(Warning: this blog, unlike my others, is NOT a theory - more of an opinion piece. For all those angered by this sudden change of blog, you may proceed to throw tomatoes at your screens in 3... 2... 1...)
My beloved friend Gilly mentioned this question to me the other day and a whirl pool of thoughts entered my head... I couldn't help but post a blog about it!
The question is:
Ladies and Gents, answer me this - who is the SCARIEST disney character ever to grace the screens?
Thats right - who is the most frightening, most evil, most coniving, most 'AHH! GET HIM AWAY FROM ME' cartoon character to scare the living poop out of us? Who is the villain most worthy to hold the title? Who can inspire such fear in our childhood selves so much so, that it inspires such blogs? Which cartoon villain puts the boogeyman to shame and makes one-eyed, one-horned, flying purple people eaters look like the freaking toothfairy?
After days and days of tedious debating, frustrated conversations with myself and agonizing hair-pulling effort, i have compiled a list.

MANY will disagree but hey, everyones scared of different things. When i was younger, i was petrified, absolutely terrified of the cookie monster. He was in each and every one of my nightmares. If the blue bugger came on tv, i used to jump behind the couch - quivering in fear that he may pop out of the tv and eat my prized double choc chip cookies. And now look at me!! (Last year, i was the mascot for my house colour - Loreto which was blue. They chose none other than the cookie fiend as their mascot... and someone had to wear the costume so I wore the sweat infested thing for a year... And yes, that is indeed me in the photo above...)
Enough of embarrassing childhood situations, contestant number 12, common down!!!
12. CAPTAIN HOOK
Enough of embarrassing childhood situations, contestant number 12, common down!!!
12. CAPTAIN HOOK
(Peter Pan)

Captain Hook. I deem you most pathetic villain EVER. Which shames me to say because one of my favourite movies is 'Hook' with the wonderful Dustin Hoffman and Robbin Williams. "Bangarang" is still used in my vocabulary to this date. Before my sister Giulia goes to bed, she yells out 'GOODNIGHT NEVERLAND!' in respect of the film...
It's funny because I asked my Mum who she thought was the worst villain ever, and she said none other than the one-handed pirate. When I asked her why, this is the conversation I had.
Vic: Hook? He's pathetic! Why is he the worst?
Mum: Well... he was afraid of clocks...
Vic: *quizzical eyebrow movement*
Mum: Which makes him pretty scary. I mean, who is afraid of clocks? He's got to have some major psychological issues going on there... and that makes him scary...
Vic: ...
Sorry to say it Mum, but I disagree COMPLETELY! I mean, in a way, he is too...comedic to be considered 'shit in your pants' scary. He is also a villain that can be understood. Think about it - he's pissed off at Peter for cutting off his bloody hand and feeding it to a freaking crocodile. To tell you truthfully, I would hold a tiny grudge over the mishap too!! Plus, it's hardly a fair fight. I mean, imp boy can fly whereas Hook man is bound to two feet.
Sorry Hook. The french moustache thing going on sealed the deal for me...
11. LADY TREMAINE

(possible theory: why don't you ever see 'evil mothers' in Disney films? Why do they always have to be 'step-mothers'? Actually, where are all the disney mothers? They are either dead or not present for some weird reason or another)
She is the stereotypical eat-your-heart-out evil stepmother. With an icy smile, she can silence even the most determined of minds. She is like the evil mother-in-law that we hope never to have - the evil maths teacher who makes us feel stupid when we get an algebra question wrong! THE TEXTILES TEACHER WHO MAKES FUN OF US FOR BREAKING 3 SEWING MACHINE NEEDLES IN A ROW!!! (And yes, I speak from experience - in self defense, I still say that the sewing machine I worked on was secretly cursed long long ago). I can't say she's the scariest though - She never lays a finger on little Cindie, preferring psychological torment instead... I guess it's probably easier on the nails or something...
10. GASTON
10. GASTON

