By: Anna Wojtas, Contributor
If you are like me, you have been wondering who the most evil Disney villain is for quite some time. But don’t worry, myself and a few friends have set out to find the answer. I started by creating a rubric to evaluate each villain, making a list of everything I thought it took to make a good villain and added it to my grading rubric; “good” meaning the most evil, obviously. We have 11 criterion, rated on a 1-5 scale; 5 being the most evil:
Did the plan work?
Was the plan actually evil?
Did the villain have a good reason to want revenge?
Do they have a cool/original outfit?
Does being evil make them happy?
Was the plan clever?
Did the villain use good strategy?
Was their plan well organized?
Did they have good henchmen/help?
Was the villain cunning?
If I saw them on the street, would I be scared?
After this rubric was created, I selected the villains to rate, including almost all of the Disney Princess collection villains that we grew up with as children. We then decided to include villains from the entire Disney collection that were created in the 2D animation style. We also negated any villains from other animation studios, such as Pixar, as well as villains that had good intentions, such as Fagin from Oliver and Company, or Te Kā from Moana. The following is the list of villains we decided to use for this experiment: Governor John Ratcliffe (Pocohontas), Madam Mim (The Sword in the Stone), Hans (Frozen), Jafar (Aladdin), Frollo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), The Queen of Hearts (Alice in Wonderland), Hades (Hercules), Ursula (The Little Mermaid), Mother Gothel (Tangled), Commander Rourke (Atlantis), Madame Medusa (The Rescuers), Lady Tremaine (Cinderella), Captain Hook (Peter Pan), The Shadow Man (The Princess and the Frog), Shaun Yu (Mulan) and Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty).
Any guesses on who is currently the most evil Disney villain in this list? If you are anything like me, you might have guessed Maleficent or Frollo. However, the current reigning most evil Disney Villain award goes to Ursula. Hear me out! I will be going down the line on the rubric!
1. Did the plan work?
a. Yes! She succeeded and gained the trident, gaining full control of the sea before she was killed by Prince Eric.
2. Was the plan actually evil?
a. Yes! She planned to take over the whole ocean and the land along with it!
3. Did the villain have a good reason to want revenge?
a. Yes! Her brother, King Triton, exiled her from court life and acted as if she never existed.
4. Do they have a cool/original outfit?
a. She made jewelry for herself out of shells. She was pretty cool – a total fashion icon.
5. Does being evil make them happy?
a. I think she was excited about her plan. She discussed it with her henchman and was pleased with her malicious actions.
6. Was the plan clever?
a. Yes! Getting to your enemy by kidnapping and stealing his daughter who is his weakness is pure (evil) genius!
7. Did the villain use good strategy?
a. Yes! She pretended that she wanted to help Ariel and actually set her up for failure and then made sure she hit a roadblock at every turn.
8. Was their plan well organized?
a. Ursula was pretty organized, having henchmen to help her along the way. She had a solid plan when it came to each step.
9. Did they have good henchmen/help?
a. Flotsam and Jetsam were great! They lured Ariel to want to talk to Ursula and pushed their rowboat over when they got too close.
10. Was the villain cunning?
a. When the plan went sideways, she got involved again personally and turned herself human to put Prince Eric under a spell. She threw things at Ariel every step of the way.
11. If I saw them on the street, would I be scared?
a. I would be a bit scared. Her magic was super powerful and she was a huge loose cannon.
After we finish each movie, we compare scores and find the average numeral score. With this all in place, we have concluded that Ursula is the most evil villain, but what do you think?
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