Soundtracks, Soundtracks, Soundtracks: Disney Villains

August 31st 2012, 12:05am

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

There are many things that make a movie what it is. It all starts with a story (according to what every How-To book on screenwriting tells us), there is the director and his crew, there are the actors, who bust their asses to bring a vision to life. Then comes the wonderful world of post-production. What is one result of that? The music. Soundtracks enhance the movie going experience. They can make us cry, they can pump us up, they can make us remember the 80’s. Whether it be a musical band or a composer, soundtracks help our favorite movies stay etched in our mind forever.

Paul Huffman is the type that rooted for the bad guys in the Disney movies. Why you ask? Because more often than not they had better musical numbers than there heroic counterparts that’s why. Our beloved Disney villains just enjoy being evil, they thrive off of it. Let’s base this theory off my selections, we have a lion plotting to kill his brother, a perverted religious figure who can’t get with a gypsy so decides to kill her, a rat who drowns widows and orphans, and a group of people who decide they hate each other after a couple run-ins. Yep, Disney villains are definitely twisted. Let’s explore why.

1. BE PREPARED – THE LION KING

So Scar belted out this wonderfully mutinous musical number to reveal a plot to kill his brother and take over the kingdom, he succeeds, and what does he do? Lounges around and lets all the food die? He looked bored as hell to be his whole reign, but that’s for another discussion. Back to the song, how twisted and evil was this? I mean, it incited a third reich march for goodness sakes…the “you won’t get a sniff without me” bit scared the piss out me as a kid. He’s insanely evil, but it can’t be denied that Scar can sure rev up a crowd. By the way, Jeremy Irons, you have yourself a wonderful singing voice sir. Purchase the soundtrack here

2. HELLFIRE – HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME

I saw Hunchback in Notre Dame in theaters as a young kid, so the lyrics to this track went right over my head…I just thought he hated Esmerelda’s lifestyle and was determined to kill her. While I found out that was the case, but that it went way deeper than that I was blown away. If this perverted old man would have given into temptation and gotten laid, maybe he wouldn’t have had such a big chip on his shoulder and all these proceedings might have been avoided. Alas, it was not to be. He decided to stay true to his own lifestyle and if he couldn’t have her, well he’ll kill her. That shit is twisted. Purchase the soundtrack here

3. POOR UNFORTUNATE SOULS – LITTLE MERMAID

Don’t you just love when the opportunity arises to form an evil plot, which will come to fruition by taking advantage of a naïve young woman’s hopes and dreams? That is our lovely Ursula’s MO. When I was listening to the track again to write this article, I imagined feminist groups rising in an uproar about some of the lyrics here, what with men preferring women who don’t…well you know…talk. Ursula pulled out every sexist argument in the book to get Ariel’s signature, and boy did it work. Her small snippet of lyrics to those damn eels, knowing she’s gotten what she wanted I have to admit is pretty damn bad ass. Not her fault Ariel was stupid. Purchase the soundtrack here

4. WORLD’S GREATEST CRIMINAL MIND – GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE

There was always something I loved about this movie as a kid, and today I think it is criminally underappreciated, as many of the older Disney films are. Once again, as a youngster I was able to distinguish the good guys from the bad guys, but was not able to fully capture how twisted a few of the lyrics to Ratigan’s musical number were. “Even meaner? You mean it? Worse than the widows and orphans you drowned?” Seriously? Ratigan what the hell man, and then there is the whole bit of him feeding some poor schmuck who simply pissed him off to a cat. Bottom line, how can I not give love to a Disney villain that was voiced by Vincent Price? Purchase the soundtrack here

5. SAVAGES – POCAHONTAS

Man the lyrics to this bad boy were pretty straight up, weren’t they? Let’s see what kind of passages we got here, oh yes there is “they’re not like you and me, which means they must be evil” and who could forget “I wonder if they even bleed”. This song was short and sweet, didn’t even run two minutes, but when it boiled down to it…it packed all the punch it needed to. These lyrics ring true to groups of people that genuinely hate another group of people they just don’t understand, and that is frightening. Intolerance is a problem that has never and probably will never go away. Purchase the soundtrack here