The Most Evil Animated Disney Villains — RANKED (Part 3)
We wrap up our rankings with the Top Ten most evil Disney animated villains of all time!
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READ PART ONE HERE!
READ PART TWO HERE!
The Top Ten has arrived! Check out the previous entries for scoring rules and who didn’t make it.
Our Five Categories for Ranking Evil:
Ambition — Legality — Morality — Execution — Area of Effect
Ambition – 6
We start off the Top Ten with a classic, good ‘ol Scar. Responsible for one of our favorite villain songs, Scar looked to overthrow his brother, the majestic Mufasa, and rule the pridelands.
Legality – 4
Like Shere Khan, the law of the jungle applies here. Scar defeats Mufasa and kills him, which, in the wild, is how leaders are chosen amongst lion prides. Likewise for killing Simba, this is what a new dominant lion would do if they took over the pride. Seeing as the film has a more traditional monarchy structure, though, Simba is the rightful heir and Scar is doing some bad stuff, obviously.
Morality – 8
Morally speaking, Scar doesn’t have much of them. Sure, he’s able to make friends with the hyenas, but he’ll turn on them in a moments notice. His kills his brother, the King, and makes efforts to kill his young nephew after gaslighting his little ass and banishing him. Under his rule, the pridelands are totally ruined as long as he gets his.
Execution – 7
Scar, unlike many on our list so far, actually wins for a bit. He gets what he wanted, and rules as leader of the pridelands for a decent amount of time. However, he picks sketchy henchmen and runs the kingdom into ruin. In fact, he’s so bad at providing for his friends that after getting his ass kicked in a fair fight, his henchmen turn on him and eat him. Should’ve worked on your management skills a bit more.
Area of Effect – 6
We’re not sure where the borders start and end, but Scar ruled over all of the pridelands and its inhabitants, even that shadowy place.
Total Evil Score: 31
Ambition – 7
Ratigan is the self-proclaimed “world’s greatest criminal mind”, always looking to pull of schemes and crimes. He takes aim at a pretty big target: overthrowing the (mouse) Queen of England and becoming the Supreme Ruler of all English Mousedom.
Legality – 8
Uh, did you read what he calls himself? Ratigan is a criminal through and through, and he’s proud of it. He boasts an impressive track record of previous crimes, and attempts to overthrow royalty. Let’s tack on some kidnapping and attempted murder to wrap it up.
Morality – 8
This rat, this rat right here, this rat BRAGS about his crimes. Ratigan revels in being a criminal, breaking laws, and putting lives in danger. He doesn’t make any effort to hide his pride in his lawlessness, but he has enough morals to show admiration for his cohorts and his pet cat, so that counts for something.
Execution – 5
It’s true that he had a sliver of success, but was ultimately defeated by his worthy opponent, Basil of Baker Street. Despite losing to a worthy opponent, he gets Basil in his clutches, ready to murder him, but gets caught – you guessed it – freakin’ monologuing again! He rambles on just enough for Big Ben to chime, knocking him off its hand to fall to his death. Bummer.
Area of Effect – 4
Despite Ratigan wanting to take over all of English mousedom, he’s getting a lower score here because the mouse kingdom isn’t the only one established here. Humans exist in this world, and because of that, mousedom doesn’t look as big anymore, does it?
Total Evil Score: 32
Ambition – 6
Disney has always had two types of villains: serious ones you love to hate, and comedic ones you hate to love. Yzma is definitely a comedic villain, but she cracks the Top Ten because even though she’s funny, she’s got big plans. It’s no small feat to kill and overthrow Emperor Kuzco to rule over the empire.
Legality – 7
The attempted assassination of an Emperor is about the highest you can get on the murder scale without resorting to mass murder. It’s a quality over quantity kinda thing. She’s not even trying to scheme or use magic to gain power, she’s just trying to kill Kuzco. Admittedly, he’s kind of a jerk, but still, not cool.
