Disney may be best known for their huge library of animated feature films…
But they’ve recently doubled down on reimagining those movies in Live Action.
Are they better than the originals?
Ha…
No.
But there certainly are some Live Action Disney Gems.
And in addition to the live action remakes…
There are also original stories told in the form of Disney feature films.
But when it comes to the villains in these movies… we wanted to know which ones are
truly the most irredeemably evil.
That’s what we’re going to figure out today.
I’m Caleb with WIckedBinge and this is Disney Live-Action Villains: Evil to Most Evil.
For this list, we’ll be covering the most well-known and fondly remembered live action
films Disney has had a hand in.
Since there are a lot of movies in the filmography, we chose to cover only those that are included
on Disney Plus.
And while there can be more than one villain or sidekick, we’re going to try and limit
it to one entry per movie.
Our least evil villain is the main antagonist of High School Musical, Sharpay.
While she is listed as the main antagonist for the first film, Sharpay had a lot of growth
throughout the movie series.
Sharpay was determined to stay in the spotlight throughout the majority of the first movie,
and by the end she was seen accepting being bested.
Sharpay’s attempts to get closer to the romantic lead and regain the spotlight throughout
the franchise all ended in failure, but she still managed to come through as someone who
rose above her hardships.
It’s just a shame that she was painted as a villain in the first place.
Our second least evil villain is the antagonist listed for the 1964 Mary Poppins: Mr Dawes
Senior.
He didn’t have much screen time, but this character’s influence was a motivator for
much of the film.
Mr Dawes Senior had been the chairman of the bank that employed George.
Due to his status and the length of his career, Dawes had gained quite an influence over the
community, resulting in people like George often mimicking his “career comes first”
outlook.
Thanks to Mary, Dawes was able to reignite his passion for the small things in life.
Whereas before he had seen things done simply out of enjoyment as a waste of time and money,
by the end he was able to see the value in simply flying a kite.
Next, we have a tie between Freaky Friday’s Stacey Hinkhouse and the Princess Diaries’
Lana Thomas.
Both Stacey and Lana were the typical background mean girls.
They didn’t have any real development, only serving as reminders of the protagonists’
growth in their respective stories.
Following on our list is Ricky King from Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves.
Ricky and his friends were background roles much like Stacey and Lana, but proved to be
more destructive.
Once these boys were given the green light to run about unsupervised, Ricky and his friends
nearly demolished the residence.
However, we don’t think they earned a more evil ranking than third place.
Sure they were destructive, but they were just kids.
Another High School Musical antagonist, we have Mr Thomas Fulton.
Mr Fulton was the manager running the Lava Springs Country Club, and used his position
to make life difficult for the students employed by him.
However, we didn’t feel right about placing him as more evil on this list.
Mr Fulton had stated himself that what he did was because he didn’t want to lose his
job and was simply following orders.
Following we have our last entry from the High School Musical franchise, Tiara Gold.
Appearing in the third film, she began assisting Sharpay and slowly easing herself into the
school’s musical theatre scene.
Tiara planned her moves carefully as she lured Sharpay into trusting her before revealing
her intentions to upstage Sharpay.
We had to rank her as more evil than Sharpay due to the fact that Tiara was successful
in painting Sharpay as a bad guy and dethroned her as the star of their theatre department.
Taking the next spot from the 1998 Parent trap is Meredith Blake.
After Hallie and Annie switched places, a disguised Annie was forced to meet their dad’s
new girlfriend.
Once Meredith became concerned that Hallie would stand in the way of her marrying Nick,
Meredith came up with the idea to ship Hallie off after the wedding.
After meeting the real Hallie when the twins reunited, Meredith only doubled down on making
it clear that she had no interest in sharing Nick.
Thankfully, when Meredith did finally snap and demand Nick choose between her or his
daughters, she ultimately lost.
Next on our list is the man seeking to ruin Inspector Gadget: Dr Claw.
In the films, Dr Claw was set on eliminating Inspector Gadget as he pursued world domination.
At first, Dr Claw chose to try and turn the people against the newly improved inspector
by making a duplicate that would commit crimes.
