The 7 Most Terrifying Disney Movie Deaths
Kids, like adults, love it when bad things happen to bad people. So Disney movies always make sure the villain gets what they've got coming to them in the end.
And, sometimes, Disney gives them what they had coming, and then way, way more. Here are seven Disney villains who got dispatched in (sometimes literally) gut-wrenching ways sure to keep the kiddies up for many nights.

Ursula is a sea witch, which any marine biologist will tell you means "eight-legged obese Mermoctopus." After the movie's heroine Ariel meets Prince Eric (Eric? Really Disney?), she decides that she absolutely must become human, probably due to the limitations of human/mermaid sex.
"Oh, okay, I can see why this is going to be a problem."
The evil Ursula gives her a set of legs and lungs in exchange for her voice. Being an evil bitch, Ursala makes the trade at the bottom of the ocean. Ariel becomes human and almost drowns, barely managing to make it to shore, and Ursula, who's somehow a heavy smoker, cackles raspily because she totally saw that shit coming. What a bitch.
How She Died:
Near the end of the movie, Ursala blackmails king Triton into giving her the Magical Trident, the "One Ring" of The Little Mermaid. This allows her to transform into a giant, super Ursula that controls the weather.

The Prince, deciding that he's had quite enough of this shit, steers his ship through a whirling vortex of doom and freaking impales Ursula right through the gut.
In Greek, for bonus weirdness. Death-y goodness at 2:00.
For whatever reason, this causes lighting to strike her for an effective electro-stab combo. If they'd only stuck an explosive in her mouth, they would have covered the shark-kills from all four Jaws movies.

She screams in agony and falls back into the ocean, the saltwater and electricity searing through the massive open wound in her belly and charring her huge, exposed intestines (that last part is implied but not shown).
The horror of this fresh in everyone's mind, the king gets his Trident back, and makes everyone happy and everything better somehow. Is there no problem a large-scale impalement can't solve?

Scar is King Mufasa's brother. He not only conspired against and subsequently killed his own brother, but tried to kill his nephew and (presumably) boned his late brother's wife.
This is the sort of thing that goes on all the time among lions, but nobody makes a fuss until the lions start talking.

How He Died:
When the fully grown Simba finally returns from his frolicking adventure with the comedy relief, he returns, likely hoping for some kind of peaceful resolution. Scar is having none of it, despite that fact that he's an old rag next to Simba.

After the longest, least sexy catfight we've ever seen, Scar is thrown from the cliff and finds himself in front of his hyena minions. The very same hyena minions he just sold out to Simba a few moments before. The heyenas question his leadership skills, and quit their jobs, leaving Scar to think about what he's done. Oh wait, no they actually tear him to shreds.
The lesson: Never insult a Hyena.
Fun fact: Hyena's jaws are strong enough to crush bone. We of course have no way of knowing which part of Scar's body their teeth ripped through first, so we're forced to assume it was his dick.

Shan-Yu is a Mongolian warlord. The movie says very little about where he came from, but, judging by the eyes, we're going to assume he's a distant Mongolian relative of Darth Maul.
How He Died:
Mulan, who the movie repeatedly demonstrates is the single competent human being in China, follows Shan-Yu alone, eventually climbing onto the roof to set up an elaborate trap. Shan-Yu uses his Mongolian ninja powers to jump through the roof right next to her.

Using her fan, Mulan manages to pull the sword out of his hand in a move that makes Bruce Lee look like a white belt. Just as Mulan is about to kill Shan-Yu, the assistant producer reminds her that this movie needs a G rating. So, she stabs her sword into the ground and kicks him instead. Our bloodlust looks like it's going to go woefully unfulfilled. But wait!

