Most Disney villains have a strong presence in their movies,
which is usually partly attributed to their overall competence. This makes them very active
threats against the heroes. The same, however, cannot be said about the Disney henchmen.
Though they can be as iconic as their respective villains, they can also be very incompetent.
I’m Brad with WickedBinge, and these are Disney Henchmen: Dumb to Brilliant.
Before we start the list, we need to lay a couple ground rules. Unlike other characters,
henchmen tend to have more minor roles in these movies. So, some of our placements
will be based on assumptions and critical analysis of the information we get about them.
Moreover, we will base our rankings on the henchmen’s general intelligence and
how much they help or hinder their corresponding villain’s
plans. And these two factors will hold equal weight in our ranking.
Finally, we didn’t include Anastasia and Drizella on the list since they
appear to be just a means to an end for Tremaine’s royalty
aspirations. Therefore, we do not count them as active henchmen.
With that said, let’s start with our first group of henchmen.
Starting out with the ones who are More Trouble Than They’re Worth.
These are the henchmen that are so incompetent that their unintended
actions end up harming the plans of the villains they are supposed to serve
First up, we have Mr. Smee as the least intelligent henchman on our list. Smee
is Captain Hook’s first mate, but unlike the rest of his crew,
he isn’t intimidating or capable in any way. Instead, he is gentle and bumbling, failing to
complete even the most menial of tasks, such as shaving the tortured Captain. But he is at the
bottom of the list because every action he takes ends up helping Peter instead of aiding Hook.
Let’s look at those actions. When he and Hook catch Tiger Lily to lure Peter into a trap,
he is fooled by Peter imitating Hook’s voice and almost releases her,
ruining the plan. He also shoots Hook and almost kills him while trying to shoot Peter. This is
the only instance of a henchman nearly costing a villain his life. And if that wasn’t enough,
Hook re-emerges after getting shot and is about to defeat Peter with a surprise attack. However,
Smee again proves his incompetence, ruining that one chance they had because he cheered
for Hook prematurely, causing Peter to see him. Another notable feat of incompetence for Smee
is when he accidentally leaves Hook behind with the crocodile that tried to eat him.
We could say that this bumbling fool pirated his intelligence, and it didn’t come in good quality.
The next Henchman, or rather henchmen, are the Goons that work for Maleficent. Normally,
we wouldn’t discuss minor henchmen in this type of list. Still, their one instance of ineptitude
is so impactful to Maleficent’s plan and overall fate that we decided to make an exception. The
Goons had one simple job. Track down princess Aurora and lead Maleficent to her. However,
they ended up wasting 16 years looking for a baby because they couldn’t grasp
the simple concept of a person growing up. The importance of that error should
be obvious. Had Maleficent appointed the job to a more competent henchman, she could have found
Aurora years earlier before the latter meets Prince Philip, who ends up breaking the curse.
In other words, the goons literally cost Maleficent the win and her life.
Our second group of Henchmen here is The Hyenas. Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed are heartless trio, only
caring about filling their stomachs. This makes them useful tools for Scar’s plans,
but as he says, the lights are not all on in their brains when it comes to intelligence.
They manage to get outsmarted by a young and distressed Simba mangling the simple task of
finishing him off when he is vulnerable. When Scar takes over the pride lands, the trio, along with
the other Hyenas, can’t contain their constant eating needs. They end up completely eradicating
all the prey from the kingdom, disrupting the circle of life and undermining Scar’s position
as a king. Finally, they even turn on him and eat him at the end of the movie, solidifying
their placement at the lower lots of this list as far as competency and usefulness in henchmen go.
Next up, it’s Horace and Jasper. This duo of crooks is definitely
more competent than the henchmen we’ve already discussed. However,
they still end up being inadequate for most of the movie’s runtime. They did manage to successfully
kidnap the puppies. Still, they lost 99 puppies Cruella had managed to collect over time because
they got distracted by the TV and their petty arguing. And they are not much of an assistance
to Cruella for the rest of the film. The puppies manage to easily outsmart them and
hide until they find a way home. In the movie’s climax, they even end up accidentally saving
them from Cruella by losing control of their car and crashing on hers.
