FROM "HERCULES"
WARNING: THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!
When I first started the list, I said that in the lineup of Disney villains the funniest one who is far from threatening is Yzma from "The Emperor’s New Groove". And if I had to choose a Disney villain that makes me laugh the hardest who carries both qualities, it's hands down this easily hot tempered ruler from the Underworld, who is one of the best things in this flawed and disappointing Disney film that make it so entertaining.
Hades is like the Genie (from "Aladdin") of comical Disney villains. He's full of energy; is constantly cracking jokes, puns, and one-liners; making hilarious comments on the things he watches; has things magically appear and disappear with his powers; makes pop culture references that are both modern and true to the period that the film is set; and he's blue. The main ingredient of why the character is so hilarious and fun to watch in every single scene he's in is because they got James Woods to voice him, who's perfect for playing villains who are menacing but at the same time comical. Woods puts plenty of his comical trademarks to the character (the same way as Robin Williams put a lot of himself into the Genie) that makes the character come across as flamboyant (again like the Genie) and sassy, and you can tell that Woods is having tons of fun voicing the character and loving every second of it with his delivery and add-libbing. As a matter of fact, Woods loved playing the role so much that any time Disney needed him to reprise his character he'll (usually) do it!
One of the traits that Woods gives to the character that is completely his, is how he persuades people into making deals. He doesn't make deals the same way someone like Ursula or Dr.Facilier does, nor does he get a song to sing when making one for that matter either. He talks more like how a lawyer, a salesman, or a Hollywood executive would con people to his deals, instead of coming off as sinister like a devil, or any other Disney villain would, which is what adds to the fun factor of this villain. The interesting thing about him when he makes these offers is he doesn't lie or go against his word; he always keeps his end of the bargain. When he promises Meg her freedom in return for finding Hercules’s weakness, or when he guarantees Herc that he'll get his strength back before the 24 hour mark if any harm happens to Meg (even if it could lead to his downfall, and does) he sticks to his word. But despite being true to what he agrees too, he does leave out a few details so he can still take out his opponent. He promises that Meg won't be harmed when Hercules gives up his strength to save her, but he didn't say anything about not hurting him when he sends one of his monsters to squash him like a bug. He agrees to let Meg go, and put Hercules in her place in the river Styx when he gets her out of there, but once Hercules dives-in, he tells him as he's swimming (obviously pretending that he forgot to mention an important detail) that he will age rapidly and die before he can save her. So even when being one of the most honest Disney villains out there, who doesn't back down from his promises (unlike our hero), he'll still have a loop hole to get what he wants.
But as skilled at Hades is with negotiations, he's still a very powerful villain. He can turn his hands into smoke to help him grab things from a far away distance, shoot out flames from his hair and hands, and can't be harmed since he's immortal (though if he's so powerful and can't be harmed, why doesn't he try to kill Hercules himself...oh details, details, details). And as comical and cool as he is he can still be pretty damn intimidating whenever he gets pissed off. Don't get me wrong, those scenes whenever he loses his temper are still laugh out loud hilarious scenes for how he just suddenly bursts into red hot flames yelling and acting destructive (best moments are when he sees his two minions wearing Hercules's merchandise, destroys the whole entire woods, and reminding Meg that he "OWNS" her). And I love how hard he's trying to keep himself from losing his cool, and to keep that blue flame above his head going to make him seem chill (though a blue flame burns at a higher temperature than red and orange do, but I'll let that slide since it's supposed to symbolize his mood). But considering that he's pretty much made of fire and smoke, and can destroy anything if he feels like it, if you were in his presence when he's not keeping his cool, you'd be scared stiff with the fear of being disintegrated by his flames. Which does come off as way more threatening and powerful than any other villain with anger problems like The Queen Of Hearts or Cruella De Vil for example. The designs of him getting angry are comical for how exaggerated they are, but they also look very hellish and monstrous which makes it come across as a bit unsettling (if not nightmare fuel).
