Wednesday, October 28, 2015

The Top 10 Scariest Disney Villains

It's that time of year. People all over are paying gobs of money so people can try and scare the pee out of them. Meanwhile, in Sunshine-Rainbows-LaLaLand where I live, I'm avoiding all movie trailers and watching fall themed movies and Hocus Pocus and calling it awesome. To get in the Halloween spirit, I've compiled a list of what I think are the scariest Disney villains.

Now of course these photos don't belong to me, but they truly depict the horror with which these Disney villains reign. So here they are! 


10. Shan-Yu, Mulan
Anyone who smiles while thinking about murdering children makes the list. We see illusions to his brutality, like having his men kill all of the Emperor's army, and we see him battle Mulan. His defeat is quite enjoyable, as he didn't expect a woman to best him. HA!

9. Mother Gothel, Tangled
Mother Gothel is a special kind of evil. Her vanity leads to her insanity, but its how she treats Rapunzel that is truly evil. Instead of treating her as a prisoner, she pretends to be her mother and manipulates her with fear. That's truly terrifying.

8. Cruella DeVil, 101 Dalmatians
You might be a psycho if you want to wear a coat made of puppy fur. Just sayin'.

7. Ursula, The Little Mermaid
"Here, let me trick you into signing a contract that will doom your father, your family, the entire populace of Sebastien's undersea medley, and imply strongly that since you're a PYT (pretty young thing) you don't need your voice, because men only care how you look." Yep, definitely evil.

6. Scar, The Lion King
The lengths that Scar will go to to be king of Pride Rock are truly terrifying. Killing your brother? Severe. Killing you nephew, a mere child? Extremely severe. Killing your brother in front of your nephew, convincing the nephew it was his fault, and then ordering his execution? Deeply disturbing.

5. Judge Frollo, The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Speaking of disturbing, here's a villain from one of my least preferred Disney movies. It's strongly implied he intends to rape Esmerelda, he murders Quasimodo's mother, and keeps Quasimodo hidden away. He is the personification of destruction.

4. Maleficent, Sleeping Beauty
Oh, just a woman who can become a fire-breathing dragon at the drop of a hat and curses an entire kingdom because she wasn't invited to something she probably didn't want to go to anyway.

3. Dr. Facilier, The Princess and the Frog

Now we're getting into the big scary ones. Dr. Facilier is frightening because 1)voodoo is a real practice (eek). 2) His 'friends from the other side'? Shadow demons. He's obsessed with money and power and literally sells his soul to try and get them.

2. Chernabog, Fantasia
Ugh. Chernabog. Walt himself referred to this character as the devil. He's a combination of the minotaur and a Mayan demon. He may only be a small part of Fantasia, but he's certainly memorable. In an evil, terror inducing way.


1. The Horned King, The Black Cauldron
I'm not sure he needs an introduction, because you can see that picture, yes? Just a cloaked skeleton with hot-coal eyes trying to summon an army of zombies. No big deal. I won't have nightmares just thinking about him or anything.

What do you think? Did I miss any scary villains?

Friday, October 23, 2015

Invisible Sister Review

Disney fans have been treated to more screen time for Girl Meets World star Rowan Blanchard.  I love this girl! She's adorable and a great actress and seems like exactly who I would've wanted to be friends with when I was a young teen. She delighted her fans with her role in the Disney Channel Original Movie, Invisible Sister. 

Her character in Invisible Sister is quite different than Riley on GMW. As a chemistry prodigy, Cleo feels isolated from most of the other students in her high school. Her older sister Molly seems to have life mastered, as a popular athlete with lots of friends. Cleo feels constantly eclipsed by her sister, which Molly can't understand.

What I love about this movie is that Molly isn't a villain, or even an antagonist. The only person standing in the way of Cleo's happiness is Cleo. Molly is often reaching out to Cleo, inviting her to be friends with her friends. But Cleo is too afraid of being the plot of a high school movie where the nerd is mocked by the cool kids, and always turns her down. When the boy Cleo likes shows interest in her, she assumes he's only doing it to make fun of her, since he's a jock.

When Molly accidentally ingests Cleo's science project, which turned a moth invisible, she herself turns invisible. The only person who knows about the experiment is Cleo herself, thus they must keep Molly's condition a secret. With their parents conveniently out of town for Halloween weekend, Molly has Cleo dress in Molly's costume to pretend to be her. With an important field hockey game that afternoon, Molly has to be in class to be allowed to play-- even if it's really Cleo just pretending to be her. This provides the perfect avenue for the girls to walk a mile in each other's shoes, and discover that each one's life is quite different than how the other perceived it.


I love the focus on sisterhood and building each other up. Sometimes you have to see the world through someone else's eyes to better understand yourself as well as them. Molly and Cleo got to do this, and discovered how deep sisterly love runs.

The young actresses do a great job, and it's a great October movie. It has some mystery, dark nights in New Orleans graveyard for suspense, and some mystical happenings--even if they are attributed to chemistry, invisibility is indeed mystical.

You can still catch Invisible Sister on Disney Channel and the Watch Disney app. Have you seen it yet? What did you think of it?