Disney Villains
Who doesn’t love a great Disney villain? Maleficent, Ursula, Scar, Jafar, Frollo, Cruella de Vil, Hades, Shere Khan just to name a few. Many of them have extremely grandiose plans that seem to succeed for a time and then produce a failure of often epic proportions. Others fall into that “descent into madness” category that makes for such interesting watching. On occasion you can get a villain who fits into both categories. Though Disney villains are hardly the best role models for any purposes they can provide a great list of what not to do in order to succeed in life, business and in general.
Know your minions.
One of the first steps that a Disney villain usually takes in their attempt to rule the world/kingdom/random planet is killing off the hero. The villain almost never does this personally. Instead they entrust this crucial step to their minions. Keep in mind that they’ve already shown that they know their minions are usually incompetent and definitely not the brightest stars in the sky yet they still send them to kill the hero, their greatest nemesis and then take their minions word for it when they claim the deed is done. I’ve never seen that end well. The hero is usually alive and ends up thriving and learning what they need to know to come back and take revenge.
It’s true that villains probably keep such minions around because they are easily cowed and ruled over however it’s definitely a better idea to surround yourself with smart and loyal people that you can trust. Most villains might be worried about such folks turning on them but if they’re loyal you don’t have to worry about that. After all, if there’s an important project that you need done, wouldn’t you rather know it’s done properly the first time and won’t come back to bite you in the butt?
Obsessions are bad for your health.
We all have obsessions. Maybe you obsess over a movie, a character, an actor, your facebook or twitter. Disney villains often have obsessions as well, usually with another character. They often obsess to the point of losing all sense of reason and tend to end in a fiery pit of doom. It’s interesting to watch how perfectly sane characters can descend into madness so quickly. They start out as calm and collected and end up waving a sword over their head, screaming, while standing atop a gargoyle near the top of Notre Dame Cathedral.
I’ve always thought obsessions were fine until they negatively impacted your health or life in any way. After all, I watch Star Wars far more often than normal people do but I don’t give up eating or housekeeping just to sit and watch it. Sometimes properly managed obsessions can even help you find small details that you might have missed in a movie or project. It’s just a good idea to make sure that you don’t let it get out of control. If you find yourself skipping lunch because an excel spreadsheet has your complete attention, take the extra effort to take a break in the afternoon to make up for it. Very few things are worth an ending of you waving a sword over your head before falling into a flaming inferno.
Save the speeches for when it’s all over.
This is probably the most common problem with villains of all types. They love to talk. Specifically, they love to give a speech to the hero right at the moment when they think they are about to triumph over them. The moment you hear a villain launch into such a speech, you know it will end badly. In fact, the longer and more impassioned the speech, usually the more brutal the ending. I’ve never understood why they just couldn’t kill the hero and then make the speech over the dead body. I know, I know…it’s not nearly as dramatic and definitely doesn’t resolve into a happy ending but I’d love to see a villain wait to give their speech. I guess they never learned to not count their chickens before they’ve hatched.
It’s a good idea in general to avoid congratulating yourself until the work is actually done. Maybe it’s a law of the universe that such things will jinx the work but every time I’ve done that by accident something usually goes wrong. Perhaps it simply gives a person too much confidence or an overabundance of ego at the wrong moment. In any case, get the work done, give yourself kudos for each stage that you get through but save the back-patting and celebratory drinks until the last thing is done and everything is complete. Be it Murphy’s Law or a Disney Villain Warning, hold off on those speeches just a little longer.
Don’t get me wrong, Disney villains do get a lot of things right. Often all the middle stages of their plans go correctly and they almost always have the best and most memorable lines that are good to quote later on. And you certainly can’t go wrong with the right evil laugh. And though they may be cartoons in completely exaggerated situations, you can definitely learn from their mistakes and apply it to your own business endeavors.
Can you think of any other lessons that I didn’t mention? Is there a particular Disney villain that you think got things mostly right or mostly wrong? Let me know!
I completely agree with the save the speeches. This pertains to alot of things! Either the speech should be at the beginnning to fire up your minions for your plan, (like a villian pep rally) or after the hero is gone. Sometimes though, villians don’t have any of the traits shown above. Sometimes they are just some regular guy with a wife and kids, that just happened to shoot Bambi in the woods to make deer jerky…
It’s the same as “don’t count your chickens before they hatch”. I guess most evil villains never learned (or remembered) that one.
I don’t think you can count the hunter as a villain though. He wasn’t malicious or cruel…he just wanted jerky.
Check #14: http://www.listal.com/list/disney-villians Poaching AND lurking in the shadows!
Ha! Well, at least my favorite, Frollo, is listed as #1!
Another rockin’ post!
Maleficent has ALWAYS been my favorite Disney villain because everything about her spells wicked-awesome antagonist. She’s got the looks, the brains, and the magic to make sh*t happen and she comes thisclose to taking down the heroes. Even though she’s a cartoon (and a fictional character, for that matter) I admire her ability to adapt to the crises at hand. When Prince Phillip comes to her castle to defeat her, she creates a thorn maze. When that fails, she transforms into a terrifying dragon. She may not succeed in the end, but she sure gives them a run for their money!
This may be too easy, but I can think of one of my favorite Disney villains who doesn’t fail as easily: Chernabog the demon from “Night on Bald Mountain”/”Fantasia”. The protagonists even have a head start, but he shows up out of nowhere and takes all of them down without even trying. BOOM!
On a side note, your point about the speeches is something I’ve been wanting to say for years! Why don’t villains just wait until it’s all over before they stop to toot their own horns (no pun intended in the cases of our horned villains)? Don’t they know that it ain’t over until the fat lady sings?!
Seriously though, awesome blog!
Maleficent is pretty darn awesome. She really does hold her ground and you’re right, she’s one of the few villains that can really adapt to the situations. Plus, there is the dragon aspect. As one of my friends reminded me, that’s really all that needs to be said.
I’d forgotten about Chernabog! You’re right…he’s one of those villains that makes you feel as though there’s no way to defeat him.
My favorite is Judge Claude Frollo from “Hunchback of Notre Dame”. He’s actually the one that I had in mind when talking about the waving of the sword. I’m not sure why he’s my favorite and in the actual Hugo novel he’s not nearly as cruel and evil. Instead he’s a pretty decent guy through most of it. In the Disney version though he starts out as cruel with only a minor obsession (hatred of gypsies) and ends up cackling madly standing on a waterspout over a flaming inferno while waving a sword. I think it’s the spiral into madness that makes him one of my favorites. That and the fact that I love the character’s voice (Tony Jay was perfect for the role)
Dramatic speeches seem to be a qualification to get your villain card. Now in Mystery Men, Cassanova Frankenstein kills off a hero and points out that he’d rather not do the speech. Better to get the hero out of the way first. I think he’s the only villain I’ve ever seen that passed up his dramatic monologue.
I’m glad you enjoyed it! I had this one in mind for a whole week before I could pin down exactly what I wanted to talk about.