read books and mind her own business. Everyone in this village sucks.)
Not the main villain, but I liked both iterations of Kaa in The Jungle Book. That is, Sterling Holloway, partly because it’s fun to see Mowgli being menaced by Winnie the Pooh… and Scarlett Johansson in the 2016 Jon Favreau-directed one. Johansson does fine voice work (see Her) and it was cool to switch the genders with Kaa.
[Also – I really loved that newer version. Not sure what kind of cachet it has but I think it was buried among all those other “live” remakes of Disney classics. If you haven’t seen it I highly recommend it.]
There’s something about Johansson’s voice (which is also used to great effect as Black Widow), where she makes you want to trust her even as you realise it’s not a great idea.
A snake with Scarlett’s voice can strangle and eat me anytime.
As problematic as they are, I’d have had the Siamese cats from Lady and the Tramp on this list.Also the other elephants from the circus in Dumbo.
Not including Frollo at all invalidates the whole list. The most despicable villain because he actually seemed human. And had one of the best Disney songs ever.
“His betrayal did clear the way for Elsa to perform that act of love herself”Elsa didn’t perform the act of true love. That was Anna. Anna sacrificed herself to save Elsa.
It’s Queen Narissa, not Narcissa. It’s literally in the title of the video you linked.
I feel like “The Nightmare Before Christmass” has gotten short changed on a couple of these lists. Oogie Boogie is a bag of maggots. Nuff said.Though it’s only a half hour long “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’s” Headless Horseman scared the shit out of young me. … Scares the shit out of me to this day. There, I fixed it. But not just because of the big, covered-bridge set piece, but it also freaked-out (young) me existentially. If I recall correctly, the cartoon ends with “… and Ichabod Crane was never heard from again.” Implying he ran away? Mmm. No. It’s highly likely that Ichabod is dead. The villain in this Disney cartoon killed the good guy with a flaming jack o’lantern. The End.
Like what you want, but man, I am SO over retconning tragic backstories for irredeemable sociopaths. Malificent is the Mistress Of All Evil. She puts a death curse on a BABY. She’s evil and she enjoys it, and that’s all she needs to be.
Do they ever address the fact that her name literally means “evil doer”? Seems like a big red flag.
They don’t, but you’d think Stefan and the Queen would have the sense to keep her on their good side, given that information.
Gaston is the most familiar as we all new at least one guy like him growing up, in school, in college, at the bar, at they gym, at the gun range, at work, etc. His character is hard to call fiction.
If this were “Who wins in a fight?” the list gets a lot more interesting…
The word Best leaves it open to interpretation.If Best means the most evil and most terrifying then the Evil Queen wins this contest hands down.1. It isn’t enough to kill Snow White the first time,
she wants the Huntsman to bring back her heart so she can keep it as
happy reminder of her ordering the murder of a 16 year old girl.2. When she finds out Snow White is still alive, she doesn’t just want to poison her. She wants to make it look like she is dead, so she is buried alive. She repeats this plan practically screaming and laughing “Buried alive!”
3.
She walks in her dungeon (her dungeon full of DEAD bodies) and see a
skeleton reaching for a a cup that is just out of reach. So she
INTENTIONALLY placed a cup of water just out of reach of this prisoner
when he was alive. Now she sees it and thinks it’s HILARIOUS and makes a joke and then kicks his arm and cup away and just howls with laughter.She is without question the scariest villain. Chernabog would cross the street if he saw the Evil Queen walking towards him.But I am fine with cartoon Maleficient being number 1, because not only is she evil and terrifying she is also witty and funny. You want to invite her to a party. She may not be alive at the end but she would be a blast.
The Hunter in Bambi. I mean.l, he killed his *mother*.
Monstro scared the shit out of me as a child and should be on here, at least somewhere around Randall Boggs.
I have to chime in with Hopper from A Bug’s Life, if only because he has one of my all-time favorite villain deaths: fed by a mother bird to her chicks, just as nature intended.
I’ll toss my $0.02 in. S Tier – Scar One thing he has over every other Disney villain. He got his paws dirty and did the deed: killed Mufasa. He looked Mufasa square in the eyes and tossed him to his death. And for extra credit laid the guilt on a kid. David Xanatos – for the Xanatos gambit alone, he joins S tier, but he also demonstrates how Star Trek actors really dig into a villainous role.A Tier – A is for antagonist. Not just villains but kind of the story engine. With them, the story just doesn’t go. Jafar, Facillier, Frollo, Hades, Judge Doom, Ratigan, Shan Yu, Ursula and YzmaB Tier – B is for bullies. This batch of villains’ ambition begins and ends with making our hero miserable. Clayton, Fagin, Gaston, Gothel, Lady Tremaine, Madame Medusa, Mad Madame Mim, Maleficent, Regina and Brunhild (animated Evil Queen), Shere KhanC Tier – Nothing pity for C. You find a lot of twist villains at this level. Mostly because once you see the twist they really don’t have much to offer beyond that. The exception are King Candy and Auto. Both rank top C/bottom B because the twist and reveal were well written. He starts calm and collected and descends very noticeably into villain territory long before the reveal. Others include Hans, Evelyn Endeavor, Lotso, Bellweather, Waternoose, Ernesto de la Cruz. D Tier – Don’t mistake D for poor quality. D is for those villains who are more funny than frightening. Where a Gaston or a Muntz meet their end falling to their death. These villain get a less fatal more embarrassing comeuppance. Prince John, Cpt. Hook, Cruella de Vil, Oogey Boogey, F Tier – I wanted to go with F as in Force of Nature, but it doesn’t quite fit. There are some movies where the antagonist isn’t person but more a situation. Te-Ka isn’t the villain of Moana more of a force of nature that threatens Moana’s home. Like how the Ocean presented challenge after challenge for Marlin, but was indifferent if he found Nemo or not. Societal expectations show up in the Fox and the Hound and Brave, but aren’t really personified.
No love for the World’s Greatest Criminal Mind? He was voiced by Vincent Price, you heathens!
He’s the brain that brought us the Big Ben caper!
In zeroth place, Walt!
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Another recycled list article. You can tell from the comments that are several months old.
Kaa from Jungle Book. Sterling Holloway was great in the animated one, and Scarlett Johansson was great in the … well, the other animated one, the CGI one.
Mr. DarkDisney produced “Something Wicked This Way Comes”
It’s strange that Rachel Zegler as Rachel Zegler doesn’t appear on this list.
No Yzma ? List is broken.
No Horned King from The Black Cauldron?!?!
How is Charles Muntz from Up not on this list? He tried to straight-up murder a child! And an old man and a dog, too.
How is MAXIMILLIAN from Black Hole not on here? That thing gave me nightmares for a week as a kid. Also, Shere Kahn on Tail Spin was peak Shere Kahn. Oh and DON CARNAGE, also from Tail Spin!
#29 – Who is Queen Narcissa? It’s Narissa; you spelled it right in the header. Narcissa is from Harry Potter