Disney movies used to be full of villains that are very much a product of their time, and would likely never fly if introduced or created in the current day and age. The best Disney villains have stood the test of time as iconic characters just as celebrated as the plucky heroes that go up against them, if not more so. However, Disney has very much changed its approach to writing antagonists in recent years, making it hard to believe that many of their most classic villains would make it past the pitching stage today.
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Disney has moved away from traditional bad guys in recent years, with most of Disney’s modern movies featuring tropes like twist villains or misunderstood family members with good intentions. The deliciously evil antagonists of yesteryear are often beholden to changing social and political values that would make them difficult to justify inflicting on audiences in the present age of cinema. Whether due to political correctness, shifting cultural viewpoints, or unacceptable circumstances, these villains were very much a product of their time.
10 Governor Ratcliffe
Pocahontas
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In the last five years or so, pop culture audiences have gotten decidedly more conservative, particularly in the case of Disney’s target demographic. As a whole, it’s very unlikely that Pocahontas would get made today, with the audiences being more aware of and opinionated on the delicate subject of American colonization than ever before. The swaggering colonizer Governor Ratcliffe would be a villain sure to infuriate both sides of the political aisle if released today, doing terrible things to Disney’s bottom line.
For many, Ratcliffe’s overt racism and xenophobia would prove to be too much for good taste, not to mention the historically inaccurate qualms many would (and do) have with the narrative of Pocahontas as a whole. It’s also prescient to realize that rising conservatism in Disney’s fanbase would mean that many might actually object to a tyrannical white settler being painted as the bad guy, even if in both the adaptation and real history, he most certainly should be. The sad fact is, there are many more Disney fans who would root for Governor Ratcliffe today.
9 Si And Am
Lady and the Tramp
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No matter how cultural values may have fluctuated in recent years, there’s no denying that some of Disney’s older characters are far too racist even for the most thick-skinned audiences today. Lady and the Tramp aged particularly poorly, full of racial stereotypes like Italian chefs Tony and Joe or dog characters like Pedro the Chihuahua and Boris the Borzoi. But by far the most egregious and alarming of them all are Si and Am, a pair of shrewd, opportunistic Siamese cats that serve as the closest thing the film has to a proper villain.
Si and Am have a brief scene in which they sing a song to themselves full of offensive Asian stereotypes, from random naming of Chinese dishes to the pair’s awful accents. It’s safe to say that Si and Am would never even be conceived in a modern Disney studio, let alone be allowed to make it into the final cut of the film. It’s no wonder the felines were scrapped from the Lady and the Tramp remake.
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8 Judge Claude Frollo
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
As the years have gone on, Disney’s increased sanitization has led the company to take fewer and fewer risks, meaning that compelling, yet disturbing villains like Judge Claude Frollo would be off the table. Frollo is a minister who abuses his position of power in the French government to carry out his religious zealotry, relentlessly persecuting the Romani peoples who live in poverty under his rule. Not only that, but he’s also responsible for killing Quasimodo’s parents and gaslighting the hunchback into believing that he is a deformed monster no one could love.
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However, Frollo’s most shocking confession is in the excellent villain song Hellfire, in which he admits a lustful desire for Esmerelda that can only be quenched with murder. This kind of narrative is far edgier than Disney would ever be willing to go today, despite how captivating Frollo’s disgusting internal struggle between his faith and his latent base desires is. It’s a good thing Disney was able to come up with Frollo when they did, otherwise one of the company’s most fascinating antagonists would likely have never seen the light of day.
7 The Pink Elephants
Dumbo
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Speaking of Disney’s best villain songs, the little known ditty Pink Elephants on Parade is a hypnotizing sequence from the original Dumbo. The Ringmaster might be Dumbo‘s primary villain, but he makes a far weaker impression than the terrifying cadre of marching pink pachyderms that terrorize Dumbo and Timothy Q. Mouse after the two find themselves in a drunken stupor. The mesmerizing imagery of the song and animation sticks out as an eerie, surreal nightmare sequence accompanied by strange disembodied vocals that are upsetting to adults and downright frightening to young children.
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The pink elephants are a throwback to Disney’s origins as an early cartoon studio, which wasn’t afraid to get surprisingly dark. In the modern day, jarring sequences like this with no bearing to the overall plot are less and less common, meaning the pink elephants would stay a swirling dream before they ever sprouted from animators’ pens. Not only that, but the fact that Dumbo needs to drink alcohol to the point of a stupor to even see the beasts is antithetical to Disney’s modern values.
6 Gaston
Beauty and the Beast
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Gaston is a very fascinating case study for a Disney villain that slowly becomes more beloved than the protagonists of his story over time. The titular Beast of Beauty and the Beast has not aged well in the modern day, being an abusive kidnapper that the film insists needed tender love and care from a beautiful woman to overcome his demons. This problematic message makes it hard to admonish the quest of Gaston, whose worst crime was being a little bit sexist and egotistical, to free his captive fellow villager from an actual kidnapper.
