For those who don’t know, I’m a pretty big fan of Pixar. I’ve always loved animated movies, whether they come directly from Disney’s animation area, or they’re in the realm of anime such as Studio Ghibli, but Pixar is pretty high up there in terms of making movies that have really gained my respect.
I tend to either really love or really not care about villains in Pixar movies. If you’re looking for ways to make the time pass quicker while we all wait for Elemental to release as part of the 2023 movie schedule, here is every single one of Pixar’s main villains, ranked by horribleness.
23. Sid (Toy Story)
Oh, I’m about to get some flack for this – but I don’t think Sid is a villain.
Yes, he is the major antagonist of Toy Story, literally the mother of all of these movies and Pixar’s biggest franchise, but I don’t see Sid as a truly evil person. To be quite honest, I’m pretty sure every kid has that phase where they mess around with their toys. His was just a little more graphic.
22. Ercole (Luca)
Ercole can't be the worst villain of them all, because he’s just a bully. That’s it.
Luca wasn’t one of those movies that needed a villain. In fact, this film could have told the exact same story without introducing Ercole as an antagonist, but he was there. He was a bully. Nothing new.
21. Jackson Storm (Cars 3)
I only just saw Cars 3 a few weeks before writing this list because I had no interest in watching it, but I gave it a shot.
The movie was good – way better than Cars 2, and with an emotional ending, but again, this is another case where the movie didn’t need a villain. I would have gladly watched Lightning McQueen coach a young car into becoming a star without Jackson Storm trying to bully that rookie.
20. Ego (Ratatouille)
I wrote a whole piece on why I genuinely love the hell out of Ratatouille, and Ego is a great part of it.
Sure, he’s seen as an antagonist in the eyes of chefs because he is the food critic, but he’s not evil. He’s really just doing his job. He’s sort of like the Gordon Ramsay of Paris – except without all the crazy competition shows.
19. Johnny J. Worthington (Monsters University)
Monsters University is certainly one of my underrated favorites from Pixar, but in terms of villainy, there isn’t really one person I can point out besides Johnny J. Worthington.
Worthington was the head of Roar Omega Roar and was a jerk to both Mike and Sulley. He’s really just the typical annoying fraternity bro you’d see in any college movie, but he also was willing to play dirty to get what he wanted in the Scare Games, so he at least earns a higher spot for that.
18. Thunderclap (The Good Dinosaur)
The Good Dinosaur is so forgettable I barely remembered the villain, Thunderclap. I mean, it’s really just the leader of a gang of pterodactyls in the Stone Age.
I’ll put him up here because not only did he lead a gang, but they were all carnivorous and tried to kill both Arlo and Spot.
17. Zurg/Old Buzz (Lightyear)
As someone who was one of the few people who actually saw Lightyear in theaters before it bombed, I still enjoyed it, and for a moment, I liked the twist villain in it where Zurg was actually Old Buzz from the future.
Old Buzz at least had a decent plan in order to advance technology. He was willing to do whatever it took in order to obtain his goal, even destroying the past and erasing the lives of people that Young Buzz knew, so for that he's listed at seventeen.
16. Miles Axelrod (Cars 2)
Cars 2 is sort of considered the worst among all the Pixar movies, for many reasons. One is that the villain, Miles Axelrod, isn't that strong and as forgettable as Thunderclap.
However, Axelrod at least had a very nefarious and carefully thought out plan throughout the sequel, where he wants to discredit alternate fuel and somehow become rich by tapping oil reserves secretly. He was greedy and evil and I’ll give him some praise for actually being a decent enough villain.
15. Mor'du (Brave)
It’s a bear. Of course it’s going to try and kill people.
Brave honestly gets too much hate from people and I’m not sure why, but this is another case where the movie didn’t necessarily need a villain, as the main story was focused on the relationship between Merida and her mother. But I do like Mor’du because he’s genuinely just a demon bear, he just wants to kill. I’m fine with that.
14. Gabby Gabby (Toy Story 4)
Toy Story 4 was really unnecessary in the grand scheme of things – and honestly, the upcoming Toy Story 5 is too. But Gabby Gabby was a fun antagonist.
She did do some pretty horrible things – like trying to take Woody’s voice box in order for hers to work again – at the end of the day, however, she was just a broken toy – physically and mentally, and wanted to be loved.
13. The Underminer (The Incredibles)
Truthfully, The Underminer is pretty memorable from the end of The Incredibles – and he’s a villain in the beginning of The Incredibles 2. He’s not the best one on this list, though. He’s just sort of there to advance the plot.
Even so, he’s willing to destroy entire cities and eliminate plenty of lives for his nefarious plans, so I’ll give him that.
