Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney and well, we've reached the final of our hunting villains as we look at Clayton from 1999's Tarzan. As always, categories include Voice Actor, Entrance, Personality, Grand Desire, Most Evil Deed, Demise, and finally, Is Clayton A Good Villain? With that out of the way, let's begin.
Voice Actor
Brian Blessed
It took me a while to jog my memory on who Brian Blessed is. But then I saw someone post this in the comments on Disney Wiki page and I was like oh...
Now, I've never seen Flash Gordon (I know, I should fix that) but I know this scene because of how infamous it is, And what's interesting is from watching interviews with Blessed about playing Clayton, Blessed did a great job of differentiating his voice from that of Clayton's. Now, here's something interesting to note, Brian Blessed was better at the Tarzan yell than Tarzan himself.
Although Brian Blessed is the voice of Clayton, he proved to be better at the Tarzan yell than Tony Goldwyn.
According to the Disney Wiki, Clayton is one of Blessed's most cherished roles.
Brian Blessed has stated that Clayton is one of his two most cherished roles in his career, the other being Blackadder's father, King Richard IV, in the British sitcom The Black Adder.
Entrance
This is something interesting according to the DVD commentary as apparently, Clayton's entrance was meant to signify him taking Sabor's place as the film's villain.
According to the film commentary, Clayton's outfit was designed to appear like Sabor's yellow fur to designate him as the new villain. When he's introduced he's covered in shadows that gives him the look of spots like Sabor's
This is a neat touch and it really helps to establish him as the villain of the piece, while also hiding his true motives. Which remains hidden for quite sometime throughout the film as Clayton hides his true motive for quite sometime.
Personality
I like his personality as he's suave, cold and cunning and has a huge ego. Now, he's able to keep it in check but what we do see that he's hungry for power and will stop at nothing to get what he wants. When his true personality is revealed, he's shown to be ruthless and I love it.
Grand Desire
Clayton's goal is quite simple. He merely guided the Porters on their trek through Africa as a means to capture the gorillas to sell them to a zoo for three hundred pounds for each gorilla. So. he was merely in it for the money. Simple, enough tactic and goal but I think it's how he goes about in getting it that makes it worth it as he dupes everyone around him into trusting him.
Most Evil Deed
This one's a bit tougher. Not because Clayton isn't a nasty villain. Oh, he is but with the fact that he hides his true motive for so long throughout the film, it's hard to say. But at the end of the day, I have to go with him duping both The Porters and Tarzan and trapping them on the boat after taking it over.
I think that this shows that Clayton is good at playing the waiting game and knows when to play his cards and not reveal himself too early but on the same token, I think that's a problem with the film. Because while Clayton is a great villain and does a great job. I think that the film waits too long to reveal him as the villain of the piece. But that's neither here nor there.
Demise
Clayton has one of the most brutal deaths in a Disney movie.
That is one great fight between Tarzan and Clayton. And his death, that is one of the creepiest deaths that I've ever seen in a Disney movie. Clayton using his machete to cut the ropes basically caused him to kill himself. And when he falls, you can see the shadow of Clayton's body. It's part that the jungle did him in and also, Clayton did himself in. That's one of the creepiest things that I've seen from a Disney movie.
And the look on Clayton's face as he falls to the ground. Yeah, I think this says all it needs to...
You can just sense the agony and hopelessness in Clayton as he falls to his death. But apparently, had another death that was cut from the film.
I can see why this one was cut because Tarzan throwing the knife at the gas can seems to go against who our hero is. And personally, Clayton's death in the movie compared to his cut death scene is more effective.
Is Clayton A Good Villain?
I like Clayton quite a bit but out of all the villains that we've looked at, I think he's the weakest. He's not bad as a villain but there's really nothing all that memorable to him either. He's a case of I like him but I wish that he was better developed. Again, he's not a bad character but at best, he's a middle of the road Disney villain. Well, this concludes our look at Disney's hunting villains. I do wish that it could've ended on a higher note but eh, what are you gonna do? But we aren't done with Villains Profile just yet. Join me for a special Ghostbusters edition of Villains Profile as I look at Gozer, Vigo, and Ivo Shandor.
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