Lesson 3: Vile Villains
Hello everyone!!! Glad you make it to the third lesson of Disney Studies! This month we are going to focus on the antagonists of the stories. These characters have a crazy sense of humor, an evil mind and only live to accomplish their own goals and wicked plans, which most of them include eliminating the hero of the story! You can never escape karma, and these villains always pay the price of their actions. Despite that, they have a little something that makes us love them, admire them or truly hate them, and we can’t deny that they are an important part of every tale. If it weren’t for them, all of the stories would be extremely boring, don’t you think? Let’s start!
QUEEN OF HEARTS from the movie ALICE IN WONDERLAND (1951)
THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS: The Queen of Hearts is the ruler of Wonderland, a crazy, amazing place that is visited by Alice. The Queen of Hearts is egotistical and with a tough personality. She is psychotic and has a lot of mood swings. She likes to hear the words “Yes, your majesty”, insists that “All ways are my ways!”, not to mention that she completely dominates her husband, The King of Hearts. In the movie, the Queen of Hearts meets Alice when she was helping the cards to paint the white roses red. The cards where terrified because they had misunderstood the queen’s orders, so this shows how evil she could be! The cards’ fear wasn’t unreasonable because as soon as the Queen realized that her roses where white instead of red, she ordered to behead them! After that, she invites Alice to play a croquet game, a game that wasn’t fair at all because even though the Queen was a terrible player, the cards cheated for her to keep her happy. Things start to get complicated when the Cheshire Cat arrives and plays a trick on the Queen while keeping his presence a secret. Confused, the Queen of Hearts believes that the responsible was Alice and threatens to behead her. Fortunately for Alice, the King of Hearts insists on having a trial first, and the Queen agrees, however, the trial turns out to be a joke with no justice or proper arguments at all! Furious, Alice eats one of the mushrooms that makes her grow and tells the Queen her truth, calling her “fat, pompous, bad tempered old tyrant”. When Alice returns to her normal size, the Queen of Hearts loses no time and starts chasing Alice. Everything ends when Alice wakes up!
Important characters include: Alice, Queen of Hearts, The White Rabbit, Mad Hatter, March Hare, Caterpillar, Cheshire Cat, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the Doorknob.
Important characters include: Alice, Queen of Hearts, The White Rabbit, Mad Hatter, March Hare, Caterpillar, Cheshire Cat, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the Doorknob.
MUSICAL MAGIC:
Some Alice in Wonderland songs include:
Some Alice in Wonderland songs include:
- “Alice In Wonderland”
- “In A World Of My Own”
- “Golden Afternoon”
- “The Unbirthday Song”
- “Painting The Roses Red”
FUN FACTS:
- Disney’s 13th animated feature. Based on the works Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll.
- In the Walrus and the Carpenter sequence, the R in the word "March" on the mother oyster's calendar flashes. This alludes to the old adage about only eating oysters in a month with an R in its name.
- An early plot idea involved Dinah getting lost in Wonderland and getting turned into the Cheshire Cat.
- The Doorknob was the only character in the film that did not appear in Lewis Carroll's books.
- In the Walrus and the Carpenter sequence, the dates on the calendar are the same as they would be in March 2010, when Disney would release Alice in Wonderland (2010), directed by Tim Burton.
- Originally, Alice was to sing a song different from "In a World of My Own". It would be a slow ballad entitled "Beyond the Laughing Sky", and it was a song about Alice dreaming of a world better than her own. However, Kathryn Beaumont (Alice’s voice) had difficulty singing, and it was decided that starting the film off with a slow ballad would be a little risky on audiences, so “In a World of My Own” was included instead.
- The English novelist Aldous Huxley worked with Walt Disney on early scripts for this project in late 1945. Huxley's mother, Julia Arnold, was one of the little girls whom Carroll told the Alice stories. Because of that, this project was close to Huxley’s heart, however, Disney found his work too intellectual and it wasn’t used.
- This movie has more songs and characters than any other Disney animated film, however, since most of those songs only last a few seconds they are mostly unnoticed.
