Don’t worry, I have at least one more list of a more “Halloweenie” vibe coming your way, just taking a quick break while the iron is hot. 
You know…I talk about Disney Villains a lot. Alongside Batman Villains and Bond Villains, they are, to me, the quintessential villains of all time. I’ve covered them more than once, in varying ways…but while I’ve talked about Disney Villains as a whole, and occasionally spotlighted specific baddies for their own lists (like Maleficent and Pete), one thing I really haven’t done TOO often is talk about the rogues galleries within the rogues galleries. After all, Disney is home to MANY different franchises, each with more than their fair share of villains.
I have dabbled in this in the past with two Disney TV series: Darkwing Duck and Gargoyles. But now, I’m going to be broadening my horizons a bit, as we look at not one specific show, but an entire overall franchise. And the franchise of choice is a little something I’m sure none of you have heard of, it’s QUITE obscure…The Lion King.
Yes, I know, many of you probably have absolutely NO clue what The Lion King is. After all, it’s not like it was the highest-grossing animated film of its time, and remains one of the Top 50 highest-grossing movies ever made. And it’s not like it was praised almost universally by critics and sold over 30 million VHS copies in the time of early home video. And it’s not as if the recent live-action remake was such a smash it became EVEN MORE profitable than its animated predecessor, despite lackluster reactions from fans and critics alike, simply because people wanted to try and relive the magic in some way. And it’s not as if the stage version of the story has been, for the past six years, the biggest box-office hit on Broadway, topping even the renowned Phantom of the Opera. And it’s not like everybody you ask is going to say it’s their favorite Disney film and act like it’s the God of cinematic animation while somehow paradoxically not caring for movies like Fantasia and seriously how do you not like Fantasia it’s an artistic masterpiece AND CAN’T PEOPLE PLEASE STOP BECAUSE THE OVERSATURATION OF THIS THING IS ALMOST AS BAD AS FROZEN-Okay. Okay. So…the Lion King is kind of a big deal.
After that little rant, you probably think I hate the Lion King, and it IS a franchise I feel I sometimes neglect on my lists. When I did my first ever list, my Top 12 Disney Villains, Scar – a character everyone calls their favorite – wasn’t even among the ranks. And, for that matter, he still wouldn’t be. The movie itself, when I did my list of My Top 20 Disney Animated Movies, didn’t even make the Top 10, and still wouldn’t. Both Simba and Scar, on earlier countdowns that featured them, usually ranked lower than several other characters in their categories. Heck, even “Be Prepared” – usually considered one of the kings of villain songs, right up there with “Hellfire” – didn’t make the Top 5 on its list!
The fact of the matter is, however, that I DO like the Lion King. A LOT. When I was a kid, my grandmother owned a VHS copy of the film, and I think – at least of the films SHE owned – it was the one I watched the most every time I visited. As a result, it’s probably one of the first Disney films I ever saw, and furthermore watched with great regularity. I bought the sequels, I watched “Timon & Pumbaa” a ton, I could sing the songs from heart (I still can, with at least two or three of them), I adored the thing. But as time has gone on, I’ve started to notice flaws in the diamond, as it were, and other films – even if they have their own flaws (Hunchback, anyone?) – have become ones I feel are just more to my personal taste. This doesn’t mean I DISLIKE the Lion King, however, and to everyone who adores, feel free to keep doing so! It deserves at least 90% of all the praise and attention it gets. I just wish other films got the same amount of recognition.
With the original film such a cultural phenomenon, perhaps the Disney film to end all Disney films, it stands to reason that it would span a massive franchise. I’ve already mentioned the series “Timon & Pumbaa” and the sequel films, but more recently, new life was breathed into the franchise with a show called “The Lion Guard,” which takes place in-between the end of the original film and the start of the second. With all of these different additions to the lore and universe of The Lion King, there have always been those who stand to challenge the heroes of each adventurous installment. In a story about the importance of the Circle of Life and unity among peoples, nothing stands better than those who will do anything they can to selfishly disrupt these very causes, and this franchise has given birth to some terrific baddies. So – for really no good reason – I’ve decided the time has come to honor these denizens of darkness in the Savannah.
