Summary

• Disney twist villains often have surprising identities that are revealed later in the film's narrative, some more successfully than others.
• Some Disney twist villains, like Commander Rourke and Professor Callaghan, are thinly developed and their motives are easily telegraphed.
• The twist villain characterizations in films like Big Hero 6 and WALL-E can be confusing and unnecessary, adding a layer of complexity that may not be well-received by viewers.

The Disney animated pantheon is well-known for its assortment of dastardly villains. After all, what good is a h🥂ero intent on battling evil without any evil for them to battle? Disney has treated viewers to some truly sinister faces over the years. However, not all Disney evildoers wear their villainy on their sleeves.

In many cases, the reveal of their identity is a major twist within the film's narrative – with some being better telegraphed (and justified) than others. Here's a rundown of these ever-controversial surprise antagonists, with a particular look at some you may not have thought of.

Naturally, this article is riddled with spoilers for loads of Disney animated pictures. If you've not seen the films in question and wish to remain in the dark, kindly stop your scroll here!

13 ♑ Commander Rourke &n༺dash; Atlantis: The Lost Empire

He Sinks Like A Stone

Though he 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:might not𝐆 be the first baddie to spring tꦆo mind for many, Lyle Rourke is notable for being Disney's first real foray into twist villain territory, so he's getting a nod. In fact, more accurately, the entire secondary cast of Atlantis is a twist villain, revealing themselves as they do in the third act to be in on Rourke's scheme. Et tu, Vinny?

Focusing on the commander himself, though, he's quite thin as antagonists go. From his first spoken dialogue, "this trip will be enriching," astute viewers will doubtlessly clock his intentions. He's after the power source of Atlantis, a heart-like crystal that keeps its ancient citizens alive. The reason? Money. How very daring, Disney.

12 Professor Cal𒅌laghan – Big Hero 6

He Was The Writers' Mistake!

The true identity of Yokai, the Microbot-swiping evildoer from Big Hero 6, is often pointed to as a shining example of how Disney twist villains can be horribly, horribly mishandled. We never see Callaghan as anything other than a prim, proper, intelligent university teacher, and we're given no reason to believe he'd be so twisted – or that he'd even survive the fire that seemed to have killed him.

Cut to the third act, and he's unmasked, claiming he did it all to avenge his daughter Abigail, who's been sent spiraling into a parallel dimension – a concept introduced only one scene prior. His response when confronted about Tadashi's death? "That was his mistake!" Note that he says this to Hiro, Tadashi's younger brother, i.e., a grieving child. A real charmer.

11 🌟 Future𝓀 Buzz – Lightyear

Lego Movie 2 Did It Better

Lightyear, the in-universe movie that inspired Andy to purchase his beloved Space Ranger, starts off pretty promising. We see Buzz attempting to atone for a navigational error th🍌at led to the Ranger colony becoming stranded on a desolate world; by jetting off on a dangerous mission to test their hyperfuel.

What he doesn't realize, though, is that he's experiencing time dilation in the process. When he returns, all his friends have aged, some have died, and they've all enjoyed a rich existence without him.

Things worsen when the evil Emperor Zurg begins to attack the colony – but Zurg's true identity led many viewers to check out and ruins the third act. He's a version of Buzz from the future, who never gave up on the mission and grew old and bitter in pursuit of it. After traveling back in time to convince present Buzz to hand over the time-bending hyperfuel formula, he's scheming to undo the timeline where he screwed up. It scarcely makes a lick of sense. Zurg is just meant to be a cartoony warmonger; who asked for this?

An argument could be made that Future Buzz exemplifies the theme of the movie – that Buzz was so focused on his mission that he missed out on the joys of life his colleagues were experiencing and that it isn't right to undo everyone else's timeline so he can have his personal glory.

This is true, but it doesn't change the baffling decision to make Zurg Buzz himself. Why couldn't they have been two separate foes?

10 Sti🎃nky Pete – Toy Story 2 ꩲ

You've Not Got A Friend In Him

The Toy Story franchise is no stranger to twist villains. Film 3 has Lotso and 4 has Gabby Gabby, but easily the most notable is 2's Stinky Pete. A battered vintage prospector doll, Pete starts off as a kindly old man who wants nothing more than to spend his waning days behind glass. However, as soon as things start not going his way, and Woody tries to break out of collector Al's flat, the gloves come off.

Pete works as a villain since you can buy his motivation. He's spent decades unloved and sat on a shelf, and here comes his chance for admiration – only for it to be wrested away by some cowboy. Not on Pete's watch. He seals Woody in a case, kicking off a high-stakes finale chase through the airport.

9 Evelyn Deavor – Incredibles 2ꦓ

Even Her Name Reads 'Evil Endeavour'

What would a superhero movie be without a villain armed with an emotionally scarring backstory? While Incredibles 1's Syndrome opted for the tried-and-true 'my mentor rejected me' route, Deavor takes the Batman approach. A burglar killed her parents after superheroes failed to respond to their distress call, so logically, she concludes all heroes must be outlawed so they can never help anyone again.