(Beauty and the Beast)
The song stated it well - Not a bit of him's scraggly or scrawny, and ev'ry last inch of him's covered with hair...
*suggestive eyebrow movement*
The chissel-abbed, fabio-like exterior of a man has engraved a special place in the worst villains list. After all, no one's got a swell cleft in his chin like Gaston... He is also a perfect example of moobs (man boobs) - as noted on the pic above...
But he makes the transformation of an egotistical, desperate-for-some-loving, man into quite a frightening villain. In year 11, I was watching the school's Beauty and the Beast musical. Even with my good friends by my side, I was STILL freaked out by 'The Mob song' where they sing 'KILL THE BEAST!!' - it scares the life out of me to this day... LEAVE THE BEAST ALONE YOU STUNNING SPECIMEN OF A MAN! HE DID NOTHING TO YOU!!!!
9. HADES
The song stated it well - Not a bit of him's scraggly or scrawny, and ev'ry last inch of him's covered with hair...
*suggestive eyebrow movement*
The chissel-abbed, fabio-like exterior of a man has engraved a special place in the worst villains list. After all, no one's got a swell cleft in his chin like Gaston... He is also a perfect example of moobs (man boobs) - as noted on the pic above...
But he makes the transformation of an egotistical, desperate-for-some-loving, man into quite a frightening villain. In year 11, I was watching the school's Beauty and the Beast musical. Even with my good friends by my side, I was STILL freaked out by 'The Mob song' where they sing 'KILL THE BEAST!!' - it scares the life out of me to this day... LEAVE THE BEAST ALONE YOU STUNNING SPECIMEN OF A MAN! HE DID NOTHING TO YOU!!!!
9. HADES
(Hercules)

Lets face it. Hades is the 'Jan' to Zeus's 'Marsha'. He may appear angsty at first in the film, exclaiming 'MARSHA MARSHA MARSHA!' at all the things that are unfair in his life but common, the flame haired cartoon character, when he's not trying to be a comedian, can be quite scary. He explodes into anger almost as much as Jonathan Rhys Meyers does when playing King Henry. And common, being God of the underworld adds to the freakyness just a tad... Plus, not to mention, the flame hair thing he has going on...

(Aladdin)
The goatee does it. Common, it's all in the goatee! Jafar is perhaps the most stylish of all villains, wearing stylish red flowing robes that could only look fabulous with his figure... His fair cunning with his hypnotizing staff thingy... I'd love to get my hands on one of those things... But anyway, Jafar, well, you've got to say he's pretty mean, with the whole 'trying-to-kill- the-sultan-and-jasmine-and-Aladdin' thing, as well as the whole 'turn-into-a-huge-snake-and-then-a-ginornous-genie' thing at the end of the film. For some reason though, I've never found him all too scary... It's probably the flowing robes...
7. CRUELLA DE VIL

(101 Dalmations)
To make a long story short, any person who would want to kill one hundred and one dalmations to make into a coat should be on this list. I mean, common! Leave the dogs alone!! Move onto something else - it's CLEARLY not working for you!! Still, you got
to hand it to Cruel- ella. She has determination...
6. URSULA
(The Little Mermaid)

Okay, what is Ursula? I brought the dvd the other day and that's EXACTLY what I thought to myself. First I said 'clearly she is a mermaid chick who has just got a bad case of UV sunburn' then, I saw tentacles sprout out from her arse and I'm like 'whoah, hold on a second!' I think she is the love child of an octopus and a seal or something, I'm not sure. Whatever she is, she's big, she's bootilicious and she's purple. What more could you want? She scared the daylights out of me when she stole Ariel's voice and still, at the age of 18, I found myself screaming at the TV saying 'NO ARIEL! DON'T DO IT!!!! YOU CAN"T TRUST THAT ASS!'
5. THE QUEEN
5. THE QUEEN
(Snow White and the Seven Dwarves)

I don't remember much of Snow White. All I seem to remember is that 'Hi HOOOOOOO' song and when the witch turns into a hag in order to sell an apple to snow white... You'd think in order to make the apple more appealing, you would turn into someone more attractive. I mean, who wants to try an apple from a warty old lady? Then again, the people I buy my groceries from aren't exactly models in the making... What it comes down to is that this chick is so concerned about her own vanity, that she is willing to kill people off just so that she can be the 'most beautiful of them all'. Perhaps a little extreme, wouldn't you say?
4. MALEFICENT

