Monsters. They come in all shapes and sizes and have been used in countless years and
countless cultures for both entertainment and as symbolism. From hulking creatures
but actually have hearts of gold to monsters whose actions are, well,
monstrous. But which monsters are those we could be OK with them being
the monsters under our beds and which monsters are truly the stuff of nightmares?
I’m Brad with WickedBinge and this is Cartoon Monsters: Good to Evil
As usual, we will be starting with the most heroic characters and working our way down.
Some of these monsters might appear frightening but to use a phrase ‘looks can be deceiving’,
these monsters' actions outshine their appearance. These monsters are The Good.
The current Elder of Trollmarket and Jim Lake’s surrogate father, Blinky from Trollhunters is
taking our Gold Medal of Good. While Binky, Aarrgg and the other citizens of Trollmarket were
skeptical of Jim Lake taking the title of Trollhunter due to him being human,
Blinky warms up quickly to the young hero. Blinky uses his vast knowledge not only to
help Jim in his training but is also incredibly accepting of other humans that enter his world,
such as Toby and Claire. Sure, when it comes to fighting enemy forces,
Blinky does not exactly shine on the battlefield but this is a minor issue. Plus,
when it comes to facing dangerous enemies like Morgana or Gunmar, Blinky never backs down and
is willing to do whatever he can to help others in their fight against such powerful enemies. After
Vendel is murdered by Queen Usurna, Blinky takes on the additional duties of becoming the new Elder
of Trollmarket and handles his resposnsiblities quite well, showing how deeply he cares for his
fellow Trolls. When it comes to his own brother Dictatious and Changelings like Stricklander,
Blinky can come across as harsh but when we take into account what they have done, it is an
understandable response. Blinky has proven himself to be an incredibly capable leader, great teacher
and most importantly, is accepting and caring of others and his Gold Medal is more than deserved.
Arguably the cutest interpretation of a legendary monster, Nessie from the Ballad of Nessie is
getting our Silver Medal of Good. At first, Nessie is content on being left alone with her
rubber ducky in the Scottish Highlands. After she is kicked out of her home however, Nessie
tries multiple times to find a new place to live, only to fail each time and is told to keep a stiff
upper lip and repress her emotions. When Nessie finally comes to her breaking point however, her
tears eventually create Loch Ness, which becomes her new home. Sure, Nessie does not really help
anyone else during her story and we do wish she would stand up for herself a bit more. But Nessie
also creates a beautiful landmark and as she both learns and teaches a very valuable life lesson,
we feel comfortable placing her here. Now if only we could give her a hug….
For our Bronze Medal, is actually going to a pair of best friends from Monsters Inc,
Mike and Sully. While at first, these two monsters have careers of scaring kids in order to collect
their screams to convert into power for Monsteropolis, Mike and Sully are not doing
this with any malicious intent. They do take pride in being good at their jobs but after
a young girl Mike and Sully name Boo is able to get into their city, their perceptions of
humans and what they are doing to them change quite a bit. Yes, Mike and Sully do try to find
an easy way out of getting rid of the child at first but the more time they spend with Boo,
Mike and Sully genuinely want nothing more than to return Boo to her home and make sure she is
safe. Plus, after seeing what lengths that their boss is willing to go to in order to ensure that
his company will not go belly up, Mike and Sully are able to destroy the machine Waternoose and
Randall were going to use children to get more screams.After Mike and Sully are able to return
Boo home and Sully is appointed the new CEO of Monsters Inc and shifts the companies direction
so they collect laugher from kids instead, we can comfortably say that these two have a bright
future, not only for themselves but the other employees of Monsters Inc and children worldwide.
He might be rough around the edges but just missing on getting a Good Medal, we have Shrek
from the Shrek franchise. At first, Shrek is content in being left alone and when it comes
to helping Lord Farquaad, he is only doing it to get his swamp back after the other
fairy tale characters invade it. After he meets Fiona though, Shrek is able to allow himself to
lower his guard and not only finds love with the princess but forms a really good friendship with
Donkey and others. Sure, Shrek butts heads with other fairly decent characters at first, such as
Puss in Boots and Arthur but he is also willing to go way beyond the call of duty to help others,
such as saving Fiona from her would-be wedding to Lord Farquaad and going on a journey to find
the next king after his father in law passes away. In addition to helping others out, Shrek
is a pretty accepting guy, as he is able to befriend Puss in Boots and Dragon after they
both tried to kill him. Compared to how he was at the start of the first movie, Shrek
has made huge progress and is one of the kindest monsters on our list, even if he has his moments.
