A Disney Villains Retrospective Part 5: Fantasia Villains 

For me, Chernabog is the king/god of all Disney villains. If Maleficent is the mistress of all evil, then Chernabog is the master of all evil.

A Night on Bald Mountain is the most metal thing Disney has ever animated.

I saw some people pointing out that Chernabog may be the root of all dark magic powers in Disney. He maybe the one behind Queen Grimhilde's powerful magic and the Maleficient's Master. For me, that is canon.

Fantasia featured demons, nudity, and evolution. I cannot imagine it being made and released any other time.

I always thought the real villains of Fantasia 2000 were the celebrity hosts

With regards to Kingdom Hearts, I've read that Chernabog was originally supposed to be the final boss and the origin of the Heartless. The original plan for his battle apparently involved Sora, Donald and Goofy climbing up Bald Mountain to fight him

Fantasia: the world’s first AMV.

i love that Chernabog has these huge wings. they really add to his imposing presence and they look nearly plausible to carry his size.

Now that I think about it, there's a few similarities between the Jack-In-The-Box and Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame-both kind of have similar facial features/structures, both disrespect women, and both meet a fiery demise.

I love the way chernabog sheepishly looks around when he hears the first church bell

7:23 You see, the Horned King auditioned for the role of Chernabog, but he was still a new actor, and Walt wasn't sure he had enough experience to take the lead, so he cast the Horned King in a smaller role as the ghostly horseman. :)

Wait, those were monks? Ever since I was a little kid I thought those were the townsfolk getting outta there and as far away as possible from the giant devil and his army of ghosts and monsters.

Is it me or does the fire bird have the coolest creature design ever.

You’d think a Fantasia themed ride at Disney World would be a no brainer. I feel like it be an instant favorite. Imagine going through each story line with all that great music paying. Especially the ‘right of spring’ scene.

Even though he's not a villain, Yen Sid used to scare me when I was a child. He looked huge and sinister back then. Even then I knew he wasn't a bad guy, but he scared me as much or more than Chernobog. As for Dumbo and Bambi, I don't think they had villains. They had antagonistic characters. Bambi might be terrified of Man, but all the man is doing is hunting, possibly even to feed his family. Disney did a great job of making him a foreboding character, and in the original novel, Man and his dogs are terrifying the way the animals perceive them and the scene with the hare and Bambi's aunt (I believe) traumatized me. Ronno is much more of a villain like character, and even then he's just doing what male deer do for the most part. In Dumbo, the female elephants are jerks, but I think the Ring Master, clowns, and audience are unknowing villains, just not what I would classify as a Disney Villain.

Boy looking at Disney's Golden Age (Snow White to Bambi) you can really see Walt Disney really wanting to push the envelope and be taken seriously as a movie maker and have animation be a credible art form for all ages. I miss Disney when it had ambition instead of being a giant evil monopoly that just churns out garbage while buying up the competition and slapping mickey ears on it.

Maybe the spirits that Chernabog manipulates are an example of how impure we all are.

I really think that the life and death segment inspired Moana's "villain" in some way

7:19 Maybe the Horned King is one of Chernabog’s minions?

Headcanon time: I like to think Chernabog is Maleficent’s mentor. She harbours all the powers of Hell after all and her wardrobe mirrors Chernabog quite a bit, down to them both having horns. This is the hill I’ll die on.

When I was a kid, the "Night on Bald Mountain" segment always scared me. So much that once "Dance of the Hours" was over, I ended the tape. And yes, Bald Mountain was scarier than the T-Rex scene in "Rite of Spring."

So happy to see Fantasia 2000 represented. The firebird sequence was honestly the most traumatic childhood movie memory I can think of. I often think of that being quite silly, but damn the sheer scale and intensity of the rampage coupled with the music and some design choices on the bird itself. It's definately intense. Here's to hoping the firebird gets more recognition; after all Fantasia 2000 is only 21 years old, nostalgia-ish revivals could await.

