Disney Villain Deaths

Disney movies are somewhat notorious for their villain's deaths. The most notable is the death by falling. This has become so known that it is somewhat of a trope. While he was making Return of the King, Peter Jackson made a point of showing that the evil wizard Saruman was already dead or dying before he fell from his tower (and was then impaled on a spike) because he said that he wanted to avoid any semblance of a "Disney Death."

The death by falling is the most common but Disney villain deaths generally fall into two other categories. The second is a form of self-immolation. This is not usually actual suicide but usually a death that comes from the villain exposing themselves to destruction through direct actions of their own. A non-death version of this would be Cruella de Ville who allows the dalmatians to get away when she loses her cool and crashes her car into that of her henchmen.

The third, and probably least common, is to be actually slain by the hero.

To test my observations, I thought I would list the various Disney (and Disney produced) movies I've seen (and a few I haven't) that involve the villain being killed (so no Toy Story) and see how it fit into these categories. If I skip over something, it's probably more to do with that I've not seen it, nor familiar with how the villain is dispatched. Note, this will obviously include spoilers.

1. Brave - Mor'du - A straight #3 style as Queen Elinor (as a bear) kills Mor'du while defending Merida.

2. Wreck-It Ralph - Turbo - Turbo finally dies when his cy-bug programming overrides his natural sense and he flies into the diet cola lava. This would be a good example of death style #2 in that Turbo is killed both by his own hand and through actions he took earlier to increase his power.

3. Tangled - Mother Gothel - Mother Gothel is an interesting mix of all three methods. Flynn did technically kill Mother Gothel by cutting Rapunzel's hair (and he probably knew this would kill her eventually), but it wasn't a direct attack and he almost certainly didn't know how fast the magic would wear off. Likewise, Mother Gothel was already dying when she was knocked out the window. That was mostly a device for the animators to avoid showing her decaying to dust (see Indiana Jones and the Last Cruisade) and thus keep things G-rated. Overall, it's mostly a #2 style as Mother Gothel used this magic to keep her young but left herself exposed to the great weakness that if it ever failed, she would be destroyed.

4. Up - Charles Muntz - Muntz dies in classic Disney style by falling off his Zepplin in the fight with Carl.

5. The Princess and the Frog - Dr. Facilier - This is also a blend of #2 and #3 as it is Tiana's destruction of the ammulet that causes the demons to turn on Dr. Facilier. However, again, this was not a direct attack by Tiana and she had no way of knowing that it would actually kill Dr. Facilier, only break his magic. So the majority lies with style #2 where Dr. Facilier put himself in a dangerous position to have the agents working for him, turn against him and drag him off to Hell.

6. The Incredibles - Syndrome - Syndrome is a strong #2 as after he is thwarted by the Incredibles, he get sucked into his airplane engine (mostly due to his cape) while trying to get away. Granted, things were thrown off by Mr. Incredible knocking the plane out with a thrown car, but Syndrome's death was ultimately due to his indulgence with the cape.


7. Tarzan - Clayton - I've not seen this movie but heard that it's about as gruesome as Disney can get while still keeping the G-rating. At the end of his fight with Tarzan, Clayton gets tangled in some vines and manages to cut himself free except for one that is wrapped around his neck. He then falls and is hung. Apparently, while his actual body is not shown, his shadow is seen dangling above the ground giving no question as to the method of his death. His death is due to a form of falling putting in solid #1 territory but given that he causes his own hanging, he has to get a solid dash of #2 in there as well.

8. The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Judge Frollo - Another movie I've not actually seen. He is knocked off the bell tower at Notre Dame cathedral and into a fire below making him a solid style #1 death.

9. The Lion King - Scar - Scar's death was almost exactly what I had in mind when thinking of style #2 as he is merely knocked down by Simba in the climatic fight. But, in his attempt to weasel out of things, he angers his allies the hyenas who turn on him and tear him to pieces.

10. Beauty and the Beast - Gaston - A classic fall from the top of the castle and into a deep ravine when Belle opts to grab the Beast instead of him as they lose their balance when Gaston has stabbed him in the back.

11. The Rescuers Down Under - Percival McLeach - This was actually a pretty good movie if you could get past the extreme over-the-top live in harmony with nature elements. McLeach was a strong bad guy and ultimately killed when he gets caught in the strong current of the river and swept over a waterfall giving him the standard style #1 death.

12. The Little Mermaid - Ursula - About Prince Eric's only notible feature is that he actually was able to stear a sunken ship and stab Ursula in the gut with it. Granted, it helped that she took the Bondian villain 10 seconds to savor her opportunity to kill Ariel to allow Eric time to get into position, but he still does the job to rate Ursula's death as a type #3.

12. Oliver and Company - Bill Sykes - I've only seen parts of this retelling of Oliver Twist but Sykes death is a standard #2. Sykes is pursuing the good guys in his car and ends up chasing them on the train tracks. The good guys get away just as train comes up the tracks and Sykes and his car are smashed to pieces.

13. The Great Mouse Detective - Ratigan - I read Basil of Baker Street a long time ago but have never seen the movie adaptation. Ratigan (a Moriarty knock-off) is killed when the clock he is standing on chimes and he loses his balance. Given the Sherlock Holmes parallels, this seems rather empty as it should have been a stronger Reichenback Falls ending. Still, it is a standard type #1 death.

14. Sleeping Beauty - Maleficent - This is probably the most well-known of the style #3 deaths. Prince Phillip has an open fight with Maleficent as a dragon and (with the fairies help) plunges his sword into her heart.

15. Peter Pan - Captain Hook - Yes, I know. Hook doesn't actually die. However, that was a differentiation made for comedic effect. In any other adaptation, Hook would have stayed eaten by the crocodile. I would rate his pseudo-death would in the classic type #1 style as he was lunging at Peter Pan and fell off the mast and into the water with the crocodile. That the croc would have killed him rather than the fall is more of semantics as the exposure to death came from the fall.

16. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves - The Queen - The originator of the type #1 Disney fall. The queen was actually in a strong position about to send a boulder down on the dwarves, killing or maiming all of them, when nature steps in and a bolt of lightining knocks her off the cliff. The boulder she was loosening to kill the dwarves then rolls backwards and presumably crushes and semblance of life that might have survived the fall.

So what's our tally? In my count, I have eight instances of a villain falling to his/her death with six instances of self immolation (a couple of those being tied to the falls) and only three instances of being killed directly by the hero. Interestingly, the majority of the fall deaths came from older movies so it would certainly feed into the idea of a trope that Disney themselves became aware of and started to move away from.

Still, Disney should be careful not to fall into the next trope, which would be killing the villain off by indirect means too often, such as was used with Dr. Facilier and Mother Gothel. I know that the villains put themselves into these situations but it seems like a cheap way of having the hero seem to kill the villian without getting their hands dirty. It cheaps the villain (in my opinion) to have them set up for such as easy way of disposing them.

Lightning Over Canada

Cool Pic.

Neptune's New Moon

A 14th moon has been discovered around Neptune. It doesn't have a proper name yet, although I'm sure it will be after a relation to the Roman mythology concerning Neptune. Pretty cool.

Soarin'

There are videos posted elsewhere where you can see the visuals that accompany this music, but unless you are there, the effect will be totally lost. It's better to just enjoy the music for what it is and imagine the ride in your mind.