Manual Poll: Best Disney Villain

[Buster's Uncle]

What's your beef with The Once and Future King?  (the musical takes a fair few liberties, mind you.)

I'm surprised you, of all people, would need to ask; it's not very respectful to the material.  TOAFK isn't as bad as the earlier books, which aren't nearly as bad as Twain - but yuck.  I already knew the Middle Ages were a filthy ignorant time, and that's not what I was looking for in my King Arthur, as if that's even the right setting.  It crowds out the good stuff, y'know.

[Unorthodox]

Guess it depends on what you consider "the material". 

The Once and Future King pretty much set the bar for all modern retellings of the story, and at the time was considered a rather definitive work. 

Mallory's work is painful to read, if more interesting from a plot perspective.  Everything else prior is very disjointed. 

On an aside, currently looking for Arthur stories based off Preiddeu Annwfn.  If anyone knows of any...

[Buster's Uncle]

Mallory isn't any harder to wade through than the Bible - I was reading both by the age of 12.  You just gotta have a pretty good vocabulary and patience with the florid grammar.

[Unorthodox]

Le Morte D'Arthur is VERY dependent on which version you read.  I probably need a new one.  At the time of purchasing (lord, 30 years ago), my edition was the most complete available, (most missing various sections) but suffered from a complete lack of modernization, so was completely in middle english spelling and grammar and is a slog to get through as a result.  Newer versions are nice. 

[Buster's Uncle]

Well yeah; I read the Howard Pyle translation, come to think of it.

[Rusty Edge]

I don't think I saw Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, or Snow White prior all the way through prior to Talia. 

Think you're mixing up Maleficent with Queen whatshername from Snow White.  They look nearly identical (crown vs horns, but otherwise...), so it's an understandable mistake, but the latter wanted to eat snow white's heart. 

Maleficent's motives are never really revealed in the Disney cartoon, other than she was offended by the parents for not inviting her to the christening.  The subsequent Maleficent really neuters her 'evilness'.

I revisited the issue.

Yes, you are correct and I was confused. The Evil Queen was the would be heart eater. Not Malificent.

I read "The Hunchback of Notre Dame " as a kid. I don't remember it well, and I didn't see the Disney movie, but the descriptions of the movie sound pretty dark, worse than my impression of the book.

This Frollo character committed acts of evil in the guise of God's will, including murdering Quassimodo's mom on the steps of the cathedral while she's screaming for sanctuary, attempting to throw the baby down a well, which isn't merely murderous, but criminally irresponsible with regard to the water supply. Then there is the matter of burning the city and committing gypsy genocide in the pursuit of jailbait Esmeralda. Pretty darn evil.

But I overlooked Chernabog the demon of Fantasia. Even moreso than Malificent you know he's evil at first sight. Raising the dead to dance for him so that he can crush them or cast them into hell or eat them seems pretty evil.

[Unorthodox]

I read "The Hunchback of Notre Dame " as a kid. I don't remember it well, and I didn't see the Disney movie, but the descriptions of the movie sound pretty dark, worse than my impression of the book.

This Frollo character committed acts of evil in the guise of God's will, including murdering Quassimodo's mom on the steps of the cathedral while she's screaming for sanctuary, attempting to throw the baby down a well, which isn't merely murderous, but criminally irresponsible with regard to the water supply. Then there is the matter of burning the city and committing gypsy genocide in the pursuit of jailbait Esmeralda. Pretty darn evil.

Hunchback is worth a view.  Definitely one of the darkest Disney movies, and I think the music is underrated. 

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I think it's presently on Netflix. 

But I overlooked Chernabog the demon of Fantasia. Even moreso than Malificent you know he's evil at first sight. Raising the dead to dance for him so that he can crush them or cast them into hell or eat them seems pretty evil.

I've never watched Fantasia...

[Rusty Edge]

Fantasia is a personal favorite.
It was music video before The Monkees. It suddenly occurs to me that I haven't seen it enough times in my life. Opens with Toccata and Fugue in D minor and closes with Ave Maria.

[Buster's Uncle]

Be warned though - when I finally saw it after a lifetime of hearing how ground-breaking and brilliant it was, there's dancing cartoony hippos in tutus...

[Unorthodox]

Be warned though - when I finally saw it after a lifetime of hearing how ground-breaking and brilliant it was, there's dancing cartoony hippos in tutus...

yeah...the bits I've seen are cringeworthy.

I made a pepper's ghost organist that played toccata and fugue years back, nothing else can compete, sorry. 

[Buster's Uncle]

The Night on Bald Mountain sequence might be worth the price of admission for you...

[Unorthodox]

Be warned though - when I finally saw it after a lifetime of hearing how ground-breaking and brilliant it was, there's dancing cartoony hippos in tutus...

yeah...the bits I've seen are cringeworthy.

I made a pepper's ghost organist that played toccata and fugue years back, nothing else can compete, sorry. 

Halfway through and thus far the only redeeming quality is a TRex making a kill, rather brutally depicted considering the source/time period. 

That's enough for today.  The pompous narrator really grates on me between segments.