Morality – 7
Yzma’s plot is fueled by revenge, having been fired by Kuzco for working political moves behind his back. It’s almost understandable, as she served as his advisor through his entire life and he grew up to be a petulant, spoiled baby. But she’s clearly putting morality to the side to kill Kuzco and take control.
Execution – 6
Yzma actually gets to rule, even if it’s for a short time. She tastes victory, but fails because Kronk, her loyal henchman, is more of a kindhearted dummy than she thought. He keeps Kuzco alive, allowing him to return and complicate things. She fails to actually kill him multiple times, and gets defeated by chugging the wrong potion. Congratulations, Yzma, you played yourself.
Area of Effect – 7
She’s taking a shot at the top, looking to bump off the Emperor and rule over his entire Inca Empire, which at the time was the largest empire in the world at over 10 million people.
Total Evil Score: 33
Ambition – 9
Ursula is one of the classic, maybe even one of the BEST Disney villains ever. Everything from her look, to her voice, to her ambition makes her iconic. Ursula looks to usurp King Triton and take over all of the Underwater Kingdom. Lest we forget, oceans take up 71% of the Earth’s surface.
Legality – 3
If not for being a skilled legal negotiator, Ursula might get the top spot. However, her cunning and deal-making skills actually lose her points here. Sure, getting Ariel to sign a legally binding contract without legal counsel or a parent present isn’t great, but a deal is a deal. She even gets Triton to sign on the dotted line, too.
Morality – 8
Legal or not, Ursula is stealing the freedom of people and turning them into slimy little undersea worms. Sure, she wanted revenge for her banishment, but she manipulates a (basically) child to get at The King. Not only that, she’d pretty much enslave all her subjects. At least she loves her pets, Flotsam and Jetsam.
Execution – 8
Ursula gets almost everything she wants, if only for a brief time. She successfully gets Triton to sign over his power, taking his crown and his trident. Her only misstep is losing focus on Eric while displaying her new powers to kill Ariel. If only she used her peripherals, she might’ve seen that expert sailing and avoided being impaled by the broken bow of that ship. It was an epic death, though.
Area of Effect – 8
It’s a bold move trying to gain control of the oceans, the Underwater Kingdom, and pretty much all the sea life of the world.
Total Evil Score: 36
Ambition – 9
If there was a bigger surprise than Dor-15 showing up at #6, I haven’t seen it. Otherwise known as Doris, this Artificial Intelligence hat decided it was done being the servant, and wanted to be the master. She tried to create a future where she was mass-produced to enslave all of humanity. Talk about an overachiever.
Legality – 8
I don’t know what the courts have to say about enslaving all of humanity to be puppets, but I know the sentencing would not be kind. Doris takes huge strides to take over the world, including attempted murder, time manipulation, and successfully altering the future.
Morality – 5
It’s tough to talk about morals when talking about a robot, isn’t it? But if we have to discuss morals, it’s not morally reprehensible to want to get out of a life of servitude. No one wants to be a servant like that. However, it IS morally bankrupt to want to control all of humanity. That’s a big swing from one side of the moral spectrum to the other.
Execution – 7
Doris actually succeeds in creating a future where she’s in control of humanity and rules the world, but she’s unable to keep that future intact. She’s defeated through the same manipulation of time that she took advantage of. Lewis simply tells her he’ll never invent her, and poof, she’s gone. She also uses Goob as a conduit, and Goob is a stone-cold dumb dumb. Pick better puppets, Doris.
Area of Effect – 8
We’re talking all of humanity here, save for the people who are willingly on her side, like Goob (aka Bowler Hat Guy).
Total Evil Score: 37
Ambition – 10
Our very first ‘10’ score of the list comes with our number five entry; the god of the underworld, Hades. Anytime someone hits a ten on this list, it’s because the category has been met with absolute totality. Case in point, Hades wasn’t just looking to overthrow Olympus, but then impose his will on the entirety of the cosmos. He’s one of only two villains to have a vision outside of “the entire world” and that deserves recognition.
