Top 20 Worst Decisions by Disney Villains

If you’re going to keep a secret lair full of deadly poisons, you’ve got to stay organized. It’s easy to blame Kronk for messing up the assassination attempt, but he’s right: Yzma needs a better labeling system. Instead of killing Emperor Kuzco, the pair accidentally turn him into a llama thanks to a shoddy label. Things get even more chaotic later in the movie, when Yzma knocks over an entire case full of unlabeled potions. She might think she’s pulled one over on our heroes, but we have to assume she learns her lesson after she gets transformed into a kitten.

Claude Frollo has clearly never seen a Disney movie, because otherwise he’d know that falling from a height is the number one way the villains die. After falling over the ledge of the cathedral and hoisting himself up onto the gargoyle, he could easily make it back to safety. But he’s so obsessed with killing Esmeralda and Quasimodo, that he instead stands up on the gargoyle and raises his sword to deal the final blow. That, of course, is his fatal mistake. In a stroke of divine justice, the gargoyle breaks and Frollo plummets to his death. It’s a satisfying ending for one of the creepiest villains ever animated.

Flik’s plan to scare the evil grasshoppers away from the ants’ nest using a fake bird is pretty smart, and it almost works. Unfortunately, P.T. ruins everything when he sets the bird on fire. However, the ruse pays off in the end when Flik is able to lure Hopper to a real bird’s nest. Assuming it’s another trick, Hopper makes the mistake of taunting the bird instead of running for his life. The bird snatches him up and her chicks make a quick meal out of him. Considering that birds are by far the most dangerous thing around, he should have played it safe, even if he didn’t think this one was real.

Everyone knows that when you make deals with the devil, you pay the price. The money-hungry Dr. Facilier promises wayward souls to his friends on the other side, who are actually dark voodoo spirits. In return, they give him magical powers to carry out his evil plans. But when those plans go awry and Dr. Facilier can’t pay his debts, he has to pay with his own soul instead. You could make the case that his real fault was greed, or maybe even overconfidence. But there are plenty of other underhanded ways to make money without risking your soul.

Shere Khan has been hunting for the man-cub for some time, and when he finally gets Mowgli in his clutches, you’d think he’d want to dispatch him as quickly as possible. But Mowgli shows no fear of the tiger, and this annoys Shere Khan. He’s a predator, after all, and he loves the thrill of the chase. Instead of devouring Mowgli right away, he gives him ten seconds to run, and this is just enough time for Baloo to show up and save the day. Kaa the python makes the same mistake. He hypnotizes Mowgli and has an easy opportunity to swallow him. But he wastes time singing and toying with the boy, and his prey slips out of his grasp, literally.

It seems that Ernesto de la Cruz committed the perfect crime. He got away with poisoning his best friend and is still beloved by his fans, even in the afterlife. In fact, decades pass before anyone – even his victim – figures out what happened, despite Ernesto starring in a film that recreates the murder. Eventually, Ernesto makes the same blunder that brings down so many movie villains: he gets too cocky. He’s foolish enough to admit his misdeeds just a few feet away from a stadium full of people … not to mention a live video feed. The crowd – and Pepita – turn on Ernesto, and he finally gets what he deserves.

Individually, Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather are no match for Maleficent, but together, they’re a force to be reckoned with. The evil fairy’s first mistake is to cast her curse before Merryweather has bestowed her blessing, giving the blue fairy a chance to counteract the worst effects. Later, Maleficent captures Phillip – the only person capable of breaking the spell – but once again ignores the good fairies. They free Phillip from the dungeon pretty easily and even give him some sweet weapons. And just when it seems that Maleficent has him defeated, the fairies enchant his sword so that it strikes a killing blow. You’d think by that point Maleficent would have learned to take them a little more seriously.

It’s a lesson that many a movie villain has learned the hard way: don’t count on bumbling henchmen to do your dirty work for you. Hades needs to get Herc out of the picture in order to defeat Zeus. For some reason, instead of killing Herc himself, he sends Pain and Panic to turn the baby mortal and finish him off. Of course, they screw it up. Miraculously, they do manage to smuggle Hercules out of Olympus, but they fail to make sure he drinks all of Hades’ potion. This leaves him with his superhuman strength intact. It makes you wonder why Hades keeps these two around at all.

To be fair, Fagin and his motley crew are the first to drive into the subway and onto the tracks as they flee from the evil loan shark Sykes. But at least Fagin’s motorbike has a bit more maneuverability. Once Sykes’ big fancy car hits the tracks, it’s not getting off of them easily. And this is New York City – how far does he think he can drive before he runs into a train? Sykes is so blinded by greed that he sacrifices both of his dogs and eventually his own life in pursuit of a little ransom money. Don’t mess around on train tracks, kids. They’re dangerous!

This is truly a rookie mistake. Hans must be thrilled when Anna shows up at the palace nearly frozen to death and reveals that Elsa is responsible. Anna will soon be out of the way, and Hans will have the excuse he needs to take out Elsa too. All he has to do is wait with Anna until she dies and the kingdom will be his. However, he’s so eager to be king, he leaves Anna alone in a locked room to prematurely tell everyone that she’s dead. He doesn’t even bother to post a guard at the door, and a snowman is able to break in and free her. You were so close, Hans! You just needed to be a little patient.

