Your Favourite Villian

John Silver-from Treasure Planet--not truly a villain per se, but he fills in the role of being mostly one in the film. He's probably one of the more complex "bad guys" going around in Animation, in that he's not truly bad, just a bit amoral.

Yeah, I had him picked for the "dark mentor" type, not the real villain. (Although he does function as a shadow for Jim during the mutiny.) Ultimately, I think Silver and Jim embody two aspects of the same hero personality as both undergo a transformation for the better toward the end of the movie. Silver keeps tempting Jim with the rogue life the "old" Jim always dreamed of, though.
Speaking of which, who is the real villain in TP? Scroop? I think not, he's more like a trial, a guardian the hero needs to overcome. I think the real villain is Captain Flint - although dead his booby trap is the final test for Jim in the movie. He (or his corpse) is also at the very center of the darkest place of the scenario, like most classic villains are. In the end, both Flint and Treasure Planet are what's trying to "get" Jim and make him fail, one through the other.

While not exactly a villan, or my most favorite villian, I do really like Mr. Huph from "The Incedibles." He's a great example of someone with little man syndrome. It's a great use of opposites between him and Bob Parr. Small vs. large, rounded vs. angular. He's not really a villan, but you can see it in his eyes how evil he is when he know's he's got Bob by the balls. After than he just lords over Bob. Well, untill he gets thrown through the walls. It's a very well staged and animated sequence.

Probably one of my favorite villians is Feather's McGraw in "The Wrong Trousers." I love him! I'll talk about him later.

Aloha,
the Ape

Not a problem :D
I love sitting down and thinking about things like this. It kind of lets you see more of the film/show than when you're actually watching it...in a way...

This one is simplistic

Scar from LionKing
Realy one of the simplest Vils but hit the target well (young kids) and he did his own staging of the crimes.

But my Fav is the Orb from HeavyMetal. Pure evil and just its presents could efect the jondra. HeavyMetal is NOT one of my Fav films at all. Just the Various ways the Orb worked to warp things.

Shego from Kim Possible = Love. Or if you don't count her as a villain, then Drakken will do nicely. Both of them are hilarious.

Warmonga: We do not interrupt the Great Blue!
Shego: Suuuuure we do! We're the Evil Sidekick, we're all about the interrupting! Aint that right Dr. D?!
Drakken: Grrrrr, zip it! Now where was I? Evil Genius, in prison, rotting... yes the rotting!
Shego: See, see see what it does, now, now you do one.
Warmonga: Never!

*later on*

Drakkens trying to make his countdown start.
Shego: Oh come on, you're not going to let that one go! This is mocking gold! Argh! ...
Warmonga: Warmonga will not mock the Great Blue!
Drakken (in background): I got it!
Shego: Aww, you see that? You missed your mock window.

This guy has to be one of my faves, along with the Joker.

I'm sure most of you have seen the animé Cowboy Bebop, my favourite animated series out there. Vicious is cold, calculating, has complete disregard for authority, in his mind he is the only authority. Betrayal is second nature to him, and he is often described as a posonous snake.

A member of a crime syndicate, he betrays those above him, but he is caught, and sentenced to execution. He scoffs, warning that even after a serpent bites, its poison continues to spread. Soon his poison does indeed spread, as syndicate members join forces with him, and rise against their leaders.

Vicious is a genuinely scary guy, baring more than a resemblance to Sephiroth of Final Fantasy 7, both in appearance and characteristics. What makes him scary is that he is not only a psychotic, sword-weilding killer, but a business man, he knows exactly what he wants, exactly what he needs to do to get what he wants.

Mine would have to be Orochimaru from Naruto.

That's really helpful! Tanx!
BTW do you feel that Anime villains are different from traditional Hollywood/Disney villains?
Do you think anime artists design villains in a specific way to inform audience's that they are villains?

Absolutely. In fact many anime have almost a defined "look" for personality types. So much so that upon seeing a new character you can often know how they will respond to events before they ever speak. This is not a constant but is typical.

The main characters from "Wolf's Rain" for example all have specific "looks":
* The kid on the left is the 'fem' type, very empathic, sometimes can't tell if it's a guy or girl
* Next is the bad boy, punk good guy.
* Third is the calm, cool, collected good guy with a rough edge, kind of an introvert.
* Last is more of the comedy relief type.

And then the main bad guy:

That's really helpful! Tanx!
BTW do you feel that Anime villains are different from traditional Hollywood/Disney villains?
Do you think anime artists design villains in a specific way to inform audience's that they are villains?

