Favorite Disney Villains[]
Today I'm doing a Favorite Disney Villains List. I know kinda cliche, but I don't much care, I love villains. So without further ado, here are my top villains.
#6) Jafar (The 1st and 2nd Aladdin Movies):[]
Like most of Disney's great villains, Jafar has a song, which in my opinion honestly sucks, but he didn't get it until the second movie and that whole thing was honestly a bit of a flop. Jafar though, is actually a very competent villain. He manages to get to power through means unknown, at the beginning of the movie he's actually second only to the Sultan and maybe Jasmine. Despite being the Sultan's right hand man, he's also managing to have time for his own experiments and search for the guy who can get him into the Cave of Wonders to get the lamp. He's also clearly murderous, a good trait for any villain, but something I really like is that once he's got power and still has one wish left, he does what any rational male would do and says "Hey Genie, you see the smokin' hot princess over there, I wish for her to fall in madly love with me." Even though this is what allows the good guys to pull the wool over his eyes and instigates the final showdown instead of just Aladdin's untimely demise, I still give him props for thinking to use his last wish for that.
#5) Turbo: (Wreck-it Ralph)[]
Turbo makes the list for one reason: He is the only villain Disney has come out with recently who has actually surprised me. For this and this alone, he merits a spot in the top 5, because I am very difficult to really surprise, and Turbo's big reveal utterly floored me.
#4) Professor Ratigan: (The Great Mouse Detective)[]
Ratigan is a really great villain. He has an extremely coherent plan to take over, he's got a great song that I can actually be caught humming from time to time, and he's a monster. Rather than type out a long explanation of what's great about him, I'll let the Nostalgia Critic explain it. Critic sums it up quite well and I'd rather just link you to it than type it all out. So pardon my laziness and check out the link. And then check out the movie because it's actually really good.
#3) Judge Claude Frollo: (The Hunchback of Notre Dame)[]
Ah the Hunchback of Notre Dame, the kids movie that should have been aimed at adults. This guy gets props for several things. Number one, he had the boner that nearly burned Paris to the ground. Number two, he has possibly the scariest song Disney has ever churned out. Hellfire is one that I don't think hardly any little kid could watch and keep their cool. I know I found it rather scary when I was a kid, but I was a lot more timid back then and honestly back then I thought the whole movie was scary as shit. Number three, Frollo is an excellent example of one of that most excellent kind of villain: highly realistic. He's a government official who's made it his mission to exterminate what he views as a problem for the city. Hitler anyone? If you've never seen the Hunchback of Notre Dame, I recommend it, it's extremely good.
#2) Dr. Facilier: (The Princess and the Frog)[]
Ah Dr. Facilier, the only character whose song I have ever sung out loud, in public no less! For this and this alone he is in the top 5. He's an excellent manipulator, and he has a very interesting motivation, he's actually just trying to pay off the debt incurred by gaining his powers, which are actually pretty dang interesting. He can control his shadow and his shadow can affect other shadows which affect whatever they're stuck to in addition to acting as a spy and field agent for him. He also has numerous other abilities, his voodoo dolls can actually kill people, he can mix up powders that make you see whatever he wants, he can give a bald guy his hair back and have it erupt all over his body 5 minutes later to make him look like a yeti. I would actually love to see some more of his back story, but I don't expect I ever will, so I'll have to content myself with him being the only character whose song I've ever spontaneously burst into the song of.
And now...Number 1...[]
Ladies and gents, give a warm welcome to Shan Yu.
Don't remember him? That's quite alright, he was the villain from Mulan; not one of Disney's heavy hitters, and he's seriously undersold, which I don't quite get. Let's have a look at what he's done and what probably led to him being so drastically undersold.
He doesn't have a song, that's probably the first thing that screwed his rise to the top.
He doesn't talk much. I don't think he has more than two dozen lines the whole movie, and none more than a couple of words long. While that does rather put the cork in opportunities for many real zingers, in my opinion it also adds to his badassery. He doesn't bandy about words, he says exactly what he needs to and then acts, you know exactly what he's thinking the minute he opens his mouth. His lines are very short sweet and to the point.
"How many men does it take to deliver a message?"
"Your walls and armies have fallen. Bow to me!"
"Then you will kneel, in pieces!"
And his longest line of the entire movie which tells you exactly why he's there and actually adds a great deal to his character: "Stop me? He invited me! By building his wall he challenged my strength, well I'm here to play his game. GO! Tell your emperor to send his strongest armies, I'm ready!" He is invading China just to prove he can and that he's a badass! No other reason! He just wants to prove that he can do whatever he wants whenever he feels like it!
He is a tracking genius. From a little doll delivered to him by his pet hawk, he is able to discern the exact location of the enemy army in seconds. That is freaking incredible! Most people can't even tell animal tracks apart, this guy found a freaking army just by looking at a doll from near their encampment! And he can spot two guys hiding in the bushes spying on him, as he's riding along at a full gallop at the head of his army! How freaking cool is that?
Now let's talk about how badass a warrior and commander he is. Number one, he managed to get an army up ropes over the Great Wall and actually allowed the sentinel to live just long enough to warn everybody that he was coming so he could have a little more of a challenge. That is so damn ballsy I gotta wonder how this guy gets his pants on! And he is bad enough to back it up! He and his army rampage across China, destroying everything and everybody they come across, and then when the Imperial army masses to stop him, he wipes them out, not a single survivor, and he still has enough to wipe out the village behind the Imperial army and still have over a hundred warriors left to storm the Imperial city! When you consider that him and the five guys that survive Mulan's avalanche was sufficient to kidnap the Emperor and take over the Imperial Palace in front of half the city, that is a freaking scary thought! He would've killed thousands before he got tired and went home, and it was made very clear that if he got to the Imperial City with his army, there'd be no stopping him, especially not considering how hard he had just owned China's finest. So for having the highest body count of any Disney villain (a few villages and an army slaughtered), I say Shan Yu deserves a spot in the top 5. For his sheer badassery, I say he's number 1.
Also, I kinda want to know more about him. Who is this guy? Who are his commanders? Is that archer guy with the same hair mustache and eyes his little brother? Who's that Russian looking guy? How did he become an elite Hun commander of such renown that the Chinese Emperor went oh shit when he found out who was coming after him? I would totally watch a movie about this guy. So while Shan Yu may be one of Disney's most undersold villains, for my money he's the most badass.
Agree? Disagree? Comment below!