Now, I’ll ONLY be counting villains from the aforementioned properties: the animated films and the TV shows. I won’t be counting video games, because (unless you count “Twisted Wonderland,” and in this case, I don’t) they don’t really add any new villains to the mix. I know there were some really interesting Lion King books and comics in the pre-Lion Guard era, but I haven’t actually READ any of them, so I therefore cannot count them, either. And, of course, the remake and Broadway show are basically just reinterpretations of the first film, and don’t really put anything new in, either, in terms of villains. With all this in mind, Be Prepared for SENSATIONAL news! These are My Top 12 Lion King Franchise Villains!
12. Quint.
Well, here’s something I bet nobody expected to see: a HUMAN antagonist. In fact, most of you reading are probably looking at this guy and going, “Ummm…are you SURE that’s a Lion King character, good sir?” Ahhhh, my friends and readers…perhaps you forget about one of the shows I mentioned, “Timon & Pumbaa.” The original Lion King was released in 1994, and with it being such a success, it was decided to create a cartoon series focused on the comic relief figures from the film, the titular Timon & Pumbaa. However, this show wasn’t necessarily in the same canon world as The Lion King. It was styled more in the vein of shows like Animaniacs, or perhaps a slightly less What the Hey Were They Smoking? version of Ren & Stimpy. As a kid, I loved the show; as a teenager, I sort of fell out of love with it, and that lasted well into my early twenties. But, in the past two years or so, I’ve sort of found a rekindled love of the series; I still don’t like it as much as I did as a kid, but I do think it has plenty of merits for its zany sense of scope and style. Because the show wasn’t tied to the world of the film, despite featuring several characters from it, Timon & Pumbaa didn’t necessarily have the “No Humans” rule that other LK-based products have had since. In fact, Quint here was the main antagonist of the series: the only major human villain, to my knowledge, the franchise has ever really had. Inspired by Yosemite Sam of Looney Tunes fame, Quint was a treacherous, conniving crook who could fit into virtually any scenario and setting needed. Since Timon & Pumbaa could go anywhere in place and time for this series, not being bound to any sort of rules of the original established world, Quint could d
o the same. He could be a con artist, a bank robber, a lumberjack, a poacher…whatever obstacle was required, he just became the go-to face and name for Timon & Pumbaa to face. While it was cool to have a running human antagonist in this franchise, the problem with Quint was that his changeability was just as much a pro as it was a con: with the aforementioned Yosemite Sam, he could change his role, too, going from a Western outlaw to a Hessian trooper to a Black Knight, just to name a few parts…but the actual CHARACTER remained basically the same. With Quint, he always looked and sounded the same, but his personality kept shifting: sometimes he was a tough and nasty thug, other times a pretentious stuffed shirt. As a result, it was hard to really get a grasp on who Quint was; he was more like a conceptual being of cartoonish human evil – every bad thing a human could be against Timon & Pumbaa’s animal-based antics. He worked well for the show, I suppose, but it’s easy to see why he didn’t really go anywhere, and I think it’s that lack of a solid identity that makes him rank low on the list.
11. Nuka.
One of the secondary antagonists from the film “The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride,” and a minor antagonist from “The Lion Guard,” Nuka is the biological son of the evil Zira. Frustrated by both the living conditions in the Outlands (always bothered by termites and having little to eat), and resentful towards his adoptive brother, Kovu, who is being trained to become a leader and king, he is a neurotic, constantly aggravated mess of a rapscallion who just never seems to be able to get the praise he desires and feels he deserves. In many ways, he represents the same attention-seeking envy of Scar himself, but while Scar was smooth, cool, and didn’t care what people thought of him, Nuka ultimately DOES care about what people feel about him, and is…well…not exactly smooth and cool. He’s primarily a source of comic relief, as his clumsy physicality and manic personality lead to a lot of chances for humor, but towards the end of his story, you actually do feel bad for the guy while also seeing he COULD be a real threat, if given the chance. The only reason Nuka ranks so low on the list is that, while I do sympathize with him eventually, there are times where his…ahem…EXCITABLE personality can be, to put it bluntly, annoying. And I know he’s probably MEANT to be annoying, the other characters clearly grow irritated by him quickly, but there are ways to do annoying characters without making them annoying to the AUDIENCE, if that makes sense. It’s tricky, but it’s possible. For the most part, however, he works fairly well, and I still feel he’s worthy of a spot on the list.
