The Most Shocking Villainous Reveals In Disney Movies

In Monsters, Inc., a factory of skilled monsters venture into the human world to scare children and harvest their screams. However, energy production is falling because children just aren’t as fearful as they used to be. The CEO of the film’s eponymous company, Henry J. Waternoose III, seems like a perfectly good boss at first; Randall Boggs is presented as James P. "Sulley" Sullivan and Michael "Mike" Wazowski’s chief rival. Randall plans to use the “Scream Extractor” to extract screams from kidnapped children, thus solving the monster world’s energy crisis.

Halfway through the film, Sulley and Mike discover Randall’s plan and report him to Waternoose. It’s ultimately revealed that Waternoose is in on the scheme when, instead of sending Boo (Mike and Sulley’s human friend) home, he banishes our heroes to the Himalayas.

In Atlantis: The Lost Empire, linguist Milo Thatch joins an expedition to Atlantis to decipher “the Shepherd’s Journal,” which is a manuscript containing directions (among other things). Accompanying Milo is a group of adventurers, including Commander Lyle Tiberius Rourke, who initially appears to be an admirable leader. At one point in the film, Milo reads through the journal and learns about the Heart of Atlantis, a giant, blue crystal that is the source of the power that saved Atlantis, before discovering there’s a page missing.

When the team finally locates the underwater city and learns more about the Heart of Atlantis in the ruins, they are stopped by Rourke and his armed team, the former turning out to be a manipulative mercenary who wants to sell the crystal on the black market. On top of that, it is revealed that Rourke has kept the journal’s missing page in his boot the entire time, having ripped the page out when Milo wasn’t looking.

Dawn Bellwether is the assistant mayor of Zootopia. She’s sweet, cute, and good to everyone... or so we think. When Nick and Judy investigate predators going “savage” and reverting to a feral state, it’s revealed Bellwether has been dosing them to create panic, gain power, and essentially cause a "race" war. Her goal is to exact revenge on predators for walking all over prey and to prove that predators are inherently bad. This reveal happens near the end of the film when Nick and Judy encounter Bellwether at the Zootopia Natural History Museum. Judy questions how Bellwether knew of their whereabouts, prompting Bellwether to sic rams on them while the latter tries to convince Judy of the cause.

While we do see Bellwether being mistreated early on by Mayor Lionheart, her personality does a complete 180. Bellwether’s appearance as a seemingly meek sheep conceals her role as a “wolf” until the plot calls for it. 

Coco follows aspiring young musician, Miguel, as he accidentally ends up in the Land of the Dead. To get back to the Land of the Living, Miguel must get the blessing of a family member. However, Miguel’s deceased Mama Imelda has banned music from his family after his great-great-grandfather abandoned his wife and daughter to pursue a career as a musician. Imelda won’t give Miguel her blessing unless he gives up music when he returns to the Land of the Living.

Therefore, Miguel sets off to find the famous musician Ernesto de la Cruz, who he believes to be his great-great-grandfather due to a misinterpreted photograph. When Miguel sneaks into Ernesto’s mansion, it’s revealed that Ernesto’s former partner, Hector, is Miguel’s great-great-grandfather, Coco’s father, and was poisoned by Ernesto, who stole his music and guitar.

Wreck-It Ralph’s King Candy is the seemingly jovial ruler of Sugar Rush, a racing arcade game set in a candy-themed kingdom. While his treatment of Vanellope von Schweetz seems harsh, we accept it due to Candy’s desire to prevent her glitch from driving away players. However, near the film’s third act, Candy ambushes Vanellope and tries to ram her off-track, grabbing his kart’s antenna and going after Vanellope. In an attempt to disarm him, Vanellope’s glitching comes in direct contact with Candy, briefly revealing him for who he really is: Turbo.

Turbo was once the most beloved character in the arcade until TurboTime was fazed out by newer games. To retain his fame and influence, Turbo reprogrammed the world in his image, seizing control of Sugar Rush as its king - an arc that is the inverse of Ralph's. 

On the island of Motunui, the inhabitants worship the goddess of creation, Te Fiti, whose life-giving heart was pilfered by the demigod Maui to give humanity the power of creation. Upon doing this, Te Fiti disintegrates, and Maui is bombarded by Te Kā, a volcanic demon, before losing the heart to the sea. A millennium later, Moana follows its titular character’s quest to return the heart to Te Fiti. Te Kā's darkness is poisoning the island, and if Moana can find Maui and make him restore Te Fiti’s heart, the island can be saved.

In a reverse twist, Moana ultimately discovers Te Fiti is missing before realizing Te Kā is the corrupted version of Te Fiti. Moana then returns the heart to Te Kā, restoring Te Fiti and healing the ocean and islands.