What would our beloved animated classics be like without their villainous antagonists? These bad guys aren’t merely obstacles for the heroes—they’re frequently the emotional anchors of the tale, adding tension, depth, and indelible panache. Tragic, frightening, or simply theatrically evil, animated villains tend to upstage the heroes and linger in our minds far beyond the final credits. The following are ten of the most iconic villains in animated film history, and what makes each of them so iconic.
Jenner – The Secret of NIMH
The first film from Don Bluth, this is a hauntingly good, emotionally rewarding experience, and Jenner is one of its most shadowy characters. Voiced by Paul Shenar, Jenner is a rat with an insatiable lust for power who resists any attempt to move beyond a life of subservience, no matter if it involves resorting to murder. His refinement and brutal competitiveness render him a terrifying figure, representing the fear of advancement and the savagery that can lurk behind the intellect. Although he appears on screen briefly, Jenner is left with a lasting impression courtesy of the intense pace of the film and the unexpected maturity of its themes.
Phantasm – Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Batman’s rogues gallery is populated with iconic villains, but Phantasm introduces a noir twist that’s never been seen before. Voiced by Stacy Keach, this masked villain stalks Gotham’s underworld with haunting precision. The ghost-like appearance and grim reaper-esque mask immediately summon fear, but it’s what’s hiding behind the mask that gives Phantasm emotional depth. The tragic history of the character makes Phantasm more than an enemy to Batman, a reflection of his suffering and decisions.
Grigori Rasputin – Anastasia
Christopher Lloyd dives headfirst into his wonderfully over-the-top voiceover of Rasputin, transforming the legendary Russian mystic into a monstrous, zombie-like villain driven by dark magic and a thirst for revenge. The animation goes full-on surrealist and ghoulhouse, and Lloyd’s acting veers wildly from menacing to ridiculous, giving us a bad guy who’s as fun to watch as he is frightening. Throw in a bat sidekick and a couple of ghoulish musical numbers, and Rasputin is a madcap gem of this animated epic.
Professor Ratigan – The Great Mouse Detective
Vincent Price’s Ratigan is a love letter to showy villainy. Half-dandyized crime lord, half-fuming beast, Ratigan is proud of his evilness—and Price’s peerless voice acting imbues him with an irresistible grandeur. As a rodent equivalent of Moriarty, Ratigan exudes intellect, ego, and a barely contained brutality, and so he ranks among Disney’s most charming and nuanced villains.
Grimmel the Grisly – How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
Played by F. Murray Abraham, Grimmel is a cold-blooded, calculating dragon hunter who all but wipes out the Night Fury breed. He’s the ideal antagonist to Hiccup: where Hiccup views dragons as friends, Grimmel views them as quarry. His tranquility and strategic mind make him a terrifying villain, and Abraham’s acting adds an unnerving calmness to each menace. Grimmel doesn’t only test Hiccup physically—he invades the ideals Hiccup has defended.
King Haggard – The Last Unicorn
Christopher Lee imbues King Haggard with Shakespearean gravitas, a melancholy monarch beset with the desire to amass the remaining unicorns merely to experience something. Few fairy tale bad guys are motivated by anything other than greed or revenge, but Haggard is compelled instead by an empty melancholy that approaches existential horror. His misery is as terrifying as his brutality, and Lee’s fidelity to the material lends this peculiarly off-putting villain a tragic majesty.
The Beldam – Coraline
Teri Hatcher’s creepy portrayal of the Beldam, or Other Mother, earns her a place among the scariest villainesses in contemporary animation. Tempting children with love and comfort at the horrible price of entering a grotesque alternate reality, the Beldam is the epitome of psychological terror. The transition from fretful homemaker to razor-jointed, needle-fingered terror is one for the nightmares. It is Beldam’s manipulation of the mind that makes her so frightening, as she exploits the emotional weaknesses of her victims.
Titan – Megamind
Jonah Hill’s Titan is the dark spin on the superhero origin story. As a rejected “nice guy,” Hal Stewart evolves into a lethal supervillain when he acquires huge power—and demonstrates that he is wildly ill-equipped to handle it. His arrogance and slide into anarchy are both chilling and, sometimes, darkly humorous. Titan’s journey is an allegory for power without principle, and Hill brings every shred of his small-time, apoplectic anger to it.
Shere Khan – The Jungle Book
With less screen time than almost anyone else, Shere Khan has a disproportionate influence. Played by the voice of George Sanders, this tiger oozes refinement and menace, inspiring fear with a mere calm word or a twitch of the tail. He is more than a thug—he’s a predator with elegance and intent, fueled by a fierce loathing of man. The presence of Shere Khan casts a dark shadow over the movie, and when he does appear, he fulfills every sinister suggestion.
Captain Hook – Peter Pan
Hans Conried’s Captain Hook is the definitive animated pirate—menacing and risibly theatrical. Hook is fixated on revenge against Peter Pan and cowering in fear of the crocodile that doggedly pursues him. He hovers between menace and farce. His unsettling combination of danger and comedy keeps him in viewing rotation forever. He is a bad guy, but he is also the life of the party.
These villains aren’t foils to the heroes in the classical sense—they’re fully realized characters in and of themselves. With brash animation, great voice acting, and deep storytelling, they become the living, beating pulse of the movies they inhabit. Whether tragic, frightening, or simply too much fun to despise, they remind us that a good story requires a good villain—and these ten deliver in spectacular ways.