Pixar movies are beloved for their charm; stories that have a subtle edge about them but the enchanting animation and spectacular heroes make for an incredible viewing experience. Much like their protagonists, Pixar movies give their villains an undercurrent that resonates with the audiences long after the credits roll.
For well over two decades now, Pixar has been delivering movies where villains are more than just caricatures of evil. They represent life and its many complexities and prime emotions in a way that’s both enlightening and entertaining. Within their own deceptive worlds, their stories unfold as determined heroes fight back to maintain peace and harmony.
By crafting villains as three-dimensional as their heroes, with relatable desires and questionable methods to achieve them, Pixar establishes an atmosphere where stakes are high. These movies have narratives that combine darkness and lighthearted adventure, making audiences root for the good guy to win at all costs. This list looks at some memorable masterminds of menace who elevated Pixar movies into classics.
20 Ego – Ratatouille
Ratatouille was as much young Remy and his extraordinary talent for cooking as it was for any other character, and the city of Paris itself. Anton Ego, the antagonist of the movie, was a ruthless food critic whose reviews can make or break a restaurant. His scathing comments about Chef Gusteau’s restaurant, where he challenges his “anyone can cook” belief, brought the rating down by a star.
When news of the establishment’s rising popularity reaches his ears, Ego returns to taste the food. Remy’s ratatouille takes him back to his childhood and reminds him of his mother’s cooking. Teary-eyed, Ego leaves Gusteau’s restaurant a changed man.
19 Stinky Pete – Toy Story 2
Woody has always taken pride in his role as Andy’s favorite toy. But in Toy Story 2, when Andy’s family prepares for a move, Woody questions where he truly belongs. Pretending to aid the displaced toys and be a father figure to them is Stinky Pete, or the Prospector. For almost half of the movie, he lures the toys into a false sense of security, before revealing where his true intentions lie.
As an antique toy, Stinky Pete has aged with bitterness over being discarded, over kids only choosing new toys. He plots to sabotage Woody’s rescue by re-tearing his arm. Stinky’s evil genius and silver-tongue manipulation nearly costs Woody his identity and friendship with his toy family.
18 The Underminer – The Incredibles
A villain that appears towards the end of The Incredibles, The Underminer has the ultimate plot to unleash catastrophe upon Metroville. His greatest strength is that he’s multi-faceted. A mole-like supervillain who is also a bank robber, and terrorist, he thrives on chaos and cackles with glee after casting any sort of mayhem.
Though physically unimposing, the Underminder is so intent on collapsing bridges and toppling skyscrapers that he became the major antagonist in the movie’s sequel, where he uses a drill and vacuum-like device to enact his plans, forcing the Parr family to use all their genius and might to fight back.
17 Chick Hicks – Cars
The Cars franchise has a reputation for being conceptually weak but ultimately very dramatic and entertaining. It has seen its own brand of villains, but Chick Hicks is a major baddie. Introduced in the first movie, Cars, he is Lightning McQueen’s main rival. He is known to be dislikeable and he desperately wants to win the Piston Cup.
Because for seasoned racer Chick Hicks, only winning matters. He shoves and sabotages McQueen for the top spotlight. His ruthlessness knows no bounds even after the checkered flag. Both Hicks and McQueen have a certain level of ego, but while McQueen is compassionate, Hicks likes to play dirty.
16 Chicken Man – Toy Story 2
Toy Story 2 has a bunch of evil villains. After all, it sees Woody getting kidnapped, put behind a glass cage, and what not. Chicken Man, or Al McWhiggin, an unscrupulous toy collector, is so devious and greedy that he straight up steals Woody with him despite being told he’s not for sale simply because he wanted Woody to belong in his collection.
Though outwardly appearing a silly middle-aged, glasses-wearing man with a goatee in a chicken outfit, Chicken Man has skills that influence others to his will. He toys his victims psychologically, making sure they’re so full of doubt that they get trapped in his purgatory.
15 Sid – Toy Story
The inaugural movie in the franchise does a fantastic job at introducing fans with mainstays like Andy’s favorite toy, Woody, and Buzz, a new Space Ranger action figure. Toy Story also familiarizes us with the very first antagonist, Sid Phillips. He was Andy’s troubled next door neighbor who did the most horrible things to toys by treating them as objects of destructive play.
Sid derived a twisted glee from dismantling toys and leaving their remnants around. He blew them off, tried to burn them to a crisp, hung them from a height. All the while watching with a chilling detachment. However, fans believed Sid was more misunderstood than evil because he had no way of knowing the toys were alive until the very end of the movie, following which he was ridden with guilt.