(Sleeping Beauty)
Like Shan-yu from Mulan, this chick also has the freaky bird thing going on... Which always seems to remind me of the Wizard of Oz when that witch says 'FLY MY PRETTIES!!!!! FLY!!!!!' but whatever... A lot of people may see this chick as the scariest one alive, but honestly, I hated the movie 'Sleeping Beauty' so much, that every time I watch it, I end up going to sleep. True, she does make it interesting though. It's Aurora that pisses me off. She sees this random guy for like 5 minutes and then, when told she can't see him by those three fairies, says "BUT I LOVE HIM!!!!!" *wails as runs into room melodramatically* ohh pah-leez! Maleficent is definitely interesting though - her laugh is chilling to say the least. Plus, she goes on a murderous rampage just because she wasn't invited to a party... I mean, imagine what she'd do if you called her a skank or something??? Oh, HELL NO!! *clicks fingers*
(The Lion King)
Okay, Scar was the ONE villain from disney I was absolutely terrified by in my youth, and I was going to put him as number 1 but then reconsidered... He's fair evil though. I mean, think about it. He looks into the eyes of his own brother when he kills him and all without a qualm. If that wasn't enough, he deprives a poor lion cub of a father and home. Common, don't tell me that when Mufasa died and Simba came to try and 'wake him up' - that you didn't shed a tear! I mean, my media class at school watched it a couple o' years ago and even THEN you could hear the faint sobs echoing throughout the classroom... What was even more surprising was the startling 'ooh Simba turned hot' when he did a ' backwards benjamin button' as he walked across that log with Timone and Pumba... I tried to remind them all that not only was he a cartoon, but a lion cartoon at that but to no avail... It was the mane that did it for them I think...
2. SHAN-YU
(Mulan)

