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. 

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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.

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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

Perhaps the most shocking moment in Oscars history also occurred in the closing moments of the ceremony when ‘La La Land’ was announced as Best Picture despite ‘Moonlight’ being the actual winner. Unfortunately, the award presenter had been given the envelope of the previous award (Emma Stone for ‘La La Land’) and the entire cast and crew of Damien Chazelle’s famed musical had to be shuffled off stage for the ‘Moonlight’ crew to take their spot.

Among the winners, Damien Chazelle was named Best Director and, in turn, broke history by becoming the youngest ever winner of the award at just 32 years of age, while Casey Affleck beat Denzel Washington to the Best Actor award despite late rumours that the ‘Fences’ star would take home the award on the night.

Here’s a full list of the winners:

Best Supporting Actor – Mahershala Ali (Moonlight)

Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling – Suicide Squad

Costume Design – Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Best Documentary – O.J. Made in America

Best Sound Editing – Arrival

Best Sound Mixing – Hacksaw Ridge

Actress in a Supporting Role – Viola Davis (Fences)

Best Foreign Language Film – The Salesman (Iran)

Best Animated Short Film – Piper

Best Animated Feature – Zootopia

Achievement in Production Design – La La Land

 Achievement in Visual Effects – The Jungle Book

Achievement in Film Editing – Hacksaw Ridge

Documentary Short Subject – The White Helmets

 Live-Action Short Film – Sing

Achievement in Cinematography – La La Land

 Best Original Score – La La Land

Best Original Song – “City of Stars” from La La Land

#Oscars: Watch @JohnLegend perform ‘City of Stars’ from ‘La La Land.’ pic.twitter.com/tcIksU16HC

— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) 27 February 2017

 Best Original Screenplay – Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester by the Sea)

Best Adapted Screenplay – Barry Jenkins & Tarell Alvin McCraney (Moonlight)

 Best Director – Damien Chazelle (La La Land)

Actor in a Leading Role – Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea)

Actress in a Leading Role – Emma Stone (La La Land)

Best Picture – Moonlight

We had full live coverage over on Twitter @thefilmagazine so go and follow us for more of the same!

Moana

Directed by: Ron Clements, Don Hall, John Musker & Chris Williams

Moana is the latest animated film to be released by Disney. The story based on Polynesian mythology focuses on Moana, the daughter of an island chief who is naturally drawn to the ocean. When darkness starts to engulf the island Moana, against her fathers wishes, journeys to find the demi-god Maui, brought to life by Dwayne Johnson, to restore life to the island. In true Disney fashion the visuals are stunning, but it is the music that really stands out in this film. The music comes from the incredibly talented Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creative mind behind Broadway smash Hamilton; his selection of songs are fun, catchy and bring an extra dimension to the story. The plot is a simple, heartfelt story of adventure and self discovery – a narrative Disney do so well – and it is a unique addition to the Disney Princess collection.

My Life as a Courgette (My Life as a Zucchini)

Directed by: Claude Barras

My Life as a Courgette is a charming stop motion animation originally created in France. After the disappearance of his mother, 9 year old Courgette is befriended by police officer Raymond who helps him transition to his new life in a foster home. It demonstrates the struggles Courgette has when trying to find his place in this new strange environment and also the journey he makes with his new friends and Raymond as he learns to trust and love again. Although it is a relatively short film, My Life as a Courgette is full of emotional complexity. It is touching, funny and most importantly human. It is a beautiful piece of animation where the characters are voiced by children, which works effectively to make the story feel more natural. The film aims to showcase the love and support of the adults who are often depicted as evil figures; they are often shown trying to give the children at the foster home rich lives that can be considered as ordinary as possible, and the outcome is often very funny.

The Red Turtle

Directed by: Michael Dudlok de Wit

The Red Turtle is the first feature length film from director Michael Dudlok de Wit and was co-produced by French animation company The Wild Bunch and Japan’s Studio Ghibli. With no dialogue throughout the entire film, the story follows an unnamed man who ends up on a deserted island after being set adrift by a storm. While trying to escape the island he finds a red turtle has been destroying his raft time and time again, and continues to follow the man and the major life stages that he goes through as he remains on the island. The Red Turtle is a stunning example of traditional animation; it showcases the talents of the director and combines it with the elements of magic and wonder that Studio Ghibli brings. The Red Turtle is a film about man’s relationship with the environment, a fantastical depiction of how a person can connect with their surroundings.

