By this point, Pixar is about as infamous for its big memorable villain deaths as Disney is.
After all, you don’t have a bug get torn apart by baby birds or have a guy get sucked into a jet
turbine without earning yourself a reputation. But for other Pixar villains, they manage to
walk away from their schemes - although, we’re sure that some of them would have rather died.
I’m Caleb with WickedBinge, and this is Pixar Villain Non-Lethal Fates:
‘Got Off Easy’ to ‘Worse Than Death’.
For our first category, we have the villains who Got Off Scot Free. These are the villains who
didn’t really have to face any consequences whatsoever for one reason or another.
For the villain we felt had to face the least amount of consequences, we had to go with The
Underminer from “The Incredibles”. Despite being set-up as the Big Bad of the sequel,
this proved to only be a red herring once we actually got an Incredibles sequel. He
does get one scene to shine, though, and it’s one that results in a TON of collateral damage.
Despite the superhero family’s best efforts, the Underminer ends up destroying several roads,
a bridge, a monorail track and more than a few buildings in addition to stealing millions
of dollars from a local bank.And what sort of punishment does the Underminer get after doing
all this? None whatsoever. He not only escapes both superhero and police custody, but we don’t
even hear about him getting arrested later on. As far as we know, the Underminer is still out there,
ready to rob more banks and cause more havoc. It’s the literal definition of ‘completely
getting away with it’, and we couldn’t think of anyone more deserving of this top spot.
For the runner-up in the “Totally Escaped Consequences” category, we have our first
Toy Story villain - Gabby Gabby. Although not nearly as much of a threat when compared to other
Toy Story villains, Gabby Gabby is still the main antagonist of the final Toy Story film. She has an
army of creepy ventriloquist dummies at her beck and call, and she does all she can - from threats
to manipulation - in order to get Woody’s voice box. And in the end, that’s exactly what she gets!
Additionally, while she doesn’t get the original girl that she wanted as her new owner, Gabby Gabby
is still picked by a kid in the end and gets to live her dream as a toy that gets played with.
Again, this is another case of a villain pretty much getting away with all their crimes - albeit,
pretty mild ones when compared to the Underminer or even other Toy Story villains - and even
getting a happy ending. Sure, it might have taken a bit of disappointment and an extra step to get
there, but Gabby Gabby still definitely got the happiest ending of any Toy Story antagonist.
Following her, we’re going to give a quick shout-out to the cocky green racer,
Chick Hicks. For his entire racing career, Chick Hicks always seemed to come in second. He was no
evil mastermind or even a racing master, he just wanted to finally get first place. He was able
to accomplish this through shoving The King out of the way, causing him to wreck, which in turn
made Lightning McQueen stop before he could cross the finish line. Despite the obvious sabotage and,
let’s be honest, poor sportsmanship, Chick Hicks for whatever reason ISN’T disqualified and is
still awarded the Piston Cup trophy. Now, to be fair, his fans do turn on him and he loses out
on the Dinoco sponsorship, and if that was where his story ended then maybe he’d be a bit lower
down on this list. But despite this set-back, we learn in Cars 3 that Chick Hicks is still
successful enough - and well liked enough - to have his own news TV show about racing called
“Chick's Picks with Chick Hicks”. Yeah, he may be coasting on his one and only Big Win somewhat,
but a win’s a win. So, while he may have had to face some consequences for his hostile actions
on the track, they ultimately didn’t seem to matter much in the grand scheme of things.
Next, we’re ranking Daria from “Finding Nemo”. Although more of a naive antagonist than an
outright villain, her implied fish body count is enough for us to count her on this list. Since
her uncle is more than a little oblivious and is more than happy to spoil his niece,
it’s implied that even after the ordeal with Nemo and Gill, he still isn’t going to teach her about
how to actually (and carefully) take care of a new pet fish. As for any sort of ‘consequences’,
while Daria does get a bit of a bad scare when Gill gets in her
hair and afterwards gets squirted with water, that’s hardly an actual punishment. But hey,
she is still just a little kid, so maybe it is warranted in that sense.
