They’ve come in many guises over the years, from the monarchical to the Machiavellian, monsters to muscle men, sorcerers, schemers and step-parents. And they have shown levels of genius, incompetence and everything in between in their efforts to thwart our heroes. But they are always without fail ambitious, self-serving and strangely compelling.

In a world of promoting good virtues to children, good must always triumph over evil. And so, Disney villains can’t be left to return and cause havoc another day (unless it’s in an inconsequential direct-to-video sequel) and so usually meet their maker in one of a variety of inventive and sometimes gruesome ways.

If the Disney Princess is the most merchandisable element of the Disney canon, then the villains are a close second and inspire even more fervour among adult fans, perhaps because they’re usually more flawed and interesting than the heroes and especially when so many are (intentionally or not) queer-coded, fabulously designed and played with gusto by talented voice actors giving it their all. 

For this edition of Ranked, we at The Film Magazine have taken every significant villain to be found in Disney animation and ordered them in terms of wickedness, memorability and the threat they represent to our heroes and heroines. So practice your diabolical laughter, rehearse your evil monologue, dust off your best purple attire and enjoy Animated Disney Villains Ranked. 

Follow @thefilmagazine on X (Twitter).

36. King Candy – Wreck-It Ralph (2012)

The ruler of arcade racing video game Sugar Rush who is actually Turbo, the resentful title character of a long-disconnected game.

Alan Tudyk has been Disney’s good luck charm in recent years and delivers a manic performance here as a mascot-gone-wrong, but the vocals have to do most of the work to enliven a baddie who’s just not interesting enough to match the heroes.

Demise by: Destroyed by the collapse of Diet Cola Mountain with the addition of Mentos.

35. Prince Hans – Frozen (2013)

A seemingly classic Prince Charming who is actually conspiring to eliminate both heirs to the Arendelle throne and claim it for himself.

Hans is a duplicitous, generic British-accented baddie revealed in the film’s final act, who gets some bonus evil points for taking advantage of Princess Anna’s emotions the way he does, purely to advance himself.

Demise by: Survives but is arrested and banished for his treachery.

Recommended for you: Best Animated Feature Oscar Winners Ranked

34. Alameda Slim – Home on the Range (2004)

An evil cattle rustler and conman who plans to cheat every rancher he can find out of their land.

Randy Quaid’s growling delivery and the character’s hilariously unconvincing Inspector Clouseau-level disguises aside, what makes Alameda Slim stand out is that he’s a rare villain who uses a combination of theft, foreclosure and cow-hypnotising yodelling to get what he wants.

Demise by: Survives, but his schemes and true identity as a rustler are exposed and the reward for his arrest is claimed.

33. Dr Jumba Jookiba – Lilo & Stitch (2002)

An alien mad scientist on the hunt for his dangerous but cute creation on Earth on the orders of the council who imprisoned him for his work.

Dr Jumba is probably the only character who never underestimates the cute blue title character because he was the one who genetically engineered “Experiment 626” and is fully aware of his destructive capabilities. He finds himself lower down this list for being bumbling and for having a late change of heart, eventually helping to protect Stitch when the council’s military arrives to complete his mission with extreme prejudice.

Demise by: Survives to live a fairly happy exile alongside Stitch on Earth.

What follows in this edition of Ranked is The Film Magazine’s ranking from worst to best of every Best Animated Feature Oscar winner, analysing the merits of each in terms of artistic achievement, importance to the medium, societal relevance and lasting impression, plus a few mentions of the braver animated efforts from each year that for various reasons missed out on the big prize. These are the Best Animated Feature Oscar Winners Ranked.

Follow @thefilmagazine on Twitter.

21. Happy Feet (2006)

A tone-deaf juvenile penguin discovers he has a very different talent to the rest of his musical colony: he’s really gifted at tap-dancing.

Amazingly George Miller, the man behind every Mad Max movie and the screenplay for Babe also directed this bouncy Antarctic jukebox musical. It’s all very detailed and visually appealing, having more in common with actual nature documentaries than most other animated films, but the story is pretty first-base and the songs are a real mixed bag. 

20. Toy Story 4 (2019)

Toy Story 4 Review

Woody, Buzz and the gang leave their new home to go on a road trip in order to help handmade toy Forky get over his identity crisis.