When that didn’t succeed and got him thrown in jail, Dr Claw eventually escaped and focused
his efforts on stealing gold from the Federal Reserve.
Claw had been able to steal not only the gold, but a priceless ruby, resulting in the Gadget
program being temporarily shut down.
But eventually he was caught and imprisoned once again.
Next up we have the Giantess from Into the Woods.
After the death of her husband, the Giantess was determined to seek vengeance against Jack.
In her efforts to get revenge, the Giantess was responsible for killing Jack’s mother.
It was only after Jack’s death was faked that she stopped her hunt.
Our next ranking goes to Lady Madonna Tremaine from Cinderella.
While Lady Tremaine claimed her first marriage was a match made in Heaven, it’s clear to
see that her marriage to Ella’s father had been anything but.
Due to the time that this film took place, it makes sense that Tremaine would marry in
order to provide some security for her and her daughters.
Tremaine didn’t take into account that her actions hurt an innocent child in the process.
Rather than adapting to make Ella a real part of the family, Tremaine used her as a way
to vent her frustrations and feel important.
She used Ella as a servant to further the delusion that she and her daughters were higher
in society than they were.
Whenever Ella pushed back or showed any form of success, Tremaine was quick to put a stop
to it, tearing the poor girl down.
Next on our list is Lyle Van de Groot from George of the Jungle.
To be fair, Lyle started his journey as more clueless than downright evil.
Yes, he did run off at seeing a lion, leaving his fiance to fend for herself, but we could
have chalked that up to more self-preservation than maliciousness.
After all, Lyle did go looking for Ursula after he regained consciousness, rallying
a team together to help find her.
After Ursula fell for George, Lyle became a man obsessed.
Even after he failed in kidnapping Ursula in the first film, Lyle continued trying to
win her over, claiming that what happened wasn’t his fault.
On top of all the twisted methods he used to get his former fiance back, Lyle was also
set on destroying everything George cared about, blaming the king of the jungle for
his own issues.
No one is a villain quite like Gaston.
Gaston was not willing to be bested by anyone or anything.
So when he set his sights on Belle, determined to make her his bride, he didn’t plan for
the rejection that followed.
Gaston’s need to make Belle his led to him committing horrible crimes against her.
He set his henchmen to spy on her father and used Maurice’s odd reputation against him.
Gaston had been able to convince the townspeople that Maurice lost his mind and so had been
nearly successful in having the old man committed to an asylum.
When Belle still didn’t cave to the pressure, Gaston lashed out his anger on the Beast.
He led a mob against the castle and made it his mission to kill the cursed being that
stole Belle’s heart.
The next spot is a tied ranking going to Aunt Spiker and Aunt Sponge from James and the
Giant Peach.
As these two women were shown to be equally guilty of making James miserable, it was only
fitting we mention the two of them together.
Spiker and Sponge were both greedy and neglectful women.
They treated James as a slave, only following him all the way to New York in order to still
have someone to wait on them hand and foot.
When they caught up with James they tried painting him as a liar to the police.
When James stood up to his aunts and revealed how they beat and starved him, Spiker and
Sponge went after him with axes, getting themselves arrested.
Next on our list is another tied spot with V.A.
Vandevere from Dumbo and Dr Terminus from the 1977 Pete’s Dragon.
Unlike in the cartoon, the ring leader in the 2019 release of Dumbo is far more cruel,
having no issue with attempting to outright kill Dumbo’s mother so he could keep the
young elephant without any resistance.
Dr Terminus was much like V.A.
Vandevere, chasing after a fortune no matter who he had to step on.
Dr Terminus was a conman who went around trying to sell supposed “miracle cures.”
When he came across the dragon, he was driven to use the beast for his cures, having heard
that dragons could be used for all sorts of ailments.
Taking the following ranking we have the villain from The Princess Diaries, Viscount Mabrey.
Yes, there had been the typical mean girl featured in the first of these films, but
Viscount Mabrey was another level of devious.
He sent his nephew to seduce Mia in order to gain the throne to Genovia for his own
family.