Though some may disagree with us, we’re also going to add Sid Phillips from the
first “Toy Story” into this category as well. Now, we’re sure you all may be arguing that yes,
Sid DID in fact face consequences for all his toy murder and mutilation. It’s actually one
of the most famous villain comeuppances in Pixar’s history - with Sid getting ‘scared
straight’ by the same toys that he treated so carelessly, causing him totally afraid of even
the cutest-looking doll after. But again, this is a case where this outcome might have landed
lower on our list if not for what we learn in a sequel. While we’re sure that this whole ordeal
was pretty traumatizing in the moment, we see in “Toy Story 3” that despite all that,
Sid is still a fairly well-adjusted adult, being a garbage man who seems happy enough
with his career - so long as he gets to listen to his music. For these reasons,
we couldn’t put him any higher, as there are still plenty of villains who had it much worse.
Next up, we have The Arrests - villains who were forced to face jail time for what they did.
For our first Pixar arrest, we have Evelyn Deavor AKA The Screenslaver from “Incredibles
2”. Although she was almost able to get away with it, Evelyn was ultimately arrested by
Elastigirl - with the help of Voyd - by the end of “Incredibles 2”. But, as Violet points out,
Evelyn is still rich - which means it’s very likely that she could simply either pay bail
or higher a talented lawyer to get the charges dropped or minimized, resulting in her just
getting “a slap on the wrist”. We also have to remember that while they may have butted heads
on certain beliefs regarding superheroes, Evelyn and her brother, Winston, still had
a fairly strong and positive relationship prior to her turn into supervillainy. Because of this,
we could easily believe that Winston would eventually opt for getting his sister therapy or
some other non-jail option over simply leaving her in jail, further increasing the likelihood
that Evelyn probably wouldn’t get nearly as many consequences as she probably deserved.
From superheroes to monsters, next up is the former CEO of Monsters Incorporated,
Mr. Waternoose. While Randall might have gotten a much harsher fate - that being beaten and most
likely killed by humans - Waternoose’s end was nothing to sneeze at either. After being exposed
as a child kidnapper who would do anything to insure the stability of his company, Waternoose
was arrested and kicked out of Monsters Inc. - the very company that he started. Which, yeah,
that probably added some salt to the wound. This reason was ultimately why we had to put it above
Evelyn’s arrest, as it’s very unlikely Waternoose would be able to worm his way out of serving a
full jail sentence despite his previously well-loved and respected business persona.
Finishing up this tier is Miles Axelrod from “Cars 2”. Being one of the first in a long line of Pixar
twist villains, Miles Axelrod was the leader of the Lemons group and organized the sabotage and
even murder of several racer and spy cars before finally being found out by Mater. Much like
Waternoose, this arrest likely resulted in him getting kicked out of his own company, that being
Allinol. Speaking of which, it’s probably safe to say that even if he somehow managed to stay within
his company, its reputation is no doubt in the toilet, so that small victory would hardly matter.
Because his crimes could qualify as international terrorism and he was arrested by the British
Military and not just police officers, it can also be inferred that Axelrod probably received a much
higher and much more severe sentence - possibly even life in prison. It was certainly deserved,
and in our opinion, it was definitely the harshest of the Pixar villain arrests.
But while having to stay in jail can be a fairly harsh fate, sometimes it’s not even
needed - not when the villain still ended up Losing Everything regardless of whether or not
they were arrested. For villains as proud and powerful as these, falling from their pedestal
and losing their fame and glory can be even crueler than being stuck in a cell.
First up in this category, we have Ercole Visconti from “Luca”. Certainly the most minor example
of ‘losing everything’, but still an example nonetheless. While he may have put in a strong
effort to both win that year’s Portorosso Cup and kill the so-called ‘monsters’ - aka, Luca
and Alberto - Ercole still ended up failing in both of these goals. With this, he lost both his
winning streak, the loyalty of his cronies, and the fear that he’d built up with the other kids
of the small town. Without all of these things, Ercole was left with nothing and ended the movie
looking pretty pathetic to boot. Now again, maybe in comparison to a life-time sentence in jail,
this wouldn’t be considered as a worse fate. But on a personal level, it’s pretty much Ercole’s
worst nightmare. Remember, this was a guy who had to lie about his age just so he could keep
competing and winning against middle schoolers. He’s the type of person who peaked in high school,
which made his eventual downfall that much harder since he didn’t have much else outside
of the annual summer race - and thus, his defeat ended up being much more satisfying.
