Most Disney villains are afflicted by some kind of comeuppance at the end of the story,yet a rare few mysteriously escape all punishment. I grew up watching a lot of Disney movies, and the standard formula is that the universe will conspire to strike down a villain if the heroes are too pure to kill them. In softer circumstances, they will go to prison for their crimes. Thebest Disney villainsare remembered for their dramatic, unapologetic villainy, which would make it almost satisfying to see them go free.
However,these fan-favorite Disney villains also tend to be the ones killed in a dramatic final battle,while more understated characters get away with it. Themost evil Disney villain plansare essential parts of their stories, but the implication is that people will be punished for truly evil acts. Thebest endings of Disney and Pixar moviesunderstand what fate for the villain will best satisfy the audience the most.
6Stromboli (& Other Villains)
Pinocchio (1940)
There are a few creepy villains scattered across the story ofPinocchio, passing in and out of the main character’s misadventures. Stromboli is the most memorable, the evil puppet show host who imprisons Pinocchio when the boy wants to go home.Stromboli is an unsettling character,even by Disney’s standards, when the villains' theatrics are typically more enjoyable. He apparently picks random kids up and conscripts them into his show, refusing to let them leave if they turn a profit. However,Pinocchiolets several villains get away with kidnapping.
Disney’s Pinocchio
Cast
Gepetto, an old Italian carpenter, wanted to be a father so badly that his puppet of a boy came to life. However, the wooden boy doesn’t know right from wrong and his nose grows when he lies.
After the Blue Fairy frees Pinocchio from Stromboli, saying that she will not be able to help him again,Pinocchio flees and Stromboli is never seen again.The movie doesn’t have time for Pinocchio to alert the police of this corrupt showman, and it’s not as though he would be believed, but this is usually where a Disney movie delivers some kind of karma upon the bad guy. However, Pinocchio then stumbles upon Honest John and Gideon the Cat again (who persuaded him to join Stromboli’s show) and is convinced to take a vacation to Pleasure Island.
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Pinocchiois a movie that is held up as a Disney classic but doesn’t sit well with me and features some ofDisney’s animated scenes that haven’t aged well.The movie’s themes are focused on Pinocchio becoming a better person, so the narrative lets various kidnappers trick him without punishment,waving a finger at Pinocchio for being a misbehaving child rather than emphasizing the dangerous criminals who will probably do it all over again. Meanwhile, Monstro the Whale is just a natural predator in the wild whose fate is left ambiguous but may have killed himself while pursuing Pinocchio.
5The Walrus
Alice In Wonderland (1951)
“The Walrus and the Carpenter” is pretty disturbing, especially because of the way Disney rendered it.
Nonsense is a large part ofAlice in Wonderland’s story, contributing to its core theme of Alice being pushed around by society’s arbitrary standards. Therefore, she ends up sidetracked when she listens toTweedledum and Tweedledee recite the completely pointless narrative of “The Walrus and the Carpenter,“based on Lewis Carroll’s poem found inThrough the Looking Glass. Alice politely waits out this story but manages to slip away as the pair begins telling the next one. However, “The Walrus and the Carpenter” is pretty disturbing, especially because of the way Disney rendered it.
Alice in Wonderland
Based on the stories of Lewis Caroll, Alice in Wonderland follows the adventures of a young girl after she finds herself in a magical world. She finds Wonderland colorful and enchanting, but it’s dangerous, too: Alice quickly falls afoul of the Red Queen, who has a preoccupation with beheadings. With the help of her new friends, the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, and the White Rabbit, Alice must use her head to find her way home.
This one-off short film within the movie depicts a walrus and a carpenter who want to have oysters, so they convince a group of anthropomorphic baby oysters to follow them to their seaside shack. While the Carpenter is out of the room,the Walrus eats all the oysters (not shown on screen).The sequence ends with the Carpenter angrily running after the Walrus – glossing over the fact that he just ate a bunch of children. Disney did not play down the horror by making the oysters all very cute sea children.
Supposedly, the Walrus is"punished"by his former friend chasing him off into the sunset, but the Carpenter was going to eat the oysters too. LikePinocchio,Alice in Wonderlandmakes a different point than good triumphing and evil getting what they deserve. However, it would not have been uncharacteristic for Disney to amend the ending of “The Walrus and the Carpenter” so they are punished. As it is,Alice in Wonderlandtreats the Walrus killing children like a random footnote which it doesn’t need to follow up on,which is shocking.
4Madam Mim
The Sword In The Stone (1963)
The way for Merlin to prove his power and establish himself as someone to be feared in this setting would have been for him to kill Madam Mim. However,Merlin and Madam Mim have a battle that is just as goofy as Merlin is for the rest of the movie,with Mim getting all the scariest moments. Merlin wins by turning himself into a virus and making his opponent sick; she is last seen in bed, upset with her treatment. Merlin and Arthur casually leave her behind in the forest.
The Sword in the Stone
Disney’s animated classic The Sword in the Stone spins a new take on the tale of King Arthur of Camelot’s origins as a humble squire named Wart who wishes to become the Once and Future King. Though many have tried and failed, Wart, with the help of the all-powerful (but bumbling) magician Merlin, will embark on a quest to pull the sword form the stone and lead his country to a prosperous future.
