What are your top five favorite villain songs from animated films, Disney or otherwise?

[Roma_Victrix]

Please share five songs sung by villains and antagonists in animated films that you think are the greatest ones of all time, in ranked order with the one you think is the absolute best at the very top. Villain songs are usually the best ones in these films, fight me if you disagree.

For me, number one has to go to Ken Page's rendition of "Oogie Boogie Man" in Henry Selick's 1993 Nightmare Before Christmas (produced by Tim Burton), composed by the legendary Danny Elfman of Batman and Edward Scissorhands fame. While the other songs in this movie are amazing, this one in particular is the spookiest given the neon-lighted visuals with creepy crawly bugs everywhere, even going into Santa's beard (poor guy), while a sinister Creole-style jazzy blues song suggesting that he's about to get murdered is being belted out by Page in his powerful operatic voice. Excellent.



2nd place: "Prince Ali (Reprise)" in Ron Clements and John Musker's Aladdin (1992), a song written by Tim Rice and Alan Menken, and performed by Jonathan Freeman who voiced Jafar in the film. He sounds so deliciously evil as Jafar, a perfectly slimy and overly ambitious villain who revels in (temporarily) taking down Aladdin in this piece here while usurping the throne of the sultan. Jafar's evil "so long, you" laugh at the end also does it for me too.



3rd place: "Poor Unfortunate Souls," in Ron Clements and John Musker's The Little Mermaid (1989), the song composed by Alan Menken with lyrics by Howard Ashman and lyrical performance by Pat Carroll who played the voice role of Ursula, the evil underwater octopus witch who desired to control the seas and take over the kingdom of King Triton. This song is very witty, well-written, and just a pleasure to listen to even after all these years and does more than just hold up when compared to contemporary stuff in kids' films. I'd argue most kids films these days are actually just bland and tame in comparison. Ursula would definitely make a great payday loan lender advertiser.



4th place: "Be Prepared", in Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff's Lion King (1994), composed by Elton John with lyrics by Tim Rice, performed by Jeremy Irons, Whoopi Goldberg, Cheech Marin, and Jim Cummings, with Irons playing the role of Scar, the chief villain of the film, the others listed here being his hyena minions. This song is a classic one, what else needs to be said? It's Irons at his...irony best. Its visuals and lyrics explore the personality of a narcissistic lion as he plots a fascist coup in Africa.



5th place: "Hellfire", in Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale's Huncback of Notre Dame (1996), with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, performed by Tony Jay as Judge Claude Frollo, the arch nemesis of Quasimodo. This is like the ultimate friend-zone song, where the villain basically condemns a dark skinned gypsy girl to burning alive at the stake and suffering hellfire afterwards if she doesn't agree to polish his knob. Kinda dark for a kid's movie, but the 15th century wasn't exactly peachy either.



Come on guys, are you really going to argue with these as the top five? They're the best ones. You know it, I know it, everyone knows it, so might as well chisel it into stone already. You could make an argument for a few songs from other films like Mulan, Pocahontas, Beauty and the Beast, or even The Great Mouse Detective with the legendary Vincent Price, but come on, are you really going to try and do that? Are you now?

[Kyriakos]

Roma, you will never be happy if you live your life in fear...

[Common Soldier]

I nominate "You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWFaP1tkGgM. Although, Grinch does not actually sing the song, it is sung by the narrator about Grinch, so it might not apply.

[Abdülmecid I]

Great thread! Judge Frollo and Scar are pretty great, same with Grand Vizier Jafar, although I also like the parody, where the baddies are video game companies:



Next one concerns the ultimate evil all of us confronted, Rome II in early release state:



My most serious and relevant candidate is the Beast from Over the Garden Wall:



Last but not least is a historical figure, the Black Baron von Wrangel, despite the fact that the narrator is on the Bolshevik side:

[Roma_Victrix]

Roma, you will never be happy if you live your life in fear...

The most vile, despicable villain of all time, Kyriakos. I get shivers every time I see it. Just terrifying and evil.

I nominate "You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWFaP1tkGgM. Although, Grinch does not actually sing the song, it is sung by the narrator about Grinch, so it might not apply.

Not a bad choice and I wouldn't discount it just because it's the narrator singing instead of the villain himself. I still categorize it as a villain's song.

Great thread! Judge Frollo and Scar are pretty great, same with Grand Vizier Jafar, although I also like the parody, where the baddies are video game companies:



Next one concerns the ultimate evil all of us confronted, Rome II in early release state:

Heh! I never saw these parodies before.

My most serious and relevant candidate is the Beast from Over the Garden Wall:



Last but not least is a historical figure, the Black Baron von Wrangel, despite the fact that the narrator is on the Bolshevik side:

Holy cow! That Over the Garden Wall one was creepy as hell! I enjoyed it and the ending of that show, with how the beast gets destroyed, is very creepy as well. As for the Black Baron thing (i.e. "Red Army is the Strongest", Krasnaya Armiya), I was entertained by all the silly over the top Soviet stuff, but I wouldn't put it in the top five of an animated villain song list. In fact, I don't think it classifies. What film is this from? I get it, the original song is antagonistic towards Pyotr Wrangel, who was a villain or at least an enemy in the eyes of the Soviets in the Russian Civil War, but I don't think this song and the animated scenes here belong to the same film. The song sounds like a hard rock rendition made in the last two decades at the very least, whereas the animation looks like it's from the early 1960s.