Male, female or from the animal kingdom – no one does a dastardly villain quite like Disney.

Here’s the Her.ie guide to the cartoon characters who kept us from sleep in our formative years…

Maleficent

We’ve all been pissed at not receiving an invitation to an awesome party at one stage or another, but when said party is a christening it’s best not to take out your ire on the innocent child – she didn’t write the God damn guest list! That didn’t stop Maleficent though, who cursed Princess Aurora with a spell set to kick in on her sixteenth birthday. She didn’t even have the decency to throw in one adult party for her first. Had it worked out it would have been the ultimate revenge.

Ursula Ursula would make the best drag queen on the planet. This scheming sea witch took advantage of a very silly Ariel, (Seriously, I'll swap my voice for the chance to make a man fall in love with me? Come on), convincing her that all you need to find love is a good body and a pretty face, sure why would you need a brain and a voice to express yourself. You can almost forgive Ursula, Ariel had it coming. The sidekicks are pretty creepy too - eels? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyFVG4VfPmg

Jafar 

He’s got the look down with the tall, thin appearance and the impressive red and black wardrobe, but it’s the levelheaded manner and dry tone of Jafar that makes him absolutely perfect baddie material. At the very opening of the movie he sends a simple thief of to his death for a fact-finding mission, and from there on in it just gets worse. Can’t get the girl? No problem – hypnotise her dad and ‘Bam!’ arranged marriage sorted. Iago the parrot, master of sarcasm, is his equally abhorrent sidekick.

Scar

A little sibling rivalry is a perfectly normal and understandable thing, we’ve all been there. Plotting to kill your brother and his son so you can have control of the family dwelling though – another thing entirely. Scar is an insult to the nobility of lions everywhere and that scene with Mufasa still makes us choke up, but Scar’s the kind of villain you absolutely love to hate, AND he sums up his dastardly ambitions in one of the most camp tunes in Disney history. Epic. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVAN2o-5pYM

Cruella De Vil

Even in cartoons, animal cruelty cuts us deep. The dastardly Cruella de Vil reconnects with her old college pal Anita with the sole intention of kidnapping Anita and her fella Roger’s fifteen super cute Dalmatian puppies. Not for some canine companionship mind you, just to skin for a brand new coat monochrome coat. As the song goes; ‘If she doesn’t scare you, no evil thing will’. Plus, she smokes. Eeeeew…

Stromboli

For a children’ movie, Pinocchio is one freaky-ass film. Con-artists Honest John and Gideon lead naïve puppet Pinocchio (busy on his quest to become a real boy) into the waiting arms of the monstrous Stromboli. The over-weight booze-hound is delighted with his new no-strings puppet until Pinocchio asks for a night off, at which point he’s told he’ll be turned in to firewood like the puppets who have gone before. We’ve all had unreasonable bosses but this guy takes the biscuit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMdijnTMWXs

The Queen

Ties with Gaston for the vainest Disney character ever created. This wagon is so pissed that there's a younger, prettier girl in the world that she figures the only real solution is to kill her. That escalated quickly. Never mind the fact that Snow White is her step-daughter either... bring me her heart.

Gaston

We've all met a Gaston down the local in our time. Thinks he is the bee's knees and cannot for the life of him understand why you'd have to give hooking up with him a second thought - sure isn't he the best catch you'll ever get your mitts on? He's one of the more enjoyable Disney baddies, but whatever about the way he behaves with the Beast, his behaviour towards Belle's dad broke our hearts. Don't mess with our dads... we will hurt you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBqt0a8sgWM