CRUELLA DE VIL from the movie 101 DALMATIANS (1961)
THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS: In my opinion, Cruella De Vil, just like her name says it, is one of the cruelest villains. I mean, who would like to kill cute little puppies for fashion purposes?!! When Roger and Anita meet and get married, and after Pongo and Perdita (their Dalmatian dogs) have their puppies, Cruella De Vil (Anita’s former schoolmate) steps in and plans to buy all the little dogs without even asking if they were for sale! Roger and Anita don’t accept her offer and Cruella leaves extremely mad. Cruella will never accept a NO for an answer, so she decides to get the puppies in a dishonest way: by stealing them! To achieve her goal, Cruella hires Jasper and Horace, who ambush poor Nanny and steal the dogs. Cruella is crazy for fashion and she wants to make herself a dog-skin fur coat, using of course, Pongo and Perdita’s puppies along with other 84 puppies that were hiding in the De Vil Place. Cruella’s plan almost works, but she wasn’t counting on the tiny fact that dogs have their own way of communication, and thanks to the “Twilight bark”, a canine gossip line, Pongo and Perdita get to know where there puppies are being captive and come to the rescue. With the help of Colonel ( a sheepdog) and Sergeant Tibbs (a cat), Pongo and Perdita rescue all 99 puppies, and just when they were getting into a van to go back to London, Cruella sees them and starts to chase them but she runs into Horace and Gaspar and crash, allowing the 101 Dalmatians to get away safely! Cruella just stays there, yelling in frustration and watching her future fur coat going away…
Important characters include: Pongo, Perdita, Roger, Anita, Cruella De Vil, Jasper, Horace, Nanny, Colonel, Captain, Sergeant Tibbs, and of course, the Dalmatian puppies.
Important characters include: Pongo, Perdita, Roger, Anita, Cruella De Vil, Jasper, Horace, Nanny, Colonel, Captain, Sergeant Tibbs, and of course, the Dalmatian puppies.
MUSICAL MAGIC:
Some 101 Dalmatians songs include:
Some 101 Dalmatians songs include:
- “Cruella De Vil”
- “Kanine Krunchies Jingle”
- “Dalmatian Plantation”
FUN FACTS:
- Disney’s 17th animated feature. Based on the novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith.
- Dodie Smith had always secretly hoped that Disney would make her story into a film. She was so pleased with the adaptation that she even said that the scriptwriters had improved her story and that the designs looked better than the illustrations in her book.
- Unlike many Disney animated features, the film features only three songs, and only one (“Cruella De Vil”) plays an important role.
- Some songs that were cut include: "Don't Buy a Parrot from a Sailor", meant to be sung by Jasper and Horace, and "March of the One Hundred and One", meant to be sung by the dogs after they escaped in the van.
- During the scene of “The Twilight Bark”, we can see Peg, Lady and Tramp, from Lady and the Tramp.
- The company was in debt following Sleeping Beauty’s failure at the box office, and desperately needed a hit. There was even talk of closing down the animation division as the company was refocusing on live action films, television and theme parks. Fortunately, 101 Dalmatians saved them!
- The birth of the puppies actually happened to the author Dodie Smith. Her Dalmatians had 15 puppies, one was born lifeless and her husband revived it.
- Clarence Nash (best known as the voice of Donald Duck) did the dog barks for this film.
- Lucille Bliss, the voice of Anastasia in "Cinderella", sings the Kanine Krunchies theme song.