When Hades is not in the mortal world making deals, or trying to kill Hercules, he spends the majority of his time ruling the Underworld. Disney has always had a marvelous record of creating villainous locations that are dark and edgy, and one of those images that stick with me is how the Underworld is designed. I'm not going to act like that it's scary as seeing Snow White or Ichabod in the dark woods, or as demonic as the creatures at Bald-mountain, but it does have a constant gloomy and gothic vibe to it. Instead of being surrounded by fire and the color red as you would expect it to be, it's actually surrounded by sharp and pointy rocks and spikes, where the colors are mostly drenched with black, grey, and blue (just like the color scheming for the villain himself). The only other color that the Underworld is consumed by is green, which is when Hades takes Hercules to the center of the river Styx. The best scene that involves the Underworld is when we first enter it. We see Hades being rowed to his lair by a skull where a few souls in the river try to grab Hades, which causes him to blast them away with his flames, and blow the smoke off his finger tip as if he was blowing the smoke out of a gun barrel. We are then introduced to the Underworld’s three headed guard dog Cerberus, who Hades just casually feeds a giant steak, which causes the three heads to fight over it. And after we get passed his guard dog, we then finally see his headquarters that’s in the shape of a skull, looking more depressed, instead of evil. What helps make the atmosphere to our first introduction to the Underworld so haunting is the Muses singing about how villainous Hades is, that just sounds flat-out eerie, especially when they hit the final note when we get to Hades's destination.
The unique thing about Hades (in terms of leading villains) is even though he's clearly played out as the film's primary villain, there's still a quality to him that's actually quite likable. A major part of it is the humor and charm that James Woods gives to the character (the same way how the actors voicing the comical wisecracking Hyenas in "The Lion King" come off as likable for their excessive personalities). But the real reason why I find him so likable is because of his relationship with the gods. All the gods in Mount Olympus are all fun loving with their colorful personalities that will pretty much laugh at any joke they hear, but when Hades shows up to join in on the fun, they all cringe at him silently as if he's not one of them, that is with the exception of Zeus who keeps on making fun of him. Zeus is also the same god who forced Hades to run the Underworld 24 7, that’s far from an upbeat job and place, and you can tell that he hates every moment of it, wishing that he could live in an environment that's surrounded by beauty and color, as he's with gods and creatures that actually like him, instead of always snubbing him or busting his chops. Unlike a villain like Scar who you know is a selfish jerk since the very beginning, and was stepped over from being King for a good reason, Hades (though not thrown right in your face) comes across as a bit sympathetic, because he's treated like an outcast by all the other gods for no real good reason. And my guess is if he wasn't treated so poorly and forced to run the underworld for all entirety, he probably would have been just as friendly and carefree as all the other gods are.
However, despite that we can't help but feel a little sorry for Hades, and understand why he would want to take over Mount Olympus, he still does things that are beyond cruel. I've already covered how violent and aggressive he is, and that he'll intentionally leave things out of his deals to plan a sneak attack, but there's more. He not only sends monsters to attack Hercules and the gods, but he doesn't seem to care at all if people are going to get hurt, crushed, or eaten by them. And considering that he's planning on running Mount Olympus with destructive giant monsters (that once ruled the world through their chaos) as his enforcers, it seems more than likely that he's going to destroy the world with them if not rule it. He also doesn't seem to care if his slave Meg was almost sexually assaulted by a centaur, since he adds two more years of her serving him, rather than subtracting 2 after hearing about her failure to recruit him. But for me, the worst thing he ever does is his attempts to hurt to eventually kill baby Hercules! Forget Scar and Mcleach endangering a kid, a villain deliberately trying to kill a baby is far worse! The first time he makes contact with baby Herc is by giving him a skull pacifier with spiked barbs on it as he tries to force it into his mouth. It's a good thing that baby Hercules was strong enough to prevent him from doing so, because none of the gods didn't seem worried that he was going to hurt Hercules. Not even Hercules's Mother who was so concerned about him playing with Zeus's lightning bolts a few moments ago. Maybe Hercules was better off in the mortal world after all. When Hades later on finds out that Hercules will foil his plans for domination in 18 years, he gives his minions a potion that will make a god mortal (seriously where did he get that) and sends them to force feed the baby the formula, and then kill him when his transformation is complete. His plan obviously fails, but the idea of it is still incredibly disturbing. This is a cute and innocent baby who doesn't know anything, and yet he's willing to kill him as if he was some kind of bug. How does no one find it a tad bit messed-up?