The final henchman of this category is Mr. Snoops. Snoops is a rather unassuming man
whose purpose is to just do Medusa’s dirty work for her. He is constantly outsmarted
by a child and lets his boss constantly abuse him. Still, he doesn’t stand to gain anything
as Medusa has made it clear that she wants to take the diamond for herself. Regardless,
he ranks above the previous henchmen simply because he doesn’t cause Medusa’s downfall
due to his incompetence like they do. Her loss is her own doing.
Our second group of henchmen is the Simply Incompetent ones. Those are the henchmen
who don’t actively harm the villains to the extent the previous ones do.
However, they are still clearly incompetent and usually fail at fulfilling their purpose.
And the first henchman in this group is none other than Wiggins. Not much
can be said about this servant, as his presence in the movie is very trivial.
But he is, without a doubt, one of the most incompetent Disney henchmen.
Despite not being evil himself, he knowingly follows Radcliffe and lets him create hatred
between the explorers and natives for his own benefit. And his only excuse for being
loyal to him and not revealing his true nature to others is that he had been highly recommended.
Next up is the cruel Sheriff of Nottingham. This self-serving
ruler of Nottingham is as heartless and evil as Disney antagonists get. However,
he isn’t as clever as you’d expect a ruler to be. He is constantly fooled by Robin Hood’s disguises
and plans and never manages to stop him from humiliating Prince John and his leadership.
Additionally, he even occasionally sings the mocking songs the citizens of Nottingham
make up for John. It isn’t a very smart thing to do since it could have gotten him
in serious trouble if John hadn’t focused on punishing the citizens who sang that.
Coming right up is Yzma’s spinach-loving bodyguard for this decade, Kronk. At first glance, you might
have expected Kronk to be on the bottom of our list. After all, being dimwitted seems to be
his defining characteristic. He loses track of the poisoned drink and almost gives it to Yzma instead
of Kuzco. He loses Kuzco himself and accidentally blurts out his failure to Yzma. More importantly,
he accidentally takes the wrong bottle from her lab, turning Kuzco into a Llama instead
of killing him, which ends up thwarting Yzma’s entire plan. But an argument could be made that he
is smarter than he seems. He can communicate with squirrels, has cooking skills, and demonstrates
quick thinking in assessing and resolving certain situations like the drink mix-up. Looking at
these, we are confident that he is more competent than the henchmen previously discussed here. But
what solidifies his placement here is that he realizes where Kuzco is after meeting Pacha.
At the end of the movie, he even realizes he was on the wrong side the entire time.
In conclusion, we are fully confident in putting Kronk around the middle of the list.
In a similar vein, we decided to place Pain and Panic, the demonic duo working for Hades,
here. These two demons are more self-serving than incompetent in the traditional sense.
Nevertheless, they have one instance of major incompetence, which is when
they got startled and failed to give baby Hercules the last drop of the mortal potion.
Like similar failings of previous henchmen, it was an action that eventually led to Hades failing
his takeover plan. And even their self-serving choices, while competent, actively harm Hades,
which is why they can’t go higher than the top of this tier according to the rules we set.
Our third group of henchmen is the ones we call the Right-Hand Henchmen.
While not as smart as the villains they follow, these are the lackeys who demonstrate
significant feats of competence and help them further their goals more often than not.
Opening up this category, we have Gaston’s bumbling sidekick LeFou. At this point,
most of you must be wondering why we didn’t put him lower on the list. And it’s true,
he seems to be a rather incompetent henchman that stumbles upon his own feet more often
than he accomplishes anything. After all, his name literally translates to “the Fool.”
