Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney and back to Villains Profile. We continue with the hunting edition, this year with our second villain in the line up. And one of the few to come from a sequel. Sequels are an interesting beast with Disney. We all know of the DisneyToon Direct-To-Video sequels and most them are bad. Whereas sequels from Walt Disney Animation Studios are a rare beast with only 3 that are known of. And one of them hasn't even come out yet. Those being,the upcoming Frozen 2, 2011's Winnie The Pooh but I'd say it's debatable as to whether or not that is a sequel. And the film that today's villain comes from The Rescuers Down Under. This film came out 13 years after it's predecessor and while this film does have a bit of a following nowadays, I'm not the biggest fan of this movie. It's not bad but like Wreck-It Ralph and King Candy, which I covered last year, I was never the biggest fan. It's not a bad movie by any stretch of the imagination but it's not one that I was really ever able to get the same level of enjoyment from this film that many others did. But seeing as this isn't a review of the movie, you want to know my thoughts on the villain.
Back in 2012, when were still using Webs, I did a McLeach Vs. Clayton article and declared McLeach, the winner. And in many respects, I still stand by that decision. Though granted, I had to sit and think on this film before writing this article as my gut reaction was less than positive and I could hardly find a good thing within this film at first glance but the more I thought about, the more I realized that there is some good to be found here and in many respects, one of the best things about this film is it's villain. I may not have been invested in the story but I did find myself engaged, whenever McLeach was onscreen. Now, seeing as we are returning to our regular format after last week's marked departure, the categories for this article include, Voice Actor, Personality, Entrance, Grand Desire, Lackey, Most Evil Deed, Demise, and finally, Is Pervical C. McLeach A Good Villain? With this outta the way, let's begin.
Voice Actor
George C. Scott
Easily, the biggest highlight of this character is the performance that is given by actor, George C. Scott in this role. He really put his all into this role and sold McLeach. Scott made this role, his own and every line he delivered made this poacher, all the more frightening. He's just so eerie and it's not hard to see why many consider McLeach, one of the most underrated Disney villains with his performance in mind. However, it should be noted that there is one part of the movie, where Scott does not voice the poacher. During the portion of the film, when McLeach has Cody in the back of his truck and you hear his twisted version of Home On The Range, that is actually Frank Welker doing the singing. Welker in this film provided the voice of McLeach's pet, Joanna.
Entrance
The first time that McLeach is seen in person is when we see him checking one of his traps and seeing that he has caught the young boy, Cody. The main child of the film. And he at first tries to convince Cody that he is not a poacher but when this poacher with the education of 3rd grader realizes that the boy knows the location, of the golden eagle, Marahute, he takes the boy as a prisoner and reveals to the young boy that he killed the father of Marahute's babies by showing him a feather from from the father.
Everything about the moment from when we first meet McLeach just screams menace and that he's not someone to be trusted. Just look at him, he looks creepy. His appearance and design just give you the vibe of someone that cannot be trusted.
Personality
Don't let the fact that McLeach only has a third grade education fool you. McLeach is quite cunning and rather intelligent as we see him trick and outsmart Cody and has the good sense to toss Cody's backpack over the edge to make it look as though the boy hadn't survived a fall. We can also see in his interactions with Joanna that he can be a bit grouchy. And he is rather vicious as we see at the end of the film that he has no qualms about killing Cody. Yeah, McLeach is one of the most villains that I'll be looking at. He's perhaps the most unhinged of all 4 of them.
Grand Desire
I think that McLeach's evilness can be best looked at with what his grand desire is. He wants to make money off of the majestic golden eagle, Marahute. Now, we can infer from what we see of his lair that he plans to kill her but she seems to be his trophy. While I know very little about actual hunting, it does seem that some hunters have that one animal to them that they've tracked for the longest time and will stop at nothing to get it. And here with MceLeach, that appears to be Marahute.
The fact that this man is willing to rob the world of this creature's majestic beauty for his own gain really speaks a lot about his character. He's a cruel man and something like that makes me sick. But that just goes to show how powerful,a villain he is.
Lackey
Admittedly, this is partly my fault as I'd been marathonning The Real Ghostbusters for my other Halloween event and whenever Joanna was on screen, I kept on hearing Frank Welker's Slimer come out of her mouth. That was really distracting. Taking that out of the picture and putting it aside, I'm still not the biggest fan of hers. Oh, she's not bad and she can be quite cruel and also does have rather funny moments in the film but Joanna as a character is one that I could take or leave. Although, it should be noted that Frank Welker also provided the voice for Marahute in the film as well.
Most Evil Deed
Demise
McLeach’s demise is great. After being knocked over the cliff between a fight of Joanna and Bernard, we see the poacher fight off crocodiles and he has won and looks as though, he’s survived but then when see that he’s going to go over a waterfall. And I think the scene can best be summed up with this one moment.
You see the emotion on Joanna as she waves goodbye to her former master and there is nothing that she can do. It’s such a great moment and shows the defeat that McLeach is about to endure as no one can or perhaps in Joanna’s case is willing to help him. And really, why would she? He treated her poorly.
Is Pervical C. McLeach A Good Villain?
If you had asked me this question right after I watched this film for this article, I would’ve said no but after sitting for a while and thinking about it for a while, he’s a pretty good baddie. And a rather intense one at that, he’s nowhere one of my favorites but he is a good villain but again like with Wreck-It Ralph and King Candy from last year, this is a movie that I don’t care about nor do I hate it. And in that sense, while I’m not the biggest fan of McLeach, he does work for the type of story that The Rescuers Down Under wishes to tell. And while I may not be his biggest fan, I will acknowledge that he does have his moments that are downright eerie. Well, we go from a villain that I’m at best lukewarm about to one of my favorites, next time. Join me as we look at…
Gaston
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