Animated films, because they're mostly geared towards families and children, are especially subject to this. Because of their target demographic, they must craft their antagonist carefully so that their themes come across clearly. Because of this, animated films have given us some amazing villains over the years.
Unfortunately, not every animated film is made with care, and so we also have a heaping helping of terrible villains. Now we're here to celebrate their terribleness for your enjoyment. I present to you:
The Worst Animated Villains of All Time
First, let's take a look at some dishonourable mentions, for villains who are still crappy, but not enough so to make it on this list, as well as some that are just low-hanging fruit.
Ruber - Quest for Camelot
I couldn't remember this guy's name until I looked it up. I'd say that's a pretty good indicator of his awfulness. Despite the voice talent of Gary Oldman, Ruber was about as memorable as a French lesson.
Holli Would - Cool World
I know, I know, but the character is animated so it counts. Holli a villain who just does whatever the plot wants her to do. First she wants to have sex with a real-life person then she wants to merge the cartoon world the real one for no real reason, it makes no sense, much like the rest of the movie.
Everard Maltravers - Legend of the Titanic
A generic villain for a crazy movie with no concept of reality. But not only that, he's a whaler on the Titanic who wants to hunt whales...on the Titanic...why?
Galvatron - Transformers: Age of Extinction
Wait, you mean this wasn't a cartoon?
Roar-Omega-Roar Frat - Monsters University
A bunch of stupid frat boys as villains in a Pixar movie. We all deserve better than this.
The Horned King - The Black Cauldron
Generic, but creepy enough to not make it onto the list.
Jean-Claude - The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Golden Films)
Hmm, a pompous french guy with black hair and a red shirt trying to seduce a beautiful woman while she's being charmed by an (allegedly) ugly guy. Does this seem familiar to anyone?
Zigzag the Vizier - The Thief and the Cobbler
Dammit, Vincent Price! I'm glad he never had to see the finished product.
Gargamel - The Smurfs & The Smurfs 2
Wait, you mean this wasn't a cartoon?
Whoever this guy is - Oliver & Company
Oh yeah...who was he again?
Mr. McNasty - Pound Puppies and the Legend of Bigpaw
A generic antagonist with an idiotic plan. Seems harmless enough until you hear his atrocious musical number "The King of Everything". *shudder*.
Mrs. Mavilda - The Christmas Tree
An evil woman who runs an orphanage for no reason and spends all the government funding she gets on poker games. She also seems to have multiple personalities if her voice acting is any indication...
Ronno - Bambi II
A decent if one-note obstacle in the original turned generic bully in the direct-to-DVD mid-quel. I do not have enough face or enough palm.
Sarousch - The Hunchback of Notre Dame II
2 Hunchback-based villains so far. Weird. Anyhow, Sarousch has the honor of being the first villain to be gay for himself. Yeah, I'm not even kidding. He's creepy and not in a good way.
Mr. Freeze - Batman and Robin
Wait, you mean this wasn't a cartoon!?
Unicron - Transformers: The Movie
Boy, am I going to get shot over this one.
OK, so Unicron's back story was fleshed out in the various comic book adaptations of the Transformers, sure. I also really liked his portrayal in Transformers: Prime. Just putting that out there, because Unicron was just a Generic Doomsday Villain who turned Megatron into Galvatron and was scared of the Matrix of Leadership for no discernible reason in his first appearance. Not a good start to the Transformers equivalent of Satan.
With that out of the way, let's get into the actual list.
These are the 10 worst animated villains of all time. Starting: NOW!
10. Mother Gothel - Tangled
Now, I like Tangled as much as the next guy. It's actually one of my favourite Disney Princess movies. Unfortunately, the weakest part of the movie by far was the villain: Mother Gothel. Gothel kidnaps Rapunzel as a baby so she can use her magic golden hair to stay youthful forever, keeping her isolated in an old tower and telling her the outside world is a realm of nothing but danger. Seems like a setup for a truly evil villain, right?
If you've been paying attention you probably notice a few parallels to another Disney antagonist: Judge Claude Frollo from Hunchback of Notre Dame, who many see as one of Disney's greatest evildoers. The problem is that Gothel doesn't have as much depth or menace as Frollo does. Frollo has a cold, demanding presence whenever he walks into a room, helped immensely by Tony Jay's excellent voicework. Gothel just seems like a random annoying woman you'd meet on the street.
It's a shame because every other character in Tangled seems far more defined and memorable, with clear motivations for everything they do. Even the aforementioned Frollo does what he does out of fear of God. Gothel does what she does because...she's selfish, I suppose. A boring motivation for a boring villain.