10. Mama Binturong.
The secondary antagonist of third season of “The Lion Guard,” Mama Binturong is just a purely fun villainess. Her personality and way of working is a lot like an old-time mafia boss (I wonder if Ma Barker was an inspiration here), with her minions – a group of porcupines – being treated as her children. In the beginning, she basically runs a small part of a forest area, and hordes all of the tuliza plants in the area, as they are her favorite food. Anybody who tries to eat her flowers gets a face full of porcupine quills, or even a good maiming from the old binturong herself. When all of her plants are ruined by Bunga, she vows revenge, and joins forces with Makucha (more on him later) to get back at the honey badger and his friends. I love what an old-fashioned sort of villain Mama Binturong is; the way she talks, the way she grins, the way she operates…it feels like something out of an old Saturday morning cartoon. I also love her villain song, “Don’t You Mess With Mama,” which I swear HAD to be inspired by the musical “Chicago.” There’s not much else to say; she’s just an entertaining character that’s fun to watch.
9. Smolder the Bear.
Another antagonist from Timon & Pumbaa! If Quint was Timon & Pumbaa’s arch-enemy, than Smolder the Bear (his name a parody of Smokey the Bear) was their number two villain; their Penguin in contrast to Quint’s Joker, you might say. Smolder was usually not quite as nasty as Quint, as generally he was depicted less as an out-and-out villain, and more as the sort of threat you didn’t want to provoke. He often wasn’t out to do terrible things for terrible reasons, he just was minding his own business or doing his job, and Timon & Pumbaa got in his way. In fact, there were rare occasions where he would turn out to be helpful to them, taking down worse villains, like Quint…but more often than note, he was an antagonistic presence. I always liked Smolder a bit more than Quint; just like Quint, this bear could go anywhere and play almost any role, but there was a lot more consistency to him. His name and voice and general appearance all remained the same, and so did his personality: a tough, bad-tempered, rather voracious beast who had a decided mean streak but wasn’t necessarily a monster. It felt like the same character every time they met him, whereas Quint could LOOK and SOUND like the same character, but never FELT it. As a result, I always tended to prefer him to their human arch-foe; having a definite identity goes a long way.
8. Cheetato & Cheetata.
These are the last villains exclusive to the Timon & Pumbaa series to appear on the list. I actually had a hard time choosing between them and Smolder the Bear; Smolder had more appearances than these two (they only appeared for three episodes), but the reason these two won out is that they felt like they weren’t as restricted in how unrestricted they were. Allow me to explain this pretentiousness: Cheetato & Cheetata, the Cheetah Twins, were a pair of felines inspired by a combination of two VERY unlikely sources. These sources were the Disney version of Shere Khan, and the Looney Tunes characters the Goofy Gophers. Like the Gophers, the twins were distinguished, English-dialect-using characters who were endlessly polite to each other and to other beings…but instead of being chipper and sweet, they were sinister and cold-blooded, seeing other living creatures as basically nothing but food, and determined to gorge themselves on as much meat as they could. In their episodes, their entire goal was basically just to eat and exert control over everything that came across their path; they were cruel, gluttonous, and underneath their sophisticated veneers and eloquent vocabularies, they were ultimately just greedy predators who would devour you alive and claw you to pieces as soon as look at you. Not only were they much more threatening, in my opinion, than either Smolder or Quint, but because of their personalities and the way their episodes played out, they actually felt like they could very nearly belong in the same universe as the original Lion King characters. Sure, they had their fair share of anachronistic jokes, just like others did, but it wouldn’t have been difficult to reimagine them for “The Lion Guard” or other tie-ins and spin-offs to the original movie. I’m sort of amazed nothing came of them; Smolder and Quint were villains who really could only exist in the universe of Timon & Pumbaa – crazy cartoon characters who had very few rules to abide by. The cheetahs were another story; it would have been delightful to see them go places beyond this show…but I guess it just wasn’t meant to be.