The most optimistic and helpful resident of Madame Foster’s House,
Wilt from Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends is up next. Unlike some of the
other residents of Madame Foster’s House, Wilt is fully accepting of anyone who walks
in through the House’s doors and does his best to connect with them. When it comes to
his interactions with the many other residents of Madame Foster's House, Wilt is more often
than not the voice of reason and he deeply cares about his friends. Wilt can be kind of a
doormat though, as he is constantly apologizing for no good reason and allows others, such as
Bloo or Dutchess to walk all over him. There are some cases when push comes to shove though that
Wilt does stand up for himself, such as the episode Room With A Feud. Why Wilt does have
this attitude though is kind of understandable as he felt like he let down his original child,
Jordan Micheal and now tries to please everyone. And yeah, that is a completely unattainable goal
to do all the time, Wilt’s heart is in the right place. We do wish that Wilt was more assertive
but if being usually passive is the worst thing about him, we really can't place Wilt any lower.
The term ‘always a bridesmaid, never a bride’ is sadly applicable for our next entrant, Emily
from Corpse Bride. When it comes to zombies, Emily is actually one of the nicest people of
the living dead. After Victor accidently places his wedding ring on her finger,
Emily takes this as a sign he wishes to marry her and takes him to the underworld. This does
not kill Victor though and Emily only does this in order to be with her new husband. And while
Emily does have a tragic past of being tricked by Lord Barkis in order to rob and then kill her
after suggesting they get married, Emily does not let this affect her from being
a friendly and helpful person. She is kind of possessive when it comes to Victor and doesn’t
listen when he tries to explain the mistake though, which brings her down a bit. However,
after Emily and Victor return to the land of the living to be actually married,
as Victor has to die in order to properly become Emily’s husband by drinking the Wine of Ages,
Emily realizes how she was taking Victor away from his living bride-to-be, Victoria. Emily
is able to save Victor and Victoria from Lord Barkis before allowing the two to be together
before departing for the afterlife.We do wish that Emily would have been more willing to
listen in order to understand where Victor was coming from but Emily is obviously a
good person at heart and her kind actions both with and for others speaks volumes about her.
And rounding up the Good category, we have The Gromble’s best student, Oblina from
Aaahhh!! Real Monsters. Like we said, when it comes to the students at the Monster Academy,
there is no student better than Oblina. And while she does take her status of being top of
the class very seriously and tends to bicker with Ickis on a regular basis, Oblina deeply cares for
her fellow monsters. During her trips to the outside world, Oblina, along with Krumm and
Ikis has helped numerous people, such as scaring off the bully of some kids and helping capture
a thief. Unlike Mike and Sully from earlier in our list though, Oblina enjoys the fear that she
causes, with her favorite tactic being pulling out her guts for a more effective gross/scare factor.
And while she does enjoy what she does, Oblina is not looking to cause harm to anyone, rather
she is just following her nature and what she has been taught. That, plus the fact that Oblina
is able to connect pretty well with both humans she isn’t attempting to scare and her
fellow monsters gives Oblina some props and keeps her out of our next section.
Now we are going to be descending into neutral territory. This is the Grey Area.
When it comes to storytelling, there is no better guy, well dead guy, than The Cryptkeeper from
Tales From the Cryptkeeper. Much like the line of horror comics Tales From the Crypt from the
50’s and its subsequent series of the same name in the 80’s and 90’s, The Cryptkeeper loves to
scare people with his stories. Unlike his other two interpretations however, this Cryptkeeper is
shown to be a lot more lighthearted and often uses his spooky takes as a sort of morality
tale. But rather than get along with his fellow storytellers, The Old Witch and The Vaultkeeper,
The Cryptkeeper is constantly butting heads with the other two regarding which one gets
to tell their stories. And he has gone through some pretty extreme lengths to
prevent others from taking his spotlight, such as trapping them in a newspaper or tying them
up. And while The Cryptkeeeper is using his stories to get a message across, he
also takes enjoyment in scaring others and really doesn’t seem to care about the things
he does to The Old Witch or The Vaultkeeper, which lands him at the top of the Grey Area.
