FROM "ALICE IN WONDERLAND"
WARNING: THERE WILL BE SPOILERS
Now in all honesty a part of me does feel like that I should have put her lower on the list since she doesn't appear or is even mentioned until the films third and final act; everybody in the world of Wonderland are just as crazy and insane as she is; and on top of it, everything in Alice’s journey was all just a dream, when with previous Disney villains on my list they were shown throughout the whole movie that actually did pose as a legit threat that meant life or death. However with that said, I still can't help but enjoy her more than the previous villains that I put on my list. She may only be in the film's third act, but she does leave an everlasting impression on you; everyone in the world of Wonderland are insane, but in the very least they don't go to the sadist lengths that she goes; and above all, despite that this is all a dream where Alice isn't in real danger, I honestly don't mind it at all. The characters in Wonderland that Alice meets, despite that they are imaginary as opposed to being real, they're still so likable and fun to be around with that honestly you become attached to them to the point where they almost do feel like real characters, instead of them being figments of Alice’s imagination. When I see innocent cards that work for the Queen who are being sentenced for a beheading, as much as a part me feels like that I shouldn't feel bad for them since this isn't really happening, no matter how hard I try, I still can't help but feel sorry for them for how real the dream world of Wonderland feels. The Queen herself, as funny as she is, is still a villain that we don't want to see in our nightmares. Sure when we wake up from a nightmare we're re-leaved and happy to be in the real world safe and sound in our own bed, but for the time being as we have these nightmares we actually feel like that we're in actual danger, and the experience of watching Alice going on her journey through Wonderland (No matter how many times I see it) is the exact equivalent of that.
When we first hear any mention of the Queen (Not counting the opening credits), we see the Cheshire Cat speaking to a lost Alice in a dark and intimidating, but yet comical voice that she "has no way" and that all ways in Wonderland are "The Queen's ways” as he strikes an evil grin that looks similar to the Queen's evil grin, with the Queen's hair suddenly appearing on his head. Just by that first mention of the villain alone, already she sounds like an intimidating force to be reckoned with, even if she might be the one to help Alice find her way home. When the Cheshire Cat pulls a branch of a tree that causes the tree's bark to open up like a draw bridge that leads to the Queen’s Castle, at first it seems like a nice and friendly place. It's broad daylight where everything looks welcoming and upbeat, when everything in the earlier scenes were dark and shadowy, despite the colors and comical characters that Alice encounters; the Castle and the Maze environment looks cool and playful; and the trio of gardeners who are walking and talking life size cards are very nice comical characters who sing a catchy song as they paint the white roses red. However, that all quickly changes when the cards tell Alice that they planted the white roses by mistake, and if the Queen discovers that they planted the white roses instead of the red roses and don't finish painting them all red before she finds out, they'll lose their heads; and the fear that they show, while comical, does give you a great idea of what kind of ruler she is! Once Alice gives them a hand, things go back to being cheery and fun to the point where it almost seems like that they're almost finished, that is until the Queen's army of cards start marching as we hear very loud and gigantic music that signals that the Queen is on her way, which frightens the gardeners as they rush to put away their paint and get into their bowing positions for when the Queen arrives. After the gardeners (As well as Alice) get into their bowing positions, what we get is a really cool and surreal sequence of the cards marching and dancing that's so beautifully animated with powerful and energetic music to support it that it's honestly one of my all time favorite sequences in the movie. As short as the build-up is (Especially when considering that the film is 20 or 15 minutes away from being over), there's still enough of it to get you both excited and nervous to see the ruler of Wonderland from how the characters describe her and react when they talk about her that follows by an awesome dance sequence of her soldiers that build-up to her entrance!
Once the cards are lined up and the exhausted White Rabbit arrives to announce the arrival of the Queen Of Heats (And the King), the Queen at first looks nice and happy when she appears to a cheering crowd of cards, but all that changes fast when she notices red paint on one of her roses where she suddenly becomes just as intimidating as we were lead to believe. The crazy thing about her introduction is as pissed off that she is about the cards painting her roses red (Instead of being pissed off by the fact that the gardeners planted the white roses instead of the red roses, but hey that's Wonderland logic for you) where she yells her lungs out and sings her own verse of this upbeat catchy song that we previously heard that now completely loses all its cheer and enjoyment; she actually seems happy about her gardeners painting her roses red. Not because that they were trying to fix a problem, but because she can use their foolish action to give her a reason to have their heads decapitated, which you can tell that she is very thrilled about it when she discovers what her gardeners did. As the cards try to blame one another as they beg for their lives, the Queen for a few seconds enjoyably watches them point fingers at each other, until getting quickly bored by their constant blaming to finally ordering their beheading. Once the order is given, instead of things looking or sounding grim, the cards encourage the Queen's decision by cheering and singing a taunting and sadistic version of "Painting The Roses Red" to the poor gardeners that are being dragged to get their heads cut-off, which the Queen at first is once again delighted, but of course quickly gets annoyed by it where she jumps and yells hard enough for the cards to stop singing and comically go flying away. This whole entire introduction to our main villain is the perfect introduction that gives us what the build-up to promises, by having her look like royalty, while being a sadistic intimidating tyrant.
