Knight Of Cerebus / Animated Films

• The final Aladdin film Aladdin and the King of Thieves gives us a Big Bad known as Sa'Luk. While he may not have any magic powers like Jafar, he's still almost as threatening. He's a ruthless, violent, and rather impatient brute with little if any tolerance for those he deems weak. He is big boisterous, has a knuckle duster with bronze claws on his fist for ripping his foes to shreds, survives falling off a cliff into the sea and kills a shark with his bare hands, and the film takes a much darker turn when he sets his plot in motion.
• While Care Bears is arguably a trope codifier for Vile Villain, Saccharine Show, most of the villains of the series have elements to tone down their menace such as comical minions. Not so for the Spirit of the Book from The Care Bears Movie throws all of that away and the film becomes noticeably darker when she's involved, with acts like releasing an entity that repeatedly attacks the bears and attempts to turn the world into an anarchistic, chaotic hellhole rather than just making everyone uncaring jerks.
• Compared to Sid Phillips from Toy Story, Hopper from A Bug's Life is a lot more menacing and threatening, helping to establish him as Pixar's first genuinely evil villain. His atrocities include killing two of his own underlings, planning to squish the Queen after they finished the mass food theft just to teach the ants a "lesson" and trying to kidnap, and later, strangle Flik to death after he and the ants stand up to the grasshoppers.
• While the villain of the first Cars film is an arrogant and obnoxious green racecar, the sequel's villains are an organization of evil, beaten-up cars led by a German microcar and a malfunctioning British SUV who commit multiple on-screen murders and attempt terrorism.
• DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp: Though the movie does sort of play as an extended episode of the show, it's clear that Merlock poses a far darker and more serious threat to Scrooge and his nephews than any other enemy has in the past. In his past life, he resorted to causing both the sinking of Atlantis and the destruction of Pompeii, which makes him the only villain in the franchise with a body count. Unlike other examples of the trope, this doesn't stop Merlock from being a Chew Toy until the climax of the film (he gets physically abused several times, including getting swatted as a rat and stepped on as a roach).
• How to Train Your Dragon
  • How to Train Your Dragon 2 has Drago Bludivist. Unlike the Red Death, Drago is a human being who is fully aware of his actions, and manages to rapidly push the film into Darker and Edgier territory, even taking the Big Bad of the previous film into account. His introduction via flashback involves him burning down a hall full of Viking chiefs and killing them, with only Stoick surviving. Two major characters die, one on screen, as a result of his actions. Nothing about him is remotely funny, even his Large Ham tendencies, and the mere mention of his name causes the goofy, heartwarming side of things to stop more or less instantly.
  • Grimmel the Grisly from How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World takes it up to eleven. The film itself is much, much Darker and Edgier than its predecessors so this should be expected, but whenever Grimmel shows up, the film quickly turns into a horror film and, compared to Drago, Grimmel is clearly a lot eviler, being a genocidal racist who tries to wipe out all the dragons (and to a lesser extent, humans who allied with them) For the Evulz, is childishly insane, attempts to ruin Hiccup's life out of spite and performs inhumane experiments on some dragons to brainwash them. And unlike Drago, whose Large Ham tendencies make him a fairly entertaining villain despite his monstrous actions, Grimmel's horrific atrocities are all Played for Horror.
• All three Big Bads from the Kung Fu Panda trilogy bring the dark tone to each of their respective films, but Lord Shen from Kung Fu Panda 2 may as well be the darkest out of all of them. While the first film featured slapstick kung fu fighting, Bloodless Carnage, and a Big Bad more interested in a title than anything else, the sequel opens with Shen ordering a mass genocide, and then a few scenes later he rolls out his new invention, the cannon, and murders a legendary kung fu master. True to the series' nature, Shen does still have a clownish tone to him at times, but it's much more of the Black Comedy sort than usual. In Kung Fu Panda 4 the Chameleon makes the stakes higher as her power to shapeshift into anyone thanks to the dark magic she possesses makes her a truly terrifying enemy that Po has ever faced.
• My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks: The Dazzlings are this for the Equestria Girls series, despite their occasionally comical dialogues. The first movie's villain, Sunset Shimmer, spent most of the movie as an Alpha Bitch and was not able to do much more than picking on Twilight. She turned into a demon at the end, but lasted all of five minutes and accomplished almost nothing before being nailed by the Elements of Harmony. Come the second movie, we get this trio who immediately start out armed with insidious magical powers and only keep growing stronger throughout the movie. In addition, their leader Adagio is by far more competent and cunning than Sunset ever was in the first movie. Within hours, the Dazzlings manage to essentially turn the school on itself, feasting on the resulting hostilities. Within days, they manage to strain the Mane Six' friendship to a borderline breaking point despite the fact that they could not affect them directly with their Compelling Voice. When finally comes the time to confront them, they put up a far better fight than Sunset Shimmer had, too.
• Sykes from Oliver & Company. The film is a colorful, fun musical, but Sykes is treated entirely seriously by the narrative and any humor goes out the window when he appears. Unlike other Disney villains, he lacks any moments of hamminess or humor; he's just a genuinely menacing Soft-Spoken Sadist willing to kill anyone in his way if he can make a buck off of it.
• Puss in Boots: The Last Wish has the mysterious wolf hunting Puss. While the first film was relatively lighthearted with the Laughably Evil Humpty Dumpty as its villain, the Wolf proves to be something far more vicious, completely outclassing Puss and becomes the first to cut him with a blade, causing Puss to lose his nerve and flee in terror. The wolf then spends the movie stalking Puss, causing him to have a panic attack with each encounter. It is eventually revealed that the Wolf is Death himself, coming to claim Puss’ last life himself as retribution for his cavalier attitude with his previous eight. The film as a result has a darker tone, with the Wolf being the catalyst for Puss to grapple with his own mortality. Differently from the affable and sympathetic Goldilocks and the Three Bears and the Laughably Evil Jack Horner, the Wolf is the only antagonist in the Shrek franchise to be treated completely seriously by the narrative.
• Lots-o-Huggin' Bear from Toy Story 3, despite his name, strawberry scent, and Beary Friendly appearance, isn't what you would expect him to be. He's the leader of Sunnyside Daycare, a fun place by day...that is also a Crapsaccharine World by night. From the previous films, aside from the point of view of sentient toys, Sid was a violent, bratty child, Scud was a dog and therefore amoral, Al was a Fat Bastard, and Stinky Pete was an Ineffectual sympathetic Tragic Villain. But Lotso is a downright sociopathic monster who brings an aura of sheer brutality and menace never before seen in the series, and it's the confrontation with him at the dumpster that paves the way for one of the series' darkest scenes when he leaves the toys to get burnt to death in the incinerator after Woody and Buzz risked their lives to save him. Even Bonnie's toys are aware of his atrocities.

---