The Most Evil Animated Disney Villains - RANKED (Part 2)
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READ PART ONE HERE!
We’re back at it again. As a brief reminder of rules and logic, please check out Part One!
Our Five Categories for Ranking Evil:
Ambition — Legality — Morality — Execution — Area of Effect
#23 – Mother Gothel – Tangled
Ambition – 2
Mother Gothel really wanted one thing, and that was to remain young again, by any means necessary. Hell, there might not even be a movie if the kings guard didn’t come and take the life-giving flower that she herself found.
Legality – 6
This is a really interesting one. Obviously, kidnapping a princess and holding her captive for years is a big no-no. Add to that the consorting with criminals, attempted and actual murder, and it looks steep. As mentioned above, however, she discovered the life-giving flower herself and kept it. Then the queen got sick, and because the queen is more valued, they came and stole her flower. That makes for a very, should we say, tangled mess of legal ownership questions.
Morality – 7
As justified as she may be over the matter of her property being imminent domain’ed by the royal family, she’s still pretty terrible. Kidnapping a baby Rapunzel crosses the line, and gaslighting her to hell by lying, manipulating, and essentially emotionally abusing her is icing on the cake. Plus, she stabbed Flynn Rider!
Execution – 6
Gothel’s success is actually fairly high. She manages to keep Rapunzel safely hidden away for 18 years and feed off the life energy. She also managed to stay youthful for centuries, no small task. But then again, she let Rapunzel manipulate her into escaping, and even after she got her back, she loses by Flynn cutting Rapunzel’s hair. Nothing gold can stay, Gothel.
Area of Effect – 3
I guess we could lump in an entire sad royal family and kingdom, but really Gothel is focused on Rapunzel, Flynn Rider, and the occasional collateral damage.
Total Evil Score: 24 (Tied with #22)
#22 – Professor Callaghan/Yokai – Big Hero 6
Ambition – 4
Professor Callaghan (aka the villain Yokai), was a proven good guy at the start, but when a slimy tech CEO douchebag Alestair Krei seemingly kills your daughter in a reckless accident, he wanted revenge. We can relate.
Legality – 7
Yokai broke all sorts of laws in his quest for revenge. Justified or not, we’re looking at one count of manslaughter, arson, numerous counts of destruction of property, theft, and attempted murder. Yeah, you’re angry, but you can’t go full supervillain, Callaghan.
Morality – 4
Unsurprisingly, he was actually pretty morally justified for wanting revenge on Krei for seemingly causing his daughter’s death but he’s going about it the wrong way! His murderous focus may have only been on one man, but he didn’t care about any of the lives that got in the way, including Hiro’s brother. At least he shows remorse for his actions in the end.
Execution – 6
Like most villains, he gets everything he wants but screws it up by getting to greedy. If he wanted to kill Krei, he could have. Instead, he goes to destroy his labs and offices first, to really twist the knife. At least it took a whole team of superheroes to take him out. 6 on 1 is a strong showing. Stay focused, Yokai!
Area of Effect – 3
If he just kept his focus on Krei, this would be lower. However, with his battling the Big Hero 6 team, as well as all the collateral damage of SanFranSokyo, he rates a bit higher.
Total Evil Score: 24 (Tied with #23)
#21 – Percival C. McLeach – The Rescuers Down Under
Ambition – 3
McLeach was one of our favorites growing up. He’s a simple man living his life in the outback, trying to poach the last known living member of a great giant golden eagle species.
Legality – 7
Not only is McLeach a successful poacher (remember, he kills the golden eagle male at the start of the flick), but he’s also got a laundry list of other crimes on his record. Illegal trapping and animal endangerment is one thing, but kidnapping, threatening, and attempting to murder a kid is a whole different story. Top it off with the casual tampering of evidence and lying to police, and McLeach is breaking all kinds of laws.
Morality – 8
This guy really doesn’t care for animals at all. McLeach is willing to wipe out an entire glorious species all for money. Damn, dude. The aforementioned child endangerment is also pretty terrible. He almost feeds Cody to the crocodiles!
Execution – 5
Points to McLeach for actually taking out one of the golden eagles and capturing the female, as it allowed him to taste victory for a bit. Big hit for being defeated by two mice, though. How are you gonna let TWO MICE take you down? Maybe if you had a little less hubris you wouldn’t have gone over that waterfall to your death, huh?
Area of Effect – 2
A couple of eagles, even if they’re the last of their kind, is still a couple of eagles. We also had Cody and some of the other animals to worry about. He was mostly living his life in the crazy outback not bothering anyone but animals.
