The Best Non-Disney Villain Songs

My dance class is planning to do a Halloween show, so recently I’ve been listening to a lot of villain songs from animated films. I know a lot of people are familiar with the Disney villain songs, but I also found a lot of other villains who I’d forgotten about. So here (in no particular order) are some of the best non-Disney villain songs that I’ve found;

Anastasia: In the Dark of the Night.

A song all about Rasputin’s desire for revenge against the Romanov family, which he plans to achieve by killing the final heir; Anastasia. As a kid, I always found this song quite frightening and I thought the villain was really threatening. Now.. . it’s just kind of campy. I can’t help but laugh when the bugs start to back him up, so it doesn’t quite have the same effect now as it did when I was younger. Regardless, this this songs great and the lyrics are pretty threatening when they’re not being sung by a chorus of animated bugs.

Bartok the Magnificent:

This is a tough one because a lot of the villains songs in this film were actually a double bluff designed to make you think that the wrong person was the bad guy. So some of these aren’t real villain song but the actual villain song sucked and this is my blog so I can do what I want.

In case you’re wondering, the real villain song in this film The Real Ludmilla, in which the villain drinks a potion to reveal her true nature and becomes a dragon. I feel any threat she poses is pretty diminished by the overtly comical effects, so it doesn’t really work as a villain song.

I much prefer the opening of the film Baba Yaga, and the song sung by Baba Yaga herself Someone’s In My House. Since these songs are designed to make you think that she’s the villain, they’re a lot creepier and make Baga Yaga seem more threatening than the actual villain.

Pebble Penguin: Don’t Make Me Laugh.

Jesus Christ this song is awful. The main villain is basically the Robin Thicke of the animated world.

The villain Drake is trying to convince Marina to mate with him and when she says no, Drake sings; “Don’t make me laugh, don’t make me laugh, my funny friend, don’t make me bend in half”. This soon leads to “Don’t make me laugh, don’t pull my leg, may I suggest you would do best to beg”. Anyone else seeing the similarities between this and Blurred Lines? Drake escalates quickly and threatens to kill Marina if she says no “Say no, poor dove, And you’re a shark’s dinner.” So yeah… a bit rape-y for a kids animated film…

Troll in Central Park: The Queen of Mean.

Gnorga is the queen of the trolls, and her attitude really comes across in this song. She’s the kind of villain who is presented as being from a different culture where all things gross and despicable are just the norm and this is something that she reveals in, making her a brilliant villain. The song perfectly sums up the troll culture, and Gnorga’s motivation for banishing Stanley from the kingdom.

Cat’s Don’t Dance: Big and Loud.

This films’ villain is Darla Dimple, a Shirley Temple style child actress who in her song ‘Big and Loud’, tries to convince the main character to do something which will ruin the careers of him and the rest of her competitors. This song is brilliantly jazzy, and I love how it’s acted out. This is soon followed by the reprise (skip to 0:50 for the song), in which the song is twisted to reveal Darla’s ulterior motives. This is one of the few songs in the list which actually creates a really threatening atmosphere which causes you to fear for the safety of the main characters, which is surprising given that the villain is a tiny little blonde girl.

Thumbelina:

There are multiple villains in Thumbelina so arguably there are a lot of villain songs. The first villain is Mama Toad, who kidnaps Thumbelina and tries to convince her to travel with her in the song On The Road. Thumbelina later ends up with Berkeley Beetle, who places her in his show and sings Yer Beautiful, Baby. Later in the film, Thumbelina stays with Ms Fieldmouse who tries to convince her to Marry The Mole.

Probably the most threatening of these songs is Marry the Mole, purely because of it’s dose of realism. It’s the first time a lot of children are introduced to the idea that maybe they won’t marry their true love, and instead they should marry for money and stability instead. Ms Fieldmouse makes a pretty convincing argument and although she isn’t outright exploiting her like the other villains of the film, he song is definitely the most powerful.

Quest for Camelot: Ruber

This song probably could have done with a real title…

I really like this song, it starts out with Ruber arguing that he wants to take them back to the dark ages, and preferred it when things were chaotic. Unfortunately, the song gets really weird pretty fast. Ruber takes out a potion he bought from some witches, (which just says “acme” across the side.They must have gotten it from the same store Wile.E. Coyote goes to…) and dumps it in a pit. He then throws his henchmen into the pit with some weapons to create weird hybrids who then dance around the pit like they’ve been rehearsing.

The song is a good lyrical depiction of his madness, with the song quickly escalating as Ruber gets more and more frantic. But the underlying plot is just too ridiculous to be taken seriously.

Let me know what you think of these songs in the comments. Which villain songs are your favourites? Are there any that I’ve missed off? Feel free to leave me a message.