Fitting since the original and new one turns a year older this year. Fantasia is 80 and Fantasia 2000 is 20. And it's the first of your list that has the villain based of mythology.

What I like about the Firebird in Fantasia 2000 is that it's very reminiscent of the Balrog from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), even though it appeared two years prior, it still has that kind of Tolkien-like imagery. Even the way the Firebird arises parallels the Balrog. Saruman himself says to Gandalf, "The Dwarves delved too greedily and too deep. You know what they awoke in the darkness of Khazad-dum: Shadow and flame." The Nature spirit delved too deep into the mountain and awoke the Firebird that seemed to embody shadow and flame. George R.R. Martin himself paralleled that with the Doom of Valyria in his series A Song of Ice and Fire.

Interestingly, some of Chernabog's supernatural minions/captives also appeared in the House of Mouse. In one episode where Hades was the sole guest remaining during a withering heatwave, Mickey convinced Hades to stay on by unleashing the various spirits, thus impressing the god of the underworld.

The Firebird has a resemblance to Rodan from Godzilla: King of the Monsters.

When I was a kid, and before my family and I moved in with my grandmother, my mom would sometimes take me to my grandmother's place so she could babysit me for a bit. My grandmother has Fantasia on VHS. We would always somehow watch the entire thing from beginning to end. I've always loved Beethovens VI (Unicorns, Pegasi, Centaurs, Zeus, etc.), Rite of Spring (Dinosaurs), and Night On Bald Mountain. But when my little brother was old enough after my family moved in with my grandmother, Night On Bald Mountain always scared him. It was the same story for my sister for some time before she became fascinated with Night on Bald Mountain (She even has a Chernabog T-Shirt). But I haven't been able to watch Night On Bald Mountain all the way through for a long time, and honestly, I miss it. I don't know if my little brother will be willing to watch it even though he's 16 now.

Damn, these videos are not coming out fast enough! I NEED MORE!!! (In actuality; don't rush them. Take your time to make them as good as they can get. I'm loving them so far!)

One of Chernabog's minions can also be seen in "Make Mine Music" in the beginning of the "Willie the Whale" story.

Just wanted to say that I'm really liking this series. I'm waiting eagerly for the Renaissance in special :)

Man Fantasia is the best Disney film ever made, I remember watching it for the first time as a kid and it completely blew me away, one of the many influences that had me obsessed with drawing as a kid.

I agree that the brooms aren't evil, they're magic that if left unchecked will infinitely continue working until the end of time since they're unnaturally brought to life with one purpose, to gather water.

I would pay actual money for Disney to make a Chernabog animatronic in a ride! Make it the next Yeti but this timenonenthat works!

Man it would be really awesome if Disney made a 3rd Fantasia......

I saw two non Disney versions of the Jack in the Box. 1) From the preschool aimed show Sondra the Fairy Tale Detective where he resembles an actual Devil. 2) The Hallmark adaptation where he resmebled a jester and was voiced by Tim Curry making him sound like Pennywise the Dancing Clown.

Fantasia is one of those movies I will never forget. Great music set to awesome visuals. Like many, the Sorcerers Apprentice is very memorable (and one of my favorites), but Night on Bald Mountain is so big and larger than life, I could hear the song in my head the whole video.

I had a simplified version of the Tin Soldier and I always felt so sorry for the Soldier and Ballerina at the end.

I absolutely love Night on Bald Mountain! It’s very stunning and visually entertaining! Great job on this entry. A live action version of this story could be very cool! I agree with you that the Jungle Book remake is the best remake so far. The others are quite disappointing!

Yay! I am so glad to see you continuing these villain retrospectives. They are very informative I so enjoy watching them. I look forward to the next update.

i love these disney villains retrospectives! I watch them over and over again. thank you!