7. Vitani.
When your name literally translates to “Demon of War,” you better live up to it. In “The Lion King II,” several of the characters are intentionally designed to bear a distinct similarity to earlier figures. Nuka and Kovu are both essentially two sides of the same coin, and each takes a great deal of inspiration from Scar; as a result, both have certain physical features and color schemes that are similar to Scar’s own. In contrast, Vitani seems to be less a mirror of Scar, and more a mirror of her own mother, Zira. This is reflected not only in her appearance, but also her personality: to be blunt, Vitani’s a little bit crazy. She’s vicious, sadistic, and seems to LIVE to fight and kill. This is not only due to a rugged upbringing in the Outlands, but the fact she’s raised by a mother who was…well…not exactly going to win any mother-of-the-year awards. Vitani can be cruel and twisted, but she’s actually not ENTIRELY without sympathy. In fact, at the end of the second film, Vitani redeems herself, as she realizes her mother’s way is not the right way, and becomes the first of the Outlanders to rejoin Simba’s side. To make the fact doubly strong, it’s only when Zira threatens to kill her own daughter – and her most loyal follower – that the rest of Zira’s pride turns against her. Vitani is instrumental in bringing that balance back, and in the series “The Lion Guard,” we continued to see more soft sides to her character. It’s revealed that, unlike the rest of her family, she genuinely saw Kovu as a brother and cared for him deeply when they were cubs, and it’s possible that’s just as responsible for her turn. She even gets to become the new protector of the Pride Lands, a bold move given her love of violence, but also a sign that her checkered past is steadily slipping behind her. I love watching Vitani; I love her brutal side, and I love seeing the gentle elements at the same time to contrast them. However, my major problem is her redemption: it feels a bit rushed. She really does not give too many indications of being swayed in earlier parts of the film, so when she does do her heel turn in the end, it almost comes out of nowhere. Once you see “The Lion Guard,” it actually makes more sense, but in the film itself, it’s a surprising moment….almost to a fault. Still, it’s effective, and I am glad we got to see more of an indication of why it happened and how, so I can’t really fault the character all that much.
6. Ushari.
Choosing between slots four through six was incredibly difficult, I just want to say right off the bat. Ultimately, Ushari drew the shortest straw there, but as always, I must stress that you do not take this to mean I dislike him. One of the major antagonists of the first two seasons of the Lion Guard, Ushari is a perfect example of brains over brawn: he’s a sly, slippery, silver-tongued serpent who, given his size compared to his opponents – a lion, a hippo, and so on – obviously isn’t the best FIGHTER of the bunch. There’s only so much venom and coils can handle. But what he lacks in physical prowess, he makes up for with his mind; he is the brains behind the resurrection of Scar, and proves to be his single most loyal follower, devoting himself to Scar almost religiously as he works as a sort of advisor to the ghostly lion. Ushari is fun to watch all the way through, but what makes him TRULY fascinating is the way his story ends. SPOILER ALERT: in the final confrontation with Scar, Ushari ambushes Kion and bites him, giving him a Scar of his own and injecting him with a special sort of venom. Shortly after this, once Scar is destroyed, Ushari tries to kill Kion in vengeance, but is tackled by Bunga. The two fall into the pit of a volcano, and while Bunga is saved, Ushari splashes into the lava, never to be seen again. First of all, YIKES. The Lion Guard was made for Disney Junior, the same channel that put out shows like “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” and “Jojo’s Circus.” I seriously NEVER thought I’d see a character, even a villain, DIE in the show…let alone die in such a surprisingly horrific way. That distinction alone wins Ushari merit, but then there’s also the aftermath: the poison he injects into Kion’s veins causes Kion to start to lose control of his Roar, and begins to corrupt his mind and morality. In essence, he and Scar try to turn Kion into the Next Scar himself. A major part of Season 3 thus becomes ridding Kion of their evil influence. So, even after he and his master are destroyed, this creepy cobra STILL manages to be a threat. I love it when a villain’s diabolical deeds live beyond them, so to speak; a villain with a legacy is a powerful thing indeed, and few other villains leave a legacy behind them quite like Ushari.
5. Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed.
This iconic trio has done more for hyenas than…well…actually, I can’t think of any other famous hyenas besides them, so…yeah, there you go. In any case, these three are the leaders of the hyenas that follow Scar in the original film. In the movie, they basically go with Scar because they are tired of being kept out of the Pride Lands, where all the good food is…and food, for them, really is the main objective. It’s very telling that their faith in Scar starts to waver once food becomes scarce, and that when they finally do betray him after hearing him try to shift the blame onto their clan, their choice of punishment is eating him alive. These dastards think with their stomachs, plain and simple. In the original film, the hyenas were funny, but I also always found them kind of scary. In fact, I know a lot of people have called Scar a pretty scary villain, but as a kid, these three always freaked me out a lot more. I don’t really know why; maybe it was the way they were animated, or the fact they were so ferocious and so sadistic when they went for the kill…or maybe it was the fact one of them was played by Whoopi Goldberg and hearing her threaten to rip people apart is kind of crazy, when you think about it. In any event, after the movie, the trio would become recurring characters on Timon & Pumbaa – sometimes as villains, sometimes as protagonists themselves – and they were the closest things to main villains we got in…(shudders)…The Lion King 1 ½. In all these subsequent appearance (not including various cameos and video game roles and so on), they were primarily used for comic relief, and lost much of the bite they had. Still, they remain iconic, and I would be loathe not to include them in the Top 5. However, when it comes to hyenas, there’s one guy who trumps all three…