FROLLO from the movie THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1996)
THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS: This movie is considered to be one of Disney's darkest animated films because its story explores mature themes like infanticide, lust, genocide, and sin. I also think it has to do with Judge Claude Frollo, a villain to watch out and fear! When a group of gypsies sneak illegally into Paris, Judge Frollo ambushes them and even kills one of them when she was trying to escape. Remorseful for his action (after all, he had just killed an innocent woman!), Frollo decides to raise the woman’s deformed child as his son in order to pay for his sin, and he names the baby Quasimodo. Quasimodo grows up as a kind man, but also very isolated, his only friends are the gargoyles: Hugo, Victor and Laverne. When Quasimado decides to go to the Festival of Fools, disobeying Frollo who warned him about being rejected due to his deformity, he is indeed humiliated and Frollo refuses to help him. Esmeralda, a gypsy, is the one who helps him by freeing him and doing a magic trick to avoid arrest. Captain Phoebus confines her in the cathedral, where she meets and befriends Quasimado, and gives him a map pendant to the Gypsy hideout known as “The Court of Miracles”. In the meantime, Frollo is having a bad time because he is experimenting lustful feelings for Esmeralda and his hatred towards her increases, believing she had put a spell on him. When Esmeralda escapes, Frollo instantly starts a manhunt for her, burning plenty of houses on his way. Captain Phoebus realizes Frollo’s devil intentions and confronts him. He sentences to death but Phoebus escapes injured. When Frollo finds out that Quasimodo helped Esmeralda escape, he gets very mad and tells him that he knows about the “Court of Miracles” and that he is planning to attack and get rid of all the gypsies. Using the map that Esmeralda gave him, Quasimodo and Phoebus find the court to warn all the gypsies, but what they didn’t know is that Frollo had followed them and he captured all of them. Frollo prepares to burn Esmeralda at the stake but Quasimodo rescues her. In the meantime, Phoebus releases the gypsies and rallies the citizens of Paris against Frollo. In a final battle between Frollo and Quasimodo, both of them fall from a balcony. Quasimodo is caught in time by Phoebus, but Frollo falls to his death. This vile villain meets his end, and Quasimodo raises up as a hero!
Important characters include: Quasimodo, Esmeralda, Judge Claude Frollo, Captain Phoebus, Clopin, Hugo, Victor and Laverne, Djali the goat.
Important characters include: Quasimodo, Esmeralda, Judge Claude Frollo, Captain Phoebus, Clopin, Hugo, Victor and Laverne, Djali the goat.
MUSICAL MAGIC:
Some Hunchback of Notre Dame songs include:
Some Hunchback of Notre Dame songs include:
- “The Bells Of Notre Dame”
- “Out There”
- “Topsy Turvy”
- “God Help The Outcasts”
- “Hellfire”
FUN FACTS:
- Disney’s 34th animated feature. Based on the novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo.
- The song "Hellfire" is considered one of the darkest songs written for a Disney film. It was nearly cut from the film.
- The old heretic is Jafar in his old man disguise from Aladdin.
- The film, due to its dark and sexual themes, nearly became the first animated Disney film to receive a PG rating.
- While Quasimodo is singing 'Out There', the camera pans over Paris and zooms in on a street. In this scene, Belle from Beauty and the Beast is seen walking and reading her book, Pumbaa from The Lion King is being carried on a pole by two men, and another man is shaking out the Carpet from Aladdin.
- Frollo's horse's name is Snowball.
- Directors have noted that the three gargoyles might exist only in Quasimodo's imagination and thus may well be split-off pieces of his own identity.
- Actress Mary Wickes (Laverne’s voice) died before finishing all her lines, so A vocal "stand-in" had to record her remaining lines.
- This is the only Disney animated film that does not feature any trees.
- Initially, pop singer Cindy Lauper was to voice Laverne, however, when the character of the gargoyle was changed into wiser and more motherly, Cindy Lauper’s voice was deemed to youthful so she had to turn down the role.
