Why do all Disney villains have a British accent?

Question

This is just a bit of fun but have you ever noticed at all Disney’s cartoon baddies are British people or have British accents (with the exception of Hades from Hercules who is played by James Wood) Can you think of any Disney cartoons where this is not the case?

by British i mean the posh English accent. you know like scar from the Lion King you know what sort i mean. by the was this was meant to be a fun question i dont want anyone to get offended by this.

Answer 1

Hmm. Let's see...Gaston (from Beauty and the Beast) didn't.

Answer 2

Disney With A British Accent

Answer 3

They don't (well, maybe in Disney, but what about other films?).

I remember having had the same discussions in terms of Germans in action films. It also could've been Mexicans in Western films perhaps (or rather ugly people - poor souls!). Nowadays, Slavic villains too are being displaced by the latest trend: Islamic villains. So what's next? North Korean, Chinese, Israeli, Persian, General Immigrant? Only time will tell.

PS: The bloke above is right - in the real world, especially Northern and Central Britain, there is definitely no one prevailing British accent (whereas in the South maybe 80% speak a similar general BBC english and the rest speak either a rural, upper or lower class, immigrants' or cogney dialect, or a combination of two or more).

Answer 4

Use of European accents as baddies has a long history. Take Terry Thomas in the Herbie films. Check out Alan Rickamn in Die Hard and Jermy Irons in Die hard 3 for great Eastern European bad guy accents. In James Bond all the baddies have eastern European accents I Think it separates them, in a mysterious way, from the usually American heroes. There are Disney movies with non English baddies. Cruella De Ville, The unamaed hunter in Bambi, The hunter in hte Fox and the Hound, The Witch from Little Mermaid. Also We had English Goodies in Mary Poppins (Altohugh Dick Van Dykes Cockney accent makes him a baddie in my mind) and Angela Landsbury in Bedknobs and broomsticks

Answer 5

It's not just Disney, I've seen a lot of other US shows where the baddie has a British accent. I even saw one version of the Fantastic Four where Dr Doom had !

(And by British accent I mean 1940's Middle class / BBC English)

Why ????

- Sounds meanacing
- Conotations of intelligence
- Clear pronounciation
- Sticking to a formula that works (Shere Khan played by George Sanders worked SO WELL, why change it?)

Answer 6

This is a question about cartoons for God's sake.

Here's on where the villians aren't speaking with some kind of British accent: Lilo and Stitch

BTW Yes, there are many different accents in England. Cockney, Eastenders, Nottingham, etc. Some of us colonials recognize that fact and to paint us all with a broad brush shows a great deal of ignorance.

Answer 7

I would say that the dentist in Nemo was the bad guy, and he was an Aussie.

The bad guy cars in Cars (that ran the big rig off the road) sounded Mexican.

Syd Phillips form Toy Story is a bratty little American kid.

Gaston fro Beauty and the Beast was French.

Syndrome from The Incredibles was just whiney (but also American).

Hopper from Bugs Life wasn't British.

Randall from Monsters, Inc. wasn't British, either.

Probably a bunch more but I have to get to work now :o)

Answer 8

I agree with the first answer. We Americans have a stereotype that anyone with a British accent must be more intelligent, because let's face it, the British accent does sound more sophisticated than our own. So we attach the British accent to super villians so that they will fit the part of evil genius. Ursula from the Little Mermaid did not have a British accent though.

Uh oh.... I see my own ignorance was just pointed out. Let me correct myself. I meant to say English accent.

Answer 9

Because Americans have an inferiority complex towards the British. They think they're less intelligent and less sophisticated. So giving the villain a British accent makes the hero and the audience feel suitably uncomfortable.

Answer 10

Scar doesn't have a British accent.

Disney movie with villains without British accents:

Pinocchio - "Stromboli"
Fantasia - "Chernabog"
Toy Story - "Sid"
Toy Story 2 - "Emperor Zurg"
Toy Story 2 - "Stinky Pete"
Toy Story 2 - "Al" from Al's Toy Barn
A Bug's Life - "Hopper"
The Little Mermaid - "Ursula"
The Little Mermaid 2 - "Morgana"
The Emperor's New Groove - "Yzma"
Atlantis: The Lost Empire - "Commander Lyle Rourke"
Monsters Inc. - "Randall"
Finding Nemo - "Darla"
Cars - "Chick Hicks"

And that's just a few of them! Use your head, hun, there's hundreds of Disney movies and not even half of them have villains with British accents. Any characters with accents have those accents because the story takes place in that particular country, and the majority of the other characters, not villains, have British accents. too. For example, Cruella DeVille. She has a British accent, but so do Roger, Anita, Pongo, Perdy, and most of the other animals. And most of the characters in "Lady and the Tramp" have British accents. Many villains have EVIL sounding accents, like Scar and Yzma, but they certainly don't sound British.

Answer 11

Because of the inherent bias towards English things of certain US movie studios. Look at the "Die Hard" movies - always an English actor as the baddy.