There aren’t many fourth movies in a franchise of higher quality, but Toy Story 4 had the misfortune of being compared to the near-perfect trilogy that preceded it. How and why would you try and follow that? But follow it they did, and it’s a decent effort with good (sometimes surprisingly dark) gags and all the usual heart you’ve come to expect from this series. 

19. Shrek (2001)

A solitary ogre and a tag-along talking donkey reluctantly go on a quest to rescue a princess in exchange for Shrek being left in peace in his swamp.

Shrek receives a lot of flak for moving animation away from the magical escapism of Disney to the more polished, snarky fare that dominates today, but it was absolutely revolutionary in its way. Every fantasy parody from the past two decades has borrowed something from its unique selling point and each of its characters, and it must be praised for its earnest message of self-acceptance (before it was recycled for the sequels) and its witty visuals (which still hold up). 

18. Brave (2012)

A Scottish princess shames her clan by breaking with marriage traditions and goes to a witch for a spell to change her fate, catastrophically changing the lives of her loved ones in the process.

One of Pixar’s less successful films still has a winning protagonist in Merida (sparkily voiced by Kelly Macdonald) and a refreshing (and far too unusually explored) dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship at its heart. The actual story structure is conventional and wobbles perilously close to a Disney Renaissance re-tread, but it’s still an emotionally honest and lively affair. 

Three stop-motion animated features, Laika’s Paranorman, Tim Burton’s Frankeneenie and Aardman’s The Pirates! were passed over in favour of Pixar this year.

Recommended for you: Disney Renaissance Movies Ranked

Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)
Directors: Don Hall, Carlos López Estrada, Paul Briggs, John Ripa
Screenwriters: Qui Nguyen, Adele Lim
Starring: Kelly Marie Tran, Awkwafina, Izaac Wang, Gemma Chan, Benedict Wong, Daniel Dae Kim, Sandra Oh, Alan Tudyk

With the release of Raya and the Last Dragon comes a sigh of relief. A breath of fresh air. Finally a break from the needless live-action remakes and soulless continuations of once beloved franchises. At long last the most powerful company in all of Hollywood, Disney, has released a truly original movie, something that they have not produced since 2016’s Moana. Not an adaptation, not a sequel or a prequel or a spin-off. An original movie. Even when taking into account the output of Pixar, perhaps the company’s most reputable subsidiary, 2020’s Onward was notable as the first original production in three years.

The new feature from Walt Disney Animation takes place in the beautiful world of Kumandra, a fictional region peppered with South East Asian influences and filled to the brim with vibrant colours. Kumandra was once the home to both humans and dragons, yet when an evil entity known as the Druun threatened to wreak havoc throughout the land, the dragons sacrificed themselves in order to save the humans. 500 years later, the Druun have returned, and the young warrior Raya must set out on a journey to find the last Dragon and save her people.

Beyond the surprise that Raya and the Last Dragon is an animated Disney film that isn’t a musical, the most instantly striking aspect of this 2021 release is that it’s set in an animated world that feels incredibly lived in. Once a united land, now divided, each region of Kumandra has its own distinct style and personality. This lends itself well to the film’s gorgeous designs and breathtaking animation, each of which wonderfully compliment the fantastical story.

As for the story itself, Raya and the Last Dragon plays out like a blend of Mulan and Indiana Jones (the addition of a comedic dragon sidekick probably helps with the Mulan comparison), only more predictable than both. There are, of course, multiple twists and turns throughout the tale, and the film successfully emphasises just how serious Raya’s quest is whilst remaining funny enough to be a Disney original, but there is never much of a doubt about how the story will end; an element that may not be uncommon in animated cinema but does mean there is a noticeable loss of impact in otherwise powerful scenes on numerous occasions.

Although the film’s beautiful animation and exhilarating action sequences stand alone as two excellent reasons to watch this latest flick from Disney despite the narrative’s predictability, they are not even the film’s best qualities. Instead, the characters may very well take the cake as Raya and the Last Dragon’s ultimate offering.

With fantastic vocal performances from Kelly Marie Tran (The Last Jedi), who is unrecognisable as the voice of Raya, and Awkwafina (Jumanji: The Next Level), who brings a humorous sensibility to the film’s titular last dragon, both lead characters feel distinct and interesting. Listening to the pair interact with one another and watching as their unique characters grow close to a loveable band of misfits is nothing short of joyful. Whilst some of their dialogue can be overly expositional at times, the chemistry of the group is the highlight of the film and truly the biggest gift from experienced directors Don Hall and Carlos López Estrada, each of whom offered similarly as strong character dynamics through groups that highlighted diversity in previous releases Big Hero 6 and Blindspotting respectively.