It's Deus Ex Machina, the friendly dragon, come to help her! He fires a rocket the size of Texas, strong enough to lift the 600-lb man off his feet and torpedo him into a building crammed full of miscellaneous fireworks. Kapoosh.
So basically, it's the ludicrously violent death from Naked Gun, only instead of being played for laughs, it's the climax of a kids movie. Burning chunks of Mongolian fall from the sky, always kept barely off-camera or behind an explosion, as everyone below celebrates. Happy days, indeed.
"I think you've got one of Shan-Yu's teeth in your hair."

Clayton is a hunter who visits Tarzan's neck of the woods. Everything from the red scarf to the tiny-ass mustache gives off clear douchebag signals. He's the neighbor your father used to hate. Worse, he turns out be a hunter of gorillas (not actually legal) and he shoots Tarzan's adopted daddy to death.
How He Died:
When it comes to jumping around trees in the jungle and swinging from vines, nobody can beat Tarzan, though we suppose a freaking double-barreled shotgun that doesn't need reloading doesn't hurt your cause. Having failed to learn the lessons of history and the first two Rambo films, Clayton decides his superior weaponry is all he needs to fight Tarzan on his own turf.

The struggle ends up with Clayton suspended over a cliff, tangled up in vines. He starts hacking away at everything, save for the vines that are tightening around his neck which, quite frankly, we would have started with.
Finally, he cuts one vine too many and they can't support his weight. Vines still around his neck, he falls...
Lightning strikes, revealing the shadow of his dangling, lifeless corpse. Clayton snapped his neck on the vines and he is left hanging there, his big swollen tongue hanging out, his eyes bulging, and the contents of his bowels slowly making their way down his trouser leg.

Or he died from exposure after hanging there for two or three days. Either way, what the hell Disney?