Gaston is obviously overtly unlikable, but there’s a certain undeniable charm to his oafish narcissism that modern audiences have weirdly begun to appreciate. Similarly to Governor Ratcliffe, Gaston would probably be hailed as the true protagonist of Beauty and the Beast by many current moviegoers, who might be more likely to actually agree with his traditional views of gender roles and individualistic values. It’s worth mentioning that Gaston is one of the most popular characters to meet in-person at Disney theme parks to this day.
5 Clayton
Tarzan
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Like Governor Ratcliffe, Clayton is another Western colonizer villain that would be sure to incite controversy if introduced to modern Disney audiences today. Serving as the main antagonist of Tarzan, Clayton first poses as a protector for Jane and her father as they embark on a scientific expedition to find gorillas in the jungles of Africa. Before long, he reveals his true colors as a poacher hoping to capture the rare, exotic animals and sell them overseas for his own personal profit.
Admittedly, Clayton isn’t an actual historical menace on the same level as Governor Ratcliffe, but his ideas of extracting the natural resources of Africa for the amusement of the Western world would amount to discussion-worthy context today. It’s unlikely that Disney would be willing to engage in such themes in a cinematic landscape that is all too aware of Africa’s tragic history of exploitation by white explorers. Not only that, but Clayton suffers one of the most grisly Disney villain deaths of all time, something that certainly wouldn’t fly with current Disney leadership.
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4 The Horned King
The Black Cauldron
The Black Cauldron is one of Disney’s most infamous flops, and perhaps its choice of villain was actually a big contributing factor as to why. The typical fantasy story sees a demonic-looking bad guy named The Horned King as its primary antagonist, who seeks the titular Black Cauldron in order to raise an army of corpses to terrorize the land with. The Horned King was single-handedly responsible for making The Black Cauldron Disney’s first-ever PG-rated film.
Much of Disney’s modern viewership has become more sensitive to demonic or infernal imagery in recent years, and The Horned King certainly qualifies as such. In many ways, he is representative of The Devil himself, making him a tough sell to the increasingly sensitive audiences of the current day and age. Not only that, but he dies in a fashion somehow even more gruesome than Clayton, with his flesh being shockingly rended from his bones on-screen.
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3 Chernabog
Fantasia
If a villain that merely heavily resembles Satan from Christian mythology would be far too much for modern audiences, there’s little doubt that Disney’s actual take on The Devil himself wouldn’t have ever made it to theaters today. Fantasia is a disconnected series of vignettes meant to show off Disney’s animation capabilities more than anything else, acting as more of a demo reel than an actual story. Still, by far the most menacing bad guy of the film was Chernabog, who menaces one of Fantasia‘s strongest sequences, Night on Bald Mountain.
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Technically, Chernabog actually gets his namesake from an infernal deity of Slavic mythology, Chernobog, but this distinction would matter little to modern audiences that would be inflicted with Satanic panic upon seeing the creature for the first time. Opening up the gates of hell itself to allow hordes of brilliantly-animated demons to fly forth, Chernabog is one of Disney’s most impressive villains ever. Still, in today’s version of Disney, it’s unlikely that the company would be willing to touch any subject matter even remotely related to Christian hell with a ten-foot-pole.
2 Jafar
Aladdin
Jafar is undoubtedly one of the greatest Disney villains of all time. A dangerous sorcerer and clever, shifty vizier to the Sultan, Jafar is able to maneuver his naive boss into whatever position he wants, barring the interference of his young headstrong daughter. Seeking to increase his magical and political power, Jafar covets the cosmic power of the Genie.
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There’s only one reason Jafar as he exists in Aladdin wouldn’t work today, and it’s the fact that he wants to marry Princess Jasmine. Considering that Jasmine is all of 15 years old canonically at the time of the first Aladdin movie, this disturbing unrequited romance would likely be way over the line for Disney to consider today, even for a character intended to be a reprehensible villain. Suffice it to say, modern Disney would likely be unwilling to put forth a plot with such disturbing implications.
1 Edgar Balthazar
The Aristocats
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Edgar Balthazar is a rare case of a Disney villain who was completely in the right, so much so that his plight wouldn’t have ever been pitched in the current age of Disney. A loyal butler to the aristocrat Madame Adelaide Bonfamille for his entire life, Balthazar is rightfully infuriated when he learns that the Madame has named her pet cats as the heir to her fortune and estate. Sure, his plan to circumvent this might border on animal cruelty, but Balthazar is completely justified in his outrage at being overlooked for the inheritance in favor of the cats.
There’s some interesting discussion to be had around the idea that Madame Bonfamille sees her literal animals as more human and worthy of wealth than her servants, a sentiment which was somehow commendable at the time The Aristocats was released. Shifting cultural attitudes have ensured that this is no longer the case, and Balthazar would be unambiguously seen as the hero of the story should his “villain” concept be pitched today. It’s hard to believe that Disney ever thought that Edgar deserved the audience’s animosity.