Total Evil Score: 25 (Tied with #20)
#20 – Prince Hans – Frozen
Ambition – 6
Oh Hans, you lying sack of shit. Hans had big ambitions, trying to marry into the royal family of Arendelle and then becoming King by murdering Elsa and Anna. You almost got away with it, too.
Legality – 5
If you look at it closely, aside from the murder stuff, Hans was pretty sneaking in his legal tiptoing. He wooed Anna with a song about love, was going to marry her, but then left her to die and was going to kill Elsa. Murder is a pretty big step, Hans.
Morality – 7
Hans is that evil lying ex that we all have, but with added murdery feelings and a desire for power. Lying and using love as a weapon is a pretty low blow, my dude. He deceitfully manipulated not only Anna, but also others in the kingdom. Then there’s the attempted murder and hostile takeover of a sovereign kingdom.
Execution – 2
It’s our first “congratulations, you played yourself” of the rankings! Stupid, stupid Hans couldn’t be patient and got caught monologuing before Anna was really dead. Then you get captured and taken back to your own kingdom to be punished by your family. Loser.
Area of Effect – 5
An entire kingdom is a pretty hefty target, not to mention Anna and Elsa as well. Hans just wasn’t leadership material.
Total Evil Score: 25 (Tied with #21)
#19 – The Evil Queen – Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
Ambition – 5
She literally has EVIL in her name! Surely she wanted everything, right? Not really. She wanted to keep the status quo, keep her power, and remain the hottest lady in the land. The that Magic Mirror had to narc on Snow White.
Legality – 4
As always, when it comes to a villain in a position of power, ESPECIALLY in a monarchy, it’s her way or the highway. Most of the things she does she can shrug off just by being the Queen. That being said, conspiracy to commit multiple murders and dabbling in black magic are never great signs.
Morality – 9
This is where The Evil Queen earns her name. We know she married into the kingdom, but we don’t know how the king died! She essentially treats her kingdom like garbage, and tries to kill Snow White because a mirror told her she was prettier. Not only does she try to get others to kill this teenager, but then she tries to as well!
Execution – 6
Props to the Queen for getting to where she got. Started at the bottom and now she’s here, you know? She even got Snow White to bite that apple too! Too bad your magic comes with that “true love’s first kiss” caveat. You’re gonna let a little thunder and lightning knock you off a cliff to your doom?
Area of Effect - 2
She was the Queen over the kingdom, so there’s that. However, Snow White was her only target. Heck, the kingdom seemed to be doing alright. They had steady jobs and private cottage ownership.
Total Evil Score: 26 (Tied with #18)
#18 – Dawn Bellwether – Zootopia
Ambition – 6
For a sheep, Bellwether had big dreams. She wanted to usurp the Mayor of Zootopia and create a race war that would leave the prey animals living over the predator animals. Damn, Dawn.
Legality – 5
Looking at what Dawn did, most of the law breaking she did was behind the scenes. Is there any law that says you can make animals go primal? I’m not sure, but the framing of innocent animals for various crimes is certainly bad.
Morality – 6
We have to give Bellwether a bit of leeway here, and maybe we’re wrong for it. As a sheep, many of her fears are based in part in the real life fear of being prey to predatory animals. However, she’s warped and weaponized that fear into something dark. She clearly has no moral problems about framing innocent animals, letting others die, and placing an entire portion of the population under lock and key out of bias. Make Zootopia Great Again, eh Bellwether?
Execution – 4
Our second “congratulations, you played yourself” shows up! Bellwether had it all going for her. She got the Mayor out of the way, got the public on her side, and then had to get caught and recorded monologuing. You’re going to jail, sheep.
Area of Effect – 5
Dawn took at at the citizenry, but mostly the predators, of Zootopia. We’re told that prey outnumber predators 9-to-1. So even if the portion size isn’t that big, relatively speaking, it’s still a pretty large number of animals that would’ve gotten affected.
Total Evil Score: 26 (Tied with #19)
#17 – Prince John – Robin Hood
Ambition – 6
Prince John already had the power, even if it was temporary power. What he really wanted was an iron fist over his subject, to launder the money from their outrageous taxes, and to take out Robin Hood. Having an entire kingdom under your thumb, even when you’re sucking that thumb all the time, ain’t bad.