4. Janja.
This hyena was essentially the main antagonist of Season 1 of The Lion Guard, and one of the secondary antagonists of Season 2, alongside Ushari. Despite the fact that female hyenas are usually the alphas in their clans, Janja has somehow managed to become the leader of his own clan of rogue hyenas in the series. Several of speculated that he’s actually descended from Shenzi, but there’s no physical evidence, as far as I’m aware; in any case, as iconic as the movie hyenas are, I find Janja to be a more interesting character. Keep in mind, the hyenas in the film were just followers, not leaders themselves; on top of that, in later appearances, they mostly became clowns, and weren’t always that villainous. They seemed fueled by hunger and nothing more. Janja is fueled by hunger, too, but he also has deeper motivations: he seeks respect, above all else, and believes that the lions in the Pride Lands have things too good and have gotten too
much favor. He wants to put them back in their place and prove that the Circle of Life is a fantasy: it’s all about taking what you can, and surviving against all odds. While Janja could be amusing, he was mostly played as a straightforward antagonist, with his own minions being the real source of much of the humor. He was tougher and smarter than most hyenas, and he was the one to first really cotton to Ushari’s suggestion to bring Scar back from beyond the grave. However, as the show went on, we began to see some vulnerabilities in Janja, and he eventually reformed and redeemed himself at the start of Season 3. Unlike Vitani, this change felt much better to me, since more time and focus was given to it, and unlike the hyenas from the film, Janja was a capable villain in his own regard with or without Scar. Again, he COULD be funny, but he could also be dangerous, and that never really got lost at any point. It was a tough call, because Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed are obviously more iconic characters…but Janja is just more interesting and has a lot more strength to his character on his own terms. As a result, I feel he tops the original trio…though he’s not quite awesome enough to reach the top three.
3. Zira.
Zealotry, thy name is Zira. This unhinged lioness was the main antagonist of “Simba’s Pride,” and appeared as a sort of “guest villain” in an episode of “The Lion Guard.” Zira was one of a group of lions who actually believed in Scar and followed him faithfully during his time as King; it’s implied that she was effectively Scar’s mate, and is the mother of Nuka, Vitani, and Kovu. Zira is a figurehead for bitterness; if Scar’s greatest sin was envy, then hers is wrath. Everything Zira does is fueled from vengeful anger, as she longs to reclaim the power her leader and/or lover once had, and will stop at nothing to get back at those she blames for his downfall. In both appearances, she is a being who symbolizes unending anger and spite. She’s obsessive and vindictive and incredibly sadistic, with a particularly violent personality and a sense of fury that will never quit. Originally, in the film, Zira was going to commit SUICIDE in the end, because she would rather die than surrender and receive help from one of her enemies; in the final film, this was changed to her simply refusing and ignoring help, which is just as effective in getting the message across, while also being decidedly less disturbing. While rotten to the core, there are indications that Zira isn’t ENTIRELY evil: she seemed genuinely saddened by Nuka’s defeat, and hurt by the betrayal of Kovu and Vitani. None of this, however, stops her from being one bad mama, as she will kill and maim ANYBODY who defies her will, and will not hesitate to punish those who fail her, presumably in violent ways, given her love of bloodshed. She is frankly one of the most vicious and obsessive villains in the Disney canon, and certainly the most openly psychotic of all characters in the Lion King franchise. My only problem is that there are unanswered questions about Zira’s affiliation with Scar, and the fact that, being a villain from a sequel, there’s not really any lead-in to her existence; she was nowhere in the original, after all, yet they build up her loyalty to Scar and her anger over what happened as her major motivation. As a result, I don’t feel justified placing her any higher, but she’s still worthy of a spot in the Top Three.