14 Evelyn Deavor – The Incredibles 2
The long-awaited sequel to Brad Bird’s iconic animation film maintained its predecessor’s reputation by bringing to screen a truly exciting and evil villain. Evelyn Deavor runs her family’s telecommunications company, DevTech, with her brother. She is also a fan of the Supers and was crucial to making sure the government legalized superhero work. But that’s because she had selfish motives.
Beneath her tech-savvy genius persona lies a plan to keep Supers permanently illegal. She first gains everybody’s trust through manipulation, then entraps them and forces them into wicket acts. The Parrs had a hard time defeating this one due to her dual personality and self-befitting schemes. Even when Elastigirl saves her life, her poisonous hatred stays.
13 Lotso – Toy Story 3
Who would picture a pink, adorable-looking, strawberry-smelling cuddly bear as a villain? The creators of Toy Story 3, apparently. In the movie, Andy prepares to leave for college, leaving his toys behind. Woody ends up in daycare, and just as he begins to look forward to a carefree time, his expectations turn grim under the strict daycare tyranny, Lotso. Or the Lots-O’-Huggin’ Bear.
Once a bear who knew love, Lotso was abandoned by his previous owner and now believes that no toy is worthy of affection. As the leader of the Sunnyside Daycare collection of toys, he rules with an iron fist. His cruelty isolates Woody from his friends and wipes Buzz’s memory to get him on his side. Unlike other Pixar villains, Lotso has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
12 Hopper – A Bug’s Life
A Bug’s Life was Pixar’s second feature-length cinematic outing. It follows Flik, a misfit ant who dreams of inventing wondrous things and has a troop of Circus Bugs working alongside him. But as his ideas are threatened by a fierce army of grasshoppers, he comes face to face with Hopper, their leader.
Hopper lords over his own kind and the anthill with violent enforcement of his demands. He makes the ants turn against Flik, labeling his inventive spirit as worthless and promising brutal reprisal should any bug fall short of obeying his rules. No one dared stand up to him, but only summoning their hidden bravery did the ants finally revolt.
11 Charles Muntz – Up
Charles Muntz is introduced early on in Pixar’s Up. He is the famous explorer admired by Carl Fredricksen, the man who fueled Carl and Ellie’s dream of embarking on a grand adventure. After returning from Paradise Falls in South America, Muntz had made an incredible discovery. But he was ridiculed by peers as fake.
Charles turned fanatical and would later stop at nothing to validate his discoveries – even if it meant destroying the very dreams that he ignited. Like that of Carl’s. Violent in every way possible, Muntz tried to kill Russell, controlled an army of vicious dogs, tried to set Carl’s house on fire, and even used firearms to threaten them. Undoubtedly one of the most horrible Pixar villains, Muntz eventually met his death by falling off a cliff.
10 Gabby Gabby – Toy Story 4
Considering all the other villains in the Toy Story franchise, Gabby Gabby is not the strongest. She’s not even the most evil-looking. As a doll in an antique shop with beautiful porcelain skin and sparkling red dress, she had a heart that desired to be chosen, repaired, loved and adored. However, the acts she committed in order to achieve her dreams? Downright villainous.
Gabby Gabby had a malfunctioning voice box, which is why she was discarded by her owner. She had her heart set on returning to Harmony, her owner’s granddaughter, so she held Forky hostage in exchange for Woody’s voice box. When her plan failed, her sadness festered into an obsession and she used terrifying henchmen to scare them all.
9 Emperor Zurg/Old Buzz – Lightyear
A sworn enemy of the Galactic Alliance and the archenemy of Buzz Lightyear, Emperor Zurg, or Old Buzz is the main antagonist in the Toy Story spin-off movie, Lightyear. He is the franchise’s answer to Darth Vader, but let’s go with the popular opinion and call him an even better villain.
A twisted genius who wanted to go against cadets who still believed in heroism, Zurg was the master of robot-making and was practically impossible to defeat. It’s later revealed in the movie that he is controlled by a human from an alternate future, which only made Zurg fiercer. He was also willing to wipe out Buzz Lightyear’s memory and destroy his past in order to achieve his goals.
8 Johnny J. Worthington – Monsters University
One of the most underrated Pixar movies of all time, Monsters University is the prequel to the 2001 movie. It sees Mike and Sulley, who join Monsters University with the dream of becoming the scariest monsters. They start off as rivals, but after being paired up for some competitive scare-oriented events, they become best friends.
Besides, they’ve got to fight the mean bully and president of the Roar Omega Roar fraternity, Johnny J. Worthington III. When it comes down to uploading his fraternity’s reputation and influence on campus, Johnny wields power and belittles anyone he considers unworthy. He doesn’t flinch in betraying his own brothers and lashes out during the Scare Games.