Thankfully the Viscount’s nephew had second thoughts and refused to carry out Mabrey’s
plans.
Next on our list is Scar from The Lion King.
Scar’s motivation to take the throne from his brother Mufasa led to him not only murdering
the beloved king, but harming an innocent cub in the process.
Scar was happy to order Simba to wander into the wilderness, knowing full well the cub
wouldn’t survive without help.
Scar then went on to run the kingdom into ruin, driving everyone towards starvation
because he was determined to let the hyenas hunt far more than they needed in order to
honor their deal.
From Cruella we have Baroness von Hellman.
The Baroness suffered from the same bout of jealousy that The Evil Queen in Snow White
had, worried that her newborn daughter would grow to upstage her.
That fear led to the Baroness ordering the child be killed and then lying, claiming she
had a miscarriage.
She also went on to later kill the woman that took Estella in, which Estella finds out once
she recognized a piece of jewelry that the Baroness was wearing.
When Estella stole some of the dalmations that the Baroness owned, the woman retaliated
by hunting Estella down and attempting to kill her.
Taking the following spot from Aladdin we have Jafar.
Jafar was not content with just being the man in the background.
He was always trying to sway things to go how he wanted.
Jafar quickly adapted his methods in order to rise to power as sultan, stealing the Genie
in the process.
In his efforts to overthrow the kingdom, Jafar attempted to murder Aladdin multiple times.
He imprisoned the sultan and Jasmine and threw the entire kingdom into chaos.
Though we mentioned the film Cruella already, Cruella De Vil received this place on our
list because of her role in 101 Dalmations.
With the most recent film on Cruella released, we now have more backstory as to how she ended
up the insane woman she did, but that still doesn’t justify her actions.
Cruella was a successful business woman who made a lot of sense when she was being civil
on screen.
However, once she was driven to steal the puppies in order to make herself a dalmatian
coat, all respect for her was lost.
Next from Alice in Wonderland we have The Red Queen.
No matter what adaptation she’s in, The Red Queen was always depicted as a blood-thirsty
tyrant who was quick to anger.
When anyone in her presence made any sort of mistake, she was insulted to the point
that she rarely hesitated to declare they be sentenced to death.
When The Red Queen was threatened by Alice, she used violence to bend those of the Underland
to her will so they would hunt down Alice for her.
Taking the next ranking is the antagonist from The JungleBook: Shere Khan.
Shere Khan was shown to be far more vicious in the 2016 release than his animated counterpart.
Upon finding Mogli, Shere Khan demanded the child either be sent away or killed as Man
was not to be allowed into the jungle.
Shere Khan then proceeded to harass the wolf family that took Mogli in, labeling them as
traitors to the jungle, rallying more animals against Mogli.
Shere Khan was eventually revealed to be the one that killed Mogli’s father years beforehand,
and the tiger was happy to await Mogli’s return to the jungle to have a chance to kill
him.
There were a few people that qualified as antagonists for the Pirates of the Caribbean
films, but we had to give the top spot to Davy Jones.
Whether or not you sympathize with Davy Jones and how he fell into his role, his actions
served as the catalyst for all that would follow.
Will’s father being torn from him and cursed, Jack and his crew eventually falling into
their own cursed existence, the summoning of the Kraken…
Davy Jones had become a force to be reckoned with that spread misery in all those he encountered.
From the film Maleficent we have King Stefan.
While Maleficent was marked as a villain since her introduction in 1959, we had to place
King Stefan as the antagonist of the 2014 film.
Though Stefan initially befriended Maleficent, his need to gain power led to him betraying
her.
While Maleficent protected the Moors, Stefan was a servant to the previous ruler who promised
the kingdom to whoever could defeat Maleficent.
Stefan was able to lure Maleficent to let her guard down and remove her wings in order
to convince the previous ruler that she was dead, winning him the throne.
By the end of the film, Stefan once again faced Maleficent with the intent to torture
her to death before he himself was defeated.
Taking the next ranking is Ramsley from The Haunted Mansion.
After seeing his employer fall for Elizabeth, Ramsley decided the best course of action
was to kill her.
