Top Ten Favorite Disney Villains

There are so many interesting villains in Disney that range from absolutely terrifying (The Horned King from The Black Cauldron still gives me nightmares) to just bad people with questionable ethics (Cruella). You have your dumb, but strong types like Gaston and smart, manipulators like Frollo. This list is the ten villains that I like the best, both to watch and as characters (not as people).

If the list were to be the most vicious, terrifying, and truly villainous characters it would be very different.

1. Gaston

Okay, I confess! I have a soft spot for Gaston. Why? Because he has so many of the stereotypical traits that a hero would have. He loves the odd, but very beautiful girl he has barely talked to, but who sometimes talks to herself (just like Prince Philip in Sleeping Beauty, who feel in love with the random girl in the woods who stole his jacket and talked to herself - so far as he knew). He is very physically fit, like every stereotypical prince. He has a sidekick, who is both less attractive and unflaggingly loyal. (Like Aladdin and Abu or Hercules and Phil.) In the end, he even goes to save the beautiful girl from her captor (like Flynn Rider in Tangled). He met really all the criteria to be a hero. And yet, he wasn't. Because there was another side to the story. So, the same way we weren't supposed to judge the Beast as the villain because of his appearance, we don't judge Gaston as the hero for the same reason.

2. Hades

Hades gets a spot at number two mostly for his sass. He is essentially like Maleficent but with more sass and more lines. And he really is very much like her. He shows up to the party of his enemies' kid and throws some sass around and then plans to kill the kid for revenge. But, due to some error in magic or loophole, is mostly foiled. The kid grows up to be a teenager far from their birth home, without the villain really knowing they've been foiled. They find out and seek to finish what they started years before. And, in both cases, they only really target the kid. I mean, Hades has a somewhat endless supply of monsters, but seems to only send them for Hercules. Even with the Hydra, he could have had two real kids trapped under the rock, but he didn't. So, sassy and not so evil as to intentionally go out of his way to kill random people.

3. Yzma

Yzma is hilarious. I almost wanted to see her win the kingdom. I mean, she wasn't really any worse than Kuzco when he was on the throne. They were both selfish and didn't really care much about the peasants in their kingdom. In fact, she might have been better because she had more experience and knowledge. Plus, she was smart. If she weren't so psychotic, she might have brought some good advances to the kingdom. Plus, more sass. I like sass in my villains.

4. Helga Sinclair

I don't know if Helga counts as a villain in the strictest sense. She is an antagonist, but villain? I go back and forth about that. She has the sass of the others, but she is more than sass. She has the appearance of your typical movie vixen when you first see her. But she later proves to be extremely tough and very clever. She is more than what she appears to be. And in the end, though not out of a desire to do good so much as for revenge, she takes down the main antagonist. So, you go girl!

5. Dr. Doofenshmirtz

I don't think there is any villain quite as incompetent as Dr. Doofenshmirtz. However, he gets a slot because he puts a great deal of effort into everything he does: whether he is creating a musical number to explain his evil plans or he is trying to track down a doll for his daughter. So, he wins for his determination and continuing effort, even though he will undoubtedly always lose.

6. Queen Narissa

Sass to the extreme, but also - I think she actually might have been a good ruler. True, she was vindictive. But, the Prince was an air-head. He really had no business in power, if Nancy hadn't gone back with him then the kingdom's future would have been very bleak. She also has sass, great boots, and a great evil queen strut.

7. Scar

I feel like Scar should have gotten more of a backstory. It's supposedly based off Hamlet, but Claudius didn't really have much backstory either. I feel like there is more to his story than that. His difference in appearance makes me wonder if he was an adopted brother to Mufasa. Plus, how did he get the scar? I've also heard that his real name is not Scar but Taka. Taka means dirt in Swahili, while Mufasa means king. So, really its a whole Thor vs. Loki situation up in here. Scar is obviously going to have some issues with his brother. Plus, he may not seem the best ruler for the kingdom - but, in the first movie he had the hyenas loyalty. And the second he had a whole group of lions that were still loyal to him even after his death. So, he can't be the worst leader.

8. Shere Khan

He is an interesting villain. And he is much less of a villain in the first movie than the second. In the first, he is just a predator--as a tiger would be in the jungle. Short of temper, perhaps, but also very British. He was even so impressed by Mowgli's bravery, he gave him the opportunity to run away. If Mowgli had run away when given that chance, Baloo wouldn't have been injured and Shere Khan could have remained just a predator as opposed to a villain.

9. Ratigan

As far as delusional villains go, a rat, whose name actually has rat in it, that cannot accept that he isn't a mouse seems like he'd top the list. Ratigan had to be included on this list because as a fan of Sherlock Holmes, the villain from the Sherlock inspired Disney movie had to make the list somewhere. His pet cat edged him up against the next villainess.

10. Ursula

I feel like Ursula suffered the same fate as many other villains on this list, as well as others that didn't make it on the list, in that she doesn't get an appropriate backstory. What I guess is that the King isn't so happy about her spell casting or turning his mermaids into seaweed, but every tale with magic says there is a price to be paid for it--if you can't pay, there are consequences. So, my guess says he was unhappy with her use of magic or, perhaps, she granted a wish that endangered the life of someone she cared about and he banished her off somewhere. In anger, she decides she wants revenge. Still, she is an interesting villain. She has sass and cunning. And if she hadn't turned herself into a giant (thus making herself a bigger target) she might have actually succeeded. Plus, she works her curves.