Top 20 Worst Things Done by Disney Villains

“Frozen” (2013)
This beloved movie managed to turn the old love-at-first-sight trope on its head. It’s a good thing too because there was a time Disney was very guilty of leaning into it. Princess Anna thinks Prince Hans is in love with her, but in reality, he’s just scheming to take over the kingdom of Arendelle. For first-time viewers expecting the standard fairy tale formula, his betrayal comes as a total shock. Not only does he leave Anna to die after Elsa accidentally freezes her heart, he tries to murder Elsa too. Although Elsa’s the one with the ice powers, Hans is the coldest character in the movie.

How low would you sink to rise to the top? Well, we know how low Randall Boggs would! He’s willing to kidnap kids and scare the living daylights out of them just to impress his boss. To be fair, everyone at Monsters, Inc. makes a living by terrifying children. But Randall’s Scream Extractor takes it a step further. We’re also not exactly inclined to believe he plans to get them home safe and sound after he’s done scaring them half to death. Like a true villain, he’s prepared to take down anyone who gets in his way, including his colleagues, Mike and Sulley.

Given the danger that humans pose to wildlife, we can kind of understand why Shere Khan wants to get rid of Mowgli. After the tiger threatens his life, Mowgli decides to leave the jungle for the safety of the wolf pack. But this isn’t enough for Shere Khan, who expected the pack to simply hand the boy over. In retaliation, he murders the pack leader in cold blood. This brutal death comes out of nowhere, and cements Idris Elba’s version of Khan as one of the scariest Disney villains in recent memory.

Poaching animals is bad enough, but Percival C. McLeach also has no qualms about killing a little boy. In fact, he clearly seems to enjoy the prospect. When he accidentally snags Cody in one of his animal traps, he soon discovers that the boy knows how to find the beautiful and elusive golden eagle. Still, Cody refuses to betray his feathered friend, even after McLeach imprisons him. Eventually, the poacher tricks Cody into leading him to the nest. Once he captures Marahute, he tries to throw Cody into crocodile-infested waters. That is one bloodthirsty hunter!

It takes a truly evil villain to try to kill 99 puppies. And not just kill them, but skin them for coats! It’s true that Cruella doesn’t plan to carry out the plot herself. She saves that horrifying task for her henchmen, Horace and Jasper, who at least seem a bit reluctant to go through with it. Cruella is, of course, the one with the motive and the person who puts the entire plot in motion. Anyone who puts material items over the lives of living beings deserves a fate befitting of a Disney villain. Cruella got off easy, if you ask us.

Be careful who you disappoint – you might accidentally turn them into a supervillain! As a kid, Buddy was obsessed with Mr. Incredible. As an adult, he’s obsessed with making superheroes obsolete, and he’ll kill as many of them as he has to in the process. Buddy – now the supervillain Syndrome – tricks the supers into coming to his tropical island to fight his powerful weaponized robot. This enables him to constantly improve the machine until it’s ready for its ultimate test: Mr. Incredible. We don’t know exactly how many supers Syndrome’s robot has killed, but it appears to be at least dozens.

When a fire breaks out at the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology showcase, Hiro’s brother, Tadashi, in a truly selfless act, rushes back inside to save Professor Callaghan. While Callaghan makes it out no problem, it’s Tadashi who’s killed when the building explodes. Unbeknown to everyone, Callaghan was the one who started the fire so he could steal Hiro’s microbots and get revenge on the man responsible for his daughter’s disappearance. When Hiro and the gang track him down, he tries to kill them too, and almost succeeds. Professor Callaghan is so obsessed with payback that he doesn’t care how many innocent people he hurts.

Ursula pretends to help people but, in reality, she takes advantage of those in desperate situations. When they can’t keep their end of the bargain, she turns them into tiny monsters that she keeps imprisoned in her garden. They can’t move or speak, and seem to spend all of their time writhing in agony. As we soon find out, the contracts aren’t even fair because Ursula cheats to get what she wants. From the looks of it, she’s done this to dozens of merpeople, and there’s no telling how long some of them have been trapped. Plus, it doesn’t do a whole lot for the decor of her lair, does it?

Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear seems cuddly and friendly on the outside but, behind the scenes, he rules Sunnyside Daycare with an iron fist. This backfires when Woody, Buzz, and the gang refuse to submit to his dictatorship, and he ends up at the dump with all of them. As a conveyor belt carries them toward an incinerator, Woody helps Lotso escape so he can reach the emergency stop button. Instead of helping save everyone, he leaves them all to die. This leads to what is probably one of the darkest scenes ever showed in a kids’ movie. Lotso sentences his fellow toys to a fiery doom, even though saving them would have been as easy as pushing a button.

Greed can be a powerful motivator. Governor Ratcliffe believes that the Powhatan tribe is hiding gold, and he’s prepared to do anything to get it. That includes trying to wipe out the entire tribe. When John Smith is captured, it’s just the excuse Ratcliffe’s been waiting for to rally the white settlers and declare war. Even a truce between the two parties isn’t enough to stop him. In an attempt to assassinate Chief Powhatan, he shoots John Smith instead. Needless to say, this doesn’t go over well with the other colonists.