7 Chef Skinner – Ratatouille
Mean as bosses can get, Chef Skinner was unfazed by Remy’s culinary skills; his own goal was to rake in as much money from the fine Parisian restaurant he managed as possible. Skinner has always resented Gusteau’s, which reflects in his belligerent attitude, his habit of sabotaging orders, and running the kitchen like a military unit.
In a way, Skinner corrupts the art of cooking as a tool to degrade others. Ever since Auguste Gusteau’s death, Skinner has vied for the ownership of the restaurant. Plastering his face on microwavable meals and frozen dinners, and discovering Gusteau had a son who would inherit the business didn’t help at all. Hilarious, cruel, and scary, Chef Skinner reminds you of an evil Gordan Ramsey, doesn’t he?
6 Mor’du – Brave
One of Pixar’s most successful achievements is Brave, which tells the story of Princess Merida of DunBroch. Defying tradition to carve her own path, the princess ends up unleashing an ancient curse in the form of a demonic bear named Mor’du and endangering her homeland.
Mor’du wasn’t always a bear; he was a prince warped by madness into a monstrous shadow of his former self. With no humanity left, his bear-self always acted out of primal instincts and all he did was consume, destroy, and terrify a world that denied him power. The narrative arc of Mor’du reflects upon Queen Elinor and what could happen to her if Merida didn’t reverse the curse.
5 Henry Waternoose – Monsters, Inc.
The basic storyline of Monsters, Inc. revolves around monsters trying to generate screams from children to power their city of Monstropolis. And while these operations are overlooked by the menacing Randall Boggs, the movie reveals Top Scarer and former CEO Henry Waternoose as the true mastermind.
When Henry realizes that his energy scheme is being endangered, the gray crab/spider-like monster with five eyes uses nefarious methods to generate power. He kidnaps children and plots to scare (and eventually murder) them in order to provide energy for his city and save his people from becoming unemployed. Driven by self-interest, Henry Waternoose has motives that are still somewhat understandable.
4 AUTO – WALL-E
Set on a deserted, polluted Earth, WALL-E follows the titular garbage collecting robot left behind to clean up the waste. AUTO is a starship named Axiom’s autopilot software programmed to prevent humans from returning to Earth until it’s safe. Sounds more like a job of a protector than a destroyer, right?
Well, like our protagonists WALL-E and EVE, this robot also develops somewhat of a personality and misinterprets his directive A-113 as a mission to never let humans inhabit Earth. He turns cold and calculative, and begins to see organic life as hazardous. Because he’s inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey’s HAL 9000, watching AUTO as an antagonist in the Pixar movie is as familiar as it is frightening.
3 Randall Boggs – Monsters, Inc.
Having covered Henry Waternoose from Monsters, Inc. it’s time to take a look at another villain and that’s Randall Boggs. As the most beloved scarer in Monstropolis, all he wants is to be in the spotlight and for that he would sabotage rivals; his biggest one being James P. Sullivan.
Randall looks like a slimy, scaly monster whose chameleonic guile triples when exposed. From framing Mike to abducting children, he’s carried out the most villainous activities in Monsters, Inc. in the name of “revolutionizing” the scare industry. It’s only later that we realize he’s being puppeteered by another terrifying villain, but that doesn’t make Randall Boggs any less chaotic, distrustful and fearsome.
2 Ernesto de la Cruz – Coco
Coco takes you to Mexico and tells the story of young Miguel, who dreams of becoming a musician by going against his family’s generations-old ban on music. His inspiration? The famous Ernesto de la Cruz, who charmed audiences with his dazzling looks and addictive music. And Pixar, in classic Pixar fashion, hides its villain in a role model character.
Once revered, Ernesto is revealed as an evil and dishonest man. When Miguel reaches the Land of the Dead and meets Hector – the music star’s former best friend and Miguel’s actual ancestor – and learns of how Ernesto poisoned him and took credit for his music so he could become famous. And to protect the secret, Ernesto goes as far as attempting to kill Miguel.
1 Syndrome – The Incredibles
Easily the best (and most evil) Pixar villain, Syndrome, formerly known as Buddy, was nothing but a superhero-obsessed boy who was neglected and turned away by Mr. Incredible. This made him turn crazy with bitterness and Syndrome developed a God complex despite not having any powers of his own. He wanted to replace the Supers by using destructive technology on them.
Syndrome was everything Pixar imagined an action movie villain would look like – he had a personal vendetta against the protagonist, a wounded ego, a fantastic style, and that rare relatability factor. In the climactic battle, Syndrome comes very comes to proving he might be more powerful than even the mighty Mr. Incredible. It’s too bad his costume design had no capes!