1:34 - Charnabog 15:39 - Jack in the Box 19:29 - Firebird

I can answer the question at 7:36 to 7:39 That is actually a multi layered answer as well as show how sanitized from death we have been since the 1950s. Before the 1950s, when modern medicine matured and really began whipping out diseases left and right. Many people before this had routine run ins with death. In fact the modern living room, is actually a joke on the old Parlor. Which is where, before funeral homes, people would actually hold the viewing of the dead before taking them to church for one last service before putting them in the ground. Plus before the 1950s, after so many years (an when the body was supposedly decayed enough) they would reuse the funeral plot and bury someone knew there. Their is also the fact that many people just didn't want to see their dead loved ones as bad people. So thus why they put crosses up to show they are christian. However, the cold fact is, this would not stop sinners from being dragged from their graves and taken to see satan. So all those souls in the video are souls of countless damned from centuries of waiting in their graves. This also shows that the town itself is VERY old. For a new town would not have that many dammed people, even if they were living and dead. So thus in quick sum, town is very old and people don't want to see their dead loved ones in a bad light. But that doesn't change the fact they were sinners in life.

0:54 The Marching Brooms 1:04 The Tyrannosaur 1:16 Zeus and Vulcan 1:25 The Crocodiles 1:39 Chernabog 15:42 The Jack In The Box 19:57 The Fire Bird 22:29 Sir Jyill

You're not the only one who felt disturbed by Hans Christian Andersen's original works, especially The Little Mermaid (which I'm eager to see it). Ursula and her human alter ego: Vanessa are based on the sea witch and the thieving princess respectively and both of them are neutral characters rather backstabbing baddies like their counterparts. Just like the Tin Soldier and the Ballerina, the little mermaid never got her prince and she died as a sea foam unlike Ariel, who has a happy ending. Despite she got a soul and went to heaven, but it's a cruel treatment for the poor girl, especially her tongue got cut off and felt a terrible pain in her new feet like she's walking on knives. I totally agree with Mary Poppins' author P. L. Travers, the ending is more like a blackmail for children so they can respect their elders during the Victorian era since the mermaid will earn an immortal soul and go to Heaven for 300. If the children are good and obedient, they will shorten her sentence. If not, they will make it longer. Not just I found Andersen a sad and pathetic doormat as a person, but he was also a sadistic jerk.

The Town from Bald Mountain looks like the town from Pinocchio. Coincidence? Nice video series by the way.

would've loved to see a fantasia ride/see the spring sprite(favorite design in disney.:3) & firebird be in kingdom hearts.(actually remember hearing chernabog was originally going to be the origin of all darkness & the disney villains in the series which i would love to see be brought back/be changed to the firebird with the spring sprite being the source of all light.)

These videos are so amazing

Seriously, it just shows how Chernagbog needs to be used more in Disney property in my opinion.

The bit about the influence of Christianity making Chern'bog evil, or revealing that his nature was actually evil.... Reminds me of how Samhain was deliberately conflated with the Catholic All Hallows Eve, which was orginally just the Eve before a Week Long Catholic holiday celebration of all the Hallowed saints both known and unknown. Kinda like Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve might be considered as the Eve before the Christmas/New Years holiday's, in today's culture. As I understand it, the Celts were literally unknown figures to Scholar's, given that their entire culture essentially converted inside of a generation of encountering Christianity. So unknown were they, that a certain Educated person of high status could claim that Samhain was a Fall celebration practice for the Celts, which Christianity somehow co-opted.... Without anyone who could be considered enough of an expert to gainsay his claims. Supposedly, he was rather anti-Christian in general. And was reportedly searching for ways to discredit Christianity. As for All Hallows Week/ All Hallows Eve/ Halloween/ all Saint's day(week)... It was orginally a Spring day, given over to unknown Saints, when the papacy orginally instituted the holiday during the first millennium. Four Centuries later, it was a week long celebration that was so popular for pilgrims, that Rome had it moved to after the Fall Harvest, in order to Feed all the Pilgrims visiting Rome for the occasion.

Bill Tythla also animated 1. Grumpy from Snow White 2. Stromboli from Pinocchio 3. Dumbo from Dumbo and 4. the giant from the brave little tailor(Mickey mouse).