The two henchmen that serve Hades faithfully but constantly have to suffer his wrath, are his imps Pain and Panic, who are another one of my favorite comical henchmen from the Disney canon. The two are voiced by comical actors with distinctive voices Bobcat Goldthwait (Pain) and Matt Frewer (Panic), who play off the comical nature of these nervous and constantly abused demons so well that I never find myself getting tired of them whenever they're on-screen, especially when you have them with Hades who's always taking out his anger on them, as we're given slapstick that's hilarious but yet feels so harsh, due to the timing, sound effects, and reactions from the characters. Apart from being easy push-overs that seem powerless whenever they're around Hades, they do have the ability to change their form into anything they please. They'll be occasions where they'll turn into something based on how they feel, like worms or bugs when they're scared of Hades. But they'll mostly use their shape-shifting abilities to carry out dark deeds for him, such as changing into deadly snakes to kill off Baby Hercules, pretending to be two kids in danger to lure Hercules into a trap, and even forming together as a beautiful horse with wings as bate to capture Pegasus. A few of my favorite moments that involve them shape-shifting that give me a good laugh, are when they reveal themselves after posing as kids or cute little animals that go from adorable to rude and obnoxious; and when they're on their knees bowing to Hades chanting that they are "Worthless Worms" which is undoubtedly a reference to "Wayne's World" when Wayne and Garth bow to a famous celebrity chanting "We're not worthy". If I had to choose my favorite quote from these two minions, it's definitely when they decide to cover up the fact that they failed to kill baby Hercules by using the word "If" that has Panic comfortably exclaiming "If is good". And it still surprises me that Hades actually believes their little fib, and doesn't ever decide to check to see if Hercules' soul is floating in the river with the others since that's part of his job. He runs the Underworld; shouldn't he know who died and how many souls he has floating around? Are you telling me that he'll actually take the word of his two idiotic servants who are weak and get hurt constantly (even when he's not maiming them), as opposed to seeing the evidence for himself. I know a suspension of disbelief is required for most Disney films, and thus we wouldn't have a plot if he knew right there and then, but I still can't help but find it distracting since running the Underworld is his profession.
One of the awesome factors to Hades that many people tend to forget is, even though Pain and Panic are the only demons he has with him all throughout the film, he does have plenty of other demons and monsters working for him, whether it's to kill Hercules, or take over Mount Olympus. And since there are so many of them, and that half of them only get a few seconds or a minute or two of screen-time, I'm going to focus on the ones who we see for a full scene, and actually work for Hades (so the Fates and Nessus don't qualify as one of his minions).
The first monster Hades has Hercules fight against is the Hydra, a giant serpent-like creature with a long jaw full of sharp teeth that can multiply many other heads when one gets sliced off. The Hydra was animated in CGI since it was difficult to draw each head individually, and while it is as obvious as the CGI used for Sykes's limo, or Mcleach's truck, it still has an imaginative and scary looking design (that's supported by demented roaring from Frank Welker) that makes you forgive how obvious the CG animation is. As much as I enjoy the battle, the real fun of it comes from Hades sitting in a chair watching the fight, slurping worms, smoking cigars, and making jokes and references mostly related to sports. Most of my favorite quotes from Hades actually come from this scene, especially when he menacingly watches Hercules about to be eaten by the Hydra claiming that his "favorite part of the game" is "sudden death".