YZMA from the movie THE EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE (2000)
THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS: Yzma is probably one of my favorite villains from the Disney franchise. It is her funny character and her cute ending that makes me love her! No other villain makes me laugh like her and she is one of the reasons I love The Emperor’s New Groove so much! But enough babbling! Yzma is an ambitious character that desperately wants to usurp Emperor Kuzco’s throne. She used to be Kuzco’s royal adviser but after he fires her, Yzma decides to take revenge. She plans on poisoning Kuzco, but Kronk, Yzma’s henchman, confuses the poisons and turns Kuzco into a llama instead. After knocking the llama down, Kronk is ordered to dispose of the body, however Kronk loses him in the back of Pacha’s cart. Pacha is a kind peasant who was rudely treated by Kuzco when he told him that he was going to destroy his village in order to build an aquatic fun park named “Kuzcotopia”. From that moment on, Kuzco and Pacha travel together because Kuzco promised not to destroy Pacha’s village if he helps him to go back to his human form. Anyway, back to Yzma!! Yzma becomes the new emperor, however, when Kronk admits that he lost Kuzco’s llama body without actually killing him, both of them start searching for him. After a series of hilarious events, and after Kuzco overhears Yzma’s plan to kill him, Kuzco and Pacha arrive to the palace. When they were in the potions room, Yzma arrives and intercepts Kuzco. With all the potions confusion, Yzma ends up transformed in a cat, and now she is also fighting for the potion to make her human again (Wait! Wrong line! That is from Beauty and the Beast!...Ok, bad joke…nevermind!) Unfortunately for Yzma, Kuzco wins and she remains a little cat who has no option but to join Kronk’s Junior Chipmunk troop!
Important characters include: Kuzco, Pacha, Yzma, Kronk, Chicha, Chaca and Tipo.
Important characters include: Kuzco, Pacha, Yzma, Kronk, Chicha, Chaca and Tipo.
MUSICAL MAGIC:
Emperor’s New Groove Songs include:
Emperor’s New Groove Songs include:
- “Perfect World”
- “My Funny Friend And Me”
- “Snuff Out The Light” (Yzma’s song, including it only for villainy purposes!)
FUN FACTS:
- Disney’s 40th animated feature.
- The original concept for this movie was going to be a musical epic story named Kingdom of the Sun.
- Kingdom of the Sun was going to be a slight re-telling of Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper, in which a selfish emperor finds a peasant who looks just like him and they switch places just for fun. The evil witch, Yzma plans to summon summon the evil god Supai and capture the sun so that she may retain her youth forever (she believed that sunlight gave her wrinkles!) When she finds the trick between the emperor and the peasant, she turns the real emperor into a llama and threatens to reveal the pauper's identity unless he obeys her.
- So what happened to Kingdom of the Sun? As the film was starting to take shape, Disney management were becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the film, feeling it was too similar to the story of the “Prince and the Pauper”. Test screenings too generated poor feedback. When the board denied director Roger Aller´s petition for a six month to one year extension to the release date, he quit the project. Co-director Mark Dindal started working on the film and so we have the movie we know to date. The story was rebuilt, Pacha became an older version, all of the songs were cut except for one, and the character of Kronk was added.
- In Kingdom of the Sun, Yzma was meant to sing a song called “Snuff Out The Light”. This song appears in the official soundtrack of The Emperor’s New Groove.
- Pacha's wife, Chicha, is pregnant. This is the first Disney animated feature to show a pregnant woman.
- Kuzco was named after the ancient capital of the Incas, Cuzco.
- Because of the allusion in the title, the movie is often wrongly described as a version of "The Emperor's New Clothes" by Hans Christian Andersen.
- Originally Yzma was to have sung a verse of "Perfect World" envisioning her plans to rule the kingdom.
