In 2014, Disney gave us Maleficent and introduced us to the other side of the coin involving a beloved and timeless classic, Sleeping Beauty, by showing the events from before and during the original film from the villain Maleficent’s point of view. From this new perspective, we learned all about this seemingly evil fairy and found out what happened to her to make her curse a young baby. As the film goes on, we see her good side as she watches over and protects Aurora from harm throughout her life.
Maleficent got a second chance and warmed our hearts as she told her story, and we couldn’t help but wonder if there are backstories and kind souls hidden behind some of our other favorite Pixar and Disney villains. Are things really what they seem to be, or is Disney not telling us the whole truth? Here are ten villains that we think should get their own movie:
Ursula
Without the sea witch Ursula, we would not have The Little Mermaid, as it was she who took Ariel’s voice in exchange for some human legs. Ursula had the wish to rule the sea, and she even had a collection of souls she trapped as little creatures in her home.
One of the most intriguing things that Ursula says during one of her babbling monologues is, “…when I lived in the palace.” She goes onto say that she was banished and exiled. Disney left that door wide open, and we never find out why she was living in the palace or what she did to be expelled. We think Disney writers owe it to us to tie up those loose ends!
Hopper
Oh, Hopper, everyone’s least favorite grasshopper in A Bug’s Life. He rules the grasshoppers, he rules the ants, and if he could, he would probably rule the entire bug world.
We don’t know much about Hopper’s past and backstory, other than the fact that he has a brother named Molt, who drives him crazy, and that their mother passed away (Hopper promised her while she was on her deathbed that he would not kill his brother). We can’t help but be curious about the past of this mean grasshopper, and we would love to see how he made his way to the top of the bug clan.
Step Mother and Sisters
This next entry gets three villains for the price of one - Cinderella’s wicked step mother, Lady Tremaine, and her two step sisters, Anastasia and Drizella. They’ve been giving step parents and siblings bad names for decades as young children become terrified to see their single parent remarry.
However, as time goes on, kids usually learn that their new family members are actually quite nice. Is the same true for Cinderella’s next of kin? Maybe Cinderella is actually a lower class servant and just imagines that her masters are evil to make herself feel better. Come on, Disney! Bring us a positive step family movie!
Darla
Okay, so it may not be fair to label a little girl as a “villain” just because she gets excited about fish and accidentally kills them by shaking the bag too much. Still, she poses a great threat to Finding Nemo’s title character, so we felt that she should be added to this list.
She of all people is probably the most innocent because it truly doesn’t seem like she wants to cause the fish any harm. Perhaps she deserves a closer look with a film of her own where we can learn more about what she’s really like and give her a better title than “fish killer.”
Captain Hook
The movie Peter Pan has the unique quality of actually having a backstory to one of the characters - Tinkerbell! The Disney Fairies franchise has helped us to learn more about Peter’s trusted fairy friend, and in the most recent movie, The Pirate Fairy, we see the one and only Captain Hook, the main antagonist in Peter Pan.
We enjoyed getting a peak of him in this film, and we would love another one that goes more into his life. Any pirate who has a hook for a hand has got to have a good story to tell!
Sid Phillips
Sid Phillips from Toy Story has definitely got to have some sort of serious issues going on in his life for him to torture poor toys just for fun! Perhaps he has had some sort of traumatic childhood that caused him to take his emotions out on innocent play objects. Is he “bad” in other areas of his life? Does he get bad grades and not listen to his mother?
He might just be a kid who is wildly misunderstood and just needs someone to talk to. Maybe if we learned his story (and he learned to be nicer to toys!) we could be a bit forgiving.
Cruella De Vil
Cruella De Vil. If she doesn’t scare you, no evil thing will. She starred in the animated and live action versions of 101 Dalmatians as the wicked lady who wanted to use dalmatian hides for a fur coat.
Clearly she’s just a cruel and awful woman, right? After all, what good person would want to kill puppies?! Still, seeing things from her point of view would make for an interesting story. Maybe she has a good reason for wanting to capture all those dogs… but we kind of doubt it! This is one character that we actually will get to see in a live-action adaptation (with Emma Stone in the starring role)!
Chef Skinner
Chef Skinner was the owner of Gusteau’s in Ratatouille until Linguini came along as the true heir to the restaurant. Looking at his track record, we can’t help but wonder if he was really all that bad.
Sure, he hid the DNA results proving Linguini to be the rightful owner of the restaurant, and getting Linguini drunk was probably not the most ethical thing to do, but in the end, all he really wanted was to be able to keep his job and get the rat out of the kitchen! Besides, if you saw a rat touching and eating food in a restaurant, wouldn’t you call the health department too?
Mother Gothel
Taking a child from their parents is never a good thing, right? What if the parents were horribly mean and neglectful? This could just be the case when Mother Gothel takes Rapunzel from her home in the royal palace in Tangled.
Maybe it was her parents who were the evil ones, but nobody believed Mother Gothel when she tried to get help because nobody dares to speak ill of the King and Queen. Maybe we’ve seen the story completely wrong, and Rapunzel’s magical hair was just a bonus for Mother Gothel rather than the driving force of her kidnapping. Will Disney ever tell us more about her? We hope so.
Charles Muntz
In the Pixar film Up, Charles Muntz starts out as a good guy, being a brave and marvelous explorer that Carl and Ellie have always looked up to. He’s gone on countless journeys, created amazing inventions, and even learned to survive out in the middle of nowhere all by himself. What adventurous young kid wouldn’t aspire to grow up and be like him?
He has the downfall of wanting to capture (and thus kill) a rare bird to add to his collection, but we have to point out that a lot of people do that sort of thing. Many people have hunting or fishing licenses, but that doesn’t necessarily make them evil. Maybe Muntz deserves a chance to tell his side of the story.