Legality – 2
Prince John did a lot of things wrong, but breaking laws wasn’t one of them. At worst, he unlawfully taxed the citizens of his kingdom. But Robin Hood was a criminal and a thief, doing thief things. He got to power not by hostile takeover, but by way of lineage.
Morality – 8
Prince John is a pretty morally reprehensible character. Not only is he petulant, dickish, and spoiled, but he really does like trying to kill criminals. Maybe we weighed it a bit heavily here, but raising the taxes of the poor is a pretty bad look, on top of meddling with the church and throwing all his tantrums. Screw Prince John.
Execution – 4
Did he successfully raise the taxes? Yep. Did he capture Robin Hood? Sure! But he was constantly getting one-upped by the band of merry men, and he wound up arrested by his Uncle for being a pretty terrible ruler. Weak.
Area of Effect – 7
An entire kingdom and it’s subjects is a fairly large footprint, and that’s without including Robin Hood and his Merry Men.
Total Evil Ranking: 27 (Tied with #16 and #17)
#16 – Alameda Slim – Home on the Range
Ambition – 5
Oh Alemeda Slim. You’re the worst villain in the worst Disney animated film, by a long shot. That doesn’t mean you weren’t evil. Rather, your plan to manipulate farms by stealing their cattle and buying their bankrupt properties with the money you got from selling that stolen cattle is pretty nefarious. Wanting to own all the Old West territories? At least you dreamed big, even if there wasn’t a lot in those territories at the time.
Legality – 7
Slim was a cattle rustler who stole cattle illegally and then sold them. His scheme was to flip that money and buy the farms of those he stole from when they were unable to financially support themselves. That’s some pyramid scheme shit, Slim.
Morality – 7
Slim may not be trying to kill people here, but he’s still plenty horrible. Stealing cattle, lying and swindling families out of their farms, and cruelty to animals are just some of his moral shortcomings. He’s a terrible yodeler, too.
Execution – 3
He captures the 5000 cows needed and gets that money to auction, but he’s defeated because he has stupid henchmen and because three cows got in his way and revealed his scheme to the sheriff. Three. Cows.
Area of Effect – 5
The entire American Midwest at the time, which the film shows to be a couple of dozen family farms, is his main target. That, and 5000 cows. This movie is such a weird misfire.
Total Evil Ranking: 27 (Tied with #17 & #15)
#15 – King Candy/Turbo – Wreck It Ralph
Ambition – 5
King Candy was actually Turbo, a long forgotten racer from an old video game. All he really wanted was to be the most popular racer in Sugar Rush, no matter who got in the way. Oh yeah, we almost forgot, he then bonded with a bug virus and vowed to take over the entire arcade. No chill.
Legality – 6
In the world of video games, he’s been breaking the rules. Manipulating the source code of Sugar Rush long enough to remain relevant, he also attempts multiple murders, tries to take out Vanellope several times, and wants to use those newfound virus powers on the arcade.
Morality – 7
Pretty much a sociopathic douchebag, King Candy didn’t care about lying and cheating to stay on top. When that wasn’t enough, he resorted to trying to have characters murdered. When even THAT wasn’t enough, he was ready to take over the entire arcade.
Execution – 4
While he manages to manipulate Sugar Rush for quite some time, as well as getting a number of video game characters to do his bidding, including Ralph. But bonding with the Cybug really ruined his plans, and rather than being defeated, he got taken out by being attracted to a bright column of lava. Try better!
Area of Effect – 5
Candy’s reign was really only hurting Vanellope for the majority of the time, but then he stepped his game up to wanting to take on the entire arcade, which was thousands of sentient characters.
Total Evil Score: 27 (Tied with #15 & #16)
#14 – Dr. Facilier – The Princess and the Frog
Ambition – 5
Oooo it’s the Shadow Man! Dr. Facilier had big goals, like being the wealthiest and most powerful voodoo sorcerer in all of New Orleans. Making deals with the dark spirits to get it done is just bonus.
Legality – 7
After extensive research, we discovered that it was unlawful to practice fortune telling in New Orleans at the time. Unlike Ursula (who’ll show up later, we promise), Dr. Facilier was so shady in his practices and making bullshit deals. Not only that, but attempted murder and conspiracy to take over the Boufant fortune as big marks against.
Morality – 8
You don’t get much more evil than making deals with demons. He literally offers the souls of the citizens of New Orleans as payment to his shadow friends. Wow. His shady handshake deals are particularly worth noting as slimy and two-faced. He tries to kill our heroes so many times, and kills poor Ray the firefly.
