I’ve been looking forward to this A to Z Challenge post for a while now, because let’s face it – being good can be soooooo boring! Therefore, I declare that V-Day (today) is to be dedicated to a prestigious group of Ladies I Love, my favorite Disney Villainesses – muah ha ha haaaaaaa!!!
These are not ALL of the Disney villains, you might notice…I run with the classics. These are my favorites – the most cunning, devious, manipulative and deceitful of the ones we love to hate. Well, I don’t really love to hate them…I just love them!!! Disney princesses can be so boring and predictable…always doing the right thing, beautiful, innocent, in need of rescue, blah blah blah. Well, these ladies don’t need any of it, and they don’t care what other people think of them (well, ok, the Wicked Queen from Snow White wants to be the most beautiful one of them all, but whatever). They are all unique in their abilities to seek out and craft an evil plan, and dang, they usually almost get away with it! Here are my favorite villainesses (in order from just favorite to most favorite), and the reasons why I love them so:
- The Queen of Hearts (Alice in Wonderland): She’s got style and is a wee bit off her rocker. I admire her propensity for dishing out death sentences with every other breath, but she’s honestly not THAT smart and can’t really formulate a long-term plan for eliminating potential threats to her queendom (a.k.a., Alice).
- The Evil Stepmother and Stepsisters (Cinderella): Oooohhhh…to treat a poor wretched orphan in such a horrific manner…these ladies must have lumps of coal where their hearts used to be! The stepmother is cunning and cruel, and the stepsisters are mean, but in the end their obvious greed brings their quest for personal gain to a halt. If they could’ve just been a little more subtle about things…ah, well. Better luck next time!
- The Wicked Queen (Snow White): Beautiful AND clever, the Wicked Queen almost succeeded in killing off Snow White. Shape-shifting is an amazing power to have, but her plan just needed a little more follow-through. She let those dwarfs get in the way…and then that meddling prince shows up! Argh! You’d think an evil plan would hatch (and grow to maturity) much more easily!
- Madame Medusa (The Rescuers): This dame has it all – a decrepit river boat in a swamp, two pet alligators (although they look more like crocodiles), and the confidence to never wear a bra. She even has a sniveling little sidekick of a man who submits to her every whim, including sending a little girl into a tidal cave to look for a jewel hidden by pirates long ago! And if it wasn’t for two mice named Bernard and Bianca, her plan might have succeeded. Curses!
- Malifecent (Sleeping Beauty): Ok, AWESOME HEADWEAR AND THE ABILITY TO TURN INTO A BLACK RAGING DRAGON??? Do I need to go into any further detail about why this is one of the best villains EVER??? No? Good.
- Cruella Deville (101 Dalmations): Ah, my favorite villainess at last. Her obvious disdain for live dogs indicates that clearly this woman is a cat-person, which I can completely relate to. And her fashion sense? TOP-NOTCH. I totally want to start smoking just so that I can wear elbow-length gloves and use one of those long cigarette holders! Her only mistake was relying on a pair of bumbling henchmen to do a job that she should’ve done herself, but I guess stylish ladies like Cruella can’t be bothered to get their own be-gloved hands dirty. Oh, the humanity!!!
It goes without saying that these villainesses, while amazing in their unique approaches to evil plans, could use a little help. In my own research in becoming an evil genius I stumbled upon a book they might be able to use: How to Be a Villain: Evil Laughs, Secret Lairs, Master Plans, and More!!! by Neil Zawacki and James Dignan. It’s a bit basic, but they could probably use a little brushing up on the fundamentals.
What about you? Who is your favorite villain, and why?
Fuzzy Undertones 
I love that you did this- long been a villainess fan… Ursula from The Little Mermaid is one of my faves… has that whole drag-queen attitude!
Ursula is such a popular villain! I didn’t include her because I’ve actually never seen The Little Mermaid, if you can believe it. So, even though I think she looks awesome and would fit in with my rag-tag group of villainesses, I haven’t seen her work! I will just have to educate myself one of these days… 😉 Thanks for stopping by! 😀
Oh my gosh! This is my very favorite and I didn’t even know I relish the villainesses. Cruella deVille – she’s my vill model!! We couldn’t have warriors and princely princes and brave-hearted heroines if there weren’t villainesses to muck us up. Long live Cruella 🙂
Muah ha haaaaa!!! You’re right about that, Sammy – there is no bright without dark – and who better to balance out those pink princesses than our black-hearted villainesses? Someone’s got to do the dirty work, and I’m glad these girls are up to the task! 😀
I don’t like the nasty girls in real life, but give me that bitch in the movies 😉
Ha ha haaaa – Glenn Close made a GREAT bitchy Cruella in the live version of 101 Dalmations – one of my favorite performances of hers! 😀
You really had me laughing with your entertaining post, Marci. These characters are ones I also love to hate fondly. Each one has unique personalities that set them apart from the rest. You’re right about their plans needing to be foolproof. Hope the book helps them.
Ha! Michelle – I think we had similar visions for the letter V! I loved your post too – aren’t bumbling villains the best? 😉
I love this post. I saw you on twitter on the A to Z challenge, which I am also participating in. I need to write a whole section of my new novel in the voice of the villain. After writing in the voice of the heroine this is a big challenge and has stumped me. I’m so glad to see this post because it gives me inspiration to pick up the pen again and start writing–after I revisit some of the villains from Disney.
Stephanie
http://stephanierosebirdstudio.blogspot.com
Awesome, Stephanie! There’s always a benefit to going back to the classics, and I have no doubt that revisiting some of the Disney villains will help you with your villain voice. Thanks so much for swinging by – good luck with your new novel – it sounds like a challenge! Cheers! 😀
Hahaha, so funny we both wrote about villains on the same day 😀 Not a great fan of Disney, but the villainesses are way better than the princesses, in my opinion. Great post! Thanks for visiting my blog!
I completely agree – I don’t care much for Disney either, but villainesses are just so much more interesting than some goody-goody two-shoes princess! Ha! 😀
Great list of villains, love it! One that’s missing for me is Madam Mim (“Did I say no purple dragons? Did I?”) from The Sword in the Stone.
This post was… excellent (imagine me saying that while tapping my fingers together Mr-Burns-style). 😉
Oh yes, Madam Mim! She’s a good one, too 🙂 It has been years since I’ve seen The Sword in the Stone, and I completely forgot about that one! And, nice Mr. Burns reference…I can totally hear and see him saying his oily “exxxxxcellent” right now! 😀 Thanks for stopping by, Amos!
Great post! Cruella clearly being a cat person made me snort tea out of my nose!
Lisa @ Tales from the Love Shaque
Ha! Thanks, Lisa! I was wondering if anyone would make it that far in my blog – I’m glad you did! I really appreciate you stopping by 😀
great list. i look forward to your take on the Maleficent movie with Angelina Jolie. I love Cruella deVille (who doesn’t?), and so of course I LOVE the Simpsons parody with Mr Burns which parodies 101 Dalmatians AND Beauty and the Beast (“Be my vest”) Fantastic stuff.
Hi Niall! I’m not a huge Angelina Jolie fan, but I will probably see the movie because she does look amazing as Maleficent. I WISH I could’ve included Mr. Burns in my villains list…he’s one of my favorite villains of all time! Perhaps another list, someday 😀 Thanks for stopping by!