In just a few days, we’ll get to see Angelina Jolie bring to life one of the most terrifying cinema villains of all times in Maleficent, as she plays the evil witch from one of Disney’s most beloved animated movies Sleeping Beauty. The Mouse House has always been particularly great at creating memorable bad guys (and gals, let it not be said that Disney wasn’t an equal opportunist when it came to its villains!), so to celebrate that, we’ve taken a look back over the ten scariest Disney villains of all time! Also, apologies Maleficent, since this list is in your honour, you’ve been automatically disqualified. Don’t curse us, please!
SCAR (Movie: The Lion King)
Why So Evil: semi-nicking the plot from Hamlet, Scar is the brother of the king of the Pride Lands, and is so filled with jealousy that he murders him just to take his place. Not only that, he convinces his nephew Simba that it was all his fault, who then runs away in shame. Of course, all of this evilness is helped by Jeremy Irons velvet-y voice.
URSULA (Movie: The Little Mermaid)
Why So Evil: being half octopus, half lady who looks like she had a career as a wrestler is always a good place to start when terrifying children. She also likes collecting souls and have them wail in agony for all eternity, which is about as evil as it gets, really.
JAFAR (Movie: Aladdin)
Why So Evil: another bad guy who will do anything to get control, Jafar is a special consultant to the Sultan, but only so he can take his place and marry his daughter on the sly, the fiend! Not above a bit of hypnotism to get what he wants, before the film is over he’ll have transformed into a giant snake, and then a massive red genie. Yikes.
CRUELLA DE VIL (Movie: 101 Dalmatians)
Why So Evil: are you kidding?? She wants to kill puppies! And not just that, she wants to skin them and turn them into clothes! A quick trip through her wardrobe shows that this isn’t a one-off want either, with just about every animal in the world having been shed of their skin to make something fashionable. But killing puppies?? That’s one step too far, Miss De Vil! Oh, we just got that!
SHERE KHAN (Movie: The Jungle Book)
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Why So Evil: he is a tiger that eats people, which doesn’t equate to a do-gooder. Even though he has a somewhat reasonable excuse for it – humans killed his entirely family – but he does seem to relish into the murdering a little more than maybe he should. With his posh accent and intelligence, as well as his hypno-snake as back-up, he’s still all teeth and claws. Scary!
QUEEN GRIMHILDE (Movie: Snow White & The Seven Dwarves)
Who So Evil: to be fair, some of it doesn’t seem all THAT evil. She’s just a bit jealous that she’s not the hottest chick in the land anymore, so she gets the huntsmen guy to bring her out of the land. So far, so crazy, but not evil. But then she’s all “Oh, and bring her heart back to me in this box…”, which is still crazy, AND evil. Get a grip, lady.
GASTON (Movie: Beauty & The Beast)
Why So Evil: starting off as more of a bit of a douche than totally EEEVIIIILLLLL, it wasn’t until Gaston realized that he wasn’t going to win Belle’s hand in marriage that he totally went off the deep end, and lead a motley crew of pitchfork holder’s to The Beast’s castle to burn it, and him, down. Stupidity we can deal with (all that working out and healthy eating obviously depleted his IQ), but we draw the line of pyromania.
CHERNABOG (Movie: Fantastia)
Why So Evil: a representation of everything Mickey Mouse isn’t was always going to be something a little… off, but we had no idea Disney could get this primally evil! Looks a bit like the devil, and a bit like the Balrog from The Lord Of The Rings, and accompanied by that scary score. Even though he doesn’t show up til the very end of the film, he’s presence is still scorched into the minds of any kids you seen this movie at a young age.
HADES (Movie: Hercules)
Why So Evil: again, a lot of this comes down to the voice casting, and when you hire James Woods to provide his vocal talents to a character, you’re getting a lot of character bang for your buck. Yes, it’s another evil person trying to get control of a specific area (Mount Olympus) from a specific person (Zeus), but this time it’s with a person with some severe anger management issues.
MAN (Movie: Bambi)
Why So Evil: we never actually see him, but we know he’s there. Even now, years later, we know he’s there, and is the reason why a lot of us have never gone back to watch the movie again, and will try to protect the children from such mental anguish. I mean, you guys! He shot Bambi’s Mom! Why? Why, Disney, WHY???
COMPETITION:
The amazing Angelina Jolie has perfected the ultimate evil cackle in Maleficent. We want YOU to record your own evil cackle and send it to us to be in with a chance of winning a Maleficient movie goodie bag which includes a notebook, iPhone 5 case, hoodie, ladies t-shirt (medium only), tumbler glass and a copy of the soundtrack..
You can record your laughs via audio or video and email them to us at [email protected].
Competition closes Friday 13th June.