Someone probably already mentioned it (I don't feel like reading all 600+ comments) but what about Oogie Boogie? He has his skin slowly ripped off and then his guts (the bugs) burn one by one while shrieking in agony. That scene really got me as a kid.
ReplyI have to agree with the author that "Hellfire" is easily the best melodramatic villain song in the Disney universe, along with the most overtones of obvious sexual frustration in a Disney song.
ReplyThe Frollo thing is made even more terrifying when you realize it was molten copper he fell into. It must be nice to have money to blow on elaborate killing tactics. That shit's expensive!
ReplyQuasi didn't really have that money, he just happened to have control of the pot that the copper was melted in.
Atlantis!!?? Seriously that guy being turned into a crystal on a fiery hot air balloon in a volcano then being thrown into the blades of the balloon and shattering into a million pieces while his girlfriend got crushed by the falling balloon deserves to be here!!!! *takes a deep breath*
ReplyNo Dr Faciller? Are you kidding me?
Reply*Spoilers*
He gets dragged into FRICKEN HELL to the beat of a catchy yet scary reprise of his theme song. COME FRIEND *predator smile*
Also what about Zira? I know Lion King 2 is a shadow of Lion King 1 but the fact she
*Spoilers*
KILLS HERSELF
*end spoilers*
In a diney film is pretty surprising, to say the least.
Also I like the interpration that Frollo's death is delivered by God passing judgement or Satan dragging him into hell
No Dr Faciller? Are you kidding me?
Reply*Spoilers*
He gets dragged into FRICKEN HELL to the beat of a catchy yet scary reprise of his theme song. COME FRIEND *predator smile*
Also what about Zira? I know Lion King 2 is a shadow of Lion King 1 but the fact she
*Spoilers*
KILLS HERSELF
*end spoilers*
In a diney film is pretty surprising, to say the least.
Also I like the interpration that Frollo's death is delivered by God passing judgement or Satan dragging him into hell
The Princess and the Frog wasn't around when this article was written.
They need to make a part II of this.
Reply"Even More 7 Terrifying Disney Movie Deaths".
This article was frightening and awesome. :) Good work Levi!
I don't think any of these deaths terrified me when I watched them, but I remember being pretty disturbed in that scene in The Incredibles.. in which Mr. Incredible discovers all the other superheroes have been 'terminated'.
ReplyThe Incredibles could probably have just let Syndrome escape; thinking things through wasn't exactly his style. For example, when he plans to become a superhero by defeating his own battle robot, he was thinking "triumphant victory over killer robot," not "actually fighting a massive, beweaponed, intelligent armoured killer robot." Result: he got his ass kicked.
ReplySimilarly, when he kidnapped the youngest Incredible to raise as a sidekick to one day fight at his side against his own family, he was thinking "awesome badass smackdown with plently of irony, comic book-style," rather than "actually raising and caring for an actual baby, FOR YEARS." Result: he'd've been back there by the next day, asking them to "please, PLEASE take this thing back, it won't stop crying and I don't know why."
Clayton's death? You forgot his boner. Men often get raging boners when they are hanged. That's where the concept of auto-erotic-asphyxiation comes from.
ReplySeriously.
Even I would not have thought to say that... :/
I thought Clayton's death couldn't be any more disturbing... I was wrong :L
The amount of typos made in this article is appalling, at least.
ReplyAnd I never point out typos, but DAMN. Them typos.
Hilariously, I'm a grammar nazi and I didn't see anything that jumped out at me. If by "appaling punctuation" you mean like a misplaced comma or something like that... so? The only thing worth being a grammar nazi is when a mispelled word actually alters the meaning of a sentence.
I thought the scariest Disney death was Kevin Spacey's from "A Bug's Life." He certainly made it scary, screaming at the top of his lungs while being fed to birds.
ReplySyndrome was awesome, and even though his death was a great moment, I really wish he'd lived. He was by far, the best Disney villain ever. Hell yeah! I love darker moments in Disney movies. They always sort of surprise you.
Replyand I love how he becomes a super villain out his desire to become a beloved superhero, whoever wrote that movie has a nice sense of irony.
Good ol' Pixar. If you want a well written, beautifully animated movie, you can count on them to dish it out.
Claytons is the only one that ever made me cringe.
ReplySo that picture of the guy whose head is in mid-explosion you guys use all the time on cracked, is the number 1 death? I have to say my mind... *puts on sunglasses* ...has been blown. YEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH
ReplyThey forgot to mention Buzz and Woody from Toy Story 3. They were sliding into a fire and, well I turned it off so I didn't have to watch those poor toys burn but that's just awful.
Reply Hide All See All 4 RepliesWatch the end, it ends up being happy. A total deux ex machina, but that's okay.
They melt and the only survivor is Buzz who now wears woodys hat and rexs head as his hand, who out of rage awakens his fellow buzzs' at al toy barn and hunts down the purple teddy bear and tear him apart mercilessly.
Buzz then sets out alone righting wrongs against toy kind.
@buroot I'd have preferred that over the happy ending crap.
Buroot's idea for a movie has to be Toy Story 4. Another improvement that should be made is a massive toy war when every toy in the nation had enough of being thrown around and torn to shreds, so they go to kill all of the humans.
you forgot to mention that Frollo fell on his freaking head
ReplyBut those aren't spikes! That's just a stream or running water!
ReplyThere are spikes. Watch a clearer version.
I don't know about this article. In all of these cases, Disney strove to make the villain in question an embodiment of the Platonic form of evil and let us live out our deep, dark wish-fulfillment fantasies of destroying the f**k out of those we hate. Couldn't there have been a different angle on this one?
ReplyOf course. What's your point?
But why did Scar killing Mufasa make me all fulfilled inside but when he died I was all "NOOOOOOOOO!". Mind you this was when I was like five even.
Wow, where to start on the Mulan segment? First of all, they were Huns, not Mongols who were around roughly 800 years after the Huns. Then you say he uses his "ninja" skills; ninja is Japanese (you were probably just using the closest word you could think of to describe it).
Reply.. Go away. He doesn't mean he is a ninja. Get a sense of humor and get a life.
Didn't they all come from the steppes?