DR. FACILIER from the movie THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG (2009)
THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS: For not a particular reason, I remember being scared of this villain! I think it was his sinister look or his voodoo ways, but this doctor had something that made me feel uneasy, and that’s why I feel he deserves a spot in this list! This story takes place in New Orleans, where Prince Naveen arrives in order to marry a rich lady (Lottie) to save his family’s economic situation. Of course Prince Naveen doesn’t want that, and when he and his valet Lawrence meet Dr. Facilier, he promises them to make their dreams come true, but instead of that Naveen is turned into a frog and Lawrence is given a charm that will disguise him as Prince Naveen. Facilier’s plan is to make Lawrence marry Lottie and later kill her father, Big Daddy, and claim his fortune. When Naveen frog meets Tiana, a beautiful aspiring young chef and the protagonist of the story, in the ball that was being held on his honor, he convinces her to kiss him in order to become human, however, things don’t turn out as planned and Tiana ends up transformed into a frog as well. They escape, and thanks to Mama Odie, a good voodoo witch, Tiana and Naveen learn that the only way to break the curse is if Naveen kisses a princess, so they plan to kiss Lottie who would be the Princess of the Mardi Gras Parade only until midnight, which means they have to hurry up! But Facilier has already taken action, and by promising the souls of the people from New Orleans, he summons the voodoo spirits who give him demonic minions that eventually capture Naveen and bring him back to Facilier. Facilier’s plan is almost succeeding, but when Tiana is told that Naveen truly loves her she comes to the rescue. Good old Ray, a firefly, takes the charm that disguises Lawrence as Naveen and gives it to Tiana. Facilier tries to convince Tiana to give the charm back to him and in exchange he would make her restaurant dream come true, however, Tiana is not persuaded by Facilier’s words and destroys the charm. The angry voodoo spirits claim Facilier’s soul as payment for his debts, and that’s the end of this vile villain! In the end, Prince Naveen and Tiana get married, and with Tiana’s new status as princess, they become humans once again when they kiss!
Important characters include: Tiana, Prince Naveen, Louis the alligator, Ray the firefly, Doctor Facilier, Lawrence, Charlotte “Lottie”, “Big Daddy” La Bouff.
Important characters include: Tiana, Prince Naveen, Louis the alligator, Ray the firefly, Doctor Facilier, Lawrence, Charlotte “Lottie”, “Big Daddy” La Bouff.
MUSICAL MAGIC:
Some The Princess and the Frog sons include:
Some The Princess and the Frog sons include:
- “Down in New Orleans”
- “Almost There”
- “Friends On The Other Side”
- “When We’re Human”
- “Dig A Little Deeper”
FUN FACTS:
So this is the end of this lesson!! Hope you didn’t get scared too much!!! There are plenty of great villains, but most of them we have slightly covered them in the heroes and princesses lesson. See you next month with the last lesson, which will focus on a friendlies topic, so fear not!! =)
- Disney’s 49th animated feature. Based on the novel The Frog Princess by E. D. Baker, which is in turn based on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale "The Frog Prince".
- “The Princess and the Frog” marked Disney's return to traditional animation, as it was the studio's first traditionally animated film since Lilo & Stitch (2002), and Home on the Range (2004).
- Various film critics heavily regard The Princess and Frog as the turning point of Walt Disney Animation Studios, and the film to have ignited the "new Disney Renaissance”.
- The film was originally named "The Frog Princess", however it was retitled to avoid the implication that the first African-American Disney princess was somehow ugly or animal.
- The alligator character in the film is named Louis in honor of jazz great Louis Armstrong.
- Beyoncé Knowles was considered for the role of Tiana but lost out on the role because she refused to audition.
- A large amount of children were hospitalized with salmonella after the release of the film because they had all kissed a frog.
- The star Ray calls "Evangeline" is in fact the planet Venus, named for the Roman goddess of love.
- Animator Bruce W. Smith described Dr Facilier as "the love child” of Peter Pan’s Captain Hook and 101 Dalmatian’s Cruella DeVil.
- Right at the beginning of the opening credits song "Down in New Orleans" you can see someone shaking a carpet out their window. It is the same as the magic flying carpet in "Aladdin" !
So this is the end of this lesson!! Hope you didn’t get scared too much!!! There are plenty of great villains, but most of them we have slightly covered them in the heroes and princesses lesson. See you next month with the last lesson, which will focus on a friendlies topic, so fear not!! =)
Sources:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_in_Wonderland_(1951_film)
- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043274/trivia?ref_=tt_ql_2
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Hundred_and_One_Dalmatians
- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055254/trivia?ref_=tt_ql_2
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor's_New_Groove
- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120917/trivia?ref_=tt_ql_2
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Princess_and_the_Frog
- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780521/trivia?ref_=tt_ql_2