All in all, Raya and the Last Dragon is the finest picture to be produced by Disney for a number of years. Its loveable characters and breathtaking animation prove that Disney still has something new to offer to the world of cinema; this latest release overcoming its own narrative predictability to become a sure-fire classic.

21/24

I started early on the Saturday morning with one of my all-time favourites, Wall-E, the film about the little robot that only wanted love in his life. I found myself singing along word-for-word to a musical I’ve never seen (it being Saturday, it would’ve been improper to put on my Sunday clothes) and mesmerised, as always, as Wall-E and Eve danced through space.

Immediately after that I watched Bolt, and I enjoyed it more than I remember. It’s a film that’s often overlooked – following the best-forgotten Chicken Little and preceding the impressive Princess and the Frog – but deserves appreciation, not least for reminding us that there was a time when Miley Cyrus wasn’t just a walking sex metaphor.

I’d watched two Disney films by this point without the joy of a musical, so I got myself a few snacks and tucked into Hercules, and I sang. Oh, did I sing! But as great as the songs are (they really are amazing, and that’s the Gospel truth!), the film really belongs to James Woods’ Hades; the sassy, fiery God of the Underworld and main antagonist, who steals every scene he’s part of.

Next, I felt it might be a good idea to show some love for one of the lesser-known Disney films, The Great Mouse Detective. An unashamed homage to Sherlock Holmes, I enjoyed it – not as much as I enjoyed some of the other films that day – and spent large parts of the movie distracted by the fact that the voice of Scrooge McDuck appeared in the movie. It’s a big thing…

By this point, I needed a break. I took about 20 minutes. ONTO THE NEXT ONE!

It hadn’t been that long since I visited San Fransokyo, but I needed to go again. Big Hero 6 is such a good film, and Baymax is easily one of the best characters Disney has ever brought to life. Hiro’s story of loss and search for revenge pulls at the heartstrings, while his walking pillow and doctor tries his best to heal the pain the young boy is feeling throughout the film. I was very satisfied with this film. I was satisfied with my care.

Another film I hadn’t seen in a while, The Fox and the Hound, was after that, a film that I remembered made me exceptionally sad. It was, and still is, but while it’s a beautiful story of friendship and the difficulty of life, I got distracted by one moment of madness. About halfway through the film, Chief (whose voice is synonymous with Disney) gets hit full force by a train, and falls a comfortable 30 feet into a very shallow and rocky river, but next scene, Chief is nursing a bandaged leg and nothing more. What?! I’m not trying to get a petition started for more death in Disney, but let’s try and be realistic now.

Then it was time for my last film of Saturday, and it only seemed right for it to be my favourite. I was very excited to find out that I had the option of a Sing-A-Long version (I know virtually every word, but still…), an option which I gladly accepted. Then it started. ‘NANTS INGONYAMA BAGITHI BABA’. By the end of the first song, I was holding my Simba soft toy aloft, welcoming the future King of Pride Rock, and it only got better from that moment on. My life peaked that night.

On to Sunday now, and in between getting incredibly stressed and then relieved by the football, I managed to squeeze in another four films.

While I tell you about the first one, I’d like to invite you to relax, let us pull up a chair as I proudly present – Beauty and the Beast. I can’t talk about Beauty and the Beast without addressing my weirdly wishful bro-love for Lumiere, the world’s most suave candlestick holder, a man who, even when magically transformed into a piece of home décor, manages to get all the girls. Except Mrs Potts. No man is good enough for Jessica Fletcher.

My next film of the day was another I hadn’t seen in a while, The Incredibles, and I know I’ve said this a lot, but I forgot just how good this film is. It’s easily one of the best superhero films there is, and the only Pixar film that ever demanded a sequel, although unfortunately it’s getting its sequel after many unnecessary ones *cough Cars 2 cough*. Plus, it’s got Samuel L Jackson in it, pre-Nick Fury days. What’s not to love?

To double figures now, and the beautiful city of Aghrabah in search of a diamond in the rough, and while Aladdin has a lot to celebrate, it only seems right to talk about Genie – the part Robin Williams was born to play – as the film is illuminated by Williams’ effervescence, mania, and beautiful multitude of character.

