Disney villains are known for having a sidekick or two to help them out with their
many evil schemes - and what better sidekick is there than a pokemon? They’re powerful,
loyal and there’s so many to choose from! Today, we’re going to look at some of the
most popular Disney baddies - the Renaissance Villains - and figure out what Pokemon teams
they would try putting together in the hopes of defeating their respective heroes.
I’m Kyle with WickedBinge, and this is What Pokemon Would the Disney Renaissance Villains Use?
Before we begin, I just want to mention our Pokemon channel,
“PokeBinge”. If you love Pokemon and our usual binge formats,
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We’re going to start off with our earliest Renaissance villain - Ursula, the sea witch. Just
based on her aesthetics and design, two pokemon jump out right away as perfect options for her:
Tentacruel and Malamar. Not only do both of these pokemon have multiple legs like she does,
but they also match well with her personality. Funnily enough, Tentacruel is sometimes called
“the Gangster of the Sea”, known for using its tentacles to capture and hold prey much like
Ursula does. As for Malamar, this dark-psychic type uses hypnosis to get people to do what it
wants. Ursula may not have any hypnosis powers, but she’s still plenty familiar with manipulating
people. She’s also extremely familiar with curses and magic, hence why we felt Mismagius
would also be a good fit for her. Of course, we can’t forget about her pets, Flotsam and
Jetsam. Knowing that Ursula would want another electric eel around to replace them after they,
you know, exploded, we decided to give her one in the form of the powerful Eelekross. Finally,
to represent Ursula’s ability to shapeshift herself and others with magic, we’re rounding
out her team with Ditto - a pokemon that’s all about changing shape and making itself
look different, with some of them even having the ability to make themselves look human!
After her is a Renaissance villain that’s a bit more obscure - Percival McLeach from
“The Rescuers Down Under”. McLeach is a poacher interested in only profits, not caring at all
about the rare or endangered critters that he has to catch in order to get all that cash. But like
the Pokemon games have shown us, even people who don’t actually care about pokemon still use them,
and we didn’t think McLeach would be an exception to this. Considering he already has a monitor
lizard named Joanna that he’s fairly affectionate towards, we figured that he’d enjoy having another
sort of lizard on his team - Grovyle. With how easy it is for Grovyle to hide amongst nature,
this alongside its leaf blade ability would make it a perfect hunting partner. Another pokemon that
fits McLeach well is Krookodile. In the film, we see McLeach use crocodiles to threaten Cody.
But aside from that, Krookodile seems to share quite a few of McLeach’s morals. Looking at its
pokedex entry, some have called it “the Bully of the Sands". It’s also an excellent hunter,
using sandy terrain as cover while it waits for prey to catch. Speaking of hunting,
no hunter is complete without some weapons and traps. So, we think a dangerously sharp
Honedge and a sneaky Galarian Stunfisk would be more than welcome on his team.
Next up on the list is the strong, handsome and extremely arrogant Gaston. Naturally,
Gaston would want pokemon that are just as muscular and powerful as he is. Knowing this,
we felt that Machoke and the ultra beast Buzzswole would be just perfect for him. Both of these
pokemon are known for being two of the buffest pokemon in existence, easily overpowering and
intimidating most opponents. Machoke especially has also gotten a bit of a reputation for being
attractive to human women, much like Gaston. Beyond his desire to be seen as strong,
Gaston also wants to be seen as the village hero. Knowing this and knowing that Gaston sees
himself as “beautiful”, we felt that it was only fitting to give him the beautiful knight pokemon,
Gallade. Now, we all know the “ate four dozen eggs every day” part of Gaston’s song and how
proud he is of this fact. So of course we just HAD to give him an Exeggcute to
symbolize this. The last pokemon we’re giving Gaston is meant to represent his sidekick,
Lafou - a guy who acts as Gaston’s hype man and always bounces back, no matter how often Gaston
smacks him around. As far as we’re concerned, no pokemon represents this better than Wobuffet.
Moving on, we have the evil sorcerer, Jafar. Starting off with some easy ones,
we of course had to give him a Chatot. After all, who is Jafar without a parrot to banter with and
bounce ideas off of. With how much Jafar seems to like snakes and cobras especially,
even turning into one during the climax, it seemed natural to give him an Arbok. But
Jafar has much more than a deadly venomous bite to worry about. Throughout the film,
we see Jafar using his hypnotic abilities to try and control the Sultan. Because he would likely
want some hypnotic help in order to control as many people as possible, we think that he’d love
to have a Hypno and a Galarian Slowking by his side. Hypno has the ability to put people to
sleep in three seconds flat - which is about as fast as Jafar’s staff works when it's hypnotizing
someone. As for Slowking, the Galarian version of it specifically has some HUGE Jafar vibes,
with even its much more villainous looking hat being similar to Jafar’s. Finally, with Jafar
being someone who’s all but obsessed with the idea of having a genie and the almost-unlimited
power that comes with it, it only makes sense that he’d go to the ends of the Earth to catch himself
a legendary Hoopa. With this team at his disposal, the heroes of Agrabah better watch out - otherwise
they might find themselves getting portaled away before they can even TRY to stop him.
Given that he’s one of the most famous Renaissance villains, we had to give a quick mention to Lion
King’s Scar. Admittedly, the idea of an animal using pokemon is just… a little bit weird.