Legality – 5
When it comes to the Greek Gods, legality has never really been their strong suit. Heck, Zeus himself broke so many human laws it’s hard not to consider him a straight up villain. Because of that, we’re recognizing the pecking order of Olympus politics. Hades pretty much had a massive amount of power, and just wanted to move up in the world. Unfortunately that meant taking out Zeus in some way.
Morality – 6
Keeping with the idea of gods not exactly being moral cornerstones to begin with, Hades wanted a better job. Sue him. But to get that better job, he had quite a few attempted murders, including trying to kill a baby Hercules. He also unleashed the titans on the world in an attempt to overthrow Zeus.
Execution – 7
Hades worst attribute is that he had Pain & Panic working for him, and they are two of the worst, dumbest henchmen in the history of Disney animated films. His attempts to send monsters to defeat Hercules only build Herc’s legend more. But he successfully manipulates Hercules into making a deal with him as long as Meg stays alive, and the only reason that deal is broken is by random happenstance when a falling pillar kills Meg. He then makes another deal with Hercules, but that deal is also broken. Hades can’t catch a break.
Area of Effect – 10
Hades’ rule would’ve seen him reign supreme over all of Olympus, the Earth, and the entire Cosmos. Again, trying to take the top spot in the entire universe is pretty impossible to top. Hades really did want it all.
Total Evil Score: 38
Ambition – 9
The Horned King is noted as one of the most terrifying villains in all of animated film history. He’s literally a skeleton devil warlock who wants to use the black cauldron to raise an army of the dead and rule the world. We all should be scared of him.
Legality – 9
What part about wanting to overthrow the world with an army of the undead did you not understand? Any attempted worldwide overthrow is, at the very least, frowned upon. If you want to get detailed, he also imprisons children, animals, and royalty. He also tries to throw a kid into that cauldron! World leaders and kingdoms be damned, he’s going after the kids and the animals!
Morality – 10
The Horned King, along with the rest of the entries on our list, is a perfect example of pure, unadulterated evil. This walking bag of demon bones makes no efforts to hide the fact that he wants to be a god amongst men and rule over a world of the undead.
Execution – 2
The Horned King might have taken the top spot. He was really that close. Too bad he tripped over himself in the most epic self-owning way possible. The Horned King is the ultimate example of “congratulations, you played yourself.” Get this, our Horny Boy actually gets the cauldron and activates it, right? He then immediately ruins it for himself by letting a little dog creature and a kid throw his balance off, and then got his dumb ass sucked into the cauldron to his death. It is, by definition, an epic fail.
Area of Effect – 9
The only reason this isn’t a ‘10’ is because The Horned King only limited his scope to the entirety of the Earth. Had he thought about going off-world, we would’ve bumped it up.
Total Evil Score: 39
Ambition – 8
Shan Yu may be one of the most consistently ruthless villains on our list. The warlord drove his armies over the great wall in an effort to conquer all of China, including the hollowed Forbidden City. Would he have stopped there? We’ll never know.
Legality – 8
We’ll admit, we’re a little rusty when it comes to our foreign affairs policies regarding the hostile takeover of countries, but we can’t imagine attacking a sovereign nation has a lot of legal merit. Shan Yu and his armies brought mass murder to countless innocent villages populated with men, women, and children on his way to invading a kingdom and killing it’s ruler.
Morality – 10
Do we really need to repeat the mass murder part? He has the deaths of hundreds, maybe thousands of people on him. Shan Yu showed ruthlessness unlike any other in his quest to dethrone the Emperor. That means innocent men, women, children, POWs, and more weren’t safe.
Execution – 7
As a military leader, Shan Yu led a nearly perfect campaign through numerous battles and into China. He lost most of his army due to a genius-level strategic counter from Mulan and Li Shang , but still found his way into the Forbidden City. He’s literally a swing of his sword away from victory, but is stopped by Mulan, who blows him the hell up with the help of Mushu.
Area of Effect – 8
At the very least, we know Shan Yu was coming for China, as well as the multiple countries that probably fell to him during his campaign. He probably had designs to take on the rest of the world, but we’ll never get to see them.