But there is an interesting fan theory that suggests he may actually be more intelligent
than he lets on, which we believe is correct. That theory suggests that Lefou is quite smart
and aware of Gaston’s abusive behavior. He sticks by him and acts like his clumsy sidekick to gain
social status through him without going through the effort of accomplishing feats of bravery
or strength since he lacks that department. This idea is supported by various points in the story,
especially during the third act. He seems to fully grasp Gaston’s devious plans to force
Belle to marry him and later kill the beast. He even wickedly enjoys taking part in them.
With this perspective, we decided that Lefou could qualify for the right-hand tier.
Tiptoeing next Is Lucifer, lady Tremaine’s aptly named cat. Unlike most animal henchmen
we have covered so far, Lucifer isn’t just competent, but he is very cunning and wicked.
Throughout the movie, we see him managing to trick even Cinderella into blaming her dog for things
he did and being a significant source of trouble for both her and the mice, more so than Tremaine’s
dimwitted daughters. Still though, despite being an intelligent cat, he doesn’t seem to possess
any human-like intelligence. He seems to not care for or even understand Tremaine’s plans and goals.
So, he ranks lower than the other competent henchmen that will follow.
The next henchman we want to discuss is none other than Lawrence, Prince Navine’s not-so-loyal
butler. Being entrusted with keeping an eye on the prince, we assume that Lawrence is more competent
than the average henchman. Sure enough, we see that demonstrated throughout the movie. From the
beginning, he immediately sees through Facilier’s shadiness,
unlike the prince who quickly buys his lies. Later, when he does turn into the side of evil,
Lawrence is able to maintain the façade of being Navine with success for most of the
movie. He even almost succeeds in marrying Charlotte, which is the most impressive
accomplishment a henchman has showcased so far. Additionally, Lawrence has personal motivations,
unlike the previous dimwitted henchmen who are either motivated by fear or an illogical
loyalty to their respective villains. He willingly chose to betray Navine to serve his own greed and
arrogance. This feature definitely puts him above a lot of the henchmen in the intelligence chart.
Like them, though, he does end up unwittingly ruining Facillier’s plan
by loosening the lid of the vase they kept the prince in and allowing him to escape. However,
it was an act of compassion and pity, not incompetence, so we can’t hold it against him.
Flying up to a higher spot is Fidget, Professor Rattigan’s loyal bat.
Despite his physical handicaps, this bat is a rather accomplished follower of the devious rat.
He successfully kidnaps both Flatersham and his daughter,
the latter under Basil’s and Dawson’s noses. Additionally, he is shown to be very crafty
and stealthy. He used the toys he found in the toy store he went in to kidnap Olivia and distract the
detectives so he could flee. In the movie’s third act, he manages to lure Basil and Dawson into a
trap using a disguise. However, he is also shown to be very forgetful. He leaves behind the list of
things Rattigan ordered him to fetch, leading to Basil learning about it, which nearly jeopardized
their entire plan. For this reason, he slightly misses the mark to be on the top tier of our list.
On our right-hand tier, the final henchman is Sour Bill, the literal right-hand man of
King Candy. This small grump might seem unassuming and insignificant. However,
he is actually responsible for maintaining the entire kingdom and keeping it in order and making
sure Valenope won’t reset the code. This henchman is clearly very competent,
but we couldn’t rank him any higher because he was just reprogrammed to serve the villain.
This is in contrast to the henchmen that follow and willingly sided with the villains.
And now we move on to our top five henchmen, the Full-Fledged Antagonists.
These are the henchmen that are as clever as the villains they work with
if not more, and who could easily stand as antagonists on their own
The first full-fledged antagonist we will discuss is The Huntsman from Snow White. This entry will
be briefer than the others as The Huntsman isn’t truly evil or even a major part of the movie.
However, within the limited screen time he had, he has proven himself to be a very intelligent
character worthy of reaching our top 5. He shows compassion towards Snow White, realizing that
what the Queen wanted to do was morally wrong. He also instructs her on what to do to be safe from
her. Additionally, he even constructs a plan to fool the Queen into believing Snow White is dead.
