What makes a Disney movie great is not the princess, but rather the villain they must face. Every story needs a conflict, and without these horrible characters there would be no story. So the way I see it, the villains are unheard heroes. Combining my love for kids movies and awesome stories here are my thoughts on some of the most twisted villains of Disney.
Mother Gothel: a witch desperate for youth. From one of my favorite Disney movies Tangled, the villain Mother Gothel is a selfish, manipulative, and pure-evil character.
A young witch with a velvet red dress, boney fingers, curly black hair, and slick black eyebrows, Gothel is toxic. This witch kidnaps an infant princess named Rapunzel to benefit from the magical powers of the baby’s hair. Gothel raises the girl as her own, but keeps Rapunzel in a tall tower so she cannot escape or be found. Throughout the course of the movie, Rapunzel meets a strange thief who helps her escape the tower and explore her true identity. At the height of Mother Gothel’s crimes, she threatens to kill Rapunzel’s lover and lock her in the cellar of the tower.
A concerning observation is that on the outside Gothel may seem like a normal mother, but beneath the surface this ragged old witch is a very underrated villain. Gothel constantly berates Rapunzel calling her naive and unprepared. The witch disregards Rapunzel’s thoughts, concerns, and requests and just goes about staring at her malicious-looking reflection.
Though Mother may be in her name she is far from it. Through mind games and manipulation, Gothel belittle’s Rapunzel towards a toxic cycle of dependence. Even considering all this, in my opinion, the most heinous crime Mother Gothel committed was the act of stepping and climbing onto Rapunzel’s beautiful hair as though it were a worthless rope.
Not only does she look scary, what’s even more creepy is the thought that during the entire movie this is what mother Gothel had been looking like under her young facade. If I were to rate how villainous this witch was on a scale of 10, 1 being very tame to 10 being very bad, I would give Gothel a 9. Some villains are evil but honest in their own way. Meanwhile, Mother Gothel obliterates all sense of principle. The reason Mother Gothel is a 9 out of 10 on the evil scale is because it is unthinkable how she raises and imprisons an innocent child for her own benefit without showing any sign of guilt or resentment for her actions. This requires a very high level of wickedness. It is also unknown exactly how old she really is so we don’t know the full extent of crimes she may have committed.
Mother Gothel: falling towards her dusty doom. A witch who lived way too long. I hope you had as much fun reading this, as I did writing it. And, as it is with everything in life, all things must eventually come to an end.
This was a super fun post to read. I love Disney movies and of course, the villains that come with them. Mother Gothel has always been high up on my villain list mostly because she has some really great songs in the movie. Your blog was descriptive, well-written, and interesting to read. Cant wait to see what you write next!
Tangled is my favorite Disney movie of all time. I think it’s so well made and the characters are beautifully thought out. Mother Gothel has always been especially terrifying to me because of the innocent facade you mentioned. I love this blog topic, and I think you did a really good job describing Mother Gothel’s eerie nature.
Oh my goodness, I love the theme of your blog already! I grew up watching Disney and I adore Tangled. You did a good job in your character analysis and in covering all of the heinous things that Mother Gothel did throughout the movie. Your use of verbs such as “berates” and “belittles” when describing Mother Gothel’s actions help to develop an understanding of her character from just this short post. She is one of my favorite Disney villains and I definitely think you did her justice with your descriptions. Also, I really like your idea of having an evil scale, because, although the point of their characters is to be antagonistic, I agree that villains can be honest in their own way.
Great post! I’ve always thought that Mother Gothel was one of Disney’s best villains! She’s just truly evil and selfish because most villains in these kinds of movies have some kind of motivation that revolves around what they believe is the greater good but Mother Gothel just wants to be young at any cost and is willing to kidnap and lock away a baby for it. I really enjoyed the analysis you did on her character and I cant wait for the next villain you explore!
I enjoy the entire idea of your blog and I do agree that every Disney movie is highlighted by their villain. Mother Gothel is definitely one I do not consider to be up top on the list, yet you make a very strong case for her being rated a 9 even when she may not seem that bad at first. I never even considered something like climbing on Rapunzel’s as an act of power, however, now I see, everything was well calculated. Interesting post.
Rapunzel’s hair**