Walt Disney Animation Studios has created some of the most beloved animated films in movie history. With sixty titles currently to their credit (their sixty-first, titled Strange World, is due out on November 23, 2022), these films feature some of the most memorable characters ever put to film. However, the recent Disney films, while still giving us the memorable characters, memorable songs, and top-tier animation we’ve come to expect from them, have been sorely lacking in one area: the villains. Where are the power-hungry schemers like Jafar and Scar? Or the comedic villains like Hades and Yzma? Where have Disney’s villains gone?

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Disney’s Most Recent Memorable Villains

     Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

The two most recent Disney villains that have had any staying power come from films that came out in 2009 and 2010, respectively. The first is Dr. Facilier from The Princess and The Frog. The second is Mother Gothel from Tangled. What makes them both memorable? Let’s start with Dr. Facilier. He’s got voodoo powers, a great villain song, and he’s voiced by Keith David. That last one alone gives him an enormous boost to his memorability. The animation of the film also helps make Facilier memorable, just with the way he moves and how he can manipulate shadows into doing his bidding. His magic has its limits, though. He can’t conjure anything for himself, which is why he has to manipulate others to get what he wants. Luckily, he’s pretty good at doing just that.

Facilier is in debt to his “friends on the other side” throughout the entirety of the film, which makes him a desperate villain. If he fails, it’s his head on the chopping block. Disney’s done “deal with a devil” type villains before (Facilier joins notable names like Ursula and Hades in that particular club), but what sets Facilier apart is how all his deals seem to benefit him or are applied according to his interpretation. A unique villain with a unique style, Dr. Facilier has no issues carving out a place for himself in the pantheon of great Disney villains.

         Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Mother Gothel, like Dr. Facilier, is also very manipulative and also has a great villain song. Hers is much more darkly comedic as it’s all about her gaslighting Rapunzel and convincing her to never leave the tower she wants to escape from. Rapunzel’s hair contains the same magic power that Gothel’s been using for centuries to stay young, which is why Gothel does everything she can to make sure she always has easy access to a source of the magic. What makes Gothel so effective as a villain is how real she is.

For example, the scene where Rapunzel leaves the tower for the first time and alternates between joy at experiencing new things and terror at having gone against her “mother’s” wishes. It really shows how much emotional trauma Gothel has inflicted on her, but it also makes Rapunzel’s triumph that much more satisfying. We may not know anyone who has ever met someone who was cursed by an evil fairy when they were an infant, but we do know people who have had a Mother Gothel in their lives. This is why she’s such an effective villain.

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The “Twist” Villains

     Distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

One of the most notable trends of recent Disney films has been giving their films a “twist” villain, trying to surprise the audience with the revelation that the villain was not who the audience expected. Pixar (which although owned by Disney, doesn’t have their films included on the list of animated films released by Walt Disney Animation Studios) also got in on this act, as seen with Coco and The Incredibles 2. The problem is, these villains spend too much time hiding their true nature, so when they finally reveal themselves, we don’t get to revel in their naughtiness for very long. As a result, they don’t really make any lasting impressions on us.

Of the villains in this group, the most memorable of the bunch is probably Hans from Frozen, but mostly because his reveal as the villain is debated for its effectiveness, or lack thereof. If nothing else, these twist villains do give their films some value in re-watching them. Half of the fun in a twist is going back and watching it again, picking up on what you didn’t notice before and wondering how you could’ve missed it. Of course, if the twist is unsatisfying or uninteresting, as is the case with some of these films, then there’s a problem. Luckily, Disney seems to have moved away from this trend with their most recent movies.

No Villains

     Disney/Pixar

Instead of having a twist villain, Disney’s most recent films just… don’t have a main villain at all. This can be seen in films like Moana, Frozen II, and Encanto, which all have obstacles the protagonists must overcome; but no character in any of those films could really be called “the villain.” That’s not to say these films are worse off because they don’t have a villain. They just didn’t need one to tell the stories they wanted to tell. Plenty of great movies don’t have “villains” and the aforementioned films are still memorable in their own way, even without a major villain running around. Trends come and go, and the trend lately for Disney movies has been not to have one main “big bad” in them.

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Will The Villains Come Back?

     Disney

While it’s been more than twelve years since the last truly memorable Disney villain, that doesn’t mean that they’ve gone extinct. There is no doubt that Disney’s animated films will give us a new vile villain to grace movie screens sometime in the future. All we need is the right film with the right story to come along. Still, it would be nice if we could get that next notable nasty sooner rather than later.