Halloween: Top 6 Shorts Villains

Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney.  And it appears that time of year is upon us.  The month of ghouls and goblins and other fun little creatures.  Yes, Halloween and once again, I am going all out.  Starting with a Top 6.   Some of you may recall, two years ago, I did a two Top 6 articles counting down my favorite male & female villains.  And while those were all good choices, I mostly relegated myself to film.. I plan to rectify that with these first two Top 6's as villains.  Over the next two days,  I'll be giving you my favorites Villains from TV in the '00s and today from animated shorts. With that out of the way, let's begin.

6.   Mr. Winkie - Wind In The Willows

Mr. Winkie is interesting for our list as he is really, the only villain that doesn't get his hands dirty.  Oh no, he uses Mr. Toad's  automobile  obsession against him because Toad trades Toad Hall for his automobile  and when Toad is later put on trial for his crimes, he calls upon Winkie as a witness and he lies and lies and says that he has no knowledge of what occurred.   Thus showing that you don't always need to get down and dirty to be nasty scum.   What makes him work so well is that he is just so two faced,   the town sees one side of him whereas Toad and the audience know what he is really like.

5.  Dr. Frankenollie - Runaway Brain

  

First off, for those wondering why, I didn't put Julius on this list.  Simply put, I don't feel he is the true villain of this short.  How do I describe this guy,  he's insane, crazy and nuts.  He is just so twisted and creepy.  I mean, he wants to switch brains with that of an average citizen into his monster.  And then boom, he dies.    Kelsey Grammer just brought so much life into this role that you get the feeling that he is simply off his rocker.  Oh and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention this but he's named after Disney animators, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston.


4. The Mad Doctor - The Mad Doctor

And now we come to a character that was the inspiration for Frankenollie.  The Mad Doctor aka Doctor XXX  (check the short, his castle lists his name as that).   Before this event, I'd never seen The Mad Doctor and my only  knowledge of the character came from the Epic Mickey games.  And I have to say that damn, he is creepy.  He kidnaps Pluto in the middle of the night to cut the pup's  head off and put it on a chicken to see what sound, a chicken-dog would make.  Dude, get a hobby.   You recall how I said Frankenollie was twisted,  well this guy takes it up to 11.   I mean,  he booby trapped his castle with skeletons and wanted to cut Mickey in half.  Now recall how I mentioned he made a reappearance in the Epic Mickey games.  I don't want to spoil too much but let's say, he plays a huge role in the games.  If you really want to know, read his page on the Epic Mickey Wiki.   I will say this much in the games, he wasn't always evil as he was once friends with Oswald.   By the way, here is what he looks like in the games.

3. The  Big Bad Wolf  -  The Three Little Pigs shorts

Man, I gotta give this guy credit.  For multiple shorts, he tried and tried and came very close to eating the pigs.   And I know at one point, I wanted to help make a BLT using Fifer and Fiddler.   He is perhaps more comical then some of the other entries on this list but, when he actually put his mind to what he wants to do, he can be a genuine threat and he is one of the most enduring of the villains.   But his failures are what make him so memorable and so entertaining as a bad guy.


2. The Headless Horseman - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

This guy is just plain creepy.  He can easily send shivers down the spine of anyone that sees him.  And there is actually some debate as to whether or not, he won in the end.  Because the ending is rather ambiguous as to what truly happened to Ichabod Crane.  But I do believe that he killed Ichabod and that is a  creepy thought but it has never been confirmed nor denied.   And plus just his look alone is eerie.  This is easily one of the darkest moments of any piece of Disney animation.  If I think The Headless Horseman is so creepy, why isn't he # 1.  You'll see.




1. Foxy Loxy - Chicken Little (1943)

My # 1 entry actually comes from  a WWII short using the story of Chicken Little  showing how easy it is to influence one's thoughts as he does with Chicken Little.  And you want to know, the big reasons why he is # 1.  He won in the end, he ate Chicken Little and all of the other birds in this short because he had them fooled.   He is  the only villain shown to come out on top.  Yes, I mentioned The Headless Horseman but still there is a bit of ambiguity with that whereas it clear  that Foxy came out on top.  Still not evil enough for ya, that psychology book he has with him that he uses throughout the short is actually Mein Kampf with direct quotes from Hitler's book in it.  At one point in production, the studio was told that they couldn't refer to this book as Mein Kampf and had to change it but they didn't take out the quotes.  I mean, even the narrator is taken aback as he assures the audience that this short has a happy ending but then he sees that Foxy ate every other character and hr tells the narrator not to believe everything you read and he took the bones and made them into little crosses.  Most of the other characters on this list had their comeuppance but not Foxy Loxy.   To me, he was the most obvious choice to be # 1.  He is seriously one of the most twisted and evil characters to ever come from any piece of Disney animation.




There you have it,  my Top 6 Shorts Villains.  Let me know if you guys can think of any I left off this list that you felt were deserving to be here.  It's a little hard to remember all the good shorts villains with all of the shorts I've watched for this blog over the year.   Join me next time as I go over my Top 6 TV Villains from the '00s.