Disney has brought countless stories to life, captivating audiences with timeless heroes and memorable adventures. However, behind every great story is a compelling villain, whose schemes and misdeeds create the tension that drives the narrative forward. They’re one of the four pillars of a successful Disney film. Every Disney fan will agree that the most important elements of a Disney film are the quality of the songs, the believability of the romance, the cuteness of the obligatory character designed to sell toys, and the effectiveness of their villain. From wicked queens and scheming sorcerers to cunning animals and ruthless conquerors, Disney villains are as varied as they are iconic. Their unforgettable personalities, unique motivations, and sinister actions have cemented their places in our hearts and minds. Here’s a look at some of the greatest Disney villains, whose dark deeds and unforgettable personas have left an indelible mark on the world of animation and live-action.
These are the 100 Greatest Disney Villains of All Time.
20. Pete (Various) | Mickey Mouse (Shorts)
Pete was originally created to be Mickey Mouse’s arch nemesis but it soon became apparent that his assholeness couldn’t be relegated to just one character. The only bad guy to menace every single major old-school Disney character (even Oswald the Lucky Rabbit), Pete (Jim Cummings) is the Swiss Army Knife of d-bags. Instead of creating new baddies, the animators just used him however they saw fit. He can be a steamboat captain to torment Mickey, a cowboy to threaten Donald, and even a used car salesman to agitate Goofy. He’s an all-purpose jerkass.
–Sailor Monsoon
19. Dr. Facilier (Keith David) | The Princess and the Frog (2009)
I cannot believe I sat on this one for so long because I was missing out on one of the best Disney animated films of the 21st century hands down. While the titular princess-to-be Tiana holds her own as the main character of this delightful animated tale, everyone knows that a Disney Princess movie is only as good as its villain. Enter Dr. Facilier, who despite his limited screen time leaves his mark all over this film. Case in point, he’s the reason that Tiana becomes a frog. He’s an evil and powerful voodoo witch doctor who is after the fortune of one of the richest families in New Orleans: The La Bouffs.
To accomplish this, admittingly impressive, get-rich-quick scheme, Facilier turns visiting Prince Naveen of Maldonia into a frog and steals his blood. This allows him to transform Naveen’s valet into Naveen, who is then instructed to marry the La Bouffs’ daughter, Lottie, at which point he will kill her father with a voodoo doll to gain the family fortune. Yeah, there are a lot of steps to this plan, so don’t be surprised if it all goes to hell before the credits roll. But at least Facilier has one of if not the best Disney villain song (“Friends on the Other Side”) to ever grace our collective eardrums.
–Marmaduke Karlston
18. Professor Ratigan (Vincent Price) | The Great Mouse Detective (1986)
If Basil of Baker Street from The Great Mouse Detective is a take-off of Sherlock Holmes, it stands to reason that there would be a Professor Moriarty-type character as well. Enter Professor Ratigan, the calculating and diabolical crime lord who hates being called a rat. Along with his right-hand man Fidget (who’s a peg-legged bat) and his overweight pet cat named Felicia, Ratigan plans to overthrow the monarchy by kidnapping a scientist to create an artificial Queen that will… yada, yada, yada… give him power.
His plan doesn’t matter, all that matters is that Vincent Price is voicing him. The hammiest actor who’s ever lived, Price has the inexplicable power to make every line, no matter how insane or over the top, feel sort of Shakespearean. He adds a weird gravitas to every performance and Ratigan is no exception. He chews every line like it’s a full-course meal. It’s a shame he didn’t lend his voice to more animated movies because he’s clearly having a ball here.
–Sailor Monsoon
17. Headless Horseman (Billy Bletcher) | The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow has always been one of my favorite stories and I have enjoyed nearly all its varying adaptations. But my first introduction to Sleepy Hollow and The Headless Horseman was The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, so I think that’s why I have a nostalgic soft spot for the cartoon. Schoolmaster Ichabod Crane draws the ire of town bully Brom Bones when he attempts to woo Brom’s love interest, Katrina Van Tassel. While Brom remains the antagonist for most of the story, he doesn’t exactly invoke much fear in Ichabod or the audience. He blunders every chance to gain the upper hand over his rival… that is until he realizes Ichabod is superstitious.
On Halloween night, Brom tells the tale of a ghostly figure, a headless horseman, who roams Sleepy Hollow one night a year to find a new head. This frightens Ichabod, and on his way home from the Van Tassel party, he finds himself in a life-or-death chase with the Headless Horseman himself. He is only a part of the story briefly, but he certainly makes good use of the time he is given. The cartoon builds Ichabod’s paranoia and fear in the middle of the night before the rider ever appears. Then, he’s a striking figure, sitting atop a black horse with a jack o’lantern in one hand and a sword in the other. What makes the Horseman such a great villain is his cackling laugh, his red-eyed horse, and the uncertainty as to whether or not the Horseman is a deadly ghost in search of a head or if it’s perhaps Brom in costume, eager to frighten Ichabod to death… or at least frighten him away from Sleepy Hollow. The ending is quite ambiguous as we never see what happens to Ichabod. The only thing left of him the next morning is his hat, resting near the Sleepy Hollow bridge next to a shattered pumpkin.