The monsters that Hades recruits to help him take over Mount Olympus, are an army of elemental giant monsters called Titans, that each has their own cool and distinctive design based on their power. There's the earth Titan who's a giant walking rock with two heads that crushes and destroys everything it touches or walks by, by causing an Earthquake; the water Titan made completely out of Ice who has the ability to freeze anything with its breath; the fire Titan who is one big blob of lava that burns anything in its path; and the air Titan who is one big tornado. While being powerful and threatening, as they nearly overthrow Zeus and destroy everything in their path, they still have their goofy qualities. They don't know where Olympus actually is (that leads to another fun moment involving Hades), and they accidentally keep injuring Hades as they try to fight off Hercules. And much like how Hades’ other monsters got defeated by Hercules so easily, so do these masters of disasters which is kind of underwhelming considering how strong they are.
But the goofiest and weakest one of the Titans, that I even occasionally find myself forgetting that he is one of them, is the Cyclops. I know he's gigantic and destructive like all the others, but he doesn't possess any of the elemental qualities or powers like the other Titans do, nor do we see him at all during the flashback or future images of the Titans. He doesn't so much as get his own badass introduction like the others which makes his appearance just seem out of nowhere. He is given a special job to take down a powerless Hercules, but rather than trying to crush him, he spends most of the time throwing him around like an action figure. The other Titans may have their comical qualities, but there was always a sense of danger to them with their design and abilities. This one on the other hand just seems like some random giant monster that saw the Titans, uninvitedly joined their group to try to be one of them, and accidentally got trapped by Zeus in the process.
Hades of course doesn't always need monsters and demons to do his bidding, he can also take people that he's enslaved to help him carry out his evil deeds. Sure the character Meg isn't willing to serve Hades, and does fall in love with Hercules and saves him which results with him getting his strength back after she's free. But as long as Hades has her soul, she has no choice but to obey his commands. She'll convince Hercules to walk into an area where one of Hades’s monsters secretly lurk waiting for him, and she'll try everything she can to seduce Hercules to tell her his weakness. And when she's at the point where she stands-up to Hades showing no fear of his flames, Hades bounds and gags her with his smoke to make it seem like she's going to be harmed if Hercules doesn't agree to his deal.
Though Hades doesn't die since he's immortal, nor does his defeat come across as incredibly cruel, or epic. It's still a satisfying downfall.
When Hercules finally becomes a god after rescuing Meg, Hades gets punched in the face which causes it to fold up for a few seconds, before it unfolds with Hades smiling and agreeing that he deserved that, which kills me every time I see that moment.
But just when you think he's had enough, when Hades begs for Hercules to put in a good word for him to his Father, he gets punched into the river Styx where he's suddenly being dragged below by the souls. He may not be dead, but there's a chance that it'll take him a very long period of time for him to get out of there, that is (and thy quote from Pain when he watches Hades being taken away) "IF he gets out of there", and "If is good". But if you can't help but feel a little bad for him, given his outsider status to the gods, and his excessive personality that makes him likable, if you stay after the credits, you can hear Hades pleading for some kind of happy ending to shed a little humor to his more than likely temporary fate.
I know many people only see Hades as a comical villain who isn't anywhere near dangerous or intimidating, and while he isn't scary and is obviously played out more for comedy, I still believe he has enough of the qualities of a good Disney villain for me to put him on the number 18 spot of my list. His temper tantrum through his powers is destructive. His skills of negotiating are as clever as a backstabbing businessman. The numerous monsters and demons that he has working for him are imaginative, deadly, and fun. The fact that he decides to kill a baby is disgustingly dreadful. The Underworld he runs is one of the gloomiest places you'll ever see from Disney. And James Woods's energetic performance that's supported by a subtle and kind of sad relationship of how he's looked at by the people of his own kind are part of what makes this villain likable, as you at the same time despise him for what he plans to do with our hero and the world.
"We dance, we kiss, we schmooze, we carry on, we go home happy. What do you say? Come on."
-Hades
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