Sept. 25th-Nov. 1st Disneyland is celebrating Halloween! For details go to http://disneyland.disney.go.com/disneyland/en_US/calendar/specialEvents/detail?name=HalloweenTimeSpecialEventPage
Captain Hook is a pirate with a grudge. Although he fancies himself too clever for an impudent imp like Peter Pan, in their last bout the boy fed Hook's hand to a crocodile. Now Hook wants revenge, and his ship and all its men will stay anchored in Never Land's waters until he gets it. If only he could find Pan's hideout, he'd trap him in his lair. The deed will take diabolical planning and a treacherous streak of charm, and no one takes greater pleasure in both than Hook. If only that dreaded crocodile would stop circling his ship, licking its chops for the rest of him, he might be able to concentrate on the matter at hand ... er ... hook.
Ask Cruella how she's feeling and she'll reply with extravagant glee, "Miserable, darling, as usual. Perfectly wretched." And that's the way she likes it. Fur coats are her only love in life. She adores fur, "absolutely lives for it," and the fur she lives for today is the spotted variety -- dalmatian, that is. Roger and Anita's dalmatians. "Such perfectly beautiful coats," she purrs as she plots, thinking how much better those spots would look on her. Who cares if Pongo and Perdita's tiny pups are rather attached to that fur -- or that they're not for sale at any price? She'll do whatever she has to do to get those beasts and their coveted coats. And once in her evil hands, those puppies must never leave "Hell Hall" alive. Cruella may live for fur -- but the pups, well, she doesn't give much thought to them.
Created by Marc Davis, talented animator of both Maleficent and Cinderella, Cruella is considered a masterpiece of animation art and design. Voiced by Betty Lou Gerson (who also voiced Mrs. Birdwell of the "What's My Crime" gameshow panel), she performed a manic take-off on famous actress Tallulah Bankhead. Character actress Mary Wickes (recently seen in "Sister Act" and "Little Women") performed the live-action reference that helped bring to life one of the most wicked of Disney villains.
Film: "101 Dalmatians" (1961)Voice: Betty Lou GersonLive action reference: Mary Wickes
Queen
iercely beautiful, the Wicked Queen has reached an age where her radiance is fading. Insanely jealous of her lovely young stepdaughter, the Queen forces her to work as a scullery maid in the hope that drudgery will tarnish the girl's blossoming beauty. When the Magic Mirror reveals that Snow White has finally become "more fair than thee," she plots the girl's death in a rage so twisted that she's eventually willing to sacrifice her own beauty to destroy Snow White's. She uses witchcraft to transform herself into a hunchbacked old peddler and succeeds in persuading the naive girl to accept her poisoned apple. Unknowingly, however, she's wrought the means of her own demise. For, though her disguise serves the terrible deed, that same feeble body will hinder her escape.Actress Lucille LaVerne was chosen to voice both the Wicked Queen and the hag Witch because of her versatile voice intonations. Yet when she first started voicing the Witch, the recording session director commented that her intonations were too polished, too much like the Queen. After excusing herself for a moment she returned to perform a gravelly voice that now surpassed the director's expectations. Curious, he asked what she'd changed. Smiling a toothless grin, she explained she had just removed her false teeth.The Queen is often referred to as "Queen Grimhilde" in Disney publications of the 1930s. Her appearance was inspired by the Helen Gahagan character in the film "She" (1935).Film: "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937)Voice Artist: Lucille LaVerne
Ursala
The marvelous villainess Ursula is one of Disney's classics. She has the gross unsubtlety of Ratigan from "The Great Mouse Detective" but substantially more brio. Although facially somewhat similar to "The Rescuers'" Madame Medusa, Ursula's screen impact dwarfs that of her predecessor. Bejewelled and lip-pouting like an overweight, over-rich, over-pampered, over-the-top society hostess gone mad, she is all flair, flamboyance, and theatricality mixed with a touch of con-artistry. Except when her wrath -- the only genuine emotion she seems capable of expressing -- bursts through, her every movement is a deceitful artifice, as if she's performing for an audience. Her vile hobby of collecting souls so that they can suffer humiliation in her morbid garden is utterly in keeping with her society-hostess-from-hell persona.
When anger does bring out her true emotion, the effects are staggering. Her look of stark hatred, even while her face is still human, must certainly have brought nightmares to young children. And when she finally changes into a giant, towering up through the waves and over puny mortals, the embodiment of fury is quite breathtaking. Earlier we may have chuckled at her villainy; at this moment, there is no laughter ... only genuine fear.
Film: "The Little Mermaid" (1989)Voice Artist: Pat Carroll
Gaston
LeFou gushes to his hero, Gaston: "No beast alive stands a chance against you. No girl for that matter." "It's true, LeFou," Gaston proclaims as he watches Belle, "And I've got my sights set on that one ... the most beautiful girl in town!" As far as he's concerned, that makes her the best -- and only the best is good enough for this intimidating specimen of manly manhood. After all, he's the absolute best at everything he does -- fighting, spitting, drinking ... and he's surprisingly good at plotting, too, for a man who can't read any book that doesn't have pictures. So when his chosen one turns him down flat, his ego will not allow him to take "no" for an answer. He'll have Belle yet, he vows, and his revenge. No matter what he has to do -- or whom he has to kill -- to get it!
Jafar
To say that the scheming Jafar is a nasty piece of work would be true, but might be misleading: His portrayal is rather a good piece of work. That he is evil, we are in no doubt; he is the worst sort of traitor, betraying the Sultan while pretending to be a faithful advisor. In a cruel mirroring of the Genie's earlier shape-shifting performance, he goes through quite a terrifying diversity of threatening forms in the movie's climactic scenes, as Aladdin does battle with him to save the Sultan and Jasmine from his enchantment. But Jafar's greatest moment of cruelty comes early in the movie when Jasmine is seeking out her true love; with utmost callousness, Jafar lies and tells her that Aladdin has already been executed.
With his broad shoulders, his elastic mouth, his haughty eyebrows, and his expressive hieroglyph of a beard, Jafar is evil at its most cunning.
Film: "Aladdin" (1992)Voice Artist: Jonathan Freeman
There are so many classic disney villians it would be impossible just to put even half of them on here. I found all of these little biographys at http://disney.go.com/vault/archives/villains_ai.html and there are tons more of them! so go ahead and read read read!
ambi is the wobbly legged fawn who will someday inherit the title of "Great Prince of the Forest." For now, though, he has his mother to teach him the secrets of survival, and his pals, Thumper and Flower, to help him explore the secret of fun. But, too soon, man's arrival in the forest will bring Bambi's carefree days to a tragic end. If he's to endure the harsh winter, he'll have to learn how to stand alone. Even then, it will only be his first life challenge, as the coming spring heralds the new dangers of finding and protecting a mate. More than Bambi's life, the very survival of the forest could hang in the balance of the young prince's courage.