Despite all that, Gothel isn't the worst that Disney has inflicted upon us. Her aforementioned kidnapping of a baby, leaving a King and Queen in utter despair for 18 years, and a fairly funny villain song on her part keep her at number 10. Trust me, we've got a long way to go from Mother Gothel.
9. Rasputin - Anastasia
Hoo boy, here we go.
So, have you ever heard the historical tale of Grigori Rasputin? It's actually pretty fascinating. He was a peasant-turned mystic and religious figure who befriended the Tsar and played a key part in the infamous Russian Revolution.
This movie got it pretty close. Here he's an evil wizard with a talking bat sidekick who placed a curse on the Romanov family to end their reign only to be killed and resurrected from the dead so he could kill the somehow-surviving Anastasia Romanov as an act of revenge...yeah, seems about right.
As you can tell, this character is an insult to a real historical figure with his very presence. Rasputin has been reduced to an enigmatic and interesting individual into a Card-Carrying Villain who uses magic spells and evil bugs to do his bidding. What an absolute waste.
On the plus side, if one takes him out historical context, he's not too bad a villain. He's reasonably threatening and Christopher Lloyd fits the role to a tee. It's just a shame that this movie completely destroyed a real, intriguing man from Russia's past by turning him into this weirdo.
8. Frieda - Happily N'Ever After
Now we're getting into absolute garbage territory.
Frieda, AKA Cinderella's evil stepmother ascending to godlike levels of power, is about as terrible a concept as you would think. Frieda's motivation throughout the movie is just to be evil for the sake of being evil. She hates Cinderella for reasons stupid enough to be lampshaded in the movie itself, and completely misses the point of the original character!
This movie is obviously taking a page from Shrek's book in its spoofing of classic fairy tale conventions, and thus takes a lot of inspiration from Disney works. Let's take a look at Disney's take on the character, Lady Tremaine. Tremaine is the kind of villain that could actually exist: a cruel woman who makes an innocent's life miserable. It's a simple villain for a simple premise. This movie misses the mark entirely by giving her an evil laugh and over-the-top power to turn the Kingdom of No-Name-Given into evil-town.
Frieda's one saving grace is that she's voiced by the very talented Sigourney Weaver clearly giving it her all. It's unfortunate that she got stuck in such an awful film that clearly spent more money on celebrity voices than competent writing.
7. The Phantom Virus - Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase
I think this can be used as an umbrella for all the terrible villains from the countless direct-to-DVD Scooby-Doo movies. I did choose the Virus for a reason though, don't you worry.
A lot of people really seem to like Cyber Chase, considering it to be one of the better Scooby movies, and I can see why. It's got an interesting premise and is nostalgic to a lot of people including myself. That doesn't excuse the fact that it blows, however, and blow it does.
The Phantom Virus is a sentient computer virus brought to life by cartoon science that chases the Mystery Gang through both the digital world and the real world. It has the power to manipulate electronic devices (a power it uses all of twice throughout the span of the movie) and shoot lightning from its hands (again, twice.) So you'd think this guy would be threatening right? Wrong.
Instead of being scared, the audience struggles not to laugh when they see his goofy grin and chin that could poke someone's eye out! Not only that, but he has a hilarious way of running after the gang and a laugh that just never stops! Who thought this spindly, silly-looking lightning bolt was a good design?!
Oh, and the best part? Do you want to know how he's defeated? Well, the gang figures out who made the virus as such: The culprit really likes baseball, so he programmed the virus to make baseball references at every opportunity...I am not making this up. That's like a robber leaving his signature on the wall of a bank he just stole from! This character was stupid, pointless, and not scary in the least.
Still, at least he's not Scrappy-Doo.
6. Governor Ratcliffe - Pocahontas
Remember how I said that Rasputin was insulting to history earlier? Well, at least he had some redeeming qualities about him like Christopher Lloyd's stellar performance. I can't say the same for Governor Ratcliffe.
Ratcliffe is loosely (and I do mean loosely) based on historical figure John Ratcliffe, the head of the Jamestown Colony in Virginia. Unfortunately, any humanity that the real Ratcliffe may have had was lost on the writers and animators of Pocahontas, as they just made him a generic, greedy settler hoping to exploit the natives' land for profit and power and blah blah blah.
The entire Pocahontas movie is insulting in general, but Ratcliffe dials it up to eleven with his snobbish demeanor, tiny little dog sidekick and unfounded racism against the natives. This guy's a-holishness makes a bunch of people shouting "Savages, savages!" seem reasonable after they've seen him!
