Disney is renowned for making very typically family orientated films and TV series. The main characters are usually either the lovable heroes or heroines, or the good-natured ones who children can identify easily with. Either way, it seems that they who always have a happy ending. Such examples of this are the puppies (from 101 Dalmatians), Ariel (The Little Mermaid), Aladdin (Aladdin), Simba (The Lion King), Buzz Lightyear and Woody (Toy Story), Nemo and Dory (Finding Nemo), and Rapunzel (Tangled) just to name a few.
But when we think of these storylines singularly, it is virtually impossible to ignore the role that the film’s villains play in the development of not only the plot, but of the characters themselves.
So is it so wrong then, to praise these wonderful creations?
Personally, I think not. I think that each villain created makes a statement on the power of corruption on humanity; the power of evil.
Disney’s first feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937) was adapted from the fairy tale originally written by The Brothers Grimm. This tale tells of a “wicked witch”, introduced as Queen Grimhilde, who fears that Snow White’s beauty will one day surpass her own, and in turn forces her to work as a maid. Queen Grimhilde is depicted as greedy, power hungry and somewhat narcissistic – the typical portrait for a villain.
The evil queen is only one of a myriad of villains to scale the silver screen in a Disney setting since its feature film inception all those decades ago. Another noted villain is the 101 Dalmatians villain and fur crazed maniac, Cruella de Vil, whose name is directly derived from the words “cruel devil”. Introduced in the 1961 feature film, she is shown to be a very wealthy, powerful, and rather tall woman with black and white plaited hair (and something of a fetish for animal fur coat, let’s not forget). Throughout the story, she attempts to kidnap her tenant’s newborn one hundred and one Dalmatian puppies, since they were not for sale. When she does kidnap them, they are taken to her huge country house and she orders her assistants to kill and render the puppies immediately. The puppies escape, however, and Cruella’s car is destroyed in the chase. It is her love for animal fur coats, and contempt for the lives and safety of everyone (puppies especially) around her that makes her one of Disney’s top villains. In 2002, Forbes magazine ranked Cruella de Vil as the 13th wealthiest fictional character in history, and in AFI’s 100 Heroes and Villains she was listed as the 39th greatest villain of all time.
We now take a jump to Disney’s 1992 classic interpretation of Aladdin, a story that combines the power of evil with the power of sorcery. It is in Aladdin that we are introduced to the power hungry sorcerer, Jafar – Grand Vizier to the Sultan. Jafar uses manipulation and trickery to convince the “diamond in the rough”, Aladdin, to enter a hidden cave and extract a mystical lamp for him – a lamp that contains a genie, and of course three wishes. Jafar then steals the lamp from Aladdin, and uses it to wish himself the position of Sultan, in an attempt to force Aladdin, the princess and the now former Sultan to bow to him. When they refuse, he wishes to be “the most powerful sorcerer in the world”. He then uses his magic to force them to bow to him. Jafar, then noticing the power that the genie holds over the world, wishes to be a genie. The genie grants his third and final wish, making Jafar into a genie like himself. Aladdin then reminds Jafar that genie lore states they cannot leave their lamp without being summoned, and forces Jafar back into the lamp. Therefore, due to his lust for power and lack of critical thinking, he is trapped forever as a genie. He is noted, however, for being one of the only Disney villains to actually achieve his intended goals, albeit for five minutes.
The fourth and final villain comes from Disney’s single most successful film to date, The Lion King, which raked in over 783 million dollars in the box office. The villain in this epic masterpiece is identified only by the signature mark on his left eye – Scar.
Scar is King Mufasa’s brother, and heir to the throne – until the birth of Mufasa’s son, Simba. Scar, discontent with the idea that he will never be king, hatches a plan with his hyena followers to eliminate his brother and new nephew, and gain power. When Simba is just a cub, Scar lures him to a very tall and narrow gorge, and tells him to practice roaring, while Scar walks away to get Simba a surprise that is “to die for”. Scar then gives his hyenas the signal, and they begin to chase a herd of blue wildebeest into the gorge. Scar then runs to Mufasa to inform him of Simba’s predicament. Mufasa enters the gorge amid the charging wildebeest and places Simba on a nearby rock above the gorge, but is swept into it himself by the stampede. Simba, running for cover, does not see the events that unfold next: Mufasa leaps from the gorge, and begins to climb it. As he approaches the top, Scar grabs hold of him by the paws and throws him to his death. Scar then convinces a weeping Simba that the stampede was entirely his fault, and orders him to run away and never return. He then orders the hyenas to kill Simba. The hyenas fail, unbeknownst to Scar, who assumes his place as king.
Towards the end of The Lion King, a grownup Simba returns to the now barren Pride Lands to confront his evil uncle, and eventually throws him off a cliff, where the hyenas, which he had denounced merely minutes ago, maul him to death. In the end, it was Scar’s fear of losing power, and his natural instinct to lie and betray that was his undoing. This reinforces the idea that villains are typically a symbol of greed, corruption and decadence.
Scar is no doubt one of the most evil and determined villains to ever stalk the big screen, in my opinion. Scar is seen as one of Disney’s greatest villains for his determination, his cunning and intellect, and (most importantly) the fact that he is the only Disney villain to date to commit murder. He is a typically jealous and proud character with a somewhat narcissistic personality that is all too evident throughout the film.
We can therefore see from this that the villains in Disney films are not only the antagonists and the darker characters in the plot – they are the reason for the plot itself. They are as much a part of the storyline as the heroes and settings themselves, and they should be praised accordingly.
