Mirror Mirror on the wall, who is the scariest of them all?

It's villain time! Before we get started may I just point out my opinion that Disney villains have been the funniest, freakiest, sassiest and cruelest characters produced in the history of animation. Lets consider the number one Disney villains. We will start with the females.

In most of the Disney princess movies, the villains have been mostly female (the Evil Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty, Lady Tremain in Cinderella, Ursula in The Little Mermaid and Mother Gothel in Rapunzel) and how different would these characters have been were they men? Would they have possessed the same merciless ways? The same oppressive appearances?  The same cunning schemes? What enhances their motives are the fact that like the Disney princesses they are also women which sets an incentive for competition. Its obvious Mother Gothel and the Evil Queen wanted to stay young and beautiful, but knew they would never outdo their enemies Snow White and Rapunzel and that Lady Tramaine hated the fact her daughters, clumsy and plain Drizella and Anastasia would never be as attractive as Cinderella. But who is the scariest?  
 

Being part octopus it is evident that Ursula would freak any child out, but her comical character renders her less foreboding. The Evil Queen is definitely a step closer to scary with her sinister glare,

Maleficent from Disney's Sleeping Beauty

her request for Snow White’s heart and her transformation into an old peddler with a high and wicked cackle of a laugh (I always hid behind a pillow in that part). But the female villain that has resonated in my mind as the scariest has always been the one and only Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty. From her resounding name which means ‘doing evil or harm’ there is no doubt her intentions are as evil as all the rest. Cursing an infant to die on her 16^th birthday and capturing her prince to prevent him from awakening her with true love's first kiss as well as her dark demeanor, black robes, green face and curled menacing horns help to convey her as (in her own words) ‘the mistress of all evil’.  Her army of monstrous hogs, her home in the dark and dreary forbidden mountains, her callous crow and her transformation into a gigantic ferocious dragon all help to execute a malicious villain. Well-done Maleficent.
 
Now to the males. There is no doubt that Disney male villains are rather short tempered (like Hades), selfish and pompous (like Govenor Ratcliffe), revolting and haunting (like the Horned King) violent and unpleasant (like Clayton), arrogant and stupid (like Gaston) cunning and cruel (like Scar), gross and somber (like Jafar), comical and cowardly (like Captain Hook) and fearless and frightening (like Shan Yu) but none of these guys have anything on the sinfully wicked and viciously immoral Judge Claude Frollo, enemy to Quosimodo, other outcasts and the general public in the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

As a judge, Frollo is meant to represent justice and equality, but uses his pedestal to execute cruelty and injustice to those in most need of his help. He murders Quosimodo’s Romani mother and attempts to murder him as a baby. He then raises the boy to believe he is a deformed monster and that he must never see the outside world. He allows the crowd to torture Quosimodo at the festival of fools in order for ‘a lesson to be learned’. He then intends to slaughter the innocent in search of Esmeralda and punishes Phoebus for choosing not to follow orders.  
 

Judge Claude Frollo from Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Then there’s that song; ‘Hellfire’ which actually serves as the film’s musical motif. Following Quosimodo’s ballad about Esmeralda, which refers to her as ‘Heaven’s light’, Frollo’s song demotes her as ‘hell fire,’ the cause of his sinful longing to lust with her and therefore a source of evil. The twisted part of the song lays in the beginning where he address the virgin Mary calling her to recognize his virtue and goodwill; ‘Beata Maria, you know I am a righteous man, of my virtue I am justly proud’ and then he goes on to criticize the poor who he describes as ‘the common, vulgar, weak, licentious crowd.’ Hypocritical? Just a bit. He then goes on to describe his lustful feelings towards the beautiful gypsy girl Esmeralda blaming her as ‘the witch who sent this flame’. He sings: 'Destroy Esmeralda, and let her taste the fires of hell, or else let her be mine and mine alone’. The song then returns to addressing the divine: 'Kyrie Eleison (Lord, have mercy), but she will be mine, or she will burn.’ The notion of having her for himself or sending her to hell and blaming her beauty for his internal longing marks him not only as cruel and hypocritical judge, but a sexist, ungodly fiend, the wrong example to set to the public and to young viewers at home. 

Indeed critics have pointed out that the song’s lyrics and visual are more suited to adults than a younger demographic although founder of filmtracks.com Christian Clemmensen has stated the song to be ‘one of the most stunning visual and aural combinations in animation history." The combination of the choir, biblical Latin references and sensual meaning of the song certainly renders Frollo as a representative of what socially elevated figures in the 15^th century Western Europe were often like when society was drowning in religious hypocrisy and corruption. On an even darker note, this sort of makes him the most realistic villain. He has no magical powers, but uses his position in society to fulfill his evil goals.  His last words upon trying to murder Quosimodo, "And he shall smite the wicked and plunge them into the fiery pit" which is taken from the bible serves as a cherry on top of his everlasting religious falseness. So yes Frollo may not be dressed as a monster, but he impersonates evil on earth, scary enough for any villain. As a child I found myself shuddering from his cruelty over his appearance. 

So there you have it, two of the scariest Disney villains, both frightening on different levels that will have generations of Disney fans trembling in their presence for decades to come. 

By Tasneem Mahmoud