Animated Disney Villains Ranked
32. Madame Medusa – The Rescuers (1977)
An avaricious pawn shop owner who kidnaps a little girl to help her retrieve the world’s largest diamond from a cave in the bayou.
Medusa is a nasty piece of work to put it mildly. She keeps an orphaned child captive to use as her slave treasure hunter, emotionally abusing her and threatening her with alligator attack (or just plain shooting at her as a last resort).
An earlier version of the script had this featuring the return of Cruella de Vil and some vestiges of her character remain, though Medusa is more downtrodden and aggressive.
Demise by: Last seen clinging on to the remains of a riverboat with her pet alligators Nero and Brutus circling menacingly.
31. Edgar – The Aristocats (1970)
A put-upon butler out to steal his lady’s fortune by killing her beloved cats who she left her money to in her will.
One of the great pieces of facial animation paired with anguished vocal delivery (from Roddy Maude-Roxby) comes when Edgar, eavesdropping on his mistress reading her will, goes from delight to despair… “I come after the cats?!”
It’s Edgar’s sheer incompetence at evil master-planning combined with his petty jealousy and bottomless greed that makes him one of the funnier Disney baddies, continually messing up and being prone to his bum being bitten by angry guard dogs.
Demise by: Survives but is sent to Timbuktu locked in a trunk.
30. Shan Yu – Mulan (1998)
The conquering leader of the Hun army planning to take over China.
With his demon eyes and simian build and posture, Shan Yu could be accused of perpetuating “yellow peril” stereotypes, but he is still a menacing presence emphasised by Miguel Ferrer’s sinister purr and the kick he seems to get out of being unnecessarily cruel, like when he releases captured Chinese soldiers to deliver a message before having one of them shot in the back.
Demise by: Hit in the chest by a firework that launches him into a tower to explode.
Recommended for you: Mulan (2020) Review
29. The Horned King – The Black Cauldron (1985)
An undead sorcerer searching for the cursed Black Cauldron that will give him the power to summon an unstoppable army.
There’s not a lot going on with the Horned King; if the books the film is based on (“The Chronicles of Prydain”) didn’t happen to be written around the same time as “The Lord of the Rings” you might just accuse him of being a Sauron rip-off; basically a generic dark sorcerer figure. As indistinct as he is, he is brought to life by John Hurt’s menacing rasp, and his mistreatment of goblin lackey Creeper has a certain entertainment value.
Demise by: Drained of all life force and stripped to the bone by the Black Cauldron.
Madame Medusa peeling her eyelashes off haunted me as a child!!