Villains Profile: Ursula (31 Days of Halloween)

Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney and today, we continue our Villains Profile Halloween celebration as we look at the Sea Witch, Ursula.

Voice Actress

Pat Carroll

 Pat Carroll gives an exceptional performance as Ursula and truly brings her to life with her vocal talents. She does just enough right to make the character seem alluring while at the same time getting across that the Sea Witch is not someone to be trusted. She also does a great job of balancing Ursula's over-the-top Diva moments (That may seem like a poor choice of words but Ursula is a larger than life character but not to the degree of say, Cruella) with her more intimidating moments.



Alright, let's now move onto Ursula's First Appearance.

First Appearance

Moviefan12: When we first meet Ursula, we are able to get a good idea of what kind of character, she truly is. And we find out via monologue that her life was much different.

We learn that she used to live in the palace and wants to get revenge on King Triton for her banishment and as we see her watching over Ariel, she realizes the young mermaid is the pawn that she may need to undo King Triton. Something I don't think many people attribute to Ursula is that she is very strategic and knows how to make the moves to get what she wants. And something else to bring up is the line that Ursula says about how she used to live in the palace. Which is possibly left from an earlier script, when Ursula and Triton were brother and sister but was eventually dropped. However, when the film was adapted for Broadway, this relationship was put back into the story.



Personality


I don't know where else to put this but one of the biggest inspirations for the Sea Witch, was one of John Waters' favorite collaborators.  Drag Queen, Divine.

Which does come through as Ursula can be big and boisterous.   Or as the Villains Wiki puts it. 

She is also very flamboyant, enthusiastic, classy, vivacious, and ostentatious, as she presents herself with confidence and an eye for high standards, as evidenced by her belief that lurking in doorways is rude. In addition, she regularly flaunts her curvaceous appearance in a sultry manner, and spends time in her vanity, admiring her own physical appearance

I think this is part of what makes her so tempting as like Facilier after her, she is able to weave the words that the people that come to see her want to hear.  Years ago, when I did a Vs. of Ursula and Facilier.  I described Ursula as a bit of a prima donna. 

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

And I hold steadfast to this belief.  And she definitely is one of the more manipulative Disney villains and I like the idea that Ursula's entry on the Villains Wiki brings up is that if you listen to the way, the Sea Witch talks to Ariel, her clients usually fail at upholding her end of the bargain.  Which explains this.

 















Which we almost see Ariel become one until Triton comes in to save his youngest daughter.

That is a scary thing to look at.


Lackeys



Flotsam and Jetsam

Y'know, I always had the hardest time telling these two apart.

Thanks, Lin-Manuel Miranda.   I have to say that they are two of the more eerie Disney henchmen.  Large part due to their voice that can send shivers down one's spine.  They also are not of the bumbling variety.   As they come across as some of the smarter henchmen and you can see the love that Ursula has for them, when she accidentally kills them.



Grand  Desire



Ursula like a lot of villains that we have looked on Villains Profile in that she is power hungry and wants to rule Atlantica and with Triton's sacrifice, she does come rather close to achieving her goal  But in the end, she ends up failing.



Villain Song


Poor Unfortunate Souls





Ursula has what is easily one of my favorite villain songs.  Here,  you hear her lay everything out on the table.  And here, you hear her lay all of her cards on the table and is willing to give young Ariel everything her heart desires but she is upfront about the cost.  It's a fun villain song that to me is one of the eeriest. 




Poor Unfortunate Souls  (Reprise)






If you saw Trotting profile on Queen Chrysalis, you'd have seen that I brought up that there were similarities to Vanessa with that villain and that comes into play here as Ursula disguises herself as Vanessa and brainwashes Eric and tricks him into falling in love with him.  And we get the biggest taste of that here as we hear this reprise.  Which is being sung by Jodi Benson.  It's a fun little number as the villain thinks that she has won.




Most Evil Deed



This was tough,  I originally was going to go with Vanessa and brainwashing Eric as that is downright evil but I think I have to go with turning the merfolk into polyps. 

There is just something incredibly unsettling about this and just show how powerful and ruthless, Ursula is.   If I were to do a Scariest Villains Moments Top 6,  the polyps would be very high on my list.



Demise



If I do have one complaint,  it's Ursula's death.  It's a great climactic battle between her and Eric as we see him come down to save Ariel as he attacks with a harpoon.  (I honestly forgot about that part of the movie until watching it again)  and then she kills her poopsies accidentally and becomes enraged and becomes giant sized, which is really cool.

And she is about to fry Ariel but Eric comes in on ship and impales with the ship's bow.

Here's my issue and I hate being critical of a Disney movie that is my Top 5 but I really wish that it had been Ariel to do Ursula in as I think that would have given this moment the weight needed to feel triumphant for the hero,  which is Ariel in this case.   And it had been shown throughout this movie that Ariel is not a weak character.  It's a minor complaint to be sure but it's still something that irks me.


Is Ursula A Good Villain?



She's one of the greatest Disney villains of all time.  So, I think the answer to this question is big ole duh.   Seriously,  she paved the way for so Disney villains that came about in the Renaissance and afterwards.  She is in many ways, one of the most influential Disney villains on future baddies.   Join me next time as we look at...


Commander Rourke

Villains Profile: Captain Hook

Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney.  Last Halloween, my favorite segment to do around this time of year went on hiatus. Villains Profile, but it is returning this year as we look at villains associated with the sea. Starting with Captain Hook.  As always, this'll include Voice Actor, First Appearance, Personality, Lackey, Grand Desire, , Most Evil Deed, Demise, and finally Is Captain Hook A Good Villain? With that outta the way, let's begin.




