Comment by jedberg

5 years ago

Frozen has a villain -- Hans.

Frozen 2 has a villain -- King Runeard

Moana has a villain -- Te Kā

Really only Encanto doesn't.

13 comments

jedberg

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swasheck  5 years ago

i see your point, but hans and runeard were not the primary _antagonist_ in each of those movies, and te ka was actually a good being who acted negatively because of maui's actions.

hand and runeard were essentially "living" props and if anyone one moana was a villain, it was maui. again, i see your point, but i think the point of the article and how i parsed it was that the pure good v evil villain motif has gotten significantly more nuanced recently.

  • jedberg  5 years ago

    Hans was most definitely the primary antagonist. We just don't find out until the end. And same for the King. His actions drive the conflict, we just don't find out that it's his actions until the end.

    > and te ka was actually a good being who acted negatively because of maui's actions.

    Darth Vader is a good being who acts negatively because of the Emperor's actions, but he's still the villain. Just because the villain is redeemed doesn't make them not the villain.

    Yes, they've moved away from the idea of establishing the villain in the first act and defeating them in the third, but that's just better storytelling, not removing the villain. Just ask a child who the "bad guy" is in each movie and they will tell you without hesitation. It's only more subtle to you because you're an adult.

dragonwriter  5 years ago

> Frozen has a villain -- Hans.

Elsa is treated more like the primary antagonist (Anna is the protagonist.) Elsa is redeemed rather than defeated, but that's more a matter of ending than overall structural role.

> Really only Encanto doesn't.

Sure it does (at least, it has an antagonist responsible for the crisis that the story addresses and resolves.) Their identity is even announced at the climax of the film, just in case the viewer hasn't recognized it. (Like Frozen, and Moana—whether, in the latter case, you consider Te Kā or Maui the ultimate antagonist—the antagonist is redeemed and reconciled with the protagonist and the broader community rather than defeated.)

radicaldreamer  5 years ago

Encanto's villain is childhood trauma or trauma and its effects more generally.

  • jedberg  5 years ago

    I saw the villain as the Grandmother's pride, but either way, it wasn't a named character.

    • bladegash  5 years ago

      Tend to agree here, or if you were to ask one of my kids (5 and 8), they’d say the grandmother in general was the villain. They didn’t see the nuance of it or the end as a moment of redemption. They just saw her as mean to Maribel and the villain.

    • samwillis  5 years ago

      It did also have the (real life) villains at the beginning which creates the tragedy that kicks off the events.

      But yes no villain for a child to anchor too.