The Firebird sequence was my favorite in Fantasia 2000, in part because natural disasters like volcanoes are among the various topics I like to study for fun. The Firebird itself is pretty much the Spirit of Destruction, a necessary evil that happens to revel in its chase of the Sprite. But like any violent volcano (looking at you, Vesuvius circa 79 AD), it has a short window in which to act since its source has to run out of steam eventually. Whether that takes days or months depends on the volcano. Volcanoes are pretty much geographical contradictions. They destroy things indiscriminately but they're also creators and healers.

I was looking forward to you talking about the Tyrannosaurus just for a moment

Here’s something else about Chernabog. Disney has some mini golfing courses, and one is fantasia themed. He appears in one hole where the golfer stands in front of a sensor, and he appears on the wall via glow in the dark paint (I think).

I’m happy to see Fantasia 2000 on this. I enjoy it more than the original (possibly cause I don’t like rite of spring). And I always have to explain to my friends on how there was a sequel. So I’m glad you didn’t forget about the film

I'm glad that finally someone mentions the firebird from fantasia 2000, he's one of my favorite disney villains and in underrated one for sure

I feel your justification of the Fire Bird here a could also be applied to Monstro as how he could be viewed as a villain, cause he seems to take pleasure out of the hunt. Not to mention the amount of effort he puts in when chasing after Pinocchio and his father in retaliation for escaping. Plus I doubt he only ever ate ships whole w/o some sort of malice to it, or even if he did so out of hunger, at times.

Chernabog will always be the favorite Disney Villian. A being of all consuming Darkness and Evil,a being that all evil flows through and the Master of all true villians in Disney lore.

I need to watch this whole movie. I only have seen the hippos and scorcer Mickey. Humm never know it was so deep.

Yeah, in Once Upon a Time, Chernabog would have been an amazing villain, but I think due to budget as you can see a lot of the show’s cgi is not great

My grandma was only 18 years old and my grandpa was only 17 years old when Fantasia was introduce to the public on 11/13/1940.

Re, the live action remakes: You're right. They're only good when they're actually trying something different. that's really their main problem: They're trying more to just be the original, as if it somehow is improved by merel ybeing live-action. When the only consistently good-decent things are the costumes and some of the choreography. (I mean, sure there's better dance numbers - but it's good choreography in that you can tell everyone's at least putting some effort into it.) Night on Bald Mountain has at least one advantage in that the plot itself is super duper light, and they would largely be doing their own thing.

I absolutely love these videos, but I wanted to note that going forward you should absolutely mention the awesome Disney Villainous board game when applicable, since you mention video game and park appearances. You already missed Pete and Evil Queen, but there are 13 more upcoming villains represented in this amazing tabletop experience, and they are likely working on more expansions

Collin, the Villains in Bambi are 1. Man 2. Man's dogs 3. Ronno, the deer and Bambi's rival.

I'm a bit of a soccer for a more conventional happy ending as well. It's for this reason that I prefer the Disney version of the Little Mermaid over Hans Christian Anderson's original story. None of the bitter, only the sweet.

Chernabog great villain boss fight in Kingdom Hearts

Cherabog is one of my favorite Funko Pops I own.

21:45 The Fire Bird is not exactly evil, but according to slavic folklore it brings misfortune to anyone who catchs it, probably to represent the dangers of greed.

So, you're going to include Aladdin villains from the whole saga including the show? Now I'm even more hyped than before. BTW: since you mentioned "Legend of the Three Caballeros" when talking about Daisy's nieces in a previous video, would you consider Lord Felldrake for this villain retrospective? After all, "The Three Caballeros" movie doesn't have any kind of antagonist but the spin-off/reboot series not only has Felldrake, but is also a really underrated show that almost nobody knows about.

Collin, the villains in Dumbo are 1. the ringmaster 2. the mean female elephants 3. the fireman clowns 4. the pink elephants ( not really antagonistic though) 5. V.a. vanvere from the 2019 remake.