My what a fallllll, GASTON!! Wait, that isn’t how the song goes… He may be capable of a lot, but apparently having a strong grip isn’t one of Gaston’s many abilities. While trying to kill Beast, Gaston is scaling the side of the castle in the rain and only holding on with one hand. After a skirmish, he slips right off the castle and that’s the end of it. This is of course a convenient plot device that lets the Beast remain innocent by sparing Gaston’s life, while still giving the villain an ending he deserves.

Even though you wouldn’t expect your toys to come alive and seek vengeance, torture is never a good idea. You see, Sid loved to torment his toys; he would burn them and try to launch them into space, but his favorite mode of torture was creating Franken-dolls by ripping them apart and putting them together in sinister ways. Woody rallied Sid’s victims to save Buzz, turning them against their creator. Sid’s actions are almost excusable, since he didn’t know the toys were alive, but Lotso in “Toy Story 3” was a toy himself. That psychopath left the toys to die, but the gang escapes and gets justice.

The Horned King is one of the scariest of all the Disney villains, but he sure isn’t the smartest. His entire plan for world domination revolves around the Black Cauldron, which creates an undead army. The Horned King works hard looking for the thing, even using a pig to find it, but once he finally gets it he leaves it totally unguarded. It’s not like he didn’t have the resources with all the dead guys supporting him. The lack of guards meant that little Gurgi could stop the cauldron, instantly killing the army and putting an end to the Horned King.

When you’re hanging by a thread, or a vine in this case, it’s not a good idea to cut your only lifeline ... especially when there is another vine wrapped around your neck. Clayton shows a disdain for the animals of the jungle throughout “Tarzan,” but in the end he proves himself to have much less humanity than they do. To defeat him, Tarzan doesn’t even need to get blood on his hands since Clayton unintentionally hangs himself in the vines in one of the more graphic villain deaths in the Disney canon.

He sure puts the rat in Ratcliffe. This villain is obsessed with gold and will stop at nothing to get it. He thinks the natives are hiding treasure in the new world, so he decides they need to die. His men weren’t necessarily on board with the whole mass murder thing, but they rally together when John Smith is sentenced to death by Chief Powhatan. Luckily Pocahontas stopped the impending battle, but Ratcliffe decided to fire anyway and shot John. Whether he was aiming at John is irrelevant, since John was the only reason his men went to war in the first place. He would have been better off literally shooting himself in the foot.

If you’re going to go through the effort of kidnapping a princess, then you better put some thought into your plan. When Mother Gothel took Rapunzel from her family, she took her to a hidden tower in the middle of nowhere. But it seems common sense stopped there because she kept Rapunzel’s original birthday, instead of changing it to literally anything else. You know, the same day a thousand lanterns are released in honor of the missing princess? The connection between the lanterns and her birthday lead Rapunzel to the truth, and ultimately to Gothel’s downfall.

Some Disney villains just can’t pass up an opportunity to brag. Mr. Waternoose makes the mistake of revealing his plan before he can even act on it. His power plant, which supplies power through the screams of human children, isn’t doing too well so his brilliant idea is to kidnap children to harvest their screams. This breaks ethics codes even in the monster world and luckily he reveals his plot while being unknowingly recorded and is promptly arrested. Mayor Bellwether makes a similar mistake in “Zootopia.” She reveals her plan to Judy, who is always armed with her trusty carrot pen/recorder. Will villains ever learn?

All things considered, Scar is a pretty smart lion. Psychotic, maybe, but smart. For whatever reason – let's call it laziness – he relies on the hyenas to help him hatch his plan. Everyone knows the hyenas aren't very bright and Scar himself has noted this on a few occasions. Yet he trusts them to kill Simba as a cub, which they don't do, and he trusts them not to turn on him, which they actually do. When going through a plan to kill your brother with the possibility of angering a pride of lions, it's important to remember that if you want something done right, you'd better do it yourself.

Capes may look cool, but when you're in the middle of fighting for your life, they can be extremely impractical. Capes have taken the lives of superheroes and villains alike. This is why Edna Mode has one rule when designing super suits: no capes! Syndrome may be able to build giant superhero killing robots, but when it comes to fashion, he's clueless. He foolishly adds a cape to his super suit and gets sucked into his own jet engine. And he wonders why Mr. Incredible didn't want to partner with him.

Don't you love it when a well-laid plan comes together? Unfortunately for this Grand Vizier, this did not happen. Jafar had everyone and everything where he wanted them. He'd become the most powerful sorcerer, he was the Sultan, and he was about to kill Aladdin. Instead, he lets Aladdin talk him into becoming a genie. The genie may have phenomenal cosmic power, but it also comes with an itty bitty living space. Good job, Jafar. You let your enemy convince you to enslave yourself. He really should have known better, considering his extensive knowledge of arcane lore.

Which villain’s decision do you think was the dumbest? Let us know in the comments below.