She achieves this by piggybacking off her brother's successful tech company to put mind-controlling goggles on the supers so they'll defame themselves on live TV. Why nobody puts up their hand and notes, 'Hey, these supers appear to be wearing strange headgear and speaking very robotically,' is anyone's guess.

But when your name is pronounced 'evil endeavor,' like some sort of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Ace Attorney villain, subtlety is likely not❀ your strong suit.

8 ⭕ Dawn Bellwether – Zootopia ❀

Ewe'll Never Guess Who

Zootopia is 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:a great film that didn't really need a villain. In a story where the antagonistic force is prejudice - something abstract - pointing fingers at one responsible party feels pointless. Alas, point they did; at Dawn Bellwether, the meek mayor's assistant.

This cunning sheep-in-sheep's-clothing masterminds a species-supremacist scheme intended to subjugate predators across the city. By darting certain animals with a rage-inducing toxin, she turns the rest of the population against them, installing herself to power in the process.

Dawn is a good analog for politicians leveraging fear for gain – but within the film's narrative, she's not well-built up and comes out of nowhere.

7 ☂ AUTO – WALL-E

Sorry McCrea, I'm Afraid I Can't Do That

The first half of WALL-E is among Pixar's best. With essentially no dialogue and only sublime sound design to punctuate the atmosphere, it conjures a spellbinding tale of the lonely little trash compactor and his infatuation with the sleek EVE. Once our heroes jet off into space, and join up with the human colony on the Axiom, it's still great fun – but it does begin to err on the tropey side.

Exhibit A: our pantomime villain, AUTO. For a start, we didn't really need an antagonist, per se. The conflict is convincing the humans they need to repopulate the ravaged Earth, a gargantuan task in itself, given they've become accustomed to lounging about and having their meals brought to them 24/7.

AUTO follows his directive, code A113, to the letter, despite its warning about the uninhabitable planet being outdated by 700 years. At least we get a spectacular scene ♉of the rotund Captain McCrea doing battle with the wily wheel.

6 Prince Hans &🗹ndash; Frozen

Hans Down, A Rotten Guy

One of the more famous twist villains, Hans, scores points for being the first instance of a time-honored dashing prince turning out to be crooked. At the film's climax, he refuses to give Anna the kiss that'll save her life, being content instead to let her die so he can assume the throne. It's a reasonable objective, considering that back home in the Southern Isles, he has more than ten siblings in line for ascension before him.

The only other obstacle to this rule is, of course, the ice-bender herself, Elsa, but Hans schemes to deal wi🅷th her with a good old-fashioned decapitation. Good thing Kri♑stoff and Sven are there and that Anna arrives in time to block the killing blow.

While Hans' reveal is a shocking one, it ultimately feels like a bit of a cheat as there aren't really any signs pointing toward his true nature. It's telling the sequel omitted him entirely.

5 Te Fiti – 💝Moana 💯

You're Not You When You're A Colossal Lava Thing

A very interesting subversion of the twist villain formula; here, the reveal is that the villain turned out to be a good guy, rathe🍸r than vice versa. Throughout the film, Moana is pursued by the terrifying Te Ka, a gigantic woman made of lava and fuelled by pure rage. She and Maui are looking for Te Fiti, an ancient ꦯisland goddess who they believe can restore life to the ocean.

The answer, it transpires, was in front of them all along. When Moana gives Te Fiti's heart to Te Ka – in an ethereally beautiful sequence – her fiery exterior crumbles away, revealing Te Fiti beneath. The goddess hadn't been far.

4 𓆏 Ch❀arles Muntz – Up

You Go A Little Nuts Living With Dogs

As a child, Carl Fredricksen and his wife Ellie were enamored by the exploits of adventurer Charles Muntz. So imagine Carl's surprise when, during a trip to Paradise Falls he always promised he'd take Ellie on, he runs into the missing explorer. Given that Carl himself is an old man now, it's astonishing that Muntz is still alive.

It turns out that Muntz has been doggedly searching for a rare bird to clear his disgraced name at the institut🎃e. The only problem is that Carl and Russell got to it first and named it Kevin, so Muntz is none too pleased. He sics his canine armada on the pair, and things soon devolve into chaos, with aerial dogfights and an airborne tussle that sees Muntz plunge to𒈔 his doom.

Muntz is named for Charles Mintz, an animator from Universal Studios in the 1920s. Famously, Mintz exploited a contractual technicality to steal the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Mickey Mouse's predecessor, from under Walt Disney's nose.

The reason for the reference becomes very apparent when you consider Muntz's plan: to take credit for somebody else's discovery and swipe it from them. It's a tremendous posthumous 'take that' at Mintz's conniving behavior.