I do a lot of research when it comes to my blogs. So for this one in particular, I got out my disney dvds and sat on this very chair and did my work as any blogger would do. Very arduous work at that - watching disney movie after disney movie. *que sarcasm here* Mulan was the one that still blew me away. Shan yu is definitely one scary mo fo. I mean, not only has he got the whole uni-brow thing going on, but that hawk he has? Freaky. And in one part of the film when he finds a little doll, it is insinuated that he kills a little girl!!! WHO KILLS LITTLE GIRLS!!!! Not even SCAR reduced himself to that low!
Therefore, i dub thee, Shan-yu, a bastard.
Therefore, i dub thee, Shan-yu, a bastard.
And now, numero uno!
*drumroll*
...
....
1. JUDGE CLAUDE FROLLO
(The Hunchback Of Notre Dame)
I saw this movie again today and even at the mere age of 18, was STILL freaked out by this guy! He has these moments when his eyeballs dilate and all this flame and redness just appears in the background randomly... This man is scary. If you watch the film again, there are all these subtleties too. Like when he captures Esmerelda, he smells her hair and she's all 'what are you doing' and he goes '...I was just thinking of seeing a rope around that beautiful neck' and then he feels her up a bit and Esmarela goes 'I know what you were thinking about!!' He is willing to kill towns of people without any hesitation. He sets a house on fire, more than willing to see the people inside burn... which sends shivers down my spine... And he's just a crap guy, alright!!!
Plus, NO ONE CALLS QUASIMODO A MONSTER WHILE I'M AROUND!!!!
Don't worry Quasi, Esmerelda may have ditched you, but I LOVE YOU!!!!!!! *hugs tv screen*
So tell me if you guys agree with me or not. Who is YOUR worst evil villain to grace the screens of disney? Is it one I've mentioned? Or one I've forgotten about? Please let me know!
If you read all of the above, you are extremely cool and awesome - for if there is a illness for writing too much, I believe I may have it. I'm being diagnosed for it and everything, I swear.
Until we meet again,
The Enigma
ok, gilly here!
ReplyDeletei'm glad you wrote a blog on this! but i still think its a toss up between MALEFICENT and THE QUEEN from snow white.
granted i'm ashamed to say i've never seen the hunchback of notra dame.
personally i think we need to have a disney night and watch all the disney movies ever made. because this judge claude dude looks pretty scary.
i can definatly agree with you with captain cook hes a pussy cat and i can see his point for sure. if someone cut off my hand i wouldnt be a happy kitten either!
i think that LADY TREMAINE should have been much closer to number one to be honest. i watched cinderella the other day which made me think of the qustion in the first place because i was actually teary when that lady encouraged the daughters to rip up cinderellas dress right before they got into the carriage.
i think i'm more scared of women who are so evil just because the good guy is prettier than them. think about this, the queen wants to kill snow white bcause shes prettier and LADY TREMAINE wants to make cinderellas life a living hell because shes prettier than her two daughters and herself. well come on thats not hard to achieve. EVERYONE in the whole kindom were prettier than those two ugly things. what, shes going to lock up EVERYONE in the kindom and make them their slaves!
scary lady. i have to admit i always loved scar. i think that was my dads influence though. he loves jeremy irons so he made mention of how cool he is everytime scar said something. scar: "oh goodie!" dad: "oh he does it so well"
who would have thought that my dad was a bad influence on me
one last thing though. i cannot believe you were scared of cookie monster. him and grover were my favourite. i must have been obsessed with blue at that time in my life...
but i always found them hilarious. i'm called cookie monster in the family because i eat all the cookies....oopys!
that is all i wanted to yabber about!
looooove
xoxox
I'm not sure you're getting the full scope of Captain Hook. First of all, the Disney and Spielberg versions are totally off. They make him out to be a comedic, bumbling character for most of the time. In the play/book he is a deeply sophisticated, calculating evil. He is afraid of clocks (as you must know) because of the crocodile that chases him to eat him which swallowed a clock. Before you write him off, check what's actually written about him first.
ReplyDeleteAnd though Captain Hook doesn't appear in it other than being mentioned, there's another villain for Peter Pan in this:
http://www.peterpansneverworld.com/
BELIEVE!
To 'THe Never Fairy': Heh heh! I was a little slack in researching Captain Hook I must admit! Then again, i was only searching the disney facts about him, rather than searching the roots (which is probably what I should have done - my bad!!!) I'm glad that there is much more scope to his characterization in the novel! I really got to hunt that one down...
ReplyDeleteDisney have a knack of spinning the evil guy the wrong way, don't they? I looked up a bit of info on Hades and apparently he was very calm and collected in mythology... as opposed to the Hercules disney version where he's seen as, well, furious :)
Thanks for your comment - and I'll check out 'Neverworld' too! Looks good :D
To GIlly: Just another example to why your dad is so awesome. I love Scar's voice!
ReplyDeleteI must admit, it's been a looong time since i've watched Cinderella and i did Lady Tremaine's post by pure memory... Maybe i'd up her a couple of steps in the ranking, but in comparison to some of the others, i just don't find her scary enough!! I don't know, maybe we will have to have a disney night and analyse them together. I'll bring Hunchback of Notre Dame, you bring Cinderella!
I know. It's pretty pathetic but i'm willing to admit it dammit!! I was PETRIFIED of the cookie monster, but it was the way he ate those cookies!! And he's seemingly endless mouth! I remember I had repetitive nightmares of him eating me O.o Apparently he's on a diet now because he promotes childhood obesity... What is the world coming to...
people are waaay too sensitive. like the rumour of banning the mr. men books. i bring tht up every opportunity i get just because i think its absolutly pathetic.
ReplyDeletespeaking of disney though. people are wanting to change the name of snow white to "snow white and the vertically challenged people" pleaaaase!
we shall have a disney night. i looked up the whole list of disney films and theres a few i havent seen!
even if you wrote lady tremaines post by memory i think the scariest ones are the ones you remember. and if you dont remember her being scary then obviously she didnt have much effect on you. i just remember being terrified of the mask so yourdoing better than me with cookie monster.
screw being on a diet. i love my cookies
nom nom nom nom nom
I think Hades deserves to be further up the list. Coming closely under The Lion King and Aladdin, Hercules was my favourite Disney movie groing up and that underworld devil used to make me shiver.
ReplyDeleteBut he is nothing... nothing I says compared to the Horned King from the Disney film 'The Black Cauldron'. This film was so dark I could hardly believe that it was aimed at a childrens audience when I first saw it. The mo-fo had a freakin' skull for a face, man! No amount of messenger bird, cool goatee or tenticles for an a*se could out-evil that!
I do agree with your top 3 though. I could never quite put my finger on what it was about Judge Claude Frollo that gave me the heebee-jeebees.
haha! What a fantastic word 'heebee jeebees' - i love it!
ReplyDeleteHmm perhaps i was a bit harsh on Hades... He just offers so muhc comedic relief though so that downplays the scaryness ever so slightly. Although i will say that the underworld IS extremely freaky. Especially with all those floating ghosts... O_o
THanks for the comment :D
Speaking of searching the roots of characters, have you read any of the works of Shan-Yu? While I'd still place Frollo over him in terms of Disney villains, he's a mental mo-fo.
ReplyDeleteHere's a line you may recognise from Firefly.
"He teaches us that if you take a man into your house for forty years; you dine with him, speak to him on all manner of subjects, and on the last day of the fortieth year you take him up to the top of a volcano and hold him over the edge; that day, at last, you will know the man."
Mental motherf****r