An ancient woman kept immortal by a magical flower, Gothel is desperate to stay young, and possibly alive, when the flower is given to the kingdom’s ailing queen. When its powers are passed on to the queen’s daughter, Rapunzel, Gothel kidnaps and imprisons her in a tower to hoard these powers, using psychological abuse and manipulation to keep the girl prisoner. When Flynn appears ready to take Rapunzel away from her, Gothel resorts to stabbing him and holds his life hostage to ensure that Rapunzel stays with her forever. We’re all for living longer, but not at the cost of others’ lives.

The stepmother and stepsisters of the title character, Lady Tremaine and her daughters are incredibly cruel to Cinderella, heaping psychological abuse on the poor girl, while also treating her like a servant. Their behavior isn’t even motivated by some relatable purpose though, instead being petty jealousy over Cinderella’s natural beauty and charming personality, which she can hardly help. What is relatable though is the neglect and mistreatment she experiences at their hands, since all too many in the real world can unfortunately empathize with her.

An opportunistic and greedy man, the Coachman is presumably the owner of Pleasure Island, an amusement park frequented by young boys, who then magically turn into donkeys after enough time spent there. The Coachman then imprisons and sells the transformed children into forced labor in mines and circuses when they can no longer speak; dooming them to silent, nightmarish slavery for the rest of their lives in the name of profit. Worst of all, unlike many Disney villains, the Coachman is never stopped or punished for his deplorable crimes.

Gaston's quite the guy... just not in a good way. The town hero may be one of a kind, but we’re glad of that fact, given that the creep imprisons Belle’s father to extort our young book lover into marriage. Gaston goes further when Belle rejects him though, using his charisma to gather the town against Beast, and when that goes awry and he loses to the transformed creature, the treacherous lout even stabs Beast in the back after being spared. This last act quickly proves his undoing though.

The lord of the dead may be affable, but he’s definitely not the nicest god around. While consulting the Fates about his plans to take over Mount Olympus, Hades learns his plan won't work if Hercules grows to adulthood. This leads him to order his minions to murder the young godling by giving him a potion to make mortal, and therefore vulnerable to death. There's a slight flaw, as Herc retains his super strength, but it’s still attempted child murder. It may not even have been the first time Hades tries it, that spiked pacifier didn’t look all that child-friendly.

Maleficent takes being snubbed for a party way too seriously. Of course, given what Aurora's father Stefan did to her in “Maleficent,” her reaction is a bit more understandable. When the evil fairy is not invited to Princess Aurora’s christening, she gate crashes it anyway, cursing the infant child with death... albeit in 16 years’ time after pricking her finger on a spindle and the curse is altered by one of the good fairies. Maleficent eventually succeeds in putting Aurora to sleep and then attempts to kill her would-be rescuer, Prince Phillip. Granted, she’s evil and murderous through and through, but if she needs to transform into a cool dragon while she goes about doing bad things, we’re not complaining.

A charismatic musician, actor, and symbol of Mexican pride, Ernesto de la Cruz is far more sinister than his handsome visage would suggest. When he was just starting out, Ernesto worked with his friend Hector, who was his song writer. However, Hector wanted to quit so he could return to his family. Rather than give up the songs that led to his success, Ernesto murders Hector by poisoning him and steals credit for his songs. Stealing credit for your best friend’s accomplishments is bad enough, but killing them to get away with it is another level of despicable!

The younger brother of the King Mufasa, Scar saw his ambition to succeed his sibling dashed by the birth of his nephew, Simba. But, in order to attain his lofty goals, Scar is willing to sink to low depths indeed. The villainous lion schemes with the hyenas to lure Mufasa into a stampede by putting Simba in danger. Yet, when this fails to kill his brother as intended, Scar takes a more direct approach, throwing Mufasa off a cliff to be trampled. We’ve seen plenty of killers so far, but killing your own family, especially a sibling, is particularly deplorable.

The Hun Army, led by the merciless Shan Yu, invade China after the Great Wall is built; seeking to assert their strength and to conquer the land. Soon after entering the country, Shan Yu deduces that the army is camped near a village by examining a doll. The army then proceeds to raze the village to the ground, slaughter its people, as well as the army nearby. The brutal reality of war and civilian casualties is horrific enough and seeing it in a Disney film is jarring but incredibly affecting.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

The Evil Queen Tries to Kill Snow White, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (1937)
Envy Is One of the Seven Deadly Sins for a Reason

The Horned King Wants to Take Over the World with an Army of the Undead, “The Black Cauldron” (1985)
This Scene Gave a Lot of ‘80s Kids Nightmares

Madame Medusa Kidnaps an Orphan, “The Rescuers” (1977)
We Don’t Have to Say Stealing Children Is Bad, Right?

Screenslaver Almost Crashes a Yacht Into a City, “Incredibles 2” (2018)
If Not for the Heroes, Thousands Might Have Died

Charles Muntz Has Probably Killed Other Explorers, “Up” (2009)
His Obsession with the Giant Bird Got Completely Out of Hand

The fanatical Claude Frollo is easily one of Disney’s baddest baddies. Despite his apparent piousness, he uses his faith as a justification for his evil deeds, which makes him particularly loathsome. Frollo's zeal to persecute others is first seen when he murders Quasimodo’s mother by throwing her down the steps of Notre Dame. Even raising the boy he orphaned doesn’t redeem him, as he still looks to blame others after feeling lust for the first time for Esmeralda, and his haste to blame her and the other Romani people leads him to respond with attempted mass murder.