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by Moviefan
The Brick Theater: Villains Profile: Lord Business
October 3, 2025 in Blogs, The Brick Theater
Anyone who knows me knows how much I love LEGO and I used to do LEGO blogs but haven’t in a while but considering I have been going all out looking at villains, I thought it might be fun to tap into LEGO villains.
The LEGO Movie imo much like Barbie after it was a true celebration of the toy. LEGO means play well and the first LEGO movie understands this and goes out of its way to show there is no one way to play. This is what we see with Lord Business and The Man Upstairs both being played by Will Ferrell. The movie pulls a Peter Pan in this way with Lord Business representing all the negative qualities that Finn, the son of The Man Upstairs sees in his father.
Both Lord Business and The Man Upstairs disparage creativity and only view LEGO as modeling tool. Which being fair as someone that often goes to BrickFair, I understand the notion of using LEGO as an art form. There’s a whole reality show about the idea that celebrates the creativity of LEGO.
Even if I am a builder that prefers to follow instructions, the creative side of LEGO shouldn’t be ignored and this is the lesson that both Lord Business/The Man Upstairs need to learn. It’s a moment of realization for The Man Upstairs when he sees Lord Business looks like him.
by Moviefan
You Rang: Villains Profile: Abigail Craven (The Addams Family (1991))
October 2, 2025 in Blogs
The Addams Family are an iconic family that people love because this is a family that is comfortable being themselves being macabre and kooky and spooky. There have been many and I mean many adaptions of this classic family. Each generation has their own version of The Addams Family. Be it the classic sitcom, the various cartoon adaptions and of course the movies. Since 1991, we have seen five Addams Family movies. Four released in theaters and one direct to video with another animated Addams Family movie on the way from the creative team behind Wednesday on Netflix.
by Moviefan
A Look at Disney: Villains Profile: Chernabog
October 1, 2025 in A Look at Disney, Blogs
Note: most of these blogs were written in August back before Disney caved in and I’ve decided to keep most of them up as I put a lot of work into them. I did cancel one blog that would’ve been a follow up to last year’s Halloween event but I may save that for the future.
The Halloween season is once again here and this is my favorite time of year to blog. I usually like to focus on a certain theme hen looking at villains and I’ll admit that this year’s theme is perhaps rather loose as the theme at best is death. In two cases, characters who represent death and I guess two you can continue represent death.
For our first entry we head back to 1940 and the classic concert film, Fantasia. Now is it hard to cover a villain from a film that has no plot. Yes kinda. Fantasia is a string of short films set to classical music
by Moviefan
Villains Profile: Constantine
July 28, 2025 in Blogs
We have now reached our final Muppets villain and I’m sorry but Muppets Most Wanted is a bad movie. It relies on two of my least favorite tropes, the characters fawning over someone who is clearly a bad guy and their friend knows it. Yes, it’s played as a joke here considering the character’s name is Dominic Badguy but just because you lampshade it doesn’t make it work. And then you have the trope of characters taking the idiot pill for the plot to move forward considering how easily everyone but Animal is tricked into thinking Constantine is Kermit. Again, I get it joke and he is Kermit’s doppelgänger but it’s just kinda annoying.
Now Constantine is the first time we’ve had a Muppet as a villain in one of these theatrically released movies but not the first time we’ve had a Muppet as a villain. Miss Piggy played the Wicked Witch of the West in Muppets Wizard of Oz and if we go more Muppets adjacent, the first Sesame Street movie had Muppet in the secondary antagonist role with Miss Finch in Follow That Bird. So having a Muppet as a villain while unique isn’t new.
Also, it’s interesting to note how Disney tried to make Constantine happen as he is to date the only Muppets villains to have a meet and greet at one of these parks as he was featured at Disney Hollywood Studios for a villains event years ago.
Personally, I think he’s fine but nothing special. At best Constantine nowadays is more remembered for memes than he is for this movie and it’s not even the best Muppets meme.
by Moviefan
Villains Profile: Tex Richman
July 15, 2025 in Blogs
Fandom is an interesting thing isn’t it? We’re all here because we are fans of something. In many ways the 2011 Muppets reboot movie is a love letter to the franchise written by the fans and built for the longtime fans. They are personified in Walter, certified number on Muppets fan.