12. Stinky Pete (Toy Story 2)
Stinky Pete from Toy Story 2 is a great example of how past demons haunt someone, and he was an excellent antagonist in the movie. He was never bought by children, and never got the chance to be played with, so he felt that Woody and the other toys shouldn’t be given the chance.
It’s another case of being tormented by the past, but he did a lot of horrible things, such as sabotaging Woody’s escape plan, tearing his arm, and plenty more, so he ranks decently high here.
11. Chick Hicks (Cars)
Chick Hicks of Cars is annoying at best, but he is a decent antagonist. Not only is he voiced by Michael Keaton (a great choice), he’s pretty much the worst a car could get – blatantly running people off the track and forcing cars to crash.
That’s pretty dang bad – and while I don’t think it cracks the top 10, he certainly ranks higher than the other Cars franchise villains.
10. Evelyn Deavor (The Incredibles 2)
Top ten. The Incredibles 2 was a fun ride, and I really liked the villain, Evelyn Deavor. Her having a grudge against superheroes because of what happened to her father makes a lot of sense, and she was incredibly smart. She wanted to ruin the reputation of supers, which we’ve seen before, but it was creative enough this time around that I give her number ten.
9. Chef Skinner (Ratatouille)
Again, this is another case of someone just trying to do his job, but Chef Skinner in Ratatouille was kind of awful in many other ways.
He was greedy in the way he ran things and was willing to sell out for just a little more money. He also hid the fact that Linguine was Gusteau's son so he could inherit the business, so that was a pretty bad thing to do.
8. Lotso (Toy Story 3)
I feel like whenever people think of Pixar villains, they think of Lotso, and that’s a good villain to think of. He was a great addition to Toy Story 3 and added plenty of compelling story to it with his pink fur that smelled like strawberries.
He was willing to send toys to their deaths for his own wants and needs, because he was abandoned by his own child, so he holds a grudge. It’s a fair thing to be upset about – but it’s what he does after that makes him evil.
7. Hopper (A Bug’s Life)
Everyone – and I mean everyone, always forgets about Hopper because A Bug’s Life came out in 1998, but Hopper was a vicious leader. Not only was he willing to do anything to take out the ants, he was truly such a jerk to everyone, even the ones who fought on his side. The end he got was fitting, considering what he did.
6. Randall Boggs (Monsters Inc.)
I don’t think Randall is the ultimate Monsters Inc. villain, but he’s certainly creepy. With the ability to hide easily, he really makes use of it, and his pure need to beat Sulley in everything at work drives him to create a machine to suck screams out of people. That’s pretty bad.
5. Henry Waternoose (Monsters Inc.)
Waternoose, however, gets the top spot in the Monsters Inc world. I don’t even need to explain why that much. I’ll just give you this one quote of his from the movie as my reasoning:
“I'll kidnap a thousand children before I let this company die!”
I mean, come on. Come on. He’s evil.
4. Ernesto De La Cruz (Coco)
Okay, so I have a very strong connection to Coco. I am Latina and love this movie with my whole entire heart and think it's a beautiful representation of Latinx cultures, but this villain – he changed my life.
Ernesto de la Cruz was the embodiment of greed in a dead person. Not only did he steal the songs of his best friend and pass them off as his own, he poisoned him so he’d never get caught. He was literally only caught in the afterlife. That’s a true villain right there – and one of the few villains with a twist of Disney/Pixar's that's worked.
3. Charles Muntz (Up)
Up’s villain, Charles Muntz, is often overshadowed by the movie's heart wrenching ten-minute opener, as well as the sweet story that follows after, but Muntz is very evil.
His obsession with exploring has driven him to do very evil things, including killing travelers who might be looking for the same exotic bird as himself, and imprisoning hundreds of dogs to work for him.
2. AUTO (WALL-E)
Wall-E was one of those movies that I didn’t realize was so emotional until I re-watched it as an adult, but AUTO? Yeah, he’s legit evil.
While you could also say that AUTO was just following his programming, he did some pretty terrible things, including causing the near death of Wall-E, and trying to take control of the ship, causing thousands of humans to be injured during the experience. If it wasn’t for McCree getting control of him, who knows where AUTO would have taken them.
1. Syndrome (The Incredibles)
I mean, is anyone surprised? Syndrome is the ultimate Pixar villain. Wanting to be a sidekick and pushed aside by his idol, Mr. Incredible, he made it his life mission to make sure everyone could be super so no one would be special, ever.
That included making death machines that took out superheroes so he could expand on his own knowledge. This also meant he would send certain death machines to cities to literally kill thousands of people, all so he could look like a hero by stopping them.
Let’s also not forget that he nearly kidnapped Jack-Jack. He’s pretty bad – but we love him for that, don’t we?
Pixar has some awesome villains, and I’m sure this list is only going to expand. Will we ever get another as great as Syndrome? Only time will tell.
