20. ZIRA
Suzanne Pleshette, The
Lion King II: Simba’s Pride (1998)
Exiled with many other lions for being Scar’s most loyal
follower, Zira feels that she’s being punished for that loyalty. She grooms Kovu (Jason Marsden) to usurp
Simba’s rule, and even decides to use his feelings toward Kiara to her
advantage. The whole time she’s been
relatively dismissive toward her weaker, but more loyal son Nuka (Andy
Dick). When Kovu’s hesitation prompts
Nuka to sacrifice his life, she feels both grief for her loss and guilt for her
treatment of him. In addition to being
surprisingly complex and effective for a Disney direct-to-video villain, she
also sings a pretty good song in the form of a twisted lullaby.
19. JUDGE CLAUDE FROLLO
Tony Jay, The
Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
Adapted from a conflicted priest in the book, Frollo is
still a very effective villain.
Certainly one of the more vile Disney foes, he’s a self-righteous
authoritarian whose penchant for cruelty, torture, and malice is only slightly
tempered by his devout Catholicism. He
would have murdered an infant Quasimodo had the archdeacon (David Ogden Stiers)
not shamed him out of it (and then moronically tasked him with caring for the
child). He then raises Quasimodo (Tom
Hulce) in isolation and psychologically abuses him to indulge his desire for control. In a bold move for Disney, he nurses a sexual
attraction to Esmeralda (Demi Moore) which culminates in a desire to kill her
if he cannot have her. He expresses this
with a twisted prayer that’s also one of the better songs in Disney canon.
18. COMMODUS
Joaquin Phoenix, Gladiator
(2000)
Commodus is a murderous, power-hungry, and devious
supervillain enhanced by a great performance from Phoenix (who deserved an
Oscar far more than Russell Crowe). His
vileness is exemplified by his willingness to have children murdered and his
incestuous lust for his sister. He
effectively uses all this to threaten Lucilla (Connie Nielson) into betraying
Maximus. The only serious villain on
this list based on a real person, he’s arguably far more evil than the real
Commodus. Lucius Aelius Aurelius
Commodus was certainly a violent and unhinged megalomaniac, but he was also
more weak-willed, delusional, and impulsive than the movie depiction. If you were a Christian, his reign was
certainly an improvement over that of Marcus Aurelius.
17. MOK SWAGGER
Despite being a painfully obvious parody of Mick Jagger
in name and appearance, Mok is a pretty fun villain. So egotistical he flies into a rage when his
concert is one seat short of selling out, he resorts to conjuring an
apocalyptic demon to enhance his influence and power. He’s a very charismatic villain, charming
Angel (Susan Roman) so he can use her voice to summon this monstrosity. When Omar (Greg Salata/Paul Le Mat) is rude to
him, his reaction of suppressed rage is one of the more amusing parts of the
movie. One has to credit animator Robin
Budd for bringing one of the more intentionally grotesque characters of this
movie to life with such expressiveness. Props also go to voice actor Don Francks.
Mok has style and also has a pretty good villain song.
16. KRONK PEPIKRANKENITZ
Patrick Warburton, The
Emperor’s New Groove (2000)
Kronk is a lovably buffoonish henchman with a heart of
gold. His chemistry with Yzma (Eartha
Kitt) is amusing, and he’s one of my favorite comedic villains, even if he’s
not particularly evil.
15. AGENT SMITH
Hugo Weaving, The
Matrix (1999)
Agent Smith is actually a relatively relatable
villain. He’s not a power-hungry sadist,
but rather a man with a job to do who, like most of us, doesn’t particularly
care for having to work. In an
interesting inversion of this trope, Smith, a sapient computer program, finds
the sensory environment we use to interact with the world frustrating and
annoying. Like many normal people he’s
motivated to get the job done just so he can go home at the end of the day and
not have to worry about it. That
doesn’t, however, stop him from being very good at what he does while
maintaining a stoic demeanor most of the time.
Weaving’s distinctive performance complements the G-Man motif of this
character. Unfortunately, Smith’s forced
resurrection in the sequels negates his more identifiable elements and reduces
him to some sort of philosophical boogeyman.
14. SHAN YU
Miguel Ferrer, Mulan
(1998)
Unlike most Disney villains, Shan Yu isn’t flamboyant or
weak. He’s a strong, intelligent
military leader who presents a constant, ominous threat to China and its
people. He even murders children with
glee. Despite Doug Walker’s absurd
assertion to the contrary, he has some of the best lines ever uttered by a
Disney villain. Joking about murder with
a surprisingly sharp wit makes him cringeworthy
in a good way.
13. RAOUL SILVA
Javier Bardem, Skyfall
(2012)
An undeservedly awesome strawman version of Julian
Assange, Silva (real name Tiago Rodriguez) has no qualms about endangering UK’s
finest by spreading classified information about them to terrorists. His story is suspiciously similar to
Trevelyan’s, but his motivation makes far more sense. While he was operating outside his brief as
an MI6 agent, he still got royally screwed over by M, and the suffering he went
through justifies his vendetta against her, if not his actions. The experience also left him with a distinctive disfigurement. A charismatic villain, he tries to use M’s
failures to convert Bond, whom he sees as a potential kindred spirit. While he fails at this secondary goal, he
ultimately succeeds in what he truly wanted to do: humiliate M and kill
her. In other words, he’s a rare villain
who wins. Bond only succeeds in preventing him from
fully savoring his victory; he seems more annoyed by his mortal wound than
disturbed by it. Javier Bardem has a lot
of fun with this role, and his performance, while somewhat hammy, is truly
entertaining. My only complaints about
this character are his slightly derivative nature in relation to Trevelyan and
his use of Hollywood hacking.
Unfortunately, the inferior Spectre
tried to make an unconvincing attempt to retcon him into a rather unreliable
underling to Blofeld.
12. CLERIC ANDREW BRANDT
Taye Diggs, Equilibrium
(2002)
While Preston stars out as an honest authority figure who
believes in the system, Brandt seems to be a corrupt peon who uses it for his
own gain. When the former begins to have
doubts about his role, Brandt suspects and watches him like a hawk. He often toys with Preston in the most
devious and sadistic ways, clearly enjoying watching our hero squirm as he
tries to talk his way out of situations without fighting. He takes particular joy in watching Preston
stand by as innocents are murdered. At
the end of the movie, when he and Preston finally face off in an honest fight,
he smugly taunts his enemy only to be instantly and humiliatingly
defeated. In almost any other movie, I
would find this to be crushingly anticlimactic (I’m looking at you, Shane), but Brandt is the kind of
villain that makes such a death so satisfying.
Taye Diggs has a great performance, and I love the tense rivalry between
the two characters that defines the movie’s tone.
11. MADAME MIM
Martha Wentworth, The
Sword in the Stone (1963)
Mim may be one of the more understandable Disney villains
in her motivation. While she is definitely
evil as she is willing to murder a child, she only does so because he’s
Merlin’s follower. Heck, she even
expresses momentary regret with what she “has” to do. Seriously, Merlin is pretty shady. His
motivation is trying to groom a child to become king (against his will) so he
can rule the country through him. With
this in mind, Mim almost comes off like a very immoral anti-heroine. It also helps that turns into a fat
dragoness.
No comments:
Post a Comment