The starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the villains were sometimes more colorful and entertaining than the heroes. It was the villains that could do really dramatic things and made most of the animated movies worth rewatching over and over again.

The best Disney villains include hunters and poachers, witches and sorcerers, gods and monsters. However, they also include neglected toys, grieving parents, and spurned lovers who want revenge against those who rejected them. There are many different types of villains in Disney animated movies, but Disney always surprises fans by bringing a new bad guy who is even bigger and better than the last. With that said, the classics are still among the best, and the Disney villains have proven to maintain their status as some of the deadliest in movies, animated or otherwise.

54 Amos Slade

The Fox And The Hound (1981)

In some cases with Disney villains, they only seem evil because of the difficulties they present to the heroes of the story, rather than them actually being nefarious characters. In The Fox and the Hound, Amos Slade is really just a hunter, but one of the key traits of Disney Animation is humanizing animals. For example, "Man" was the ultimate villain in Bambi for killing the fawn's mother.

Here, Amos wants to kill Tod the fox, and since Tod is a hero in the movie, that makes Amos a villain in contrast. Coming between one of the most heartwarming Disney stories of friendship is bound to make Amos an unlikeable character initially. However, he shows kindness and love for his dog by not killing the fox when he realizes they are friends, easily making him the nicest of all the Disney villains.

53 Sid

Toy Story (1995)

Sid Phillips is the villain in Toy Story, and it is not hard to see why the toys fear him as a sadistic foe. Andy's toys watch from their own house as Sid brutally dismantles his toys, even blowing one up with a rocket right in front of them. However, this is a problem when it comes to Sid. He isn't a villain, but rather a young boy who likes to take apart his toys and then rebuild them into monstrous creations.

He is more of a creative little boy than a villain. There is no way he could have known that the toys he's mutilating are living creatures. While he may seem like a serial killer-in-training, Sid was just a boy who ended up traumatized when all his prized toys came to life and surrounded him. The meanest thing he did in the movie was destroy his little sister's doll without asking, making him a bit of a mean older brother but not a villain.

52 Si & Am

The Lady And The Tramp (1955)

There are problems in early Disney movies, and a perfect example is the troublesome Siamese cats and their racially insensitive song in Lady and the Tramp. The uncomfortable nature of these depictions has perhaps added to the reputation of the characters as villains when their actions are not as bad as some of their other Disney colleagues.

In the movie, Si and Am are hardly villains, just mischievous troublemakers. They purposely make a mess of things and even try to eat the family goldfish, knowing that the dog Lady will be blamed for it all. Certainly, that makes them detestable, but a lot of the blame has to go to their owner, Aunt Sarah, who refuses to imagine her creepy cats could have done any of this. As frustrating as it might be, Si and Am are basically just acting the way most cats do.

51 Edgar Balthazar

The Aristocats (1970)

Edgar Balthazar is the loyal butler in The Aristocats to millionaire Madame Bonfamilile. However, he becomes the villain of this Disney movie when he learns that she plans to leave all her fortune to her kittens. While he is a villain who captures the beloved felines, his only purely evil move is planning to ship them to Timbuktu. Compared to another villainous Disney pet kidnapper, Cruella De Vil, who was remorseless about murdering innocent animals, Edgar goes to great lengths not to hurt them.

The movie seems to recognize that he is not a truly bad guy as he is depicted as too clumsy and incompetent to be seen as a threat. In fact, there is something endearing about this working man who is frustrated with his ungrateful employer. After spending his whole life waiting on a rich old woman, it is understandable that he is overlooked in of compensation in favor of some cats.

50 The Big Bad Wolf

The Three Little Pigs (1933)

The Big Bad Wolf is the villain in the Silly Symphonies short movie The Three Little Pigs. He is ruthless and conniving, with his mission to eat the three little pigs certainly making him a villain. There is an overconfidence to The Big Bad Wolf as he comes to each of the pig's houses, quickly knocking down the ones made of straw and sticks with blows. However, when all the huffing and puffing doesn't knock down the brick house, he attempts to climb down the chimney only to fall into a pot of boiling water.