He justified his actions by stating that Edward marrying a Black woman would have been “a
disgrace to the house.”
However, Edward was grief-stricken and wound up hanging himself, cursing the house in the
process.
After trying to repeat his actions, believing Sarah was Elizabeth’s reincarnation, Ramsley
was exposed for what he was.
His soul was then sentenced to eternal damnation.
The bronze medal of most evil goes to It from A Wrinkle in Time.
It was a disembodiment that possessed Charles Wallace, using the man to carry out various
evil deeds.
It’s motivation was to spread as far and wide as possible, corrupting people and turning
them evil.
Though this program made people malicious, it was able to be stopped with redemption
through love.
Taking the silver medal of most evil is Andrei Strasser from Mighty Joe Young.
A poacher that was on the hunt for gorillas, Andrei was initially foiled by the researcher
Ruth Young and a young Joe.
Joe bit Andrei’s hand and severed off the poacher’s thumb and index finger, leading
to the man having a lifelong vendetta against the gorilla.
Her need to protect the giant gorilla led to Jill agreeing to place Joe in a sanctuary,
which resulted in Andrei finding them and effectively tricking her into thinking he
was a concerned philanthropist.
Thankfully Andrei was taken out before he could do any more damage.
Finally taking the gold medal of most evil live action Disney villain we have Böri Khan
from Mulan.
Khan was set against the Chinese empire, determined to bring it to the ground in an effort to
avenge his father.
The details of how Khan’s father died aren’t known for certain, but the loss of his father
motivated Khan to become the feared warrior he was in the film.
Unlike Shan Yu from the animated feature, Khan was much more reluctant to acknowledge
Mulan as a true rival, adding a layer of misogyny to his arc that was absent from the original
Disney film.
Ultimately we had to give Khan the gold medal for the fact that he was successful in killing
hundreds of people, leading an army against the entire Chinese empire.
Before we go, we wanted to hand out some extra medals to the characters that fit them the
best.
Taking the Darwin Medal we have the ringleader in Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves, Ricky King.
Being a clueless kid, we didn’t have much reason to rank him higher on our list.
Yes, there are plenty of short-sighted teenagers mentioned in this ranking, but Ricky is our
youngest and therefore most naive antagonist.
The Lust Medal goes to the man against the Moors, King Stefan.
We had to grant him this medal for the fact that his motivation to betray Maleficent involved
him winning the previous king’s daughter as his wife.
While Stefan had been more concerned with the throne, having someone to wed right away
was no doubt an added benefit to his new position of power.
We’re giving the Wrath Medal to Nick’s almost-wife, Meredith Blake.
While many of the villains on this list had justifiable reasons or delusions for their
actions, Meredith was well aware that what she was doing was underhanded.
She didn’t truly care for Nick and still had no issue creating a divide between him
and his daughter just so she would have a comfortable life full of luxury.
The Greed Medal goes to Dr Claw.
Dr Claw had wanted to rule the world and gather valuables such as gold and jewels, but nothing
really came from it.
By the time the second movie was released, Dr Claw was more interested in gathering desired
items than taking down Inspector Gadget.
The Sloth Medal goes to two women: Aunt Spiker and Aunt Sponge.
The entire time they were on screen, the only actions they ever did on their own involved
hurting James.
Anything else revolved around making him scrub floors or wait on them hand and foot.
Next up, we’re giving the Pride Medal to the servant of The Haunted Mansion, Ramsley.
Ramsley committed murder simply to uphold his own biases, justifying his racism by saying
it was for the good of the house and his employer.
He heavily tied the status of the home and its inhabitants to his own identity.
Finally, the Gluttony Medal goes to the lion that killed Mufasa: Scar.
After years of living on the edge of the Pridelands, Scar wanted to enjoy the plentiful lands.
He allowed the hyenas under him to hunt to the point that the land was dying.
Even after he was confronted with his mistake, Scar refused to leave the land he thought
was rightfully his.
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 Good to Evil playlist.
Where we break down the morality of the characters in your favorite cartoons, shows and movies.
But most importantly, stay wicked.