Voice Actor


Hans Conried

Captain Hook was played wonderfully to a crisp tee by Hans Conried.   Conried was able to make Hook both threatening and funny at the same time.   One moment, you would be laughing Hook's crazy antics such as his fear of Tick Tock but then there are moments, where we see how cunning Hook can be such as when he manipulates Tinker Bell.    Now,  it is important to note that this movie kept up one major tradition that most productions save for NBC's Peter Pan Live!  use, the actor that plays Hook also plays Mr. Darling.

Other productions do more with this idea than this one but one of the key ideas here is that Hook to Wendy represents her father and growing up. In our co-review of the film,  The Second Opinion had this to say.

Now the play’s other big tradition, of Captain Hook and Mr. Darling being played by the same actor, is the one I always thought had something to it. Maybe it highlights the antagonistic role they both play, maybe it further hints at a time when George Darling went on an adventure of his own, or maybe it alludes to the real difference between growing up in the real world and life in Neverland, as only Mr. Darling is able to overcome his impatience and start to connect with his children.

And I think that is another great read on the relationship between these two.   Now,  as always  I like to bring up other villainous roles that these voice actors have played and Conried was also the voice of Snidely Whiplash

First Appearance



We first see good old James Hook on The Jolly Roger trying to find the hiding spot of Pan.   This ties a whole lot into what Hook wants in the movie as he set is on getting revenge against Peter Pan.   I don't think we've covered many revenge driven villains on Villains Profile before.   And considering what Pan did to Hook, you can totally get why Hook would want revenge.

And I think that makes him all the more fun to watch.




Personality




The DisneyWiki described Hook as vulnerable and I guess I can see that if you focus solely on his fear of Tick Tock and yes, those moments along with his outbursts towards Smee are funny and just as with Cruella, I think that Hook is one of the funniest Disney villains ever, he is also one of the more threatening.   I think the Villains Wiki put it best that after Pan fed his hand to Tick Tock, two sides came from that.  Hook's deep-seated hatred and thirst revenge against Pan and his paranoid fear of Tick Tock.  Those are perhaps the best ways to describe Hook and start as launching point for the kind of villain that Hook is.




Lackey


Mr. Smee

Smee being on the side of the villains has always humored me as he seems like a person that wouldn't hurt a fly.   I may have to find it but I remember Pretty Boy doing a blog about how if Hook represents Mr. Darling, Smee represents the motherly side.  And I guess I can see that but I dunno.  You can see from the relationship that he has with Hook, he genuinely cares for the Captain and will do anything that the captain wants.




Grand Desire



We touched upon this earlier but the biggest thing that Hook wants is revenge or rather kill Peter Pan.  And he will go through any means it takes to get the job done.  And he a hook for any situation, that can aid him.

Can I just say that I love the flatware hooks.  




Most Evil Deed



Now, this one is a bit tough to narrow down if you ask me because Hook has quite a few deeds that would qualify for this category but I think that I gotta go with Hook using Tinker Bell's jealousy to find the hiding spot of Peter Pan.  I think that this shows how manipulative and cunning Hook can be.  Sure, it's a small moment compared to other things such as kidnapping the Darlings and The Lost Boys and leaving the bomb with Peter.  But I went with this one because it played more on the emotion of a character and went after something that made Tink vulnerable.





Demise


Hook is one of the few villains whereas though, he seems to live at the end of the movie.   You could say, it's ambiguous (we will be ignoring the sequel) but there doesn't seem to be much of a death.   And I love this climax as it comes during a great sword fight and I think this gives us one of the more frightening Hook images

We also see him attempt get get under Pan's skin and Pan's ego does the get the best of him.   And that is what makes this final fight so fun.  But the old Codfish is defeated and plummets to the bottom the sea and is of course chased by Tick Tock.

Is Captain Hook A Villain?




Yes.   I think over time, Hook's edges have been softened a bit through things like Jake and The Never Land Pirates but if you go back to the original movie, you'll see that Hook wasn't just a funny villain.  He is smarter villain than people give him credit for and also one of the more threatening villains than people might think at first thought.  Join me next time as we look at....


Ursula

That Time Disney Tried to Start A Fast Food Chain.

Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney.  One of the best Disney YouTube channels is Rob Plays and he recently did a video on The Rise and Fall of the Disney Store and brought up something that has stuck with me since I watched that video.   Disney tried to open a fast food restaurant.

  

That is just so insane.   There are actual reports about this such as this one from the Chicago Tribune as the second location of Mickey's Kitchen as that is what the chain was known as opened in.   To have a better understanding of what they were I went to the Disney A to Z page on the D23 website but that gave me a whole lotta nothin'.  

The Walt Disney Company’s first restaurant venture outside of its theme parks, begun in 1990 with one facility next door to The Disney Store in Montclair, California. A second one was later opened in Schaumburg, Illinois. The fast-food restaurants, which emphasized healthier fare, did not catch on and the two were eventually removed.

I just have so many questions,  I mean Rob brings up in the video that the idea for this was for the restaurants to be adjacent to the Disney Store in the malls and that they would serve healthier options than say your McDonald's or Burger King.  There is honestly very little out there about these,  it's just a weird footnote in Disney's history but man, I'd love it if anyone had a menu from one of these places and I would so want to travel to an alternate timeline, where Mickey's Kitchen became a success because it is just so fascinating as while we often associate Disney as being an umbrella corporation, this is just something that you would never think of.      


I'm honestly most curious about the kid's meals and if they had toys and if so, what were they.   I mean, just think if this had taken off, Disney would have had a built-in way to promote their movies at a fast food chain.


I wish I had more to say but I had to right this up as this was just so intriguing. Peace!