But hey, we’ve seen pokemon like Mewtwo use other pokemon, and we’re sure that Scar would be able
to convince a few to stand by his side - namely the dark-type canine pokemon, poochyena. Scar
already has experience working with canines - i.e., his former hyena army - so we think he
would be able to train these pups well. We could also see him gathering up a herd of Tauros to have
at his disposal - obviously paralleling how he used the wildebeests in the film.
From the plains of Africa to the forests of Virginia, next we have Governor Ratcliffe. Funnily
enough, one of the more notable things about Ratcliffe is the fact that he has a pet bulldog
named Percy. Being someone who likes dogs well enough, we’d think he’d enjoy having a Snubbull,
a pokemon that’s known for being devoted and loyal according to its pokedex entry. We’re also sure
Ratcliffe would appreciate its talent for easily intimidating and scaring off other creatures. But
beyond cute pets, Ratcliffe is a man interested in wealth, nobility and power. The pokemon we
feel represent these qualities best are Slowking (the normal version not the Galarian version),
Serperior and Carbink. The first should be obvious - it literally has “king” in its name,
and it's likely Ratcliffe would care more about its looks than its actual power. With Serperior,
it’s often referred to as “the regal pokemon” and is also a pokemon with
great intimidation skills - something Ratcliffe would likely see as a huge advantage. Finally,
with all the diamonds that adorn its body, Carbink would simply represent Ratcliffe’s desires for
wealth and all things shiny and glittery. What better way to attract attention than with jewels?
Now admittedly, Frollo was sort of a tricky one. If anything,
Frollo would be the type to claim that pokemon were “satanic” or “demonic”,
like how many overzealous people were doing back in the day. Still, if he HAD to use pokemon,
it’s likely that he’d want pokemon that represent how he sees himself - someone who is noble,
‘pure’ and heavenly. So, it only seems fitting that he’d want to catch himself
a couple ‘angelic’ looking pokemon - like Togekiss or Gardevoir. Now admittedly, we aren’t quite sure
how well these pokemon would get along with a person like Frollo, but that’s a whole other
discussion. Salazzle may also be a pokemon that would fit well on his team. In a sense,
it would sort of represent the quote-unquote ‘love’ and attraction he has for Esmerelda. It
being a fire-type would also ironically represent the hellfire that Frollo is trying to avoid.
Alright, that was a bit of a hard one. So let’s move onto a team that was pretty easy to put
together: Hades. Right off the bat, we just know that this guy would want to catch himself a shiny
Rapidash. Not only is it a powerful horse pokemon, but we just can’t imagine him saying no to a
pokemon with bright blue flames. With how much Hades tends to rely on minions to help him with
his plans, we’re feeling pretty certain that he’d catch himself an Impidimp or two - both because of
their devilish nature and because of how powerful they become when they evolve, making them perfect
for his long-term plans. Hades also has plenty of monsters at his disposal, and with Hydreigon
being so reminiscent of the hydra that he used to try and kill Hercules, it also seems like it’d
fit extremely well on his team. Finally, given Hades’ connection to the Titans, we think that
if they weren’t an option, he’d instead try to use one of the titans of the Pokemon world - namely
Regigigas, which can be about as destructive and devastating as any monster of legend.
Next up, we have Shan Yu. As the leader of the Huns, it should be pretty obvious what
kind of pokemon Shan Yu would prefer - namely, any pokemon that would be extremely useful in an army.
Going back to ancient times, we think that Hisuian Samurott fits these qualities to a T. Admittedly,
Samurott is based more off of Japanese warriors, however its Hisuian form not only has a slightly
different aesthetic, but - according to its pokedex - it will do anything to win a battle,
preferring to use tricks such as surprise attacks and cheap shots. Yeah, that pretty
much screams “perfect for Shan Yu”. We also have a pretty good feeling that he’d enjoy
having a falcon that can not only attack with its claws but also burn anyone in its way, so
Talonflame is also a must for his team. Rounding out his poke-army, we’re giving him Decidueye,
since every army needs a good archer and Decidueye certainly meets those standards.
Let’s finish things off with Clayton’s team. Although there is no “gun” pokemon currently,
there is one pokemon that we feel would represent Clayton fairly well - the mythical bug/steel type,
Genesect. Not only does it have a blaster that can blow enemies and any other obstacles it comes
across out of its way, but the blaster part of its body is technically man-made. It may not be a
shotgun, but we’re sure Clayton won’t mind. We’re also giving Clayton a Liepard, not necessarily
because it relates to him but to instead sort of represent the film’s other villain,
Sabor. With how much Clayton wanted to use and profit off the gorillas from Tarzan’s home,
we’re sure that he’d enjoy having a gorilla of his own - one who would obey every command and use its
power to win battles and bring in the poke-bucks. So, we’re going to give him a Rillaboom. For the
last pokemon on his team, we feel that it was only fitting to give him a Tangrowth,
as we’re sure he could have used a creature like Tangrowth in the film’s climax - someone
who could have given him plenty of extra vines to grab onto and save himself with.
And those are all the teams that we think the Disney Renaissance would have! Let us know in
the comments if you agree with our selections, and if you’d like to see more Pokemon team
videos, let us know! Also, tell us what we should cover next! Remember
to hit that notification bell and watch all our other videos. But most importantly, stay wicked!