djonn | (Reply)

From:

Interesting. The minute we met Kristoff again via Anna, I had him tagged as Elsa's love interest (because he'd been tagged earlier as an "ice master"). So I immediately figured that the plot was going to riff on Shakespearean comedy, with the issue being how to get the two couples properly untangled from each other. In that context, I assumed that the trolls' musical number pairing Kristoff and Anna was an early complicating element in the Shakespearean riff, and -- correspondingly -- continued to take Hans at face value until just a few seconds before he heel-turned.

I don't know that it's the not-quite-human aspect that makes most Disney villains feel relatively "safer"; rather, it's that most Disney villains are pretty honest about their villainous ambitions -- from Maleficent to Ursula, as you point out, and right on through to Jafar, Gaston, Scar, and Yzma. There are just two major exceptions to this: Frollo, in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (easily the darkest of the contemporary-era features till now), and Mother Gothel in Tangled. Frollo is distinctive (and scary) because -- unlike, say, Scar -- he doesn't regard his actions and ambitions as evil; he genuinely thinks he's acting for the greater good. Mother Gothel is more self-aware; like Jafar and Yzma, she knows she's the villain of the piece, but she's also considerably more competent than most Disney villains, as she manages to keep Rapunzel in her power for most of the girl's life.

But Gothel is also closely protective of Rapunzel, even if it's for the wrong reasons. Even if her "mother/daughter" relationship with Rapunzel is a lie, it's a relationship she values at least in part for its emotional component. Hans is altogether nastier. All that matters to him is his own advancement, he's willing to use any means to achieve his ends -- and his outward charm makes him all the more dangerous, as we see in the film's climax. I can't think of any other animated Disney villain I'd regard as an outright sociopath, but that word fits Hans all too well.