Because of that, Ratcliffe makes the number 6 spot. He made a cry of war seem reasonable. Screw you, Pocahontas. Screw you and your historical tone-deafness!
5. Morgana - The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea
Hey, kids! Did you ever want to see The Little Mermaid done again, only this time in reverse with none of the charm, effort, or timelessness that was in the original?
Well, never fear! We've got the movie for you: The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea! Watch as Ariel's daughter, Melody, is drawn to the ocean as a child, just like Ariel was drawn to land, but she is forbidden from going there by her parents because of danger and stuff!
But what is this danger? It's Ursula's crazy sister (that is literally how she is introduced), Morgana! She's just like Ursula, except she's skinny! They even got the same voice actress, Patt Carroll, so you'd notice the difference even less!
Watch as Morgana pulls the exact same trick on Melody that Ursula played on Ariel, but this time she gives her a fin instead of legs! Then she does the exact same thing Ursula did, but it makes less sense!
Who needs to come up with a new villain when we can just recycle the original!? Buy it kids! BUY IT!!
No, really. Morgana is one of the laziest villain concepts in film history.
4. Kralahome - The King and I
You thought Rasputin and Ratcliffe were insulting? Meet Kralahome! Not only is this guy insulting to history, but to a well-known musical as well!
Kralahome went from a conservative and stern adviser to the King to evil wizard trying to conquer Siam. Rasputin, eat your heart out. But not only is he an evil wizard, he's an incompetent evil wizard with a racist caricature sidekick whose evil spells are defeated by the lamest things!
Evil dragon? Whistle at it!
Evil statues? Have the King's pet panther roar at them!
Just shooting down the King's blimp? Completely ineffectual!
I think "completely ineffectual" sums up Kralahome pretty well, if I'm honest. He's just Warner Bros. attempt to rip off Jafar and their own villain, Rasputin! All of these reasons combined make Kralahome a terrible villain worthy of his place on this list.
3. Sunset Shimmer - My Little Pony: Equestria Girls
Ugh. This one hurts me. Wounds me, even.
It's weird, because this definitely isn't the worst movie on the list but for some reason, some freaking reason, this movie and this villain just really friggin' irked me. Maybe it's because there's a talented cast and crew behind it, maybe it's because so much potential was thrown out the window, but I really hate My Little Pony: Equestria Girls.
One of the biggest hate sinks in the movie is Sunset Shimmer: a generic alpha b*tch antagonist with a secret plan to conquer the pony land of Equestria. Does that sound like something interesting? Well, if done right then maybe it could be. That does seem like what they're going for at the beginning, with her being the student of the Princess but running off to the human world when she couldn't get the power she wanted.
Unfortunately, this character is executed in the most idiotic way possible. First, let's walk through her actions throughout the movie:
She runs off to the human world through a portal that would be closed for "thirty moons" and attend Canterlot High School until the portal opens again.
She comes back to Equestria to steal the Element of Magic crown that she somehow knew existed even though it's only been around for however long 3 seasons takes.
She loses the crown to Principal Celestia (*sigh*) so she has to be voted Princess of the Fall Formal to get it back.
Twilight Sparkle starts running against her so she sabotages her by literally cutting and pasting photographs in order to frame her for wrecking the school gymnasium.
When that doesn't work she just kidnaps Spike and threatens to destroy the portal back to Equestria with a sledgehammer (even though it would just pass through the damned thing) so she gets the crown.
Now that she has the crown she pits it on and she somehow turns into a gargoyle that can control the minds of everyone in the school.
She announces that she will use her teenage army to conquer Equestria.
Do I even need to explain what is wrong with this plan!? How does she plan to conquer a land of magic and monsters using an army of teenagers!? Even if they all got magic powers upon entering the portal, they would still have to fight dragons, minotaurs, unicorns, pegasus, and a pair of monarchs representative of the sun and moon themselves! What kind of idiotic plan is that!?
Not only that! When she's finally defeated by Twilight and the Power of Friendship and junk, she just says she's sorry and all is forgiven! What the hell is that!? It's made clear in the movie that she's been an unrepentant bully that's been tormenting everyone in this high school for years and yet one apology is all it takes to be forgiven, apparently! God, this is so stupid!
OK...Ok...I'm calm. To be fair, in the sequels (yes, this movie got sequels) Sunset Shimmer actually got some character development with a redemption arc that actually shows the consequences of being evil, but as it stands, Sunset Shimmer the villain is a terrible antagonist that just made me angry.
2. Lady X - Foodfight!
Foodfight! is one of those rare movies that just makes you feel unclean after watching. You feel violated and disturbed like your very soul has just been defiled by the grubby hands of a deranged maniac. One of the many, many, reasons why this disgusting film has been deemed "the worst animated film ever" is the antagonist of the story: Lady X.
