Take A Look at Disney

9/29/14

Villains Profile: Dr. Facilier










Don't you disrespect me, little man! Don't you derogate, or deride! / You're in my world now, not your world, and I've got friends on the other side...




Hello & welcome back to  A Look at  Disney.   Earlier,  this year I had originally planned for all this month to take a look at all the Disney villains but then I came to the realization that would be over fifty villains.  So instead,  Villains-A-Day has become Villains Profile and I've decided to take a look at the 4 newest Disney villains,   Dr. Facilier, Mother Gothel, King Candy,  & Hans.  And if this does prove to be successful,  this year,  I may bring Villains Profile back next year but instead of attempting to cover all  Disney villains,   there will be a theme.    Something like  Hunters,  which  would  include characters like Man,   McLeach,  Gaston, & Clayton.  Anyways,   here is what we will be looking at with this series,  Voice Actor, Entrance, Personality,  Grand Desire,  Lackey,  Villain Song,  Most Evil Deed, Demise,  Are They  A Good Villain?  





Voice  Actor


Keith  David





















Keith David was already a well known and established voice actor by the time,  Princess and The Frog hit the theaters.   He has  quite a few roles  with Disney besides  Dr. Facilier, most notably  Goliath in Gargoyles.











Oh, and as a Once Upon A Time fan, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that Keith David  voiced The Cheshire Cat in the pilot episode of the Once spinoff,  Once Upon A Time In Wonderland in a role, that was sadly nothing more than a cameo as Cheshire didn't appear in any further episodes.















And  if I'm  to be honest,  Dr.  Facilier  is the role, where I truly  took  notice of Keith David.  Keep  in mind,   I never watched Gargoyles as a kid.  And therefore,   Facilier is the role that I most associate  with Keith David and  he  does  a great  job with the role  on selling the charm and suave of   the  Shadow Man.







Entrance


We  first  see Facilier  making a deal with a bald man that does  not go  the way, the man wishes  as he gets hair everywhere  and you can see him,  when Naveen  arriving in New Orleans starting to form a plan  on  how  to take over the Big Easy.







One thing that you'll  notice about Facilier's entrance into the film is that unlike villains that had come before him,  it's sly and quiet.  He's  just a part of the background during Down In New Orleans painting the picture that he cons people everyday.



Personality 


Facilier  is a bit of  a charmers,  he's  suave,   a bit of a smooth talker.   He  knows  how to work  people  into  making deals  that he knows will  end badly  for the other party.  That is the biggest  thing  that Facilier has going for him  is his charm.   His charm  is so seductive  that lures  his clients  into  making the bad deals  with him.   That is the biggest thing  that  the  Shadow  Man  has going  in his favor,   his charm.    Of  course,  like a lot of other Disney villains,   we see that  Facilier  can be a bit  greedy but that comes with the package  and we also  see that  he's  clever  and thinks   his plans  through.   So,   he is clearly not someone to be messed  with.  Another  thing  that you'll notice with  Facilier is that he is a bit of a showman,  you especially  get a taste  of this during "Friends On The Other Side".    











Grand Desire


Going by  the DisneyWiki,  Facilier's  Grand Desire as it were is to take over New Orleans and to become the wealthiest and most powerful person in the Big Easy.  However as I brought up in my review of the film,  in order to do this, he wanted to off Big Daddy but there is very little interaction between the two.  I guess that you could say that Facilier was working behind the scenes but still,  I think it would've been fun but ah well.  Still, he does go about getting what he wants.


Lackeys


Facilier technically has two lackeys,  his shadow and Lawrence. One could argue he also has the demons, which is true but the most prominent two that we  saw throughout the movie.   Let's start with Lawrence,  since he is  the more  prominent of the two.



Lawrence

   







Lawrence  is  driven  to the side of evil  by  the lack of respect that Naveen has shown him over the years.  He at best is treated as nothing more than a bumbling fool and when we first meet him,  you think that he'll be a comic relief character and while that is partly true.  You can see that him turning on Naveen was a long time coming as he had a lot of pent up anger and rage for being so disrespected.   Now  another thing to take notice of here is that while  Lawrence and Facilier made a deal,  it was not a partnership. Facilier was the one in charge and Facilier pushed  Lawrence around. Funny considering what Facilier says in"Friends On The Other Side".



On you little man, I don't want to waste much time
You've been pushed around all your life
You've been pushed around by your mother and your sister and your brother.
And if you was married, you'd be pushed around by your wife
But in your future, for you I see
Is exactly the man you always wanted to be!



When you look at it,  Facilier continues the trend of   pushing  Facilier around and you  can see that Lawrence truly fears Facilier, even though he was lured in with the promise of a better life.  Even though, at first,  Lawrence blew off Facilier as a fraud.




Facilier's Shadow














Facilier's Shadow  has a life of it's own and it very loyal  to Facilier  and you  can  see that  and I love  how  it  is able to communicate  with Facilier  through  it's movements  and   the Shadow  truly shows  Facilier's  dark side and how  far , he is willing to go.   But  as  pointed out,   he also   fears   the punishment that'll come if Facilier is not able to pay  his  debt to  his Friends.




Villain Song





Oh I love this song.  Easily,  one of my favorite villain songs.  Again, this song plays on Facilier's charm and you can just hear how enticing his voice is and I attribute that to Keith David's excellent performance.  Oh, and listen closely to the lyrics and you'll realize that Facilier is foreshadowing what is going to happen to Naveen later on in the movie.   



Most Evil Deed






Now I went back and forth on this one between this or  striking the deal with Naveen but the more I thought about it,   I really think that killing Ray  is the  most evil thing that Facilier did in the movie.   I mean, sure we are used to characters dying.  We've seen that before with Bambi's mom and Mufasa but Ray's death is one of the most shocking because here we have  the villain killing off one of the supporting comic relief  characters and Facilier just pops his collar and walks off like it was nothing but leaving the audience in shock and some angered at Faciler's reaction to killing off Ray.  




Demise



Let's not beat around the bush.  Facilier was dragged to Hell.  Sure,   it's called the Voodoo Realm and that fits with using voodoo magic but after his talisman is broken that he had used to cast the curse on  Naveen,  he was dragged to Hell.  




Also  did anyone  else catch  Faciler's tombstone and how it appears to have been influenced by The Haunted Mansion.





And you'll also notice that a reprise  of "Friends On The Other Side"  is playing again asking



Are you ready?


Turning the tables on Facilier. 





Is  Facilier A Good  Villain?


I'd say yes.  Facilier shows how one can use charm, persuasion and the power of smooth-talking to get what he wants.   He's a deceptive villain that will stop at nothing.  So yeah, he's a great villain. Join me next week as I take a look at Mother Gothel.




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