Watching this movie, I couldn’t help but think of Disney’s treatment about the Muppets or rather mistreatment. I love Disney dearly but it is evident that they do not see value in The Muppets. Intentional or not, this movie feels like a meta commentary on how Disney has botched their handling of the Muppets. Consider it’s been over a decade since this movie was released and new Muppet content has been sparse or Disney doesn’t give it a chance. We’ve seen four Muppets series since this movie came out and the only one to get more than one season was a reboot of Muppet Babies for Disney Junior.
by Moviefan
Villains Profile: K. Edgar Singer
July 11, 2025 in Blogs
Oh, I wish I hadn’t already covered Long John Silver from Muppet Treasure Island. Of the theatrically released Muppet movies, Muppets from Space is the most nothing burger movie. It’s not bad but that almost feels worse for a Muppet movie. It’s the definition of “It’s fine”.
And that also goes for the villain in the movie, he’s just so forgettable. We’re in the middle of the Muppet movies here when looking at the theatrically released movies. There eight Muppet movies that were released in theaters. And this guy falls in the middle but he’s part of a dry sandwich with ingredients that have expired. Let’s take a look at the villains that came before him. Doc Hopper while personally not my favorite villain from this franchise is a memorable foe for Kermit in terms of paralleling how Kermit’s dream is selfless whereas Hopper’s is selfish.
Nicky Holiday is an over the top human ham that plays so well against the zaniness of the Muppets in Caper and he is probably the most comedic Muppet villain.
Long John Silver, it’s Tim Curry. Do I really need to say anything else? Okay being fair, just saying Tim Curry is underselling this character. Because while Curry is the most human to ever Muppet, he doesn’t just play the character as over the top. There’s also a nice balance of pathos with him. You come to understand that he cares for Jim but his obsession over finding the treasure drives a wedge between him and Jim. Jim at the end of the movie knows who his true family is but I don’t think he ever stopped caring about Silver. Nicky may be my favorite Muppets villain but Curry’s take on Silver imo is the most complex Muppet villain.
Heck, if we even look at the two reboot villains from the 2011 movie and Most Wanted, you have better villains. Tex Richman is yes another evil businessman like Hopper but he’s different enough. Although I do wish they hadn’t cut the part about the Muppets performing at his birthday party and him not being able to laugh out of the movie.
And while Constantine is a jewel thief like Nicky, there are a few things that set him apart. Constantine is the type of character that thinks he’s smarter than he actually is. And oh yeah, he’s a Muppet. The novelty of having a Muppet as a villain in one of these movies was something we hand’t seen before.
Whereas here with K. Edgar Singer I dunno. I’ve really got nothing to work with based on what we see in this movie. Also this movie came at a weird time where they tried to say Gonzo was an alien but that never really stuck around. Also trying to give a character like Gonzo pathos is an odd idea as he’s a more comedic relief character.
Wondering who you are and where you belong can be done extremely well with more hyperactive characters. The Tigger Movie came out one year after this movie and Tigger was essentially asking the same questions as Gonzo wondering where his family is and how does he fit in. The difference is n the execution as Tigger’s movie reflected the somber and thoughtful tones of his questions.
An argument can be made that the same can be done with Gonzo. In the very first movie , he sings I’m Going to Go Back There Someday which is one of the most somber songs in the Muppets discography.
Or if we look at a later special that came out after this, Muppets Haunted Mansion had Gonzo facing his own immortality and what would become of him if he was alone after his friends had passed away. You know what that special didn’t need to do, retcon Gonzo to be an alien. It used his daredevil nature to ask these questions.
I know this introduction is longer than usual but there’s nothing to say about this villain. He’s not funny, he’s not interesting. He’s not even a real threat. David Arquette had an extended cameo as an evil scientist torturing the lab rats Rizzo ends up with and he was a better villain in his short amount of screen time.