Next up is the antagonist of “Ratatouille”, Chef Skinner. Similar to Ercole, Skinner technically
gets away with his mild crimes, but not without some personal loss. In the second act of the film,
Skinner loses both his successful head chef position at Gusteau’s, but he also loses the
opportunity to sell his late friend’s likeness for a line of cheap microwavable meals that
would’ve put Skinner on easy street for the rest of his life. That’s a lot of success and money to
lose out on. Skinner also gets part of his car wrecked by the rats when they break Remy out,
and while Skinner does at the very least succeed in getting Gusteau’s shut down,
he isn’t able to completely end Linguini OR Remy’s restaurant careers. The two are
still able to start up a new restaurant that proves to be VERY successful while Skinner,
as far as we know, is still careerless - or at the very least, stuck in a more dead-end job
now that he doesn’t have another famous chef’s career to fall back on. Again, it’s the personal
loss that makes this fate hit harder, which is why we felt it deserved a spot near the top.
For our Bronze Medal of Gruesomeness, we’re going with the chicken man himself - “Toy Story 2”s Al
from Al’s Toy Barn. While his decision to steal a kid’s toy from a random yard sale is both heinous
and kiiiinda pathetic, it’s not really something you can arrest a person for. At most, they’d
probably have to pay a small fee. Thankfully, Al’s actions end up costing him much more than that.
Not only did Al have to pay a ton of money for a flight for himself and several toys to Tokyo,
but he also arrived in Japan empty handed. We can only imagine how angry this made the curators of
the Konishi Toy Museum, and as such, it's unlikely that they would ever want to work with Al again,
regardless of whether or not he was able to get his hands on another full set of Woody’s Roundup
toys, which would in turn completely shatter his dreams of ever being rich. Broke and without any
of his most valuable collectibles, Al is forced to not only continue working at his toy store,
but he also has to slash prices just to continue barely making a profit there. There was even a
scene in the Halloween special “Toy Story of Terror” that was cut for timing reasons
implying that Al had gone completely broke, losing his toy store and needing to move back in with
his mother. Needless to say, it’s a harsh yet still very satisfying end for this petty crook.
Moving onto our Silver Medal of Gruesomeness, we’re giving it to Stinky Pete. Ah yes, you’ve
gotta love villain fates that throw in just that extra bit of irony. According to the toy himself,
Stinky Pete spent most of his life prior to being found by Al sitting on “a dime store
shelf” and watching every other toy be sold. We don’t know if he simply wanted to be let
out of his box or if he at one point actually wanted to be played with by a child. Either way,
that was exactly what he got in the end when he was stuffed into the backpack of a girl named Amy.
For an extra knife twist, Pete quickly learns that his new kid is apparently a bit of an artist - so,
even if Pete were to eventually escape and try to get back to Al or some other collector,
he probably would have lost much of his collector’s value by that point,
further cementing him into the life of just being a regular toy. Considering all that Pete had to
go through to try and get a happy ending only to completely lose out on it at the very end,
it just feels all the more cruel. But, there’s still one last Pixar fate that we feel tops it.
Finishing up our list as well as our Toy Story villain trifecta, the Gold Medal of Gruesomeness
is going to Lotso Huggin’ Bear. One of the things that we’re sure made many fans angry when they
first saw “Toy Story 3” is that, after being saved from getting torn to shreds by Woody and Buzz,
Lotso still refuses to change his villainous ways and, after making sure that he escapes,
he leaves the other toys to die. Ouch… Thankfully, Lotso is hit pretty hard by the karma hammer.
While he lives to hug another day, he’s also found by a garbage truck driver who likes to strap old
toys he likes to the grille of his truck. Although this ending may not be as personally cruel as
Pete or Al’s were, we still have to give it our top spot simply because of its potential. Being
strapped to a truck’s grille means that Lotso will have to deal with not only bugs but also other
harsh weather conditions that could completely ruin how soft and cuddly he is. So, even if he
were to escape, he’d likely just be thrown away again. There’s also the risk of getting left in
the middle of the road or even getting run over by the truck if the straps keeping him on the
grille were to ever loosen while the truck was in motion. Add in the additional sting of the
fact that Lotso lost all the power and comfort he had at Sunnyside, something he’ll never be able
to get back, and you have what we feel is a Pixar Villain fate that manages to be worse than 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!