For a long time, Pixar was the undisputed king of animated family films. First making their theatrical debut withToy Storyin 1995,Pixar created hit after hitthat sucked in audiences of all ages thanks to their mature writing and groundbreaking CGI effects. Unfortunately, all good things come to an end, and Pixar’s more recent films haven’t managed to hit the same heights as their earlier releases.
As befitting the quality of their film’s writing, Pixar has produced a number of fantastic animated villains. Of course, while their best are among the highest regarded in any animated film, there will always be some that are overlooked or forgotten. While some of these villains lean on the forgettable side, they serve a purpose in the films they feature in and possess at least one quality about them that makes them worth considering.
10Jackson Storm
Voiced by Armie Hammer
An up-and-coming rookie racer, Jackson Storm (Armie Hammer), uses the latest in racing technology to outperform all other racers. This prompts many older racers to retire since they cannot keep up with him and his fellow rookies, who become known as the “next-gen racers.” The one exception is Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson), who is committed to defeating Storm, even when it seems apparent that he can’t adapt to modern methods.
For the most part, Storm is just a bog-standard sports movie rival and easily one of Pixar’s least compelling antagonists. However, he serves his purpose well by acting as an obstacle for McQueen, which forces him to accept that he is getting older and must now transition into a new stage of his life. Hammer’s voice acting is also pretty solid and helps to sell Storm as a cocksure rookie with the biggest ego in the room.
Watch on Disney+
9Thunderclap
Voiced by Steve Zahn
In an alternate universe where the Crecaceaus Max Extention never happened, a Nyctosaurus named Thunderclap (Steve Zahn) was caught in the eye of a storm and miraculously survived. Having lost his sense of fear thanks to this miracle, he began to follow the storm and gathered a small following of pterosaurs. Whenever a storm ravages the land, the petrosaurs comb through the wreckage, looking for any injured or dead creatures for them to devour.
Thunderclap has the least screentime of any Pixar villain, but he manages to be a memorable part ofone of Pixar’s worst films. He’s a different kind of Pixar villain: a crazed and psychotic creature who speaks of the storm similarly to how a preacher would speak of their religion. When he’s locked eyes on his prey, Thunderclap doesn’t relent until it’s in his belly and is willing to attack anyone who gets in his way.
The Good Dinosaur
8Professor Zündapp
Voiced by Thomas Kretschmann
As alternative fuel sources begin to threaten the oil industry, a group of Lemons decides to sabotage the World Grand Prix to ensure that cars rely on them for oil. They turn to Professor Wolfgang Otto Zündapp (Thomas Kretschmann), an internationally wanted weapon designer who invents an EMP gun disguised as a canon, which is designed to detonate any car using the eco-friendly fuel, Allinol. The only thing that can stop him are a duo of British secret agents and an idiot towtruck named Mater (Larry the Cable Guy), who everyone mistakes for an American spy.
Professor Zündapp is technically the secondary antagonist ofCars 2, acting on the orders of Sir Miles Axlerod (Eddie Izzard), but he comes across as much more entertaining. He leans into the spy movie cliches that are rampant in this film, fitting the mold of the evil genius who chooses to use his talents for ill-gained profit. He even gets one or two decent lines when he’s interrogating prisoners or acting smug towards his spy-adversaries.
7Johnny J. Worthington III
Voiced by Nathan Fillion
The latest in a prestigious family of top-ranked scarers, Johnny J. Worthington III (Nathan Fillion) is the top scarer at Monster University and the head of their most prestigious fraternity, Roar Omega Roar. He is initially excited to welcome James P. Sullivan (John Goodman) of the renowned Sullivan bloodline into the fraternity, only to kick him out when Sully’s poor grades begin to drag the fraternity down. This prompts Sully to join Oozma Kappa to compete against Wothrington in the Scare Games.
Worthington is a bog-standard honor student antagonist who can be found inany college film, but Fillion’s performance helps him stand out. He does a wonderful job making Worthington come across as a confident and egotistical young man who feels invincible due to his upbringing and position. Fans ofMonsters at Workget to see an older Worthington in Season 2, where VFillion returns to play the character after he’s had some time in the post-university world.
Monsters University
6Chick Hicks
Voiced by Michael Keaton and Bob Peterson
Nicknamed “The Runner-Up,” Chick Hicks (Michael KeatonandBob Peterson) has spent his whole racing career in second place behind Strip “The King” Weathers (Richard Petty). The two ended their race in a three-way tie with rookie Lightning McQueen, leading to a tiebreaker race in Los Angeles. During the week before the race, Chick Hicks takes the nickname McQueen gave him, Thunder, and uses it to build a new persona to increase his popularity.