One of my favorite things about The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is the not knowing. One thing I do know for sure is that whether the Horseman was real or not, Brom wins in the end, marrying Katrina Van Tassel. It’s quite dark for a Disney film, even if it’s wrapped up in jaunty tunes.
–Romona Comet
16. Gaston (Richard White) | Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Before Jeffrey Katzenberg finally settled on the design of Gaston we all love to hate now, he was originally split into three different characters. Instead of one chauvinistic hunter, it was going to be three suitors, all vying for Belle’s affection. Eventually, three merged into one and that’s how we got Gaston. But not in his current form. The first attempt at Gaston was actually a foppish marquess or French nobleman. But again, that was dropped in favor of a typical brutish dickhead. While he went through the most amount of changes from concept to screen, every tweak, no matter how big or small, was worth it. An absolute egotistical asshole of the highest order, Gaston is every negative adjective in the book and yet, you still kind of love him. While you’re never rooting for him to win, you are enjoying every second he’s on-screen and that’s the mark of a truly great villain.
–Sailor Monsoon
15. White Witch (Tilda Swinton) | The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)
Whether you’re religious or not, there are few battles between good and evil as iconic as God vs. Satan, and that’s basically the showdown in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. The White Witch is our stand-in for Satan, seeking to maintain control of Narnia through manipulation and deceit. Tilda Swinton is perfect casting for the role, as she is an actress who seems like she hails from an entirely different world. The White Witch also likes to turn characters into stone, which is a power I’ve always enjoyed in a good villain. She also straight up kills Aslan (temporarily) which makes her one of the most successful Disney villains put to screen.
–Jacob Holmes
14. Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) | Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
Although he could be perceived as more of an anti-hero, Geoffrey Rush’s Barbossa nevertheless fills the villain role in the first movie, The Curse of the Black Pearl, serving as an evil counterpart to Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow. A pirate captain cursed to turn into an immortal undead skeleton in the moonlight, Barbossa has searched for years to collect all the Aztec gold pieces that the crew had spent. Only when all have been returned, and blood has been shed, will the curse be lifted. This makes Barbossa more of a tragic figure than an outright villain, which of course is the reason he has become such a beloved character in the franchise.
Of course, he’s still a villain, only choosing to become an ally to the franchise’s protagonists when it suits his greater good. He’s a character that audiences can never fully trust and that’s part of the reason he’s so damn memorable. Well, that and Rush’s performance is fantastic every single time. Depp may have begun to phone it in as Jack Sparrow in the fourth and fifth films, but Rush has never not given it his all as Barbossa.
–Marmaduke Karlston
13. Bill Cipher (Alex Hirsch) | Gravity Falls (2012–16)
The embodiment of an Illuminati symbol, Bill Cipher is the perfect zany yet terrifying villain of Gravity Falls, a series all about mysteries and secrets. Most often seen in his iconic yellow triangular form, Cipher can actually transform into some real gnarly monstrosities. But it is his sardonic wit coupled with his insatiable thirst for power and evil that make Cipher one of the greatest villains in Disney—pretty rare for a villain on the TV side. Where Disney sometimes likes to hold its villains back, Cipher makes no qualms about killing children and poses a real threat in addition to being an endlessly interesting antagonist for Dipper, Mabel, Grunkle Stan, and the rest of the Gravity Falls crew.
–Jacob Holmes
12. Hopper (Kevin Spacey) | A Bug’s Life (1998)
Is it weird that I thought James Woods voiced this character? A violent, ruthless and manipulative thug of an insect, Hopper leads a gang of grasshoppers that intimidate a colony of ants into providing them with food. While Hopper is smart enough to realize that the ants outnumber the grasshoppers, he’s also arrogant enough to believe he can keep them all in line with fear and violence. Hopper believes that mercy is weakness and kindness a flaw. When the colony finally rises against him to protect the queen (and Flick), Hopper somehow believes that he can still turn all this around, that on another day he’ll be able to use the same tools of violence, intimidation and individual strength to cow the population into obedience again. Maybe he’s right, but the thing so-called “strong men” (or strong insects) forget is that there’s always someone stronger. Sometimes that’s a lot of someone’s working together. Sometimes it’s just a pissed off bird.
–Bob Cram
11. Yzma (Eartha Kitt) | The Emperor’s New Groove (2000)
A hodgepodge of different character traits lifted from other Disney villains, Yzma is Jafar and Ursula mixed together, with a little bit of the Evil Queen thrown in for good measure. She is Kuzco’s advisor who seeks revenge after he fires her for secretly running things behind his back. Using her vast knowledge of alchemy and science, she devises the perfect revenge plan: to turn him into a flea, put that flea inside of a box, and then put that box inside of another box, mail it to herself and when it arrives, she’s going to smash it with a hammer.
After realizing that that plan had too many steps, she plans to just poison him instead. But since Kronk mislabeled the vials, she accidentally ends up turning him into a llama instead. The first and last villain whose vanity, hideous appearance, and evil intentions are played for laughs, rather than menace, Yzma stands alone as the only main Disney villain who’s arguably funnier than the lead.
–Sailor Monsoon
30-21 | 10-1
What do you think of the selection so far? Who do you think is in the Top 10?