Although not the most popular film studio around, Laika still has plenty
of fans within the animation industry. This isn’t too surprising, though,
given how high quality Laika’s films are. From the stories to the characters, there’s just a ton of
great stuff there. When it comes to its villains, though, we have to wonder how their fates compare
to each other and which one of them had the cruelest and most gruesome fate of them all?
I’m Kifinosi with WickedBinge, and this is Laika Villain Fates: Gruesome to Most Gruesome.
Because there are only five Laika films at this time, there admittedly isn’t a ton of
variety with their villain fates - if only because they have just a small handful of
villains in the first place. So, we’re going to divide these fates up into two categories.
The first of these categories is what we call the ones who Got Off Easy. These are the villains or
antagonists who faced very little - if any - consequences for their actions.
At the very top of our list, we have the Moon King from “Kubo and the Two Strings”. Although the Moon
King isn’t shown as often as his daughters, he still manages to be a legitimate threat
for Kubo and his family - which makes it all the more surprising (and maybe even a bit insulting)
that he ends up not really having to face any consequences for it. Being the former ruler of the
Heavens, the Moon King was a powerful force who was absolutely appalled at the idea of one of his
daughters falling in love with a human. For this, he not only tried to kill both Hanzo and Sariatu,
but also destroyed the Beetle Clan in the process. He also tried to take Kubo’s remaining eye in the
hopes of turning his grandson into an immortal that he could then mold into a ‘worthy’ successor.
When Kubo refuses, the Moon King ultimately tries to kill him too - but, when Kubo fights back,
his magic ends up not only turning the Moon King mortal but also taking away all of his
memories. While losing one’s status as an immortal could be seen as a cruel fate,
with how quickly the village people seem to accept him and even lie to
him about what a great person he was, it’s implied that the Moon King will still have
a fairly happy ending - regardless of whether or not it’s deserved.
For our runners-up in avoiding consequences, we’re ranking both Mr. Trout and Mr. Pickles
from “The Boxtrolls”. Although these two formerly worked as henchmen for the film’s main antagonist,
Archibald Snatcher - and don’t worry, we’ll get to him - they were never nearly as evil as him or
even as evil as the third member of their trio. While they mostly obeyed orders out of fear,
the two were eventually able to do the right thing when they decided to help
Eggs and Winifred, which spared them from a crueler fate. At the end of the film,
it’s revealed that they have become janitors - and really,
that’s not a bad ending at all. Hey, these two seem pretty satisfied with it, at the very least.
Following them, we have the first of our “Paranorman” villains,
Agatha. While technically a death, we’re keeping Agatha out of the second category
since not only is this a peaceful end but it’s more focused on her actual spirit than
her body. Though her spirit suffered unrest for centuries and had to deal with being feared once
again by the people of Blithe Hollow, which in turn prolonged her pain and frustration,
Aggie was still able to have a peaceful second death of sorts, being comforted by Norman up
until the very end. Given that Aggie was never a true villain, perhaps this was for the best.
Funnily enough, we’re placing the other so-callled villains of “Paranorman”,
that being the Zombie Town Council, in this category too. Like Aggie,
they were forced to live well beyond their time due to the curse, being brought back as zombies
that were seen as monsters. Since it took a while for them to communicate properly with Norman,
these guys had to deal with being chased down and harassed by the townspeople of Blithe Hollow,
giving them an extra taste of what Aggie had had to go through once people became afraid of her. We
can’t imagine it was a fun experience and there was probably some suffering involved since they
weren’t allowed to rest in peace until the curse was lifted, but given that the Council was already
dead, there was a limit to the physical pain that they could feel. By the end of the film, they too
were allowed to finally move on, essentially having a peaceful second death just like Aggie
did. Because of this, we couldn’t exactly call their deaths ‘gruesome’ since it was more a relief
than anything else. But because they still had to suffer consequences both physical and emotional
before finally being allowed to rest permanently, their death lands right on the edge of this tier.
We’ve now arrived at the second category, with these being the Gruesome Deaths. And
believe us when we say that some of these death scenes truly are gruesome.
Starting us off, we have the Sisters from “Kubo and the Two Strings”. Although we
can maybe sympathize with their pain of losing their sibling, the Sisters are
still incredibly wicked killers who are as dismissive of humanity as their father was,
making them all the more dangerous. Prior to the film’s climax, the Sisters are the
main threat in the film and end up killing both Monkey and Beetle before getting killed
themselves. Because the scene cuts just as they’re getting hit with the fatal blow, it’s a bit hard
to tell just how gruesome their end is. But, given that the first sister dies after being
slashed across the face and the second sister is dissolved by a mystic wave, both ends are still
plenty gruesome, even if we’re only left with the implications of the pain they might have felt.
Next up, we’ve finally gotten to the original Laika villain - the Other Mother from “Coraline”.
