We are on our second to last of the Disney mad scientists. And yes, we are going back in time for this one to when The Little Mermaid had a tv show. Look after looking at Jekyll and Hyde, I wanted a simple if albeit goofy one.
I do believe that this was a Halloween episode for the show as it aired on October 1st. I will say admittedly, this is a so so episode and yes both Rescue Rangers and Aladdin: The Series also have characters from their shows that could fit this theme. Well, first Aladdin: The Series is not on Disney+ and Professor Nimnul from Rescue Rangers is one of the show’s main antagonists. I very rarely cover tv villains on this series as looking at villains who appear in more than one season is quite draining.
Yes, I know I covered two tv villains as part of this series with the previous two entires and I am doing that again but this is a limited number of episodes. In the case of this villain, only episode. IMO, this episode is a bit of a mixed bag as it seems to want to comment on human pollution and how that harms the ocean. Not a bad idea to get kid’s ideas of how pollution harms animals using a character as beloved as Ariel. However, it feels a it undercooked. I appreciate the attempt and also that it is not hitting you over the head with it. The word pollution is not said until the second to last scene of the episode and it said by King Triton which does raise some questions as Triton has forbidden his daughter from going to the human world as we all know so I would imagine that other mermaids don’t which in turn makes me think their knowledge of our world might be off. Who knows? Also fun fact, the villain of this episode, Dr. Vile was voiced by Kenneth Mars who is the voice of Triton. That is impressive as his voice for Vile is quite different than what we know from him as Triton.
Again, I apologize for the negativity. Let’s go ahead and begin.
First Appearance
We first see Dr. Vile after Sebastian takes his Crab Scouts up to the beach and already things seem amiss once our characters see green liquid aka the pollution coming from Vile’s electric waterwheel that he is using to conduct monstrous crab experiments. Yeah, he’s a bog standard villain.
Personality
Mad Scientist! That’s it, there is nothing more or nothing less to say about him. There is no depth to him being a one off villain in a spooky episode of a princess show. Yes, him conducting experiments on harmless crabs could make him hate-able seeing how he makes them suffer. This isn’t The High Evolutionary I’m looking at. He’s a cheesy villain from a show meant for the younger Disney fans. Ironically this episode would later be skipped during airings on Disney Junior which I find kinda lame as they claim it’s scary for their preschool audience but it’s not really.
Grand Desire
He wants to perform crab experiments as we see when he captures Sebastian and plans to make him bigger, juicier and more buttery.
Okay sure. Y’know I feel like I’m just looking at a horror version of Chef Louis from the movie. At least that antagonist was fun and led to a funny chase sequence and Chef Louis had a cat and mouse thing going on. Now we do see one of his so called failed experiments in a giant monstrous crab that has a hunchback shape named Igor. Yeah, show I get it.
Most Evil Deed
He has a young assistant that Sebastian befriends named Daniel that Vile is holding hostage as it’s made clear that Daniel’s family needs money as they are living in poverty and squalor. Vile treats Daniel about as well as he treats the crabs he captures. Not very well and at one point even cages the poor boy and he only escapes due to Sebastian coming to his rescue.
Yeah, sorry for recapping but this episode doesn’t give me a lot to work with. We barely ever see these two characters interact throughout the episode so the threat level doesn’t feel like it’s there. It’s more like he’s talked about as being a threat but I guess because of standards and practices, he couldn’t be too much of a threat.
Demise
Ariel after hearing and not understanding what Daniel told Sebastian throws a monkey wrench into the waterwheel which stops the pollution, which is a net positive for protecting the merfolk and citizens of Atlantica. But Vile in the end gets away, which I guess maybe they were trying to set him p for future appearances considering Ariel did have other villains she faced besides Ursula but he’s more a Sebastian villain which is fine but from everything I’ve seen, he doesn’t show up again after this episode so that kinda feels like a waste.
Is Dr. Vile A Good Villain?
He exists. That’s all I have to say about him, he exists. I seriously cannot think of anything else to say about this character besides he exists. Join me next time as I close out this series by heading to Hong Kong to look at the years Hong Kong Disneyland did scare mazes as I look at….
Professor Wu
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