Over 600 Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of The Most Powerful Disney Animated Villains
Voting Rules
Vote up the most powerful villains in Disney's entire animated canon.
The most powerful Disney villains draw their strength from a wide variety of sources. Some are masters of the mystic arts, others are skilled in alchemy, and some are just lions (which, to be fair, makes them pretty powerful). When looking across the pantheon of great Disney villains, two questions emerge: Who's the best singer? And who's objectively the most powerful?
Given their variety, it can sort of feel like comparing apples to oranges. It might help to imagine the Disney heroes commiserating in a bar. They're all talking about who has it the roughest facing off against their no-good antagonist. Who has the best argument? Who's life is the hardest?
To figure it out once and for all, it's up to you to read this list and vote up whatever villain you think is the strongest across the entirety of the Disney universe.
Maleficent is a special kind of powerful that puts her in the league of Mister Mxyzptlk, Loki, and fictional devils everywhere. She has so much power that she can get whatever she wants, and at this point, she's just having fun with the humans around her.
In Sleeping Beauty, Maleficent crashes a christening she wasn't invited to and places a curse on the king's baby. No one in the room can stop her - not the good fairies, not the king, not any man in his army. When Maleficent wants something, she gets it. Her powers seem to be limitless.
Maleficent possesses a legion of abilities, including teleportation, pyrokinesis, divination, electrokinesis, flight, and the ability to turn herself into a massive dragon.
As the devil of the Disney universe and the leader of the Underworld, Hades has an interesting power set. In Hercules, Hades uses quite a range of abilities. He can generate and manipulate fire, create objects out of thin air, move items with his mind, and control monsters from hell. As a god, he has immortality, and as the master of the Underworld, he has complete control over death.
Like any good (bad?) devil, his real abilities come out when he's making a deal. That's when he's shown to really alter reality in ways he previously couldn't. It's notable in the film that he can't just take away Hercules's strength without first making a deal with him.
Jafar gains his powers after swiping Genie from Aladdin and making three wishes. His wishes all relate to various types of power he desires. First, he becomes politically powerful by wishing to become sultan. Next, he wishes to become the most powerful sorcerer in the world. As a sorcerer, Jafar can levitate objects, summon items from thin air, breathe fire, and transform matter.
Jafar is only defeated after his lust for power causes him to grow jealous of the Genie. He makes the mistake of wishing to become one himself. For a brief moment, Jafar has the power to "control the universe" (or at least, he announces that he does). As a genie, Jafar is objectively the most powerful villain in Disney's history. Unfortunately for him, he now has a glaring weakness - his new genie's lamp that Aladdin traps him inside.
Ursula is one of the most powerful villains ever depicted in a Disney film. As a master of magic, this sea witch's abilities shift and morph depending on her desires at any given moment, making it difficult to quantify the full extent of her power. Regardless, her combined strength and brains allow her to put up a fight with the god of the sea himself. That's power.
In The Little Mermaid, Ursula uses her powers in a number of impressive ways. First and foremost, Ursula can spy on Ariel (and seemingly anyone else) whenever she wants. This ability gives Ursula a tactical advantage in any confrontation you could imagine. Furthermore, Ursula's mastery over potions allows her to whip up concoctions strong enough to alter the user's appearance. Ursula also seems to possess a degree of control over the weather, allowing her to generate storm clouds and lightning.
She receives a massive power boost once she gets her hands on Neptune's trident. This allows her to grow to the size of a skyscraper and command not just storms, but the very sea itself.
Dr. Facilier is a witch doctor from The Princess and the Frog with a laundry list of powers and abilities stemming from his interactions with various evil spirits. After demonstrating the ability to manipulate his shadow and have it interact with the world around him, he alters the appearance of Prince Naveen and his valet Lawrence. Then, with his plan in motion, he makes a deal with evil spirits that ups his power level, giving him control over a legion of shadow demons.
His other powers include conjuration, the ability to use voodoo dolls, illusion generation, spell-casting, and fortune-telling.
As the leader of the Huns, Shan Yu is the most ruthless warrior amongst a pack of ruthless warriors. While Shan Yu doesn't have "powers" other than his brute strength, his ability to strike fear directly into the heart of the viewer (child and adult alike) is unmatched.
In Mulan, Shan Yu leads an almost successful takeover of China. That in and of itself should be enough to put him on this list. His plan would have worked, too, if China had exactly one less female soldier fighting for their protection.