I mean...just look at her. The CG modeling is so bad that she looks like a plastic doll more than a living creature! It's even more disturbing when the filmmakers try to make her sexy somehow, like they just propped up the corpse of Jessica Rabbit and dressed her up like a wannabe dominatrix. Eva Longoria was tasked to do her voice and my heart goes out to her for having to read the lines the demented writers thought would leave a positive impact on us.
Even ignoring the fact that she, along with every other character in this movie, feels like she wants to jump off the screen and attack us, her in-universe evil plan is certainly something else. I can't even begin to describe it, because even I have no freaking clue what Lady's X's plan was! This film is so bad at relaying information that I seriously have no idea what the point of the plot was!
There was something involving robot Exobytes (whatever those are) and killing off product mascots before replacing their products with her own and a giant army of Nazi-looking copy-and-pasted CG models and kidnapping a cat-lady and Tim Curry's character wetting himself and enjoying it and a giant creepy mech voiced by Christopher Lloyd and I DON'T KNOW, OK!?
Then at the end her motivation is revealed to be that she was jealous that a brand of raisins advertised by the cat lady I mentioned earlier sold better than hers and so she somehow created a giant robot mech to interact with the human world so she could replace all those raisins with her own...did that make sense to you? Yeah, me neither. Don't worry. It doesn't make sense to anyone.
Then after a 30-minute climax of a horrendous CG battle between good and evil, Lady X battles the cat lady from earlier in a catfight (HA HA HA HA! Grrrr...) where she is hit so hard that it is revealed that she was secretly ugly all along...and it makes this already ugly movie look even worse.
Need I say any more? A horrendous villain for a horrendous movie. This is what many consider the worst animated film of all time, at least among ones with moderately large budgets. (45 million bucks!) So, you might be thinking to yourself: "What could possibly be worse than the worst animated film of all time?" Well, prepare yourself, because we're about to take a look at the most despicable, selfish, unkind, and downright unwatchable villain in animation history. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you...
1. Davey Stone - Eight Crazy Nights
Adam Sandler just really needs to stop making movies. He really does, because this piece of trash film might be the absolute worst thing he's ever crapped out for us to see. Eight Crazy Nights has the dubious honor of being both the worst and only well-known Hanukkah movie out there. My heart goes out to the Jewish families of the world having their holiday represented by this nine-car pileup of a film.
There are a lot of problems with this waste of celluloid, like the writing, directing, voice acting, story, characters, production, advertising, and pretty much everything except the animation (which was also wasted). But the biggest thing that makes this movie an absolute garbage heap is the villain, who also doubles as the main protagonist of the film: Davey Stone, portrayed by the man himself, Adam Sandler.
Davey is what happens when you take all the negative aspects of Adam Sandler's many characters and remove any form of likability those characters might have had. Say what you will about his other works, Grown Ups, Pixels, even Jack and Jill. As horrendous as those films are, at least they don't star Davey Stone. Davey is a selfish, antisocial, drunken, obnoxious, self-pitying, bullying, shouting, unlikable collection of disgusting human traits all compiled into one horrid character.
He regularly drinks himself blind, attempts to traumatize children, and is a piece of crap to everyone who shows him even a little kindness. When he's put on parole for resisting arrest after refusing to pay for his meal, Davey is put in the care of an old man named Whitey (also voiced by Sandler, poorly, I might add) who lets him stay in his home after his own burned down. How does Davey repay this kindness? By making a mess of everything and showing absolutely no respect for Whitey at all.
Keep in mind, Davey is a character we are supposed to sympathize with as the protagonist of the movie, and yet he's so despicable that he crosses the line into villain territory. Y'see, his parents were killed in a car crash around Hanukkah time when he was young, so his response was to become an unlikable jerkass to everyone he knew. His friends, his compatriots, everyone he ever met. He did this for 20 YEARS to become the Adam Sandler lookalike he is in the movie, and even with a tragic backstory, they still manage to make him a complete sack of crap!
Eight Crazy Nights is not only a terrible holiday movie, it's one of the worst movies I've ever seen, period. With an atrocious script and awful characters, this is definitely one to avoid at any cost!
So, that was my list of the worst villains ever to grace an animated movie with their presence. Do you agree? Disagree? Which villains do you hate the most? Leave a comment and let me know!
Until then, I'll see you next time on Cinematic Garbage. Bye bye!
Uh... Rasputin was created by Fox. Warner Bros. had no say in his creation.
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