Dr. Facilier Vs. Ursula

Hello and welcome back to Vs. Today on Vs.,  I'm pitting two villains against each other.  From New Orleans, The Shadow Man, Dr. Facilier and The Sea Witch herself, Ursula.   Hmm, this is the first male/female Vs.  I'm sure some of you wondering why I chose this match up. Well believe it or not,  these two do share certain similarities such as  both tricking a main character from their respective films into signing a contract that hands over something of importance to the main lead to the villain.   As a reminder, here are the categories that I'll use for judging,  Personality,  Desire,  Song,  Death, and finally The Film Factor!  Which as a reminder  is a look at which character worked better in their respective film. Now you may have noticed a new category, that being Death.  I've added this one in for villains and works in the same way the Defining Moment works for the main leads.   A good villain has a good death  and while that should not be remembered for,  if the villain has a great death it feels right for the character.  With all of this out of the way, let's begin.  

Personality (Round 1)

Dr. Facilier 

Hmm,  how can one describe Facilier?  I've got it, suave.   Seriously,  Facilier is so charming and suave and over the top yet subtle at the same time.  It works so well and I love it.   I think his song, Friends on The Other Side really sums his personality and Keith David's delivery helps to sell the personality of  The Shadow Man, so well.  He is just so much  fun and every time he's  on scree, he steals the scene.

Ursula

Before we get to far into Ursula's personality, there is a fun fact that I want to bring up. The basic design of Ursula was based on famed drag queen and actor from the original Hairspray, Divine.   Now that we got that out of the way, let's take a look at the personality,  Well,  she's over the top too but not in the same way as Facilier.  I think she is more subdued but there are moments of her coming across as a pima donna but again it works for her character and she is fun to watch.   This is such a hard area to judge as I like both of the personalities for these characters but if I had to pick one that was more exciting, I'd have to go with The Shadow Man.  Therefore this round goes to...

Dr. Facilier

Desire (Round 2)

Now let's take a look at these two's desires. What do they want?  

Dr. Facilier

As much as I love The Shadow Man, if there is one under developed  part of him in the film is that  what he wants never really seems clear.  Well, no that's not it.  He wants to take over New Orleans and get Big Daddy's money but part of my problem is that with this, I was asking myself "why?"   Why because it just doesn't make sense and also add in the fact that I kind of wish that we would have gotten some interaction with Facilier and Big Daddy, this would have worked better for me.   Because throughout this entire film, we don't see Big Daddy acknowledge Facilier and it comes off as though he doesn't know Facilier exists. It just doesn't seem to work.

Ursula 

Now Ursula's desires seem to be  a bit more clear and on a grander scale than Facilier's.   She wants to take over Altantica and rule an entire kingdom.  That's a grand scale all right and she goes about it in a better way by using Ariel who is the daughter of the king and by using Triton's daughter,  you put more on the line in my opinion.  Also her plan to get her desire seems more clear and straight and narrow. Also she came closer and even got Triton to hand over the triton and the crown.  Therefore this round goes to...

Ursula

Song (Round 3)

Now to my favorite part, the song.    

Friends On The Other Side (Dr. Facilier)

Man, I love this song. This is how you do a good villain song. This will go down as one of the most remembered Disney villain songs if it has not already.  It's fun, and it helps to get a feel of the character and another thing I didn't pick up on until listening to the song for the third or fourth  time is all of the subtle foreshadowing in the song.   I mean when Facilier is talking about Green, he's referring to his plan of turning Naveen into a frog. That is such a nice touch.  

Poor Unfortunate Souls (Ursula)

Man, I love this song and I love how direct Ursula is. She doesn't hide behind any layers and just gets to the point of what she wants. It is a great song, don't get me wrong and one of my favorite villain songs because it works so well but I think  I find myself listening to Friends On The Other Side more. It should be no surprise who wins this round but I have to give credit to both of these songs in that they both nice set up for these characters. As I said though this round goes too..

Dr. Facilier

Death (Round 4)

Which villain had the better death scene? Let's find out.

Dr. Facilier

Geese,  is this one creepy moment.  Everything from the reprise of Friends On The Other Side to seeing the voo doo dolls coming out of the grounds like zombies and seeing Facilier pulled into essentially Hell is creepy as heck and makes for a great death scene and added the touch of seeing his frightened face on a tombstone is a nice touch. Now I don't know if it's because of New Orleans being the setting for this film but I get a very Haunted Mansion esque vibe with this death scene and it works well.

Ursula 

Yeah,  this one. Not so much!   The only word that could come to my mind when re watching this scene is lame.  Because for a villain like Ursula to be taken out like that feels like she is being sent out on a wimper.  For a great villain, her death scene doesn't deliver.   Throughout all of the film most of her scenes make her feel like she is on a high note and don't get me wrong seeing her that big is a high note but having her taken out but having Eric drive the ship into her stomach is just silly.   With that it should be no surprise who wins this round.  This round goes too...

Dr. Facilier

The Film Factor (The Final Round)

Here we are, The Film Factor, the final round.   Which character worked better in their respective film, let's find out.   

Dr. Facilier

Oh, Facilier.   You are such a great villain and work so well.  Your charm and suaveness help to make you  such a memorable character and quite the scene stealer.  This character was so much fun and every time he was on screen, I paid attention to him because he was the best character in all of his scenes. Not a moment goes by with him, where I'm bored and that makes for a great character.

Ursula

Ursula, while still a good character and great villain doesn't have the same screen presence as The Shadow Man.   She's really good and certainly memorable but I don't feel that she commands the same screen presence as Facilier.   Don't get me wrong, she delivers in every scene but when it comes down to it, I think this round had to go to..

Dr. Facilier

The End Result

So in our first ever male/female Vs.,   Dr. Facilier wins by a score 4 - 1.  He had the better personality, better song,  better death and he worked better in his film.  The only thing is his desire wasn't very clear but still, he's a great villain and while she didn't win, I still like Ursula but in this Vs., it went to Facilier.