My final film in my marathon is the geekiest of all the Disney films, and a celebration of video game culture. Wreck-it Ralph combines top quality characters with a new and unique premise, and sprinkles in enough gaming references to earn Nintendo some serious royalties. None of which match Vanellope von Schweetz , the Glitch, the plucky racer (who doesn’t know how to drive) who just wants to be on the roster. It’s impossible not to love her.

And so ends my Bank Holiday weekend. I can’t wait for the next one, I still have so many films to watch.

Written by Greg Forrester

 Number 10: Bumblebee – The Transformers Series (2007-present)

Transformers remains to be one of the highest grossing films each year, so naturally I had to include one of the highly popular and incredibly lovable autobots on this list. It was a hard decision to make between Bumblebee and probably the more obvious choice, Optimus Prime. But when it came down to it, Bumblebee took the spot because he is the one we are introduced to first and fall in love with from the start, he’s the one who’s always there to protect our protagonists, and his little quirks – such as speaking through the car radio – make him just that little bit cooler.

Recommended for you: Live-Action Transformers Movies Ranked

Number 9: Tars – Interstellar (2014) 

Tars is lovable for he is expendable. The robotic assistant to Matthew McConaughey’s journey through space is not only terrifically fair, balanced, and funny… At least 60% funny… But he is also one of the last representations of a species on the brink of extinction and one of the only remaining expandable characters in Nolan’s futuristic universe. Through encapsulating all that is good in human nature, Tars wins hearts and minds in Interstellar, making him the 9th best movie robot of all time.

Recommended for you: Christopher Nolan Films Ranked

Number 8: Iron Giant – The Iron Giant (1999)

Iron Giant is the epitome of misunderstood. The story is set in the height of the Cold War and the fear of outside attack and foreign weapons was at its peak. So when this alien creature lands on earth everyone’s first instinct is to eliminate the unknown. The giant, as you would expect, has a huge body and a huge heart to go with it. He is not a weapon and will only attack when he feels threatened. Whereas many of the entrants on this list are here on merit of ‘coolness’ or how much they can do with their gadgets, the Iron Giant has earned his place with the message he represents.

Number 7: David – Prometheus (2012)

Prometheus Review

David, played by Michael Fassbender, is possibly the most captivating character in the Alien prequel Prometheus. In the original series we are given an idea of what a robot is and what to expect from them, this idea is then developed in Ridley Scott’s 2012 film, giving it an extra level of suspense. David embodies curiosity and the strive for human perfection, he desires to know more of the universe, and it is this desire that warps any humanity that he may possess. Whereas David is an incredible character, it may be Fassbenders performance that secured his place on this list.

Number 6: Roy Batty  – Blade Runner (1982)

Blade Runner Review

From one of the most iconic Sci-Fi films comes one of the most iconic characters. Lets face it, it is that one scene that will go down in movie history that provided Roy Batty a definite place on this list. I don’t think there is much more to say about this incredibly complex and captivating character than… “All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.“

Recommended for you: Ridley Scott Films Ranked

Best Picture: Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

Foreign Language Film: Ida

Animated Feature: Big Hero 6

Documentary Feature: Citizen Four

Direction: Alejandro González Iñárritu for Birdman Or (The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance)

Actress In A Leading Role: Julianne Moore as Alice Howland in Still Alice

Actor In A Leading Role: Eddie Redmayne as Stephen Hawking in The Theory Of Everything

Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette as Mom in Boyhood

Supporting Actor: JK Simmons as Fletcher in Whiplash

Original Screenplay: Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr. & Armando Bo for Birdman Or (The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance)

Adapted Screenplay: Graham Moore for The Imitation Game

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Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki for Birdman Or (The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance

Editing: Tom Cross for Whiplash

Sound Editing: Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman for American Sniper

Sound Mixing: John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Walt Martin for Selma

Original Song: John Stephens (John Legend) and Lonnie Lynn (Common) for “Glory” used in Selma

Original Score: Alexandre Desplat for The Grand Budapest Hotel

Production Design: Adam Stockhausen (Production Design); Anna Pinnock (Set Decoration) for The Grand Budapest Hotel

Costume Design: Milena Canonero for The Grand Budapest Hotel

Makeup and Hairstyling: Frances Hannon and Mark Coulier for The Grand Budapest Hotel

Visual Effects: Paul Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Ian Hunter and Scott Fisher for Interstellar

Live Action Short: The Phone Call

Documentary Short: Crisis Hotline: Veteran Press 1

Animated Short: Feast