In response to your question regarding Animé villains differing from Hollywood/Disney villains, I really wish I could answer your question, but to be honest, I don't really watch enough Animé to give a well informed answer, but I do know that Western influence must definately be taken into account, as with other aspects of Japanese culture.

And I totally agree with Big Hache, like he said, 'upon seeing a new character you can often know how they will respond to events before they ever speak'. This is entirely true in most cases.
And, much like the 'good guys', the villains are immediately recognisable, just look at Vicious, white hair, gaunt cheeks, sunken eyes, tall, skinny, almost like a human manifestation of death itself.
But, like in Hollywood/Disney, there is no specific guidelines they must follow, just look at Akira, Tetsuo, the 'villain', is a troubled kid with supernatural powers that he doesn't want, it really is quite difficult to analyse the differences/likenesses lol

Yeh that's true, R McKeith, I think the difference is that some animés focus on telling the story of the 'good guys', eg. Cowboy Bebop, Sprited Away, Yu-Gi-Oh...(lol sorry my animé knowledge doesn't spread very far), whereas the difference with Akira is that it really is the story of the villain, Tetsuo, Kenada just seems like a guy caught up in Tetsuo's story.

In a world where the vast majority of animated villians are over-acting clowns, I'm going with the complex Tetsuo from Akira.

Watership Down's General is also pretty scary, for a bunny.

Most of my favorite animated movies have no (significant) villians, though.

I'd have to say the scariest one I can remember was one that wasn't even on camera. "Man" in Disney's Bambi.

I think the thing that would put the biggest difference between them is that the majority of Disney's recognized work is movies, whereas the majority of anime is for the television (though there are anime movies and Disney shows). I think that this allows anime villains more time to develop as their own characters, show more motivation, backstory, etc...be more round characters (though that doesn't necessarily mean that a particular anime will use that opportunity), whereas Disney films, by there nature, are much more limited on time. This both almost eliminates the opportunity to allow the villain its own light, but also requires them to be a stronger immediate character, because they don't have the time to reveal themselves as fully to the audience.

I think that makes sense...

Essentially, a Disney villain (or just a film villain in general) has the pressure on it to be more direct, easier to recognize, and more difficult to sympathize with (you don't have the time to get into the villain's story when there's the rest of the plot to deal with, and quick!)
An anime villain, however, has the time to develop, and thus isn't required to reveal itself as "the bad guy" as soon or as directly. Nor does anime necessarily need a direct antagonist/protagonist conflict or even a villain at all (depends on the genre of anime). There are, of course, other anime where the villain is as direct and easy to identify as in Disney movies.

There is, however, a tendency through both (and I would argue any story-telling media) to have the villain easy to recognize, in order to accomplish the purpose of storytelling (as most stories are told through the overcoming of some conflict or other). And, of course, there are exceptions in all of these medias (and it tends to be these exceptions I enjoy most).

Though, I would like to point out the difficulty with asking about the difference between Disney and anime villains is that anime is a whole media, and thus has a multitude of genres and usages of villains (take Miyazaki's villains vs Naruto villains vs GTO antagonist vs Evangelion's "issues" :P )

Favourite villains?
If I were going through Disney's repertoire, I'd say my favourites would be Scar and Shere Kahn (maybe I just like big cats? :P ). Scar's got an excellent rugged look to him, has the whole red & black emotion-drawing colours to him, his eyes seem to glow yellow (unlike Simba's and Mufasa's, who's are much duller), and looks like someone who's been through tough times and kicked its ass. On top of that, his character has a cleverness and traitor-traits going on. Kahn...I don't remember Jungle Book very well, as much as I loved it, but he does have a sort of calm power both in appearance and attitude.
Anime? Right now I'd have to say Gendou from Evangelion, because he's not quite a villain (and isn't who is portrayed as the villain(s) of Eva), but he's manipulative, cunning, and doing this all for himself (in a way that you can almost sympathize with), and has power. He also says very little (which can be intimidating in of itself). And similar to Scar is somewhat scruffy and worn, has the colour theme of red & black/dark-blue, his eyes are blocked by almost glowing red glasses, plus, he's almost always got his hands folded (in white gloves) and hiding his mouth (adds mystery to his current attitude).
All three of these characters also have a sort of untrustworthy suaveness to them. Sophisticated, maybe?

In general, I think villains in most media tend to be designed with more sharp angles than curves. Additionally, one of my friends jokes/argues that the less clothes an anime character wears, the more evil they are, and amusingly it has a tendency to be true.
Also, I think there's something about the design of a villain's eyes thats usually similar, though I can't quite quite describe it. Maybe they tend to be narrower, or squinty?

