19 most dramatic and over-the-top Disney villains

Ursula — The Little Mermaid

Ursula might not be queen of the sea, but she is queen of our hearts. We know she’s awful, in so many ways, but she is also an absolute — wait for it — icon.

We’ve pretty much called everyone on this list iconic so far, but Ursula the Sea Witch is the epitome of this, because she, for one, just does not care.

Of all the villains on this list, Ursula is probably the most self-aware. She knows she’s horrible, and she’s fine with it. She’s knows she’s ruthless and has no claim to the throne, but that’s not going to stop her any time soon. Niceness is for losers and shrimp. She has no time for pleasantries, and she won’t suffer fools.

Perhaps unsurprisingly since she is based on the inimitable drag queen Divine, Ursula has sauce oozing from her very tentacles, and she is not afraid to show it. In fact, she revels in her own glorious sexuality, hip bumping walls every step of the way. “You’ve got your looks, your pretty face,” she sings, in her absolute banger of a villain song, “Poor Unfortunate Souls.” “And don’t underestimate the importance of body language!”

She goes to great pains to make everything she does technically legal, too, proving that she is perhaps the most cunning of all the Disney villains on this list. Her powers (magic aside) lie mostly in persuasion; she knows just the right words to manipulate a merperson into doing exactly what she wants them to. Woe betide them if they get on her bad side; after all, she was just trying to help.

(Help herself, of course. But they don’t know that. Poor little poopsies.)