19 most dramatic and over-the-top Disney villains

Lady Tremaine — Cinderella 

No one knows how to arch an eyebrow like Lady Tremaine. Not even Cersei Lannister can hold a candle to the passive aggression contained in that one singular brow lift.

Whilst Lady Tremaine in the 1950 animated version of Cinderella is gloriously overdramatic herself (“Self-control above all things, girls… YES?!”), we have chosen to focus on her live action counterpart, portrayed in all her technicolor passive aggression by Cate Blanchett.

She gives a wonderful performance, with nice words said so cuttingly they could actually make a person bleed, until Ella’s father dies — and the nice words with it. She “lets” Ella call her “Madam” instead of stepmother, laughs nastily when her children come up with the name Cinderella, and shatters the glass slipper that’ll see her stepdaughter become royalty.

All it really comes down to is jealousy. As Blanchett says, “She’s not young, and not as beautiful, and not as kind, and not as good as Cinderella,” but who is?

To paraphrase Lin-Manuel Miranda, the world is wide enough for both of them, and Lady Tremaine’s cackle would no doubt be a hit at so many of the boring dinner parties where Cinderella would likely be on the weirdly secluded sexy swing being mooned over by the prince.

As with all dramatic villains, Lady Tremaine’s fashion sense is one of the sharpest tools in her arsenal. A fan is her weapon of choice, utilizing hers at just the right time to make herself look like less of a threat. If anyone was fooled by that, her cackle and her uncanny ability to be horrible without ever really raising her voice would both betray her.

The irony, of course, is that Cinderella is the sweetest, kindest person in the world, and had Lady Tremaine just been lovely to her, she would have surely shared all her fortune with her.

Seriously, have any of these baddies ever considered just being nice? Being a villain seems such hard work.