Alix Porter’s Top 3 Scariest Animated Villains

I have seen a lot of animated movies and shows, and most of them were very good. And there are some truly terrifying antagonists I’ve seen in many animations. This article lists the three animated villains I find the scariest. Spoilers ahead!

3. Sharptooth - The Land Before Time (1988)

The Land Before Time film from 1988 was very dark for a movie that was rated “G”, and the antagonistic Sharptooth, which was an oversized Tyrannosaurus Rex, was easily the most terrifying part of this Don Bluth classic. An oversized Tyrannosaurus Rex that could jump on the back of Littlefoot’s mother, who was an Apatosaurus, by the way — and survive falling into a really deep ravine — this monstrosity apparently had the intelligence to remember Littlefoot and his friends, who had cost Sharptooth one of its eyes early on. It took the combined might of Littlefoot and his friends to finally kill this tyrant lizard king by pushing it off a cliff into really deep water with a big rock falling on top of it. By the way, did you know that T. Rex can actually swim? Don’t tell Littlefoot that, though. He’d freak out.

2. Bill Cipher - Gravity Falls (2012-2016)

Bill Cipher is one of the most iconic villains in all of animation. Insanity and power personified, Bill was so power hungry that he destroyed his own reality, finding a messed up world with no scientific laws to keep this dimension together for an indefinite amount of time. So Bill decided to try and take over Earth by charming the Author, who I will not reveal the name of for the sake of not spoiling it for the people reading this article. Anyway, Bill makes the Author and his assistant build a portal that allows for interdimensional travel, but Bill is exposed before he and his henchmen can go through the portal. Bill was also able to possess other people and mess with their dreams to get what he wanted. Eventually, he was able to get to Gravity Falls and make it into his personal apocalyptic wasteland that only ended when Grunkle Stan had his mind erased while Bill was inside. But there are some fan theories that claim that Bill Cipher is still alive, waiting to unleash his weirdness whenever he wants to. Nonetheless, his charming insanity and God-tier power levels make him extremely scary.

1. Emperor Belos - The Owl House (2020-2023)

Belos was a human named Philip Whittebane who hunted witches in the 1600s, eventually finding the Boiling Isles and deciding to tattoo glyphs onto his body to take over as the Emperor of the Isles, calling himself Belos for the next few centuries. Belos has committed some of the most sickening and messed up acts of evil ever seen in any Disney animated series. He also cloned his brother multiple times and quelled resistance by petrifying all opposition — meaning you get turned into a stone statue permanently. It took the main protagonist, Luz Noceda, gaining the powers of the Titan himself to defeat Belos in the final episode. I don’t want to reveal everything about Belos, so go watch the show to get the full scoop. But let’s just say he's a terrifying and ruthless villain who would do anything to destroy all of Witchkind, even at the cost of his own humanity. And that is what makes Belos the most terrifying animated villain I have ever laid eyes upon.

I hope you all enjoyed this list, and please go watch all three of these animated classics so you know exactly how terrifyingly awesome these villains truly are.