2. Makucha.
The main reason I love Makucha is the simplicity of his motivations and goals. What he wants more than anything else…is food. Now, I know what some of you are thinking: “He’s not the only one. Weren’t the Hyena Trio and the Cheetah Twins fueled by their stomachs? Heck, wasn’t there an episode of ‘Timon & Pumbaa’ entirely ABOUT those parties competing for food?!” Well, yes, but here’s the thing: the hyenas were never really leaders of too much. They followed Scar in the films, and in subsequent appearances are basically doing their own thing. They’re not major antagonists in the same way Scar and Zira and even Janja were and are. As for Cheetato and Cheetata…again, they only had three episodes, and again, they were essentially rogue elements. Makucha is another story. After being a recurring villain in the first two seasons of the show, Makucha suddenly became the main antagonist of the third and final season of “The Lion Guard.” The plot of that season focused on the Guard going to find a mysterious place called the Tree of Life, and Makucha amassed an entire army to go to the Tree of Life and invade it. Why does he do this? Well, because he’s a gluttonous gourmet, basically! Makucha, in ALL of his appearances, is primarily after food: he’ll eat anything and anybody, but he especially loves things that are rare and one of a kind. Who cares if they’re endangered, they taste good! In fact, if it turns out he eats a species into extinction, that only makes him want them more: you don’t get much rarer than that! While he does tell those he recruits for his army that he’s out for vengeance against the Lion Guard, it’s pretty darn obvious that what he’s really after is just a chance to fill his stomach with food beyond compare. He does a lot of damage and proves quite formidable as an opponent, and it’s all for such a basic, animal reason! He’s not out for power or control, he just wants a buffet! Unlike Zira, whose origins are a bit tenuous, Makucha was built up in prior episodes, so by the time he becomes a huge threat, we already know what he’s like and what he’s capable of. Also, unlike Janja, there is no redemption for this hungry leopard; he remains a rascal to the bitter end. His ultimate fate is left a tad ambiguous; it’s entirely possible he survived, something characters like Ushari cannot say they achieved. He could always come back and cause trouble again! Top it off with the voice of Steven Blum – who even gets one of the better villain songs in the show, “Tree of Life” – and you have a pretty clear choice for my personal favorite villain from the show, and my second favorite for this franchise.
But while I do love Makucha quite a bit…come on, we all know who number one has got to be…
1. Scar.
Was there really ever a moment’s doubt? Scar was the original Lion King Villain, and really, no other bad guy in the franchise has had quite the effect he has. Out of the twelve baddies on the list, no less than SIX were affected by his presence in some way, and this is not even counting the Honorable Mentions, which would bring things up to about ten, possibly eleven! As if killing his own brother, attempting to murder his nephew, taking over the throne, recklessly endangering his kingdom, and mistreating his sister in law weren’t all terrible enough, this dastardly devil returned in “The Lion Guard” as a phantom, plotting evil deeds to get his revenge with the help of a whole new cavalcade of cretins! While elements of his origins (both those in the show and in the aforementioned books – those are better, by the way) have sympathetic qualities, Scar himself is ultimately a monster; he’ll stop at nothing to get what he wants, and doesn’t care who he has to destroy in order to see his goals met. Despite that, he can be a charming and entertaining antagonist, as he has a great sense of humor and a sense of prim sophistication to himself. Despite his claims that he isn’t one for brute strength, while he IS a master planner, he’s not above getting his claws a bit bloody when he has to. Le
t us not forget, he physically hurled Mufasa to his doom, nearly did the same to Simba, and – when the chips were down – he was quick to fight back and very nearly beat his nephew. Let us not also forget that, by the time that climactic battle happened, Scar wasn’t exactly in his youthful prime; he was a lot more dangerous than he often seemed and perhaps liked to seem, he just preferred to use his mind over his matter. When you top it all off with Jeremy Irons’ delicious vocals in the original film (and I must give kudos, too, to David Oyelowo, who played him in The Lion Guard), you have a phenomenal antagonist, and it’s easy to see why so many rank him as one of Disney’s finest. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it; this choice was a foregone conclusion. Scar is undeniably and without any contest at all My Favorite Lion King Villain.
Honorable Mentions Include…
Makuu.
This deep-voiced crocodile was, much like Janja, a villain who later redeemed himself and became a hero. However, we get more time with Janja as a villain, and unlike the hyena, Makuu was never the main antagonist, just a common recurring foe. Still, he was an interesting character – one of my favorites in the series – and I felt he needed at least the Honorable Mention.
Mzingo.
Ever wonder what would happen if the Vultures from The Jungle Book wound up in the Lion King universe? Mzingo has you covered. Why DO so many Disney vultures have English dialects anyway?
Honorable Mentions Include…
Chuluun.
Kiburi.
Ora.
Reirei.
Shupavu.