Chick Hicks is a fun antagonist and serves as a good rival for McQueen, highlighting the kind of racer he would have been had he never gone through his character development. To Hicks, all that matters is winning and building his own hype, and he’s willing to use every dirty trick in the book in order to achieve his goal. InCars 3, he returns as a humorous RNS commentator, having lost none of his egotism, and never misses a chance to hype himself up and knock McQueen down.
Voiced by Saverio Raimondo
Every year, the Italian port town of Portorosso hosts a youth-only triathlon consisting of swimming, pasta eating, and bike races for the chance to win a Vespa. The five-time winner is Ercole Visconti (Saverio Raimondo), even though everyone points out that he is clearly too old to keep participating. Ercole spends all his time bragging about his winnings and acting like a bully toward the kids, especially Guilia Marcovaldo (Emma Berman), whose dream is to win the triathlon.
Ercole is one of themost loathsome villains from Pixar. He’s just a bully who thinks that picking on little kids makes him cool, and his fragile ego means that he needs constant validation from his two henchmen, Ciccio and Guido (Peter SohnandLorenzo Crisci). Though there’s not much to him, Ercole’s simplistic style of villainy fits perfectly withLuca’ssmaller scale and slice-of-life feel.
Voiced by LuLu Ebeling
The niece of Australian dentist Philip Sherman (Bill Hunter), Darla (LuLu Ebeling), has a love of fish. As such, her uncle loves to catch fish when he goes scuba diving to give to Darla as birthday presents. Unfortunately, Darla’s immaturity leads to her shaking her fish to death, which seems to be the fate of a young clownfish named Nemo (Alexander Gould), unless he can escape before her arrival.
Darla is just an eight-year-old girl who isn’t ready to have a pet, so she isn’t an active villain who wants to harm others intentionally. However, to the fish characters ofFinding Nemo, she might as well be an eldritch horror thanks to how she lords over them and cares only about her own happiness, regardless of how much she hurts them. It’s a fun way of showing how humans might look at the animals we share the planet with.
Finding Nemo
3Al McWhiggin
Voiced by Wayne Knight
The owner and mashot of Al’s Toy Barn, Al McWhiggin (Wayne Knight), is a greedy toy collector looking to collect all the characters from the hit puppet show, Woody’s Roundup, to sell to a Japanese toy museum. He manages to track down most of the characters but has a hard time finding Woody (Tom Hanks) until he stumbles upon a yard sale at the Davis house. When Ms. Davis (Laurie Metcalf) refuses to sell Woody, Al steals him, prompting Woody’s friends, led by Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), to set off on a rescue mission.
Al is a really great villain for theToy Storyfranchise, as he represents another side of the toy industry. Rather than viewing toys as sources of fun, he collects them for profit, which wouldn’t be so bad if he wasn’t willing to steal. Knight’s voicework goes a long way toward making Al memorable, hitting the right level of immaturity to make Al a comical villain.
Toy Story 2
Voiced by Frank Welker
As a wise king lay on his deathbed, he decreed that his kingdom would be divided evenly among his four sons, which angered his eldest. He demanded that his brothers submit to him, and when they refused, he sought out a witch who could give him the strength to defeat them. Her spell transformed him into a great black bear, who came to be known as Mor’du (Frank Welker) long after the kingdom fell to ruin and legend.
Another notch in the belt of Welker,the king of animal sound effects, Mor’du acts like a force of nature, coming out of the forest to spread terror and destruction before vanishing back to his lair. He proves to be an important piece of Princess Merida’s (Kelly Macdonald) personal journey, since his story serves as a mirror to her own situation with her mother, Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson). Mor’du’s actions teach both of them important lessons: Merida cannot solve every problem with her bow, and Elinor sometimes must use force to defend what she loves.
Voiced by MacInTalk
Created by the Buy n Large Corporation, AUTO (MacInTalk) was designed to be the co-pilot of the spacecraft Axiom, which would house humanity for five years while the Earth was cleared of pollution. However, AUTO is given new orders by CEO Shelby Forthright (Fred Willard) to remain in space indefinitely because the Earth was deemed too toxic for rehabilitation. Even when presented with evidence to the contrary in the form of a growing plant, AUTO does what he can to destroy the plant and remains true to his final directive.
AUTO is a terrific example of a robot antagonist and pays homage to one of the most iconic, HAL 9000 from2001: A Space Odyssey,with his voice and design. He represents the dangers of letting technology control our lives, as he can only follow his programming rather than think or adjust to new variables. This is best demonstrated when he argues with Captain McCrea (Jeff Garlin) about the difference between humanity surviving in space and having the opportunity to live and grow on Earth.
NEXT:Why Pixar Spent So Long Making One of Its Most Beloved Films