The classic story is a lesson in how taking a little time to do things right can make all the difference, but there is also a lesson to be learned through the Wolf's follies. He relied too heavily on being about to huff and puff his way to success and was not prepared for those tactics to fail. In the end, his short Disney appearance and lack of proper planning fail to make him a standout villain.

49 King Magnifico

Wish (2023)

In Wish’s kingdom of Rosas, King Magnifico is the ruler and keeper of all the wishes. The citizens are given the chance to make a wish which Magnifico may one day grant. He is exposed as the movie’s villain when it is discovered that the majority of the wishes will not be granted. While Magnifico has some solid reasoning for why not everyone’s wish can come true, there is also a sense that he wants to hold onto all of the power for himself.

Magnifico’s selfish ways are confirmed when he grows jealous of a wishing star using magic throughout the kingdom and he turns to dark magic as a way to regain control. Magnifico’s turn from a decent ruler to an evil sorcerer is so abrupt that it is hard to really get onboard with him as a villain. Also, his fate of being forever trapped as the magic mirror from Snow White is a harsh one, given he was once a pretty good guy.

48 Honest John & Gideon

Pinocchio (1940)

The real villain in Pinocchio was the hero himself, who wanted to be a real boy but made some bad decisions in his life that caused him to face a dark fate. However, young Pinocchio wasn't alone in falling into temptation. Honest John and Gideon were con artists who often swindled people through their smooth talking. When it came to Pinocchio, they convinced him to go to Pleasure Island, which was where bad boys were turned into donkeys.

They were bad, but they were just whispering in Pinocchio's ear and manipulating the impressionable young man. However, with the introduction of Stromboli later in the movie, the man who actually turns these poor boys into donkeys, it puts into context that Honest John and Gideon are just low-level villains. Even they are disturbed by Stromboli's villainy.

47 Evil Ralph

Ralph Breaks The Internet (2018)

Wreck-It Ralph is a very fun examination of heroes and villains. Set in the world of video games, Ralph is a classic arcade villain, similar to Donkey Kong in his first incarnation. However, Ralph is a gentle guy at heart and wants to be one of the good guys. The movie examines his struggles with the world around him trying to force him to be a certain way. He is helped to realize he can be a hero in the first movie by his friend Vanellope. However, the sequel sees a villainous version of Ralph emerge after all.

It wasn't actually Ralph himself who became a villain, but his insecurity created his doppelgänger that grew to an enormous size and threatened to destroy everything when Ralph believed Vanellope decided she wanted to move away. It took the real Ralph trusting his friend and letting her go for the Evil Ralph to fall. While a nice concept for a villain, Ralph was too endearing as a hero by this point to really see him as a bad guy.

46 Gabby Gabby

Toy Story 4 (2019)

Gabby Gabby took on a familiar role in Toy Story movies as someone who pretended to be a friend before revealing herself as the villain. However, she had the most sympathetic story of any villain in the series. She was a doll who wanted more than anything to have a girl named Harmony adopt her, but her voice box was broken and this caused her to remain a misfit toy. Her goal was to steal Woody's voice box, making her a dangerous antagonist.

However, Gabby is able to show Woody her reasons in a way that actually convinces him to willingly hand over his voice box. Sadly, even with her supposed fault now fixed, Harmony still doesn't choose to take her home. Gabby turns from a threatening villain to someone the audience's heart breaks for. Luckily, she gets her happy ending when she finds a loving child.

45 Te Kā

Moana (2016)

There are some great examples of Disney villains who have terrifying exteriors but are largely misunderstood creatures at their center. Te Kā is a volcano demon in Moana with a nightmarish appearance that sets her up to be a terrifying villain. It is also true that she is responsible for some destruction, as for much of the movie she did everything in her power to destroy everything. She sent out a force that killed all plant life, destroying kingdoms across the seas.

However, it is only revealed later in the story that Maui stole her heart, which sent her on her destructive path. While the wrong that Maui caused is not an excuse for Te Kā's behavior, she does prove to be a lot more reasonable than she initially seemed. When Moana returned her heart to her, Te Kā turned back into her serene alter-ego, Te Fiti, and reversed her damage to the planet.