Zootopia

Directed by: Byron Howard and Rich Moore

The second nomination from Disney in the Best Animated Film category, this film’s story follows rabbit Judy Hops on her journey to leave Bunnyborrow and become a police officer in the big city of the titular Zootopia. When she takes on a mysterious case where certain animals are going missing, she teams up with an unlikely partner in Nick Wilde, a fox, and tries to uncover the conspiracy. Zootopia is some highly original work from Disney, it is definitely an example of the studio stepping out of their comfort zone. It brings up some very complex social issues, mainly the issue of racial stereotyping, and weaves them into an incredibly gripping storyline with moments of pure hilarity. It is an animated film that seems certainly geared towards a more grown up audience, with many pop culture references and jokes that kids simply won’t understand. Zootopia is a sophisticated and thought provoking animation, but that in no way diminishes the fun that Disney has always been famous for.

Kubo and the Two Strings

Directed by – Travis Knight

Kubo and the Two Strings is another triumph in stop-motion animation and the second to be nominated this year. It is the story of Kubo who lives a quiet life in a small village until a spirit from the past turns up and resurfaces an age old vendetta. This forces Kubo to run from Gods and monsters to find a magical suit of armour that was once worn by his father, a great Samurai warrior, in order to survive. From the outside it looks like an adventure story, but the themes are a lot more mature than they first seem, focusing heavily on the values of memory. Kubo and the Two Strings certainly stands out from the crowd in terms of its style and narrative and it has been praised for its non-traditional storytelling. The characters are fun and loveable, and we grow and learn with them along the way. The film is filled with magic and the attention to detail is outstanding; it is a film that certainly raises the bar for animation.

We’ll see just how close I get this Sunday…

Best Motion Picture – Drama: Moonlight
With 6 nominations overall, and the most of any of the ‘Best Drama’ movie nominees, it seems like 2017 truly is the year for Moonlight. The drama, telling the development of a gay black man from a deprived area in Miami, seems to be one of the favourites at other awards shows so far this season and that could be enough to sway some voters in this category. With ‘Manchester by the Sea’ breathing down its neck as perhaps the most likely of its contenders, and ‘Hacksaw Ridge’ appealing to the hard right of Globe voters, ‘Moonlight’ is not without competition, but I just can’t see them passing on the opportunity to award such a landmark film.
Contenders: Hacksaw Ridge; Manchester by the Sea

Best Performance By An Actress In A Motion Picture – Drama: Natalie Portman (‘Jackie’)
This category is a two-horse race between the early front-runner for the award, Natalie Portman, and the late-comer to awards season, ‘Arrival’, and namely its star Amy Adams. With the Globes being a far more accepting place of so-called ‘mainstream’ or ‘genre’ films than the Academy is, Adams is the favourite in the minds of a lot of industry professionals, but it’s hard for me to pass on Portman as the winner simply because her performance was as a beloved public figure within a well constructed biopic, the likes of which is known as ‘awards fodder’ for a reason. By a whisker, Portman takes it.
Contenders: Amy Adams… the rest have been left in the dust. 

Best Performance By An Actor In A Motion Picture – Drama: Casey Affleck (‘Manchester By the Sea’)
The ‘Best Performance by an actor in a drama’ category is perhaps the strongest of any category at this year’s Golden Globes, with every member of the nominees list having a realistic chance of winning the Golden trophy. I’ve gone with Casey Affleck simply because he’s won a lot of other awards in the build-up to this ceremony, though it’s worth noting that Andrew Garfield could have arguably been nominated for both ‘Hacksaw Ridge’ and ‘Silence’ and may earn himself the Gold as a means of two-for-one recognition. If Garfield does win for ‘Ridge’, the war movie would become the front-runner for Best Picture – Drama.
Contenders: Everyone else… Edgerton, Garfield, Mortensen, Washington.

Best Motion Picture – Musical Or Comedy: La La Land
I would bet my house on this. Owing to an overall weak category in terms of award nominated movies, ‘La La Land’ should blow away all competition on Sunday night. It was nice to see the creativity behind ‘Deadpool’ and ‘Sing Street’ be rewarded with nominations but they’re just making up the numbers in perhaps the most obvious category to predict on this year’s show.
Contenders: There aren’t any…

Best Performance By An Actress In A Motion Picture – Musical/Comedy: Emma Stone (‘La La Land’)
As with the category above, it seems like there can be no choice other than ‘La La Land’ and therefore Emma Stone. Annette Bening is perhaps the huge outsider, but considering any one of three leading women in ’20th Century Women’ could have been nominated for this award, it seems that the Globes were never truly sure on whom to select, the uncertainty of which could scupper Bening’s chances.
Contenders: Annette Bening… but only if Pigs fly.

Best Performance By An Actor In A Motion Picture – Musical/Comedy: Ryan Gosling (‘La La Land’)
Much like Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling is the front-runner for his category courtesy of his work on this year’s awards favourite ‘La La Land’. Colin Farrell was excellent in ‘The Lobster’ but his inclusion came as a pleasant surprise rather than an absolute certainty, which all but counting him out, and the work of Hugh Grant (‘Florence Foster Jenkins’), Jonah Hill (‘War Dogs’) and Ryan Reynolds (‘Deadpool’) simply doesn’t match up to that of Gosling, despite there being positives in each performance.
Contenders: Zip.

