Animation
Maleficent
Sleeping Beauty · 1959
The most elegant design in the history of animated villainy
Threat index 85
Sorcerer · Animation
The Evil Queen
The first, and still one of the most frightening
Attribute scores
Power78
Intellect74
Menace76
Fear factor84
Cultural impact96
Charisma80
Editorial estimates on a 0–100 scale, calibrated against every other character in the index. Not official canon.
Who they are
The very first villain in a feature-length animated film sets the entire template: a magic mirror, a vanity-driven motive, a poisoned apple and a transformation into a hag that terrified audiences in 1937 and still lands today. Everything animation would later do with villain design, staging and menace begins here, in a film released before most of its imitators' creators were born.
Defining traits
Magic mirrorAlchemical transformationVanity as motivePoison craftGenuinely unsettling design
What makes them dangerous
She has magic, a throne, and a willingness to do the killing herself when her huntsman fails.
And what undoes them
The disguise that lets her get close also strips away everything that made her powerful.
Things you might not know
- La Verne reportedly produced the hag's voice by removing her dentures.
- The transformation sequence was so effective that contemporary reviews warned parents about it.
- The queen's regal design was based on stylized medieval portraiture, while the hag drew on caricature traditions.
Why number 8 in Animation & Anime
The first feature-length animated villain and the origin of nearly every convention that followed, including a transformation that frightened audiences in 1937.
Why number 13 in Most Iconic
The first villain in a feature-length animated film, and the origin point for the magic mirror, the poisoned apple and the transformation scene.