LogFAQs > #956042221

tbh, I see a Disney villain ranking topic from a name I don't recognize much and my first though is: "Gee, I wonder if Frollo is on that list..." and then "He is? I wonder who could be behind this account" >_>

Anyway, it's kinda hard to rank them because they're very different. I'll have to evaluate them in terms of relative evil, significance to the story, character design, etc.

9) Shan Yu is a legitimately evil guy, but he's very much a background character. And it's a testament to his irrelevance that he didn't appear in the live-action version. Disney felt comfortable just taking anybody to fill in that spot, even though Shan Yu is so generic that if they'd given the other general the same name I'm not sure many people would have complained about it not feeling like Shan Yu (although I imagine his counterpart got more lines and more character in the LA)

8) Ratcliffe is a generic bad guy. He's got a more distinct look than Shan Yu and a great villain song, but at the end of the day he's not really remembered because there's not much going on there (whereas other villains are so strong they made the film huge)

7) Frollo is where we get into the villains people might care about. He's evil, manipulative, and has TWO great villain songs (Part of "Out There" and "Hellfire"), although both are short. At the same time, the guy is barely a footnote. If he brought more presence to the role, Hunchback might have been a bigger film. However, there might have only been so much that could be done with him.

6) Oogie Boogie is one of my Disney favorite villains, but honestly he's literally in the background most of the time (first appearing as "the shadow on the moon at night" because he doesn't actually appear until much later). However, part of is just how he's built up, because the kids sing songs about him and he's seen in the shadows to make him look more intimidating. And, honestly, he's built up to scarier than he is because he's a more comical character

5) Gaston is a hard one to place. Maybe he belongs lower. However, he basically helped make Beauty and the Beast work. The guy carries his own weight, and he does a pretty good job of being disliked

4) Hades is where things start to get hard. He's where the villains really start to have screen presence and, in his case, he feels almost as big as Hercules himself. Maybe he should be ranked 3, maybe he's fine at 4. This one is a toss-up.

3) Jafar is one of the most iconic Disney villains. Even though Hades is big, he's not remembered in the same breath as Jafar. Even more so than Hades, Jafar drives the story of Aladdin from start to finish. He's the guy who puts Aladdin on his path. He gives us an epic final confrontation. (EDIT: And, unlike Hades, he kinda has a villain song -- I forgot about the "Prince Ali" remix.)

2) Scar is a great villain, and is a large part of why the Lion King was huge. Adjusting for inflation, the Lion King is Disney's *fifth* highest-grossing film and three of the titles above it are Marvel movies (the other is 101 Dalmations). When you hear "villain song," one of the first things that probably came to your mind was "Be Prepared."

https://thedisinsider.com/2021/01/01/disneys-all-time-highest-grossing-films/

1) I pity the poor unfortunate soul who wouldn't see these names and rank Ursula as #1. Ursula has pretty much everything you could ask for in a Disney villain. She has a great design, an iconic & catchy villain song, she drives the plot, and -- in the pantheon of Disney villains -- might only be seen as less iconic than Maleficent.

Krazy_Kirby posted...

bad guy =/= villain. the villain in beauty and the beast would be the witch

Gaston is really the villain, though. The Enchantress/Witch is more of a minor antagonist, even though her actions set up the story.

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