Our oldest cartoon monster on this list is up next, Gossamer from Looney Tunes. As Gossamer
was first introduced in 1943 in Hair-Raising Hare, Gossamer has quite a number of appearances to his
name. During his earlier cartoons, Gossamer is shown to be purely focused on capturing
Bugs Bunny, either to capture him or eat him. And that is pretty bad, however Bugs is always able to
trick Gossamer pretty easily. And if we were just going to focus on Gossamer’s earlier appearances,
we can see why you’d expect him to be much lower on this list. But it is the 2011 Looney Tunes
series that keeps Gossamer from falling any lower in this list, where Gossamer is more or
less a son figure to Daffy Duck. Rather than relentlessly chasing Bugs Bunny and others,
this version of Gossamer is meek and actually a pretty kind character. While Gossamer does
have a couple of flaws in this series, such as allowing Daffy to misguide him from time to time,
compared to Gossamer’s previous actions, this is a huge improvement. As Gossamer’s intentions and
characteristics have varied over the years, we are placing him right in the middle of the Grey Area.
And rounding up the Grey Area, we have Monster House AKA Constance
Nebbercracker from Monster House. Constance has had a rough life, both when she was alive and
dead. When she meets her husband, Constance is one of the many unfortunate people that a
circus has on a sideshow display. And while it appears that things are finally looking up for
the newlywed Nebbercrackers, Constance meets her premature fate after taking a fall at her house’s
construction site and landing in the cement of the house’s foundation. And that is where her
anger really blossoms and takes over the newly built house into becoming the Monster House. For
years Constance hangs on to her resentment and anger, not only lashing out at others but also
keeping her husband, Horace, a prisoner within the house, allowing him very little access to
the outside world. And her husband is not the only person whom Constance holds as a prisoner,
as she uses parts of the house to capture and eat them. And while that does not kill her victims,
they are trapped in the house for an unknown amount of time. After DJ, Chowder and Jenny,
along with Horace are able to destroy the Monster House however, Constance is finally able to find
peace and briefly reunites with her husband before departing for the afterlife. Not being
able to let go of one’s anger and allowing it to not only consume your own life but
affecting numerous others as well is a pretty awful characteristic to have. But seeing how
rough of a life Constance had plus the fact her actions were limited to just the neighborhood,
she is getting a small break that keeps her out of the next category.
Now we are going to look at those monsters whose actions are truly the stuff of nightmares. Rather
than simply scaring others, these monsters are at best trying to cause trouble for others,
at worse, plotting world domination. These monsters are the Bad to Evil.
Taking the top spot of this category, we have someone who loves disguises, the Changeling Queen,
Queen Chrysalis from My Little Pony. We gotta give Queen Chrysalis credit, as with her first
appearance, she is looking to take control of Equestria. But unlike others who just straight
up invade, she is first seen taking the appearance of Princess Cadance in order to gain power before
starting her Changeling invasion. And while Queen Chrysalis eventually has her true form discovered,
she is nearly successful in her goal before she is blasted out of Equestria, along with
her Changelings. Unfortunately for Twilight and the other Ponies though, Queen Chrysalis
is able to form a team with other villains of the series Cozy Glow and Lord Tirek in order
to take revenge on The Mane Six and the other residents of Equestria. Like her first effort,
Queen Chrysalis is pretty close to succeeding in her attempt to take total over Equestria again, as
she, along with the others are able to capture most of the Mane Six and uses the Bewitching Bell
to gain incredible power. During the final battle though, Twilight is able to drain Queen Chrysalis,
along with the other villains of their powerbeofre they are imprisoned in stone
for their crimes. Trying to take over a kingdom and abusing others is pretty bad
but at least Queen Chrysalis hasn’t killed loads of people, unlike our next entries.
Rising up to take the Bronze Medal of Evil, we have evil zombie Benton Tarantella from Courage
the Cowardly Dog. In a series where our favorite pink furred dog encounters monsters and creatures,
Benton Tarantella stands out as he is not only a monster when Courage encounters him but also has
a body count even before his appearance. In the episode Everyone Wants To Direct,
Benton poses as an independent film director in order to get into Eustace and Muriel’s home. And
while Benton does intend on making a movie, his real intention is way more messed up,
as he wants to resurrect his dead partner and to eat Muriel and to be filmed doing
so. Luckily Courage is able to change the script and tricks Bentron and his partner into getting
back into their graves and buries them. In Benton’s second appearance, Angry Nasty People,
his actions are not as bad as murder and canniblism but Benton is still able bring
out to the worst in Eustance in order to create Mr. Nasty to torment Courage and Muriel just for
his TV show. Like before though, Courage is able to stop Benton, this time knocking him
into some quicksand. We are glad that this seems to finish Benton off once and for all,
but for all he has done both before and after his death, his Evil Medal is well deserved.
