“It feels so good to be naughty,” they sing in chorus. “It’s so good to love the Villains,” we could respond to them in song. They are Cruella, Scar, Maleficent, Jafar and other Madame Mim, namely the villains of the Disney universe. As the Disney Company celebrates its 100th anniversary, we can easily see that Mickey and his friends have a lot of competition on the side of the “antagonists”, as we say if we are versed in literary analysis, or the “Villains” if we practice Anglicism.
“There, Halloween is approaching, so we put them forward a lot, but even at Christmas or the rest of the year, the bad guys are super sellers,” confirms José Madrigal, salesman at the Archi Chouette boutique in Lyon. There are the classic stuffed animals and toys featuring the villains, but we also have games that feature them, like the special Villains Monopoly. The best example is range Villainous, a successful board game with lots of sequels and expansions where you play as all the Disney villains. Each character has a way of playing, and winning, and therefore each player has their “naughty” fetish. I sell them very often…”
A selfie with Captain Hook
In this Disney Birthday Celebration Month, even the Disneyland Paris park welcomes the villains in its parade with open arms. Of course, the Halloween season is particularly ripe for this, but even without a pumpkin, Captain Hook and his naughty pals are theme park stars.
“Our visitors are very attached to our villains,” confirms Louisa Kriouche, show designer – we also say director or mistress of ceremonies – at Disneyland Paris. Whether in parades where the meet & greet, where you can take a photo with the characters, the success is there. We use these characters to create a different atmosphere. It’s not really fear or danger, but rather humor, mischief… The character of Loki, Thor’s brother, is interesting for that. He’s complex and visitors love him for that, he’s not just mean. »
Taming the Evil in Us
The God of Mischief from the Marvel universe, also in the Disney fold, is emblematic of these characters that the studio has chosen to develop. Loki thus has his own series on Disney+, just like Maleficent, the wicked witch from The Sleeping Beauty, was entitled to his film in 2014. More recently, in 2021, it is Cruella, the evil speciesist of 101 Dalmatians who sees his origin story (the story of his life before the film that made him famous) told in a film with Emma Stone. The sequel is in preparation… And in the Star Wars universe, Disney has even dedicated a series around Boba Fett, a “villain” adored by fans, who was thought to be dead…
These numerous Disney projects around villains demonstrate that fan interest is financially promising. But why do we go to the wicked? Why are children fascinated by the Beast rather than Beauty? Why does Hades have more fans than Hercules? Why does Hans’s trickery make our hearts beat faster than the Snow Queen?
Jafar, Scar and Ursula… Characters to grow with
“The antagonists, in children’s films and books, have the function of creating dramatic tension, of course, but above all to illuminate the villain in us,” explains Pierre Faucheux, child psychologist at the CMP in Viroflay. Being a spectator, frightened but fascinated, of nastiness, low blows, sadism or cruelty, is a way of taming our impulses. Children use it to better understand their emotions that are considered negative. But these characters, whose plans are doomed to failure and ridiculed, also allow children to exonerate themselves, to find excuses… It’s a very interesting process when the child describes his favorite villain as a part of him foreign to himself…”
But the dark abysses of the child’s psyche (an excellent idea for a Halloween costume, by the way…) are not enough to explain the success of Disney villains. Laura, a bookseller at Fnac and a cosplayer who loves Disney witches, has a simple explanation: “They are the best characters! The villains are often better written, either funnier or more intelligent than the heroes. They have motivations, a past, an objective… In short, everything that makes us identify with a character. The good guys are often duller. And even with the drawings, the heroes are made to be representative of as many people as possible. Without eccentricity or frank particularity. While the bad guys have distinctive features, exaggerated silhouettes or profiles, striking…”
In a galaxy close, very close
In the post-modern world of overexploitation of cultural franchises, Disney has understood that there is a good opportunity to play here, in particular to maintain the interest of aging fans… “It is not only children who like the bad guys, explains Lionel Mallet, professor of media economics and fan of Disney films from the 1990s. Creating a sequel to a cult film around a bad guy allows adults and old fans to be brought back to the Disney universe. But creating fiction around a character perceived as villainous, even with humor or a psychologizing approach – where we will explain how the villain has become – is anxiety-inducing. The world of villains is a darker world, where there are fewer certainties. This is why Disney has been seeking for more than ten years to create and expand a known and reassuring universe, through the acquisition of other franchises like Pixar, Marvel or Star Wars. »
With these acquisitions, Disney has further expanded, almost infinitely, its catalog of iconic villains. We’re not done loving being naughty.