For such a powerful villain as her, she actually gets defeated in a pretty mundane way - although,
that’s only after a ton of suspense as well as a pretty intense scene where Coraline just barely
manages to get away from her so-called Other Mother. In the process, she only manages to sever
the Other Mother’s hand by closing the door on her just in the nick of time. Her hand, however, is
still able to move around, resulting in one final showdown between her, Coraline and Wybie that ends
in the Other Mother’s hand getting smashed to pieces with a rock and dropped down an old well
along with the key to the Other World’s door, which Coraline had already sealed up. In a way,
this ‘death’ is two-fold. We have the more instant - and more gruesome - part with the smashing of a
hand, destroying the Other Mother’s presence in the real world once and for all. However,
there’s also a sort of long-term death implied - as without any access to the real world,
she no longer has a steady stream of kids with flesh that she can eat and souls that she can
take, meaning that she’ll likely spend the rest of eternity suffering and potentially
dying since there’s no real way for her to continue sustaining her existence. While it
may be harsh, it’d certainly be a fate that a creature like her would deserve. However,
because part of this ‘death’ relies on long term implications and ‘what ifs’, we couldn’t give it
a higher ranking - as there are still plenty of other villain deaths that we do get to see.
Landing just outside of the Podium of Gruesomeness, we have Piggot-Dunceby from
“Missing Link”. This death is another fairly simple one, as it’s one that many Disney and
Pixar villains have suffered from - that being the long fall. In a way, there’s a bit of extra irony
to it, in that if Piggot-Dunceby hadn’t been so focused on making sure Lionel couldn’t get into
his Society of Great Men, then he wouldn’t have gotten into such a deadly situation in the first
place. What’s more, he essentially brought his death onto himself, in that he used his gun to
break the ice bridge that they were all standing on. But, because he wasn’t able to take Susan and
Lionel down with him, Piggot-Dunceby was left with only his failure and a long fall down. Ultimately,
when it comes to falls, people usually tend to die before they hit the ground - especially in
the case of a mountain, where there’s already a difference in oxygen levels. But even if
Piggot-Dunceby was able to stay conscious until he hit either a mountain spike or the ground itself,
it still would have been a painful and terrifying death regardless.
Getting our Bronze Medal of Gruesomeness is Mr. Gristle from “The Boxtrolls”. Being the shortest
of Snatcher's henchmen, Mr. Gristle is definitely the most evil member of the exterminator trio,
having no moral qualms or doubts about his job. This ultimately seals his fate,
as it's only after he decided to continue helping his boss that the Boxtrolls,
in the hopes of saving Eggs, throw him into a nearby barrel of leeches. This
is not only painful, but it causes him to lose a ton of blood, weakening him for the
final blow - which happens when Snatcher's machine ends up collapsing on top of him,
immediately crushing him to death. Not only is this death painful, but it came after a good few
minutes of additional painful suffering, making it come off as all the more gruesome and harsh.
For our Silver Medal of Gruesomeness, we’re giving it to Willard Stenk from “Missing Link”.
While it’s technically a very similar death to Piggot-Dunceby’s, Stenk’s death is ultimately much
harsher as well as much more gruesome. For one, Stenk actually had a chance at surviving, which
made his failure to do so all the more shocking and painful for him in his final moments - that
knowing feeling that he was so close to making it out alive. But forget all that talk about final
thoughts and all that, what REALLY puts Stenk here is that not only does he take a long fall,
but before he drops he actually gets stabbed with a huge icicle, which is what finally forces him to
let go of Lionel and take the plunge. Really, it’s the type of death you just can’t help but wince
at, given both the sudden nature of it as well as just how heavy the animators make the impact
of the icicle in this scene. What makes this death even more harsh is that the icicle falling
doesn’t knock Stenk out - meaning that during the entirety of the fall (or until he passes out),
Stenk not only has to deal with all that suspense and terror, but also the pain of being stabbed
through the chest and gut. There are just so many factors to this death that allowed it to
shoot up towards the top of our list - but there’s still one that we feel outranks it.
Finally, our Gold Medal of Gruesomeness is going to the final villain of “The Boxtrolls”,
Archibald Snatcher. Honestly, it was an extremely close toss-up between this death and Stenk’s
death. Ultimately though, the gruesomeness of a person literally exploding just can’t be ignored.
Although it’s a very quick death, we’re sure that it was pretty painful regardless - especially
since by that point, Snatcher had already been dealing with a strong allergic reaction,
so he was most likely already in at least a bit of pain and discomfort before then. Really,
the only positive point of this death is that his ‘last meal’ of sorts - that being the
cheese sample - was apparently very delicious. So, at least he had that going for him. Still,
for being the most gory - yet still somehow bloodless - example in Laika’s film history,
we had to give Archibald Snatcher the title of Most Gruesome Laika Villain Death.
But let us know in the comment section if you agree with our ranking,
and tell us what we should cover next! Remember to hit that notification bell and
binge our Most Gruesome playlist, where we break down the most gruesome moments and
deaths in your favorite cartoons, shows and movies. But most importantly, stay wicked!