Best Motion Picture – Animated: Zootopia
It’s very rare that Disney are knocked off their perch of collecting every ‘best animated feature’ award on the planet, especially during years of critical success like has been the case in 2016. The logic here seems to point to either ‘Moana’ or ‘Zootopia’ but, given the much more positive response ‘Zootopia’ got out-of-the-gate, it seems the most likely option despite ‘My Life As A Zucchini’ winning the animation award at the European Film Awards and ‘Kubo and the Two Strings’ offering an artistic alternative to mainstream western animation.
Contenders: Moana

Best Motion Picture – Foreign Language: Toni Erdmann
Maren Ade’s German/Austrian comedy cleaned up at the European Film Awards and therefore seems the favourite to win at the Golden Globes given the very Euro-centric list of nominees. American awards shows do seem to gravitate towards French pictures in their ‘foreign language’ categories however, and this could tip the balance towards ‘Elle’, a movie that has had gained a lot of attention in the weeks building up to this event. This is a close one.
Contenders: Elle

Best Performance By An Actress In A Supporting Role In Any Motion Picture: Viola Davis (‘Fences’)
This category is very strong, with each of the actress’s performances gaining a lot of critical attention and Oscar buzz since their respective movies were released. Naomie Harris has been on the frontline of such awards speculation as of late for her small but impactful role in ‘Moonlight’, and Michelle Williams has been strongly favoured at independent film award events, but the two front-runners seem to be Nicole Kidman for ‘Lion’ and Viola Davis for ‘Fences’, and I’m going with Davis simply because of a flick of a coin.
Contenders: Everyone… but mostly Nicole Kidman.

Best Performance By An Actor In A Supporting Role In Any Motion Picture: Jeff Bridges (‘Hell or High Water’)
My heart says Aaron Taylor-Johnson for ‘Nocturnal Animals’, but my head says Jeff Bridges for ‘Hell or High Water’, simply because of the gravitas of the latter’s performance within a relatively small movie. It’s interesting to note that Dev Patel has been squeezed in to this category despite obviously leading ‘Lion’, and this may work in his favour as it has done for others in the past, but Jeff Bridges remains the front-runner and a choice I’d still support given its quality and how much exposure it will lend to his small but noteworthy movie.
Contenders: Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Dev Patel.

Best Director – Motion Picture: Damien Chazelle (‘La La Land’)
‘La La Land’ is a visual masterpiece that pays homage to Hollywood itself, and despite how sensational Tom Ford’s work on ‘Nocturnal Animals’ truly was, there’s simply no way that Chazelle isn’t going home with the Globe on Sunday night. Wins for Mel Gibson (‘Hacksaw Ridge’), Barry Jenkins (‘Moonlight’) or Kenneth Lonergan (‘Manchester By the Sea’) could inch their respective movies into the lead in terms of the ‘Best Picture – Drama’ race, but it seems like this category is wrapped up.
Contenders: Tom Ford… though I’d like to see the final order of this top 5…

Best Screenplay – Motion Picture: Barry Jenkins (‘Moonlight’)
This is as close as it gets between Kenneth Lonergan for ‘Manchester By the Sea’ and Barry Jenkins for ‘Moonlight’, but given the lack of attention I’ve given the massively nominated ‘Moonlight’ so far in this article, I’m inching ‘Moonlight’ into the winner’s slot. Every screenplay in this category is excellent, but it would be a surprise to see any of the other nominees (Chazelle, Ford, Sheridan) win.
Contenders: Kenneth Lonergan

Best Original Score – Motion Picture: Justin Hurwitz (‘La La Land’)
When you score what will ultimately become an iconic musical, you land yourself in the spot of ‘front-runner’ for the ‘Best Original Score’ category at awards shows, and Justin Hurwitz has done just that with his work on ‘La La Land’. Dustin O’Halloran and Hauschka’s work on ‘Lion’ seems the most likely of underdogs but don’t count on it. 
Contenders: Dustin O’Halloran and Hauschka

Best Original Song – Motion Picture: “Can’t Stop the Feeling” from ‘Trolls’
Justin Timberlake’s chart-topping smash will go down as one of the pop songs that defined 2016, and with that comes a responsibility on the part of the Globes to honour that. Though popular consensus certainly isn’t what sways votes in any other categories at the Globes, there has been a historic precedence of successful pop songs winning out over lesser known musical numbers in the history of this award. Even so, look out for ‘La La Land’ to be a suitable alternative with its Hollwood love-letter of a song, “City of Stars”.
Contenders: “City of Stars from ‘La La Land’.

For the full list of nominees, click here.