I will add that Man in Bambi, (like someone said earlier), is probably the most terrifying Disney villain (possible any animated villain) that I've ever seen/known, and you never see him.

Also, I ran across this site while looking for images of Scar and Kahn to refresh my memory: "Discussion" on Disney Villains. Dunno if it'll help at all, but it's a similar topic.

hmm, Baron Greenback always haunted me i gotta say...he did wear nice suits though.

Gav.

In terms of design, I'd say:

The Queen/Evil Witch in Snow White--elegantly menacing in her regal form, despicable in her haggard form.

Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty-menacing from the word go.
Cruella De Vill--same reasons.
Ratigan from Great Mouse Detective--though charming in poise, there's such a strong undercurrent of tension and temper within him he's explosive as a villain.
Shan Yu from Mulan was coolly villainous.
The Joker--Batman's quintessential foe. What more be said?

In terms of character:

Kent Mansley from Iron Giant. Full of himself and brash out of duty--he's not the kind of person to actually stand up for his beliefs when the time really comes. Probably the worst kind of bully.

The Joker again--and pretty much solely because of Mark Hamill's voicework.
Add in Harley Quinn as his contempible though perky sidekick and they are both nasty, but fun to watch.
Ratigan again, because Vincent Price so totally sold that character--Ratigan wants to be so much more, but he's saddled/surrounded by the mediocre. When it all collapses for him, he lashes out in very frigthening ways. Defnitely not a character to trust.

John Silver-from Treasure Planet--not truly a villain per se, but he fills in the role of being mostly one in the film. He's probably one of the more complex "bad guys" going around in Animation, in that he's not truly bad, just a bit amoral.

Mr Freeze--another Batman foe, but one whose so tragic he's evil out of focus, not out of heart. You feel for his desire to revive his wife, but ache when he strikes out at those who oppose him. Not a cardboard villain, in that his motives give him more depth than one who is simply out there for mischief and mayhem.

My vote for favorite villain definitely goes to Gargamel. He really hated those smurfs.

I like Hades from Disney's Hercules, also partly thanks to the voice work. There's a villain who is truly uncomfortable with the role he has to play - he doesn't want to be lord of the underworld. Not that this makes him a misunderstood guy: when on top he's just about as obnoxious as in his usual situation. (And who can blame him what with the disgustingly colourful pantheon of gods looking down on him?) He's a hectic guy but slick and suave only as long as things go his way. Cross him and he shows his true colours.
I like Hades because he asks the powers that be, "Why do I have to live and function in a world you guys more or less created for me? I mean look at this, this sucks!" Who can't relate to that?

He also doesn't have a godly glow around him like the other Olympians or Hercules after he rises from the dead. What's interesting about Hades as well is how they combined in him classical imagery with Christian beliefs about the devil. He is the ruler over the underworld which in Greek mythology is a gloomy and cool place, just like in the movie, yet he is deceitful and rather passively aggressive and there is a fire-theme in his design like one would expect in depictions of Satan or other Christian demons.

Ursula from the Little Mermaid. I think she's quite unique with a whisky and cigarette voice, great hair and makeup, scary and funny. They had a lot of fun with her weight.

"Poor Unfortunate Souls" Great song, great sequence.

Well, Disney's Hercules is a sheer travesty as far as faithfulness to its original source is concerned, but what the tartarus? I heard Nik Ranieri collaborated closely with Andreas Deja on Hades, not only because Deja animated the hero and for that reason needed to stick heads together with him but also because Deja was meant to animate Hades at first. He decided in favour of the hero to try something new. (Guess you gotta be ranked up pretty high to be able to do that at Disney.) Long story short, it was Deja who suggested giving Hades fiery hair that changed colour depending on its intensity which is directly connected to Hades' mood. Before Woods came in to do the voice other actors, Jack Nicholson among them, were planned to give a voice to a rather different version of the same character. I think I remember Hades was originally meant to be declamatory, borne and a little fustian before he became a motor-mouthed, hassled manager type.

The cobras in "Riki Tiki Tavi" used to creep me out as a kid. The way Chuck Jones used the design on their hoods to come into camera was rather haunting.

It seems that one element of Disney villians that's common is they're OBVIOUSLY villians, from their character design down to everything. I understand Disney gears their productions towards children and they make things obvious and overexaggerate what's commonly understand as villian characteristics. I think that's what I like about the villian in "Shrek", he's the prince charming but malevolent. That's great stuff.

For me, its Shere Kahn from The Jungle Book. The cool-headed intellectual villians have always entertained me. The suspense of knowing what he can do and waiting for him to do it is what's scary.