I kinda wish he was the main villain because t least I’d have someone to root against.
by Moviefan
Villains Profile: Nicky Holiday
July 8, 2025 in Blogs
We are now at our second Muppets villain and whereas IMO, Hopper was a foil to Kermit, I don’t believe the same is true of today’s villain. Nicky Holiday is a fun villain but I don’t know if I’d say that he’s a foil to any particular Muppet. This is admittedly a stretch but in some ways you could argue that he is a parallel to Miss Piggy. Both are over the top, hammy and love expensive things.
This is also case where we kinda have a love triangle but not really as Nicky is infatuated with Piggy but Piggy is loyal to her frog. As Piggy says, Kermit is right and Nicky is wrong. This is so fascinating as I do believe that Nicky’s feelings for Piggy are genuine but his greedy tendencies override his feelings for Piggy.
There is something else to keep in mind with The Great Muppet Caper compared to the first movie, Caper is more of a full blown comedy. The Muppet Movie had moments where the broke the fourth wall but Caper obliterates the fourth wall to the point that it doesn’t exist by the time the movie is over. This is something you’ll see when I talk about Nicky’s first appearance.
by Moviefan
Villains Profile: Doc Hopper
July 2, 2025 in Blogs
I’ve been thinking about The Muppets a lot recently since the closure of MuppetVision 3D. It was the first Disney attraction I ever experienced and I’m gonna miss it. It wasn’t my introduction to The Muppets per se as I knew Muppet Babies and remember getting the first two Muppet Movies on VHS at a birthday party in North Carolina when I was maybe three. Well if you know me, you know my favorite thing to cover is villains and that’s what I plan to do with this series. I wanna look at some Muppets villains. Now, a caveat as Muppets media spans wide and large, these will only be villains from movies that were released in theaters with possibly one exception as I am an Oz fan. Starting with the original Muppet Movie, we have perhaps the most iconic Muppet villain, Doc Hopper.
Muppets Villains are a bit different from other franchise villains. It’s not exactly fair to compare them to the likes of Disney Villains but they do have an iconicness to them (I know that’s not a word but roll with it). The Muppets villains serve as good foils to our group of misfits and weirdos.
The Muppets are a found family and this is observed both in the original movie with them coming together and in the 2011 reboot movie of them coming together again. This is something we will discuss when we get to the 2011 reboot but in many ways, that movie is a retread of what the original movie did. That is something you often see with legacy sequels and while that movie came out before legacy sequels were the norm, it does follow the template of a legacy sequel.
by Moviefan
Villains Profile: The Wizard
May 5, 2025 in Blogs
Today, we complete our look at adaptions of Baum’s world of Oz and its villains. Wicked in many ways birthed a trend for good or ill, the villain origin story. Many have tried to copy this from Disney with Maleficent and Cruella to the Sony Spider-Man universe that is without a Spider-Man. Some of these work better than others, notably I enjoy Cruella but Wicked is on a whole other level. Considering that this originated what people perceive as the villain origin story.
Now when the original book written by Gregory Maguire was released, the idea was to present it a biography detailing the life and times of the Wicked Witch and ask what makes someone evil. In many regards, writing a story from the perspective of a well known villain is tricky. With the original Wicked Witch as I stated in that entry, she was a bit of a simple character. So, this works and it can make sense as you’d be able to get people to root for her. Despite my saying I enjoyed Cruella, knowing the original wanted to skin puppies makes that something of an uphill battle.
by Moviefan
Villains Profile: Evillene
April 23, 2025 in Blogs
We continue our look at villains of Oz adaptions. What’s funny is that these two movies have a thirty-nine year gap between them. It’d be easy to write The Wiz of as The Wizard of Oz with all Black cast but that feels disingenuous. Now it is important to note the Broadway production was one of the first with a majority African-American creative team.. The Wiz is such an important piece of musical theater history considering how it gave so many jobs to African-American performers and creatives. It also as historic in the number of Tonys it won that year including best musical.
Four years after the original Broadway show debuted, a movie adaption debuted starring Diana Ross as Dorothy. She fought for this role and this is an aspect that has been criticized as many believe she was too old for the role. Much like the original book and the Garland adaption, Dorothy in The Wiz is a child or at best a teen. Here in the movie, she is I want to say a kindergarten or preschool teacher and her timid nature is less endearing here.