Total Evil Score: 41
Ambition – 8
Frollo is one of the best, most evil, most terrifying and complex Disney villains of all time. He is a religious zealot, a hypocrite, a sadist, and a genuinely evil man who wants to commit genocide on the gypsy populating of Paris in his twisted crusade to wipe out sin.
Legality – 8
Frollo had the benefit of holding a position of spiritual power in the city, using and twisting that position to gain legal and political favor as well. Despite all this, his actions are abhorrent. He is guilty of attempted murder and actual murder, and is the only villain on this list who attempts to rape a character. Genocide. Frollo committed and wanted to continue genocide.
Morality – 10
The best thing about Frollo, which also makes him one of the most evil villains, is that he totally believes in his mission and believes it to be true and righteous. His hypocrisy and self righteousness is what makes him so terrible, the least of which is highlighted by the way he way he treats Quasimodo with disdain and cruelty rather than what his religion would dictate: kindness and compassion. His views of others have become so twisted and perverse that he’s pushed to take the lives of so many people. His song “Hellfire” is incredible. It’s an absolute banger that details his grappling with his twisted worldview. He literally sings about lusting after Esmeralda, and that if she will not be with him, then she will die. Holy shit, indeed.
Execution – 9
Over his 20 years of rule, Claude Frollo has hundreds, likely thousands of murders committed in the name of his crusade. He’s driven mad with lust and rage, to the point of where his previously loyal subjects turn against it. Even with all that, he’s inches within victory until ACTUAL DEVINE INTERVENTION takes him out. Remember, Frollo trips and grabs a gargoyle, which them seemingly comes to life and plunges him into the fiery molten copper, which serves as a perfect representation of literal Christian Hell.
Area of Effect – 7
Frollo used his powerful position to control the entire city of Paris, it’s inhabitants, and even it’s leaders. Having one hypocritical monster lording over an entire city is a tall tower for anyone to climb; fortunately Quasimodo was there to climb it.
Total Evil Score: 42
Ambition – 10
Jafar takes the top spot, and is official the most evil Disney villain according to our flawless scoring procedure. Jafar had so many different plans going at the same time, including overthrowing the Sultan and taking control of Agrabah, forcing Jasmine to marry him, and then wanting to become the most powerful being in the universe. Considered one of the best Disney villains of all time, a man with such high goals would certainly phenomenal cosmic powers to achieve them. He wanted the gold and rule.
Legality – 7
Jafar is the second most powerful person in the kingdom, and a lot of his actions could be justified because of it. Overthrowing the Sultan, however, that’s just too big a crime to ignore. In his time, Jafar is guilty of multiple attempted murders, kidnapping, conspiracy to commit treason, as well as being an accessory to murder, and wrongful imprisonment. Still, the fact that he overthrew the Sultan using magic to remake reality absolve him of the TRUE legal ramifications, doesn’t it? You can’t be charged with overthrowing the Sultan if you ARE the Sultan, can you?
Morality – 10
What a power hungry, evil, selfish pile of garbage Jafar turned out to be. The man is just greedy, looking to take control of the kingdom and it’s subjects, and then escalating more and more. It’s not like he ever really wanted the best for the kingdom or it’s people. His greed pushes him to first become Sultan, then to become a powerful sorcerer and attempt to take Jasmine, then to finally become an all-powerful genie. He’s a crooked, slimy, lying trash person.
Execution – 7
Jafar gets everything that he wants, and we see him get to revel in his success, if only for a short time. He successfully manipulates the sultan for years, gets the lamp, and actually becomes the Sultan of Agrabah. After that, he succeeds in becoming sorcerer and then, for a brief moment, is the most powerful create in all of the cosmos. His execution would be higher if it took more than a little mind trick from Aladdin, suckering him into the servitude of becoming a genie. This is all your fault, Jafar, but you get onus points for not getting killed, at least.
Area of Effect – 10
Jafar is one of only two villains on our list (the other being Hades) to have more than just the world in his sights. Once Jafar got the power of the lamp, he kept kicking it up a notch, becoming the most powerful being in the galaxy. If you have cosmic powers, then the cosmos have a reason to be scared of you.