If they made a new Fantasia game I think it should be one based on The Rite of Spring segment with epic dinosaur boss battles

Never thought I could end up in one of your videos! 😆 (10:39)

I've heard early on Czernabog was supposed to be the main villain of Kingdom Hearts 1 instead of their Ansem OC. Would make sense - the heartless look like they could be Czernabog's minions and he's still a boss fight in the game, just with no real narrative reason for him to be there.

The thing I think I like most about Fantasia is that there's one sequence of animated swoops (for lack of a better term) which was DIRECTLY stolen from an experimental animator who animated piles of salt or sand or something on a plain black background, usually in silence. There's one piece of his that actually used music, but for the most part it was just experimental abstract animations. Then he moved onto color and experimenting with that. The point is, from an animation student perspective, it's impressive and respectable, but I freaking hated them. Especially the color ones where he just experimented with shapes growing and shrinking in eerie silence. I couldn't remember where this happens in the movie or what the name of the animator was, as it was years ago. I just like that Disney basically stuck it to the guy.

15:21 so this confirms the Tv villains will be included i wonder what he’ll say on Man Evil from Little Mermaid Tv show , the Leopard queen from Legend of Tarzan , Noodle Boy from Big Hero 6 the series , 627 from Lilo and Stitch the show , and Janja from the Lion Guard

Actually, from what I've read, the Night on Bald Mountain live-action movie has been scrapped. It was supposed to have a similar approach to Maleficent

I think there are 2 kinds of evils in disney movies. Evil people, and evil incarnate. I think the distinguishing factor would have to be, does x have a personal motivation to do something. For that reason, I think Chernabog Maleficent and the Hroned King are the only evil incarnate. But maleficent poses an interesting conflict, she is a person with a motivation but her motivation is spite and sadism, which can come from anywhere.

I think I still have the VHS somewhere in my parents attic. I never felt fear for Chern.. I was impressed by his powers and actually loved to see the spirits being taken to his mountain. I dont remember much else of the movie honestly.

I'm a simple person; I see Fantasia 2000, I click play.

Damn the Tin solider story was def heavy inspiration for the visuals in Daft Punks "Instant Crush" video.

Ah .. I"ve been doing some chores so I could have missed whether or not you mentioned/knew about Sidney GLass in Once Upon a Time. I was moving from room to room when you talked about the Evil Queen's Magic Mirror. So ... if you didn't mention Sidney Glass, yeah. The mirror is a full-fledged if sorely underused/eventually forgotten character. I would definitely recommend you check out the whole thing if you can. I love every single season (*White lie because I love so many episodes even in the two bad seasons*)

Tin soldier and Firebird have always been my favourite shorts 😁

Censorship in the 1940’s basically didn’t exist. In fact it was the opposite, showing healthy couples sleeping in the same bed was thought as too naughty so they weren’t allowed to show that

The walking brooms sequence was the first time in my life that I was stressed while watching a cartoon. I was like 3 or 4

18:50 It's like the ending of Robots.

I don't know about pleasure the Fire Bird seems to be acting more on aggression or hatred for the life given by the nymph, he doesn't smile or anything, all I observe is him roaring when disturbed and awoken and then lunging at her trying to snuff out that life force and burning the landscape. Yes its villainous but not done out of pleasure, I think its more akin to an angry territorial animal.

Xhernabog was also supposed to have a much longer segment in the OG world of color and there was a tower structure built that was supposed to be a 3d ish projection mapped chernabog.

