UPDATED, NOVEMBER 2021: The release of Disney’s 60th animated feature, Encanto, gave me the nudge I needed to go through this list (and the master list of every Disney feature) and revise and update my rankings.
One last quick little list, a totally disposable one: since we all know that the villains are the best part of any given Disney movie, I thought I’d go ahead and present my ranking of all the bad guys in all the Disney features. Sort of.
It’s not so easy to say who the “villain” is any given film (and a number of the films lack a real villain, anyway): a lot of them have henchmen, and are we supposed to count them separately? I elected just to ignore any case where there is a clear primary villain and one or more secondaries, even when I’d say that the sidekick is a significantly better character than his boss (such as Sir Hiss vs. Prince John in Robin Hood). And making things just that much more fun is the idiotic number of villains in Pinocchio. It also took me way too long to conclude that I should not put the leopard from Tarzan on the list; he would have been #28.
What follows the jump is based on all sorts of things: voice acting, design, animation, quality of the fiendish plot, and how entertaining he or she is to watch. You will note, by the way, that I do not dispute the cliché that Disney’s lady villains are typically the best.
In a more perfect world, I’d have given each one of these a little paragraph defending my choice, but I am really tired of typing by this point.
1. Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty)
2. Cruella De Vil (One Hundred and One Dalmatians)
3. Chernabog (“Night on Bald Mountain”, Fantasia)
4. Ursula (The Little Mermaid)
5. Lady Tremaine (Cinderella)
6. The Queen/The Witch (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)
7. Stromboli (Pinocchio)
8. Shere Khan (The Jungle Book)
9. Scar (The Lion King)
10. Yzma (The Emperor’s New Groove)
11. Lucifer (Cinderella)
12. Monstro (Pinocchio)
13. Jafar (Aladdin)
14. Ratigan (The Great Mouse Detective)
15. Hades (Hercules)
16. Kaa (The Jungle Book)
17. Captain Hook (Peter Pan)
18. The Wolf (“Peter and the Wolf”, Make Mine Music)
19. Mother Gothel (Tangled)
20. Dr. Facilier (The Princess and the Frog)
21. Judge Frollo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame)
22. The Coachman (Pinocchio)
23. Madam Medusa (The Rescuers)
24. The Queen of Hearts (Alice in Wonderland)
25. The Headless Horseman (“Sleepy Hollow”, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad )
26. Honest John & Gideon (Pinocchio)
27. Madame Mim (The Sword in the Stone)
28. Prince John (Robin Hood)
29. John Silver (Treasure Planet)
30. Alameda Slim (Home on the Range)
31. Gaston (Beauty and the Beast)
32. Governor Ratcliffe (Pocahontas)
33. Bowler Hat Guy (Meet the Robinsons)
34. King Magnifico (Wish)
35. Te Kā (Moana)
36. McLeach (The Rescuers Down Under)
37. Willie the Giant (“Mickey and the Beanstalk”, Fun and Fancy Free)
38. King Candy (Wreck-It Ralph)
39. Namaari (Raya and the Last Dragon)
40. Clayton (Tarzan)
41. Captain Gantu (Lilo & Stitch)
42. Bellwether (Zootopia)
43. Shan Yu (Mulan)
44. The Horned King (The Black Cauldron)
45. Yokai (Big Hero 6)
46. Sykes (Oliver & Company)
47. Mr. Winky (“Wind in the Willows”, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad)
48. Commander Rourke (Atlantis: The Lost Empire)
49. Prince Hans (Frozen)
50. The Carnotaurs (Dinosaur)
51. Edgar (The Aristocats)
52. Lumpjaw (“Bongo”, Fun and Fancy Free)