Madam Mim’s crimes inThe Sword in the Stoneinclude trying to kill Arthur as a bird,an image that paints her as a cruel figure who will torment the weak. Presumably, she has been hanging out in her wilderness cabin this whole time, killing anyone who has the misfortune to run into her. However, Merlin still thinks that it is a good idea to leave her to her own devices, and he is clearly familiar with her work based on his dramatic arrival to rescue Arthur.
Even Arthur never thought to go back and arrest Mim after she tried to kill him, at least not within the time frame of the movie.Mim gets into a violent enough battle with Merlin that the movie could have killed her offwithout it damaging Merlin’s moral integrity that much. Her dragon transformation even works as a homage toSleeping Beauty, which Maleficent doesn’t survive. Being sick in bed for a while is not a punishment befitting Mim’s crimes, as she will presumably recover and go back to what she was doing before.
3Yzma
The Emperor’s New Groove (2000)
She’s the kind of antagonist you want to survive just so you can keep watching her antics, even if it’s unrealistic.
I love Yzma — she’s a hilariously sassy villainess who I believe will always escape justice, even if I can’t believe that Disney keeps letting her. She’s the kind of antagonist you want to survive just so you can keep watching her antics, even if it’s unrealistic.After attempting to kill the emperor and accidentally getting turned into a cat during the final battle, Yzma wanders off,with neither Kuzco nor anyone else paying any mind to what she might do next. Her only punishment in the first movie is having to join Kronk’s Junior Chipmunks troupe.
The punishment of having to be a cat doesn’t stick, as when Yzma returns inKronk’s New Groove, she is human again, albeit still with a cat’s tail.Yzma embarks on a new plan to leverage Kronk’s credibility to sell a fake youth potionand gain enough popularity to make another bid for emperor. When everyone realizes what she is doing, she turns herself back into a cat so she is too cute for them to attack her — and is promptly carried off by a predatorial bird.
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Yzma is seen at the end ofKronk’s New Groovein the nest of baby birds who want to eat her — but if she can turn herself back into a human, she can get out of that.The status quoThe Emperor’s NewGrooveand its tie-ins set up is that no one is that worried about bringing Yzma to justiceother than immediately after she has committed her latest crime. At least in Yzma’s case, this allows more riotous conflicts with Kuzco, Kronk, and the rest.
2Lady Tremaine
Cinderella (1950)
Lady Tremaine abuses Cinderella for years, and Cinderella is too passive and kind to talk back or just leave her stepfamily for a better life. It might not be the most obvious thing to persecute, at least compared to other Disney villains who are planning murder and coups. However,Lady Tremaine did directly lie to the royal party when she said there were no other women in the house,and someone probably asked Cinderella why she didn’t come downstairs until the last minute. Tremaine certainly would not have been on the royals' good side after that.
Cinderella
Cinderella is a young orphan who lives with her wicked stepmother. One day, when the woman forbids her to go to the royal ball, she receives unexpected help from two adorable mice and her fairy godmother.
It’s unlikely that any kind of legal recompense for how Tremaine treated Cinderella exists in this setting; it’s more likely that the royal family would have used their unfiltered power to imprison her just because she mistreated the future queen. However,maybe Cinderella said she would prefer to just put everything behind herand leave her stepfamily alone. The under-the-radar sequels suggest that the stepfamily thinks having to do their own housework is the worst punishment imaginable.
For anyone who watchedCinderella 3, Tremaine gets hold of the Fairy Godmother’s wand, turns its owner to stone, turns back time, and almost marries one of her own daughters off to the prince. This at least constitutes a grab for power that merits imprisonment. However, Tremaine and Drizella (Anastasia gets redeemed in this movie) are still only punished by being cast out of the palace and having to do their own chores. Again,I find it more likely that the movie would have punished Tremaine rather than the characters,but she’s never important to the story’s resolution.
1The Duke Of Weselton
Frozen (2013)
Like Hans,the Duke of Weselton conspires to kill Queen Elsa.Actually, his motivations are more plausibly self-preservation and concern for the Kingdom of Arendelle, while Hans confesses to wanting Elsa out of the picture so he could become king. When Hans sets out to find Elsa, the duke sends along two of his men with orders to kill her. While Hans previously confronted the duke about his possible treason against the sisters,Frozendoes not show him doing the same after the fight at Elsa’s castle, perhaps thinking that Elsa had made it too hard to defend her.
Frozen
Frozen, released in 2013, follows young princess Anna of Arendelle on a perilous quest to halt an eternal winter cast by her sister, Elsa. Joined by Kristoff, his reindeer Sven, and snowman Olaf, Anna navigates themes of friendship, courage, family, and love in her journey.
Frozen’s ending makes a show of Hans being tossed in the brig and sent back to the Southern Isles, suggesting that his brothers will keep him in check (barringOnce Upon a Time’s interpretation, where they return with him to Arendelle to finish what he started). Meanwhile, the duke is just marched onto his ship and sent away, which makes sense if what he did is not as bad as Hans' crimes.What is really bizarre is that Elsa then cuts off trade with Weseltown,possibly prompting an economic crisis that punishes the people more than the duke.
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Elsa believes that she deserves justice after the duke’s actions against her,but she lets him go with a stupid punishment. It would have actually hurt him if she had contacted this country’s royalty (presumably there is an unseen monarch, as he is only the duke) and demanded something in exchange for a continued alliance. The duke gets away with it; he might complain about it, but he’s going to be fine in whatever manor he lives in back in Weseltown. Disney is usually very good about assuring its audiences about the rewards of being good but oddly forgets about some villains.
