19 most dramatic and over-the-top Disney villains

Frollo — The Hunchback of Notre Dame

We’ve talked a little already about ridiculous origin stories, but Judge Claude Frollo’s in The Hunchback of Notre Dame is perhaps the realest. He just really, really fancies Esmeralda. His only crime is that he loves too much.

Okay, this is an extremely mild way of putting it. His lust for Esmeralda (which could almost be understandable since she is a stunningly beautiful heroine who sounds like Demi Moore and sings like an angel thanks to Heidi Mollenhauer) is deeply, deeply toxic, and in a very real way, we need to address that. We know she’s a great dancer and all, but if his first response to her sick moves is to burn her…well, that’s just not right at all, is it?

He does get one hell of a bop out of it though (pun not intended, but appropriate). If in severe emotional turmoil — the result of a crisis of faith, existential angst, and lust — sing about it, while clutching a decorative scarf. It’s the Disney way.

It’s not enough that he made Quasimodo a prisoner, isolated him and, oh yeah, killed his mother. He actually tries to make the poor lamb grateful for it. Then they end up with an almighty crush on the same person, only one of them deals with it a lot better (we mean in the end – Quasimodo joining Phoebus and Esmeralda’s hands remains eye-wateringly lovely).

Frollo, instead, decides he’s good with a sword, despite no obvious training, and tries to kill them both at the top of the most beautiful cathedral in Paris. The drama is as subtle as a gargoyle to the face.

Seriously though, the man needs out more. See the sky, walk in nature. Those perfumed fire fumes are doing nothing for you, Frollo.