Disney has a reputation for creating memorable and exciting villains, who conduct wicked schemes and eventually pay the price. Since the 1930s, Disney has released multiple successful animated movies based on famous fairy tales and stories; characters such as Snow White, Cinderella, and Peter Pan have become some of the most popular Disney characters in history. These characters have had to overcome different challenges and defeat the bad guys to get their happy ending.
Disney villains have proven to be just as popular as their hero counterparts, thanks to their colorful personalities, backstories, and sinister schemes. Viewers have enjoyed watching Disney villains both plot against the lead characters and face their comeuppances by the movie’s end. Many villains in Disney movies are killed off by the movie’s end, but several have received their comeuppance in a very similar manner.
10 Most Dangerous Disney Villains
While all of Disney’s most infamous villains are unsavory, some are legitimately dangerous and pose a serious threat to the safety of the heroes.
All 11 Disney Villains Who Fell To Their Death
As seen throughout Disney’s large catalog of animated movies, villains have always met their end in one form or another. While some, like Captain Hook and Yzma, escaped with their lives, the majority of Disney villains were killed off by the end of the movie. The most popular technique of depicting a villain’s demise in a Disney movie is having them fall to their deaths; this technique has been used for 11 Disney villains.
Villain | Movie | Death |
|---|---|---|
The Evil Queen | Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs | The Evil Queen tries to crush the dwarfs with a boulder, but lightning strikes the cliff, and she falls to her death. |
The Bear | The Fox and the Hound | The Bear falls over a waterfall during a fight with Todd. |
Professor Ratigan | The Great Mouse Detective | The tolls of a clock bell cause Ratigan to lose his balance and fall off Big Ben during his fight with Basil. |
Percival C. McLeach | The Rescuers Down Under | In his haste to kill Cody, McLeach falls into the river and is swept over a waterfall. |
Gaston | Beauty and the Beast | Gaston stabs the Beast in the back, but loses his balance and falls down the side of the castle. |
Scar | The Lion King | Falls off Pride Rock after a battle with Simba. Though he initially survives, he is mauled by his hyena lackeys. |
Judge Claude Frollo | The Hunchback of Notre Dame | A crumbling gargoyle causes Frollo to fall off the top of Notre Dame into a pit of molten fire. |
Clayton | Tarzan | Gets tangled up in vines with one wrapping around his neck; as Clayton falls, the vine snaps his neck. |
Scroop | Treasure Planet | Tangled in a flag that snaps off the ship, Scroop is left to fall into oblivion. |
Charles Muntz | Up | When chasing Russell, Kevin, and Dug, his foot is caught in several balloons. The strings snap and Muntz falls thousands of feet to the earth. |
Mother Gothel | Tangled | After Rapunzel’s hair loses its power, Mother Gothel’s age catches up with her. She falls out the tower window and crumbles to dust. |
Each of these villains’ deaths reflects on their actions throughout the movies. Some of these deaths, such as Scar, Frollo, and Scroop, offer a form of karma and punishment to the villains as they pay the price for their wicked crimes throughout the movies. It can also be argued that the technique of falling reflects how the villains’ darkest desires are always just out of their reach.
10 Disney Villains Who Deserved Harsher Consequences
In Disney movies, good always triumphs over evil as the villains are brought to justice. But many deserve harsher consequences than the ones they get.
Why So Many Disney Villains Fall To Their Death
Disney has a reputation for producing child-friendly content; they are aware that their target audience is mainly children and young adults. While they know that the bad guys need to get their comeuppance, they also know that their deaths cannot be too scary for viewers. The technique of having a villain fall to death ensures that their demise is not too graphic or frightening and also ensures the story ends happily for the main characters.
The technique of having a villain fall to their deaths also proves beneficial to the lead characters as it vindicates them from any wrongdoing. It helps preserve their heroism as they are not directly killing the villains themselves (via Far Out Magazine). While other methods of killing villains have been used, the technique of having them fall to their deaths has proven to be the most popular and least graphic method used in any Disney movie.
Source: Far Out Magazine