Taking home our Silver Medal of Evil, we have The Beast from Over the Garden Wall.
It might seem strange that we are placing a character that is shrouded in mystery this
low in our ranking, but trust us, what we do know of The Beast is more than enough for our
Silver Medal of Evil. The Beast is arguably the darkest character in the series, as he is is able
to manipulate The Woodsman to collect oil from the Edelwood Trees in order to fuel the lantern,
by telling him that her soul resided in it, when in actuality it is The Beast’s soul that
the lantern houses. When Wirt and Gregory enter the forest, The Beast sets his eyes on the two
brothers, wanting to turn them into Edelwood Trees in order to use their bodies to further fuel the
lantern. And while he is nearly successful, by bringing Gregory to near death and encoraging
The Woodsman to murder him and Wirt, thankfully Wirt is able to talk sense into The Woodsman
and gets him to stop. After he realizes that his daughter’s soul is not in the lantern after all.
The Woodsman finally extinguishes the lantern and ends The Beast once and for all. And yeah,
Benton did kill a lot of people, but judging what we see of the numerous faces of his victims
that make up The Beast’s body, we feel safe to say that The Beast exeed’s Benton’s body
count. Plus the fact he willingly manipulates a man wanting nothing more than wanting to get
his daughter back to kill for you, yeah, The Beast is one of the worst monsters in cartoons.
And finally, for our Gold Medal of Evil is going to the homicidal triangle Bill Cipher from Gravity
Falls. Don’t let Bill’s cheerful and somewhat comical behavior fool you, this Mindscape Demon
is evil to the core. Bill is able to manipulate arguably the smartest character in the series,
Stanford Pines into building a portal in order to allow Bill to have physical form in our world.
And even before Bill does take physical form, his influence is felt throughout the series,
even being able to possess Dipper at one point. After Bill is finally brought into
our world though, he absolutely goes to town, capturing Stanford, takes over the town of Gravity
Falls and plans on destroying the world and recreating a new world in his image.
Bill has absolutely no problems in torturing and killing his enemies, even children like Mable and
Dipper. Thankfully though, the barrier surrounding Gravity Falls keeps Bill and his minions from
wrecking the rest of the world. And for someone who manipulates and tricks others so much,
it is poetic justice that Bill meets his end after being fooled to enter Stanley’s mind in order to
get the secret to get rid of the barrier only to be trapped and killed by the Memory Gun. Sure,
if you listen to Bill’s last words in reverse, he does claim that he will come back but here is
hoping this horrifying triangle is permanently stuck in his current petrified statute state.
And that does it for our Morality spectrum
but let’s wrap things up with hanging out some Sinner Awards.
We are giving the Wrath Award to Monster House AKA Constance Nebbercracker. Anger is
an understandable emotion but for all the problems she caused because of it, we feel like Constance
is a pretty good candidate for this award. We are also giving her the Sloth Award that while she
did cause trouble, Constance had a limited range of motion when she was stuck in her house form.
The Gluttoney Award is going to Benton Tarantella as he not only wanted to eat
Muriel but also wanted to make a snuff film while he was doing it
For our Lust Award we are giving it to Emily as she wanted to be married to Victor quite a bit
and while she does reach peace at the end of the movie and let’s him marry Victoria,
she was still pretty stubborn about it for a while
Man, we just can’t think of anyone who would want to rule everything and complete power…if
only…oh yeah…wait, Queen Chrysalis is the clear winner of the Greed Award.
For the Darwin Award, it is going to Gossamer. Sure,
he might have smartened up in more recent appearances but as he was pretty easily
tricked by Bugs Bunny in his first couple of cartoons, he is getting this award
And lastly, we are giving the Pride Award to Oblina because
she takes the fact that she is the top student of her class pretty seriously
But what do you think? Do you agree, and did we miss any other Cartoon Monsters? Let
us know in the comments if you agree with our ranking, and tell us which
series you’d like to see next. Be sure to hit that notification bell so you don’t miss new
episodes of Good-to-Evil featuring your favorite cartoons and videogames; but most
importantly: stay wicked!