A deception she would never have been able to see through if she didn’t have a magic mirror.
Slithering right above him, we have Sir Hiss. Sir Hiss is definitely an example of a henchman who is
smarter than the villain he works with. He was the one who orchestrated Prince John’s usurping
of the throne by hypnotizing King Richard. It can be reasonably assumed that he is the one running
the kingdom and keeping it functioning. As for the events of the movie itself, he is the only one who
constantly sees through Robin Hood’s plans, only failing to expose him because Prince John never
listens to him. He is also the only character who understands the political consequences
their kingdom would face if they executed the friar. Honestly, the only argument we can make
against his intelligence is that he chose to ally himself with the wrong brother in the first place.
This time, the bronze medal is a tie. We have to give it to henchmen from two
different movies because their actions and impact in their respective worlds are almost
identical. Flying above the previous henchmen, Diaval is the first one that gets the bronze
medal of competence. This bird is the only one of her henchmen that Maleficent actually cares for,
and there is a good reason. Going back to when we discussed her other henchmen and how they
failed to locate Aurora for 16 whole years, Diaval manages to find her in a single day. Additionally,
later in the film, he manages to spot the fairies sneaking into Maleficent’s castle,
something even Maleficent herself didn’t realize.
For similar reasons, Flotsam and Jetsam also get the bronze. Like Maleficent,
Ursula genuinely cares for them, which indicates they are actually very competent
and helpful accomplices to her. This duo has the distinction of getting various different tasks
from Ursula throughout the movie and succeeding in performing them. They follow Ariel and notice
her infatuation with Eric and the surface world. After they tell Ursula that, they are sent to
manipulate her into visiting and trusting Ursula. They fully succeed in doing that
and manages to sabotage the kiss after Ariel gets to the surface, saving Ursula’s plan.
And they even manage to capture Eric in the climax when he is trying to take down Ursula.
For our runner-up, we chose Helga Sinclair, a character that showcases the largest set of
abilities on this list. Being the daughter of an army major, she traveled a lot from an early age,
got exposed to various cultures and customs, and was versed in various languages. At 17,
she trained under Commander Rourke and eventually became an expert in tactics and firearms. During
the Atlantis expedition, she is shown to have an analytical mind ideally suited for strategic
planning. She is also capable of coordinating and operating heavy machinery. Looking at her
accomplishments and talents, one could make an excellent argument for Helga to be in the number
one spot on the list. However, her trusting someone as amoral as Rourke and letting her
guard down around him, allowing him to backstab her, solidified her place as a runner-up at best.
Finally, at the very top of the list, we have Iago as the smartest Disney henchman. With all these
other henchmen, it is more or less a logical conclusion that their corresponding villains
could still be able to put their plans into motion without them and even possibly be more successful.
But we believe that Jafar wouldn’t manage to accomplish anything in the movie without Iago.
This bird has a genius-level intellect that often exceeds that of the wicked wizard. This is seen
when he points out that Jafar doesn’t have to get the lamp to become Sultan, and he can legally
accomplish that by forcing Jasmine to marry him. He is also one of the very few animal henchmen
capable of human speech. He uses this to his benefit when he mimics Jasmine to trick Aladdin
into getting out of his room and get the lamp. We usually don’t like to refer to the spin-offs
of the movies we discuss in these lists. However, in Iago’s case, it is important to mention that in
the Aladdin TV show, he is shown to have a vast knowledge of magic and lore rivaling that of the
Genie. It’s a fact which places him as one of the smartest beings of the entire Aladdin franchise.
But let us know in the comment section who you think is the smartest Disney henchman.
And tell us what we should cover next. Remember to hit
that notification bell and binge our Dumb to Brilliant playlist.
Where we figure out which characters have the most wits. But most importantly, stay wicked.