Actually as sadistic and intimidating as this villain is, she seriously has to be one of the funniest Disney villains of all time! How this evil Queen can constantly switch back and fourth from being calm, nice and pleasant, to being over the top loud, mean, and nasty is just too hysterical to not enjoy! The scene that takes place after she orders the gardeners to lose their heads where she and Alice talk is for me her best scene of her constant mood swings She's at first delighted to see a little girl in her Kingdom; but then suddenly and strictly orders Alice how to behave when she's speaking to her; to then acting all kind and subtle again, asking Alice what brings her here, only to then get pissed off at Alice for something very minor and dismissing Alice's questions; to acting all kind and charming again as she asks Alice to join her in a game of Croquet. That scene is seriously the Queen's comical bipolar personality disorder at her finest. The actress voicing the Queen is Verna Felton and not only is she absolutely perfect for voicing this villain but it actually surprises me how well she pulled off this role. Sure she's good at playing characters who are mean and aggressive like Aunt Sarah in "Lady And The Tramp" and the leader of the pack of Elephants in "Dumbo", as well as playing characters that can be subtle and yet very humorous like The Fairy Godmother in "Cinderella" and the head of the trio of fairies Flora in "Sleeping Beauty", but this performance to me is where she really shines at playing all those elements, especially in the scenes where she yells and screams. I mean good god the energy that this old woman puts into voicing this character whenever she's angry and yelling up a storm like a bratty little child is so loud, over the top, and energetic that you can tell that Felton is really giving it her all when it comes to voicing this character. Sure she does a good job at voicing characters that are as mean and aggressive as this character is, but none of them equal to the same amount of over the top energy that Felton brings to this character.
Fun fact by the way, do you know what famous comedian took a lot of inspiration from this villain?
Doug Walker for his character the Nostalgia Critic. He did say that the majority of his inspiration for his character came from Jack Lemmon as Professor Fate in "The Great Race" and Daffy Duck from the “Looney Tunes" cartoons, but he also came to realization as he was reviewing "Alice In Wonderland" for his Disneycember videos that he also got some inspiration from the Queen Of Hearts for his character as well, and yeah watching these two characters go through constant mood swings of being calm and laid back to going full out angry and insane, I can definitely see where some of that influence came from.
What of course really helps support Felton's hilarious and energetic performance is the animation and design for the Queen. Her design looks like that Dr.Seuss drew a sumo wrestler who decided to dress in drag and wear an outfit that the Queen of Hearts on a playing card would probably wear; it looks hysterical, while at the same time fitting in perfectly with the film's crazy and colorful take on Wonderland. The timing for the animation for whenever she yells, as well as the reactions they give her are animated so well that it leads to many big laughs. My favorite moments where she completely loses her temper are whenever she gets into a comical accident. The accident's themselves, while die hard hilarious, really the build-up to her reactions from the accidents. When her servants, or even the character that caused the accident hear her yell "Somebody's head is going to roll for this!" as she's all covered up, they either all go to hide or blame Alice for the accident, and when she does show up blaming Alice, her reactions look frightening, but very hysterical at the same time (Especially when her face turns all red and her hair is messed up)! The funny thing is before she can order Alice's head to be chopped off, she usually gets interrupted as she's about to give the order, which her reactions for those moments are just as funny as her reactions for when she appears all pissed-off during her recovery.
What I also find funny about the villain is how impatient she is. The trial sequence is a perfect example of that. Despite that she can order her cards to slice off Alice’s head right on the spot, the King who's the complete opposite of his wife who's small, has a tiny high pitched voice, and is very kind, humbly convinces his Wife to do things that are more Queen like such as giving Alice a trial for her suspected action, which she reluctantly agrees to do so, but sits in the courtroom waiting impatiently and even tries to rush through the trial so that she can finally give the order, but is always being stopped from doing so by either having the King giving her more suggestions to act more Queen like (And possibly trying to prevent her from killing Alice); Alice growing gigantic that causes the Queen to cower and fear as she uses her small husband as a shield; and even at one point forgetting the whole entire affair when she's given an Un-Birthday Party from the Mad Hatter and The March Hair! The Queen is not only very funny in the scene by being impatient and having things get in the way that prevent her from chopping off Alice’s head, but the whole trial sequence itself is definitely one of the highlights of the movie where Wonderland is at its craziest.
Since the Queen herself is the most sadistic, crazy, and cold hearted character in all of Wonderland who's in control, it's natural that everyone is afraid of her. I already covered how afraid the gardeners are of her, as well as the gags that lead to Alice getting blamed for things that she didn’t do, but with those aside, as you watch every scene with the Queen you get a constant sense that everybody who interacts with her fears her. The White Rabbit (Where his earlier scenes indicate that he's worried that he'll lose his head for running late, even though it's never said); her husband; and even her army of cards that serve her faithfully and carry out her evil wishes. There's a sense that everyone who works for Queen have no choice but to obey her every command or else they will consequently lose their heads. Like in the Croquet game for example, everyone knows that she sucks at Croquet, but they have to make her feel like the champ by helping her cheat and constantly cheer and applaud for her as if she never cheated at all; and if one doesn't cheer or fail to help her win, it's "off with their head"! So when your watching scenes like when the Queen's army of cards are dragging another card off to be killed; or when you see the cards along with the residents of Wonderland chase after Alice in the climax, as much as you fear and hate them for their actions just as much as Alice does, just know that they don't serve the Queen out of joy (At least most of them) or dedication thinking that she's a great leader, but completely out of fear and respect considering that their life is on the line and that they can be killed at any time even by the tiniest thing that could set-her off.
Even though the Queen of Hearts is just a figment of Alice's imagination and should be lower on the list for it, I'm sorry but I think she's too awesome of a villain whether she is real or not. The build-up to her, while short is still exciting; her constant mood swings are both really funny and yet very threatening at the same time; her sadistic fetish of chopping people's heads-off is darker than I remember it, even though it's still played out for black comedy; and having a cool army of cards that grovel at her feet out of fear, instead of love is actually pretty unsettling the more I think about it. She maybe just a villain from Alice's dream (Or nightmare more likely), but it's nightmare visions like her that make us happy to be in the real world...that is if you're not already living in a reality where your life is being controlled by a powerful asshole who's just as bad as she is.
"OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!"
-The Queen of Hearts
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