Execution – 3
Dr. Facilier Manipulates the hell out of the main characters and gets close to his goal, but he never actually tastes the success he wanted. He gets all of his dangling threads criss-crossed, and is ultimately defeated by frogs, a firefly, and the very bad deals he made, leading him getting literally dragged to hell.
Area of Effect – 5
New Orleans was a fairly big city at the time, but not quite a kingdom. The entirety of its citizens was up for grabs. Not only that, but Tiana, Naveen, and their various animal friends were at risk.
Total Evil Score: 28 (Tied with #13)
#13 – Maleficent – Sleeping Beauty
Ambition – 3
For all of the iconography that comes with Maleficent, she really wasn’t aiming too high. She got ghosted for celebrating the new royal baby’s christening, and wanted to punish the royal family for slighting her. It’s almost relatable.
Legality – 5
Listen, putting a killing curse on royal baby is CLEARLY illegal, but if we’re calling a spade a spade, they just let Maleficent leave the castle after that, and let her live 16 years without so much as a punishment. To top it all off, she kidnaps a prince, turns into a dragon, and burns a bunch of stuff. That can’t look good in royal court.
Morality – 9
As much as we can relate to not being invited to a party, Maleficent’s reaction is, shall we say, disproportionate. She wants the baby to die for it! Who does that?? She didn’t get invited to a party so she’s gonna rage and brood for 16 years and then kidnap and try to burn it all to the ground? Chill out.
Execution – 8
She almost got to the finish line, but she had a mountain of heroes to fight against. Her dragon form was almost unstoppable, but she was foiled by a 3-on-1 fairy disadvantage, plus a prince with a magical sword and shield who nails the luckiest sword throw in the world straight to her heart. She didn’t lose, they won.
Area of Effect – 3
Despite her raging, Maleficent really only wanted to hurt the royal family for not inviting her to the party. That means we’re looking at the King, Queen, Aurora, Prince Phillip, and those three pesky fairies.
Total Evil Score: 28 (Tied with #14)
#12 – Commander Lyle Tiberius Roarke – Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Ambition – 5
Roarke wasn’t a man who needed power, but after serving for so long without a penny to show for it, he sure did want money. He wanted it enough to hunt down Atlantis, harness it’s power, and use it to become filthy rich.
Legality – 4
What’s weird with Roarke is that he doesn’t really do anything illegal. It’s his expedition and his crew, and Atlantis is basically this lost continent. What are the laws about stealing artifacts to sell to a museum? Isn’t that what Indiana Jones does? The multiple attempted murders, though, those don’t look good.
Morality – 8
The guy is clearly a liar, and when he flunds out his theft might lead to the death of Atlantis and its citizens, he doesn’t give two shits about it. Roarke is also willing to leave his entire crew behind to get what he wants. It doesn’t hurt that he’s an anti-intellectual dickhead who is morally bankrupt just to get rich.
Execution – 8
Give Roarke his credit; he almost gets away with it. Not only does he successfully discover Atlantis with the help of his able crew, but also had their loyalty until he abandoned them. He was completely and fully prepared for anything that got thrown in his way. He almost escaped, but his crew proved to be his undoing, and Milo used a supernatural Atlantis crystal to kill him.
Area of Effect – 4
We don’t really see how big or populated Atlantis is, but we know it has citizens. Pair that with him leaving his crew and Milo behind, and Roarke had a relatively small footprint compared to others.
Total Evil Score: 29
#11 – “Man” – Bambi
Ambition – 2
In a somewhat controversial placing amongst our crew, Man really didn’t have a huge ambition other than to hunt animals. We’re never told if it was for food, sport, population control, or just to kill some deer.
Legality – 8
We did a ton of research on this one, and Man broke a boatload of laws in Bambi. According to a 1942 hunting handbook, the use of hunting dogs was illegal. It’s shown that winter is ending and spring is starting, and hunting season was only illegal and restricted to November of the year, so they were hunting out of season. They’re depicted using so many illegal hunting practices, killing a doe in the presence of its child, oh and setting a massive forest fire. Man is THE WORST.
Execution – 9
This is one of villains to get closest to success. They killed Bambi’s mother! They burnt that forest to the ground, and we never see any restitution. If their mission was to be good hunters and decent human beings, consider that mission failed.
Area of Effect – 4
It’s small-ish, if we’re being honest. We don’t really know how much of the forest was burned, but it’s safe to say that the entire population of woodland plants and animals were at risk. AND THEY KILLED BAMBI’S MOTHER.