Finally something for Disney villain fans like me. Disney villains rock

Oddly enough, I always kinda assumed that everything that happens on Bald Mountain is supposed to be a nightmare; something that the villagers are imagining is happening. =)

don't forget that Chernabog kinda may be the earliest open LGBT+ animated character ever back then when that issue was seen in a very negative view for society and culture!!! He is a pan/bisexual dude but leaning more into homosexual side as he kinda sets the flames he gives them life starting from the dancing ladies into a series of transformation until PERFECTING THEM TO HIS OWN TASTES as a group of MALE BLUE SATYRS (they're pretty much as Chernabog himself but slender, and mainly ash-bluish-lighter grey skinned except his tail and horns that are royal bright blue), and well Chernabog actually gets a quite happy though perverted sneering sight on them from what he sees on them from frontal view - which interestingly is censored to be seen on the viewers, as if it were the satyrs are very explicitly sexually-gifted from frontal nudity view, and so somehow they couldn't be shown on their own physical male atractives, whereas females could do on either way possible, then hinting again a message against acknowledging male erotical atractive awareness on audience, mainly on other males as avoiding at all male homosexuality hints or possibility to happen; female homosexuality oddily kinda is granted or accepted or ignored to ever be possible, so kinda isn't acknowledged as a risk for the openly sexual expossure of females nudity!! Later just as Chernabog is pleasured on his creations, the music and animated sequence sets into a wil debaucheury that ends on that climatic powerfull play of fire and light magic that Chernabog sets untill acheiving that powerfull mighty hulking setting just when the bells of stroke of day comes. And all that play with fire, ending with that awesome mighy lightening view coming from his underbelly up to illuminate his upper body, kinda represents an orgasmic eyaculation or burst of his power, and is so sexually hinted as the source of that power of fire illuminates segments of his physical that are linked to erotic spots as the lower belly and pecs alternatively as also those are hints of the self-aware of homoerotic self-indulgence of himself to acheiveing the peak of his power, i.e. the final lightening illumination as his orgasmic eyaculation-burst of his prime raw power. So yeah the villain is actually very sexually-self-aware of himself and his tastes, so there is a lot of hints working as demonizing lust in all ways, but more homosexual (male) desires and self-pleasuring/masturbation too, properly fitting for the very conservative references of that time, and well the original Chernabog reference heavily influenced by Christian view. Hopefully if the villain is represented in a live-action sequence, might be better not to have him as just a villain or a very weak/monochromatic villain - it could work better for him a very complex, darker, amoral and mainly missunderstood living spiritual force of nature that his work is to destroy or set chaos but not out for evil itself but for a needfull dynamic balance of nature itself. And if it's hinted back how he indeed actually is a big manly /non-stereotypical open bi-gay dude yet eventually toning down his raw debaucheury, might work much better for him at the modern days views.

If only there was a way to have Chernabog as a Doom boss. That would awesome, plus the metal version of Night on Bald Mountain would be amazing.

Without Chernabogs visual design, we might not have Goliath and the Gargoyles.

It's funny how 2/3 of the video is dedicated to Chernabog and then the Fantasia 2000 villains get to share 8 minutes.

Thanks for another great video. I was wondering if you are considering doing a retrospective on Jim Henson's The storyteller. It was recently added to Amazon prime if you need somewhere to stream it.

Chernabog deserves to be called the Satan of the Disney Universe

When we get to "The Rescuers", you will be discussing both villains from both movies - Madame Medusa and Percival McLeach (and possibly from scrapped ideas)

It's a shame Fantasia 2000 isn't remembered as much as the original imo because The Firebird suite introduced me to my favorite orchestra piece ever, and the shorts animation is incredible. imagery from it is burned into my mind.

My music teacher in elementary always showed us sorcerers apprentice and the jack in the box one

You ever notice that the Balrog from The Lord of the Rings looks like a fusion of Chernabog and the Firebird from both Fantasias? I did mention in the comments 2 years ago that the Firebird was very reminiscent of Tolkien's imagery of how the Balrog emerged from Khazad-dum because the Dwarves delved too greedily and too deep, but here's a funny little parallel between the two: The Balrog emerged in the year 1981 of the Third Age. What year did Mount St. Helens erupt, which inspired the design of the Firebird in Fantasia 2000? 1981.

I think the jack in the box appeared in a mickey game Edit: just looked it up I'm talking about mickey and the castle of illusions

Question: how many of you have seen the super Mario bros super show Follow up question: what would you say if Disney made a Fantasia version of the super Mario bros super show with Chernabog taking on different costumes just like king koopa