Disney
Villain Rater – Introduction
Hello
again, readers! Today, I'd like to show you the fruits of my most
recently completed project, one that I've been tinkering with for
quite some time, now. Last year, I posted an article about my top
favorite Disney movies. In that vein, I present to you readers a
personality test of my own design: the Disney Villain Rater! (Patent
pending.)
The
title is self-explanatory: I will be evaluating the many Disney
villains using a specific profiling system. I'll be rating the
following traits on a scale of one to ten:
DESIGN
– How the character looks and moves, body language, clothing, etc.
PERSONALITY
– How the character thinks, acts, speaks, etc.
GOALS
– What that character wants to have or do, and the intentions
behind their goals.
AMBITION
– How much the character wants, how far/low he/she is willing to
go.
ABILITIES
– What the character can do (magic, intellect, special skills,
etc.).
HENCHMEN
– Who works for him/her, their effectiveness and character
significance.
DEFEAT
– How the villain's quest ends (death, prison, reformation, etc.).
VOICE
– The voice actor's vocal performance and celeb status.
I
will then total the points and calculate the average, final score for
the character. I will also award each character an extra three
points to the final score if they were powerful enough (or popular
enough) to return for another movie. Each article is done
chronologically, so we shall begin with the first film in Walt
Disney's full-length feature film continuum, Snow White and the
Seven Dwarfs (1937), as well as the first villain in Disney
feature film history:
THE
EVIL QUEEN (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)
DESIGN
–
For
the design of the very first villain in Disney movie history, the
animators certainly pulled no punches. The Queen is regal and
dignified while maintaining a frightening imperiousness. Wearing the
robes of a queen, carrying herself like royalty (even in a blind
rage), and even staying disturbingly lovely in her own macabre way,
the Queen is a truly menacing presence on screen.
Of
course, one cannot forget her sudden, quite contrasting design change
halfway into the film. In her desperation to kill Snow White, the
Queen transforms herself into an ugly old woman to disguise her looks
and finish the job herself. In some ways the witch design is even
worse; her malicious intentions are made obvious through the look in
her eyes alone. Any disguise that calls for “mummy dust”, “the
black of night”, “an old hag's cackle” (fitting), and “a
scream of fright”, and requires fanning with “a gust of wind”
and mixing with “a thunderbolt” is the recipe for true terror.
To
be fair, I'll be rating both designs. As I said, the witch disguise
is worse in many ways, but it's the Queen's subtle, yet commanding
appearance that makes her really scary. To that end, it is her first
form that I'll be giving a higher score to.
DESIGN:
8 (Queen) / 7 (Witch)
PERSONALITY
–
To
go with her imperious design, the Queen's personality is just as
deadly, in both forms. Her jealousy drives her to arrogance and
cruelty, and because of her frequent consultations with her Magic
Mirror, she is obviously a narcissist. This makes the arguable
position that the Queen is a sociopath. In an ironic twist in
relation to her design, she adopts an approachable, vulnerable mask
in her witch design—which makes her “poor old granny” facade
worse than her true form. This proves that she is also manipulative,
another sign of sociopathy. That coupled with her lack of
conscience, even joy, in killing an innocent woman (who is not only
royalty herself, but also her own stepdaughter.), the Queen/Witch is
quite a monster, despite her best efforts to be “the fairest one of
all”.
PERSONALITY:
8
GOALS
–
Sadly,
the Queen's evaluation in this article falls short in this section.
Her one goal throughout the entire film is to take back her position
as the fairest in the land—by killing the titular character. This
simple, petty, childish goal is a modern feminist's nightmare; a
villain with so much command, ambition, ability and influence wanting
nothing more than to be the prettiest girl. Sorry, but nothing to be
feared here.
GOALS:
4
AMBITION
–
In
stark contrast to her high-school-level goals, the Queen is willing
to commit murder to achieve them. This is right off the bat, as
well, and after the opening “storybook” sequence tells us that
her attempts to remain fairest in the land amounted to nothing more
than hiding Snow White's loveliness under rags. Needless to say,
going from covering up the second place up-and-comer straight to
premeditated homicide is a huge leap in ambition. At first, she
attempts murder by proxy, but her hired thug, the huntsman, chokes at
the last minute. Realizing that the best way to accomplish something
correctly is to apply one's own good self, she invokes dark arts to
change her appearance to remain incognito. Not only does she
successfully carry out the act (sort of) and flee, but she also
attempts to kill all seven of the dwarfs as well. Her final scene is
ambition gone berserk; she may as well have gone full psychopath in
her last moments. Even though she has a ridiculous goal better
suited for catwalk models and beauty pageant contestants, her
ambition is what sets her apart, and makes her the dreaded antagonist
she really is.
