Home Disney’s Shifting Visions of Villainy from the 1990s to the 2010s: A Biocultural Analysis
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Disney’s Shifting Visions of Villainy from the 1990s to the 2010s: A Biocultural Analysis

  • Jens Kjeldgaard-Christiansen and Sarah Helene Schmidt
Published/Copyright: February 13, 2021
Become an author with De Gruyter Brill
Author Information
Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture
From the journal Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture Volume 3 Issue 2

Abstract

Disney’s animated villains have recently changed to show less conventionally villainous traits: They look and express themselves more like sympathetic characters, and they are usually only outed as villains late in the plot. This shift has prompted much academic com­mentary on the psychological and cultural significance of Disney’s new villains. We add to the existing literature on Disney’s new villains in two ways. First, we analyze shifts in the vocalizations of villains between the 1990s and 2010s. Second, we integrate this analysis in a biocultural account of Disney’s shifting overall representations of villains. We argue that while Disney has long employed evolutionarily explicable cues to villainy, such as a foreign accent and an unappealing exterior, the company is now reacting to challenges to norms of social representation that proscribe the linking of such overt traits with immorality. Con­sequently, recent Disney films do not employ socially stigmatizing cues. However, Disney continues to employ nonstigmatizing cues, such as evil laughter and abiding anger, because these cues foster antipathy in audiences at no sociomoral risk.

Keywords: disney; villains; accent; laughter; pitch; morality; antipathy
Published Online: 2021-02-13
Published in Print: 2019-12-01

© 2020 by Academic Studies Press

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Title
  2. Table of Contents
  3. ARTICLES
  4. Disney’s Shifting Visions of Villainy from the 1990s to the 2010s: A Biocultural Analysis
  5. The Viking and the Farmer: Alternative Male Life Histories Portrayed in the Romantic Poetry of Erik Gustaf Geijer
  6. Adapting a Witch to Modern Beliefs and Values: Persecuting the Outsider through Trial, Stage, and Film
  7. Reflective Imagination via the Artistic Experience: Evolutionary Trajectory, Developmental Path, and Possible Functions
  8. REVIEW ESSAYS
  9. Six Recent Books on the Neuroscience of Creativity: Notes from the Underbelly
  10. Forays into the Dark Field of Evolutionary Horror Film Research: A Meagre Harvest
  11. BOOK REVIEWS
  12. Stephen T. Asma and Rami Gabriel. The Emotional Mind: The Affective Roots of Culture and Cognition
  13. Johannes Breuer, Daniel Pietschmann, Benny Liebold, and Bejamin P. Lange, eds. Evolutionary Psychology and Digital Games: Digital Hunter-Gatherers
  14. Jennifer Anna Gosetti-Ferencei. The Life of Imagination: Revealing and Making the World
  15. Henrik Høgh-Olesen. The Aesthetic Animal
  16. Julie J. Lesnik. Edible Insects and Human Evolution
  17. Debra Lieberman and Carlton Patrick. Objection: Disgust, Morality, and the Law
  18. Randolph M. Nesse. Good Reasons for Bad Feelings: Insights from the Frontier of Evolutionary Psychiatry
  19. Neema Parvini. Shakespeare’s Moral Compass
  20. David Reich. Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past
  21. Tali Sharot. The Influential Mind: What the Brain Reveals about Our Power to Change Others
  22. Carol Cronin Weisfeld, Glenn E. Weisfeld, and Lisa Dillon, eds. The Psychology of Marriage: An Evolutionary and Cross-Cultural View
  23. Wojciech Załuski. Law and Evil: The Evolutionary Perspective
  24. Contributors
https://doi.org/10.26613/esic.3.2.140
Keywords for this article
disney; villains; accent; laughter; pitch; morality; antipathy

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Title
  2. Table of Contents
  3. ARTICLES
  4. Disney’s Shifting Visions of Villainy from the 1990s to the 2010s: A Biocultural Analysis
  5. The Viking and the Farmer: Alternative Male Life Histories Portrayed in the Romantic Poetry of Erik Gustaf Geijer
  6. Adapting a Witch to Modern Beliefs and Values: Persecuting the Outsider through Trial, Stage, and Film
  7. Reflective Imagination via the Artistic Experience: Evolutionary Trajectory, Developmental Path, and Possible Functions
  8. REVIEW ESSAYS
  9. Six Recent Books on the Neuroscience of Creativity: Notes from the Underbelly
  10. Forays into the Dark Field of Evolutionary Horror Film Research: A Meagre Harvest
  11. BOOK REVIEWS
  12. Stephen T. Asma and Rami Gabriel. The Emotional Mind: The Affective Roots of Culture and Cognition
  13. Johannes Breuer, Daniel Pietschmann, Benny Liebold, and Bejamin P. Lange, eds. Evolutionary Psychology and Digital Games: Digital Hunter-Gatherers
  14. Jennifer Anna Gosetti-Ferencei. The Life of Imagination: Revealing and Making the World
  15. Henrik Høgh-Olesen. The Aesthetic Animal
  16. Julie J. Lesnik. Edible Insects and Human Evolution
  17. Debra Lieberman and Carlton Patrick. Objection: Disgust, Morality, and the Law
  18. Randolph M. Nesse. Good Reasons for Bad Feelings: Insights from the Frontier of Evolutionary Psychiatry
  19. Neema Parvini. Shakespeare’s Moral Compass
  20. David Reich. Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past
  21. Tali Sharot. The Influential Mind: What the Brain Reveals about Our Power to Change Others
  22. Carol Cronin Weisfeld, Glenn E. Weisfeld, and Lisa Dillon, eds. The Psychology of Marriage: An Evolutionary and Cross-Cultural View
  23. Wojciech Załuski. Law and Evil: The Evolutionary Perspective
  24. Contributors
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2025 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 16.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.26613/esic.3.2.140/html
Scroll to top button