AMBITION:
8
ABILITIES
–
Being
a royal figurehead, the Queen's abilities should only be limited to
her money and influence. But, as stated before, she is also
manipulative and knows how to get people to do what she wants. All
of these things alone make her a villainous force to be reckoned
with, but as with many Disney villains, it's not quite enough. The
Queen appears to have access to black magic; not only can she use it
to change her appearance drastically, but she can also concoct a
deadly poison that can be hidden in the most harmless-looking of
foods—an apple. She is by no means limited in her ability, only in
her creativity. Sadly, that's where she falls flat, as well.
However, what she has, she takes full advantage of, and that is more
than enough for a high score from me. Not too high, though .
. . .
ABILITIES:
7
HENCHMEN
–
Another
area where the Evil Queen is sorely lacking: her hired help. She has
one henchman in the huntsman whom she employs as Snow White's
would-be assassin. He has two scenes in the film, six or seven lines
altogether, and two jobs to accomplish on the Queen's behalf. He
wastes these scenes and lines by not accomplishing either job: kill
the princess and bring back her heart in a box. After the huntsman
lets Snow White escape, it is heavily implied that he substituted the
princess' heart with that of a pig, thereby not only disobeying the
Queen, but defying her. After that, he is never seen or mentioned
again. Aside from the Magic Mirror (which is neither given orders
nor is seen carrying them out, only asked questions) and a crow
(which serves as more of a point-of-view reference/weak comic relief
than a henchman), this is all the Queen has to carry out her orders.
The blundering fool, indeed . . . .
HENCHMEN:
4
DEFEAT
–
How
this villainess is defeated and her plot foiled is probably the
simplest in all of Disney's films, or indeed, in any films: the
surely-fatal drop from a significantly high area. However,
considering the circumstances surrounding it, the “fatal drop”
death scene has been spiced up quite a bit. After they find Snow
White dead, the dwarfs chase the Witch to the top of a cliff in a
rainstorm. In her bid to kill the dwarfs, the Witch attempts to
crush them under a large rock; just before she succeeds, though, a
lightning bolt shatters the cliff right out from under her feet, and
the Witch plummets to her doom. As if that weren't enough, the rock
she attempted to crush the dwarfs with rolls backwards, following her
to the bottom of the cliff. The fatal plummet having been overdone
in stories long before even Snow White, this certainly is an
interesting twist on a classic ending; it was as if nature itself
interfered with this psychopath's terror and ended her once and for
all. What could seem like a shameless deus ex machina
plays out as a chilling, maybe even overdone ending for a chilling
villainess.
DEFEAT:
8
VOICE
–
The
Queen's voice, in both forms, is provided by Lucille La Verne, a
stage and screen titan in her own time. In the early days of the
industry, Walt Disney spared no expense to have only the best working
for him, and this film proves it. La Verne's performance is
commanding as the Queen and spine-tingling as the Witch, and the
dextrous skill in convincingly providing both voices proves that she
earned her reputation as one of the best in the business. The Disney
Company as it was then was still in its prime when La Verne died in
1945, but I've got a good feeling that, were she alive today and able
to see how so many movies (not just animated, not just Disney, but
films of all kinds) took such inspiration from the legendary classic
she was a part of, she would be proud.
VOICE:
9
Because
there were no sequels to resurrect the Queen (appropriately so), no
extra points will be added. As such, we now come to the final phase
of the profile: the average score. Taking each individual number and
determining the average, we can assess exactly how well the Queen has
performed according to the outlined criteria.
COMBINED
SCORE: 56 (Queen) / 55 (Witch)
FINAL
SCORE: 7 (Queen) / 6.875 (Witch)
Overall,
not a bad score for the very first villain in Disney's full-length
feature catalogue. While her goals may be juvenile and her goons
leave much room for improvement, everything else about the Queen is
downright scary. Her imposing presence, her sociopathic behavior,
her psychotic drive, and the resources at her disposal leave for
little need of the imagination. Fear and duplicity are the Queen's
main weapons, and with a villain that dangerous, it's safe to say
that her death wasn't quite 'overkill' as much as 'well-deserved'.
And with the haunting vocals of character actress legend Lucille La
Verne, Snow White's Evil Queen is certainly a villain intent
on her own 'happily ever after'.
Thanks
for joining me on this rather interesting character profile. Because
the next film in Disney chronology is 1940's Pinocchio, there
will actually be three villainous profiles to calculate with this
test. I hope you'll be willing to join me again for that.
Thank
you again for your time, and for your eyes.
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