The movie also takes the characters out of Kansas and places them in Harlem. When I first saw this movie, this was a change that bugged me as I thought Kansas was essential to the story but home doesn’t have to mean Kansas. Home means family and home means where you are welcome. Yes, the stage version takes place in Kansas and that makes sense but yet in a way, I believe moving the setting to Harlem allows The Wiz to have more of it’s own identity. Before everything was sanitized, New York had a grungy feel and it was built on the back of minorities and I believe using Harlem and New York to a greater extent reflects the contributions of said community.
It also allows this movie’s Oz to stand out more as it’s not so beholden to what came before. As much as I love Wicked, its version of Oz pulls heavily from the 39 movie. Whereas using the aesthetics of New York for Oz in this movie allows this Oz to have more flavor.
by Moviefan
Villains Profile: The Wicked Witch of The West
April 21, 2025 in Blogs
Its been a while since I’ve blogged. TBH, I haven’t found the right motivation, blogging about Disney for so many years can get tiring. Tho, I’ve been wanting to return to the world of villains with my favorite thing to do. And if you know me, you know I’ve been obsessed with Wicked lately, it’s easily my favorite movie of last year and dare I say, one of my top ten favorites. Now, the thing of it is, there have been a lot and I mean a lot of takes on Baum’s fantastical world introducing various villains. I’ve already covered a few on my Disney blog including last year when I looked at one of the villains from the darker, Return to Oz and many years ago when I looked at the villains from Oz: The Great and Powerful. Instead of covering every Oz villain to appear in a piece of media, I’ve narrowed it down to three Oz movies which IMO consider to be the most significant in reflecting the era they were released in.
Those being the original 1939 Wizard of Oz, 1978’s The Wiz, and last year’s Wicked Pt. 1. Now yes, that does mean for the final entry I will only be looking half of the story and as someone obsessed with Wicked more than she is Oz in general, I might drop some Pt. II spoilers. Though it might be a while before we get to that entry but I am excited as that also deals with something I love aka adaptional villainy. In simplest terms, that is taking a character who was not villainous originally and making them a villain. Also all three of these movies I’m looking at are adaptions, the 39 movie is an adaption of Baum’s original book that took many liberties. You will see this is a trend. 1978’s The Wiz is an adaption of a Broadway musical that debuted four years earlier and last year’s Wicked is based on the immensely popular musical that is over twenty years old and itself is loose adaption of Gregory Maguire’s book.
by Moviefan
A Look at Disney: Villains Profile: Anxiety
February 4, 2025 in A Look at Disney, Blogs
We now look at our second antagonist of the IO franchise, Anxiety. Again, using the word villain is a stretch but she is an obstacle for our main characters to overcome and in a way, she needs to overcome herself.
The idea of Anxiety being the antagonist is an interesting choice as we as have a tendency to vilify anxiety and think up the worst things that could happen. This is something Anxiety herself explains that it is her job to prepare Riley for what could happen. The best way to think of this is Anxiety causes us to overthink things and that is what we see with Anxiety. When we think the worst of things, we might manifest the worst into happening. This isn’t to say Anxiety is a bad thing as it’s natural to be anxious about something we’ve never done before but the big message of the film is that we can’t let Anxiety control us as that could lead us down to reckless paths. This is something we will observe later on in this blog as the decisions that Anxiety makes have a much more direct impact on Riley and makes her act upon things she would normally never do otherwise.
Of course, this ties into something that has been controversial regarding this movie and Disney’s treatment of LGBTQ+ characters. In this sequel, Riley wants to impress an older girl named Val at hockey camp and the movie treats Val as just a cool girl but to so many viewers including myself the way Riley was acting came off as a crush.
Yes, her Mt. Crushmore was all boys but Riley may not know she likes girls yet. I didn’t know I was gender fluid until this year. And to further illustrate the point of this being a crush on Riley’s part, the staff working on this sequel confirmed they were told to downplay the gayness of Riley.
I am just so tired of Disney’s bullshit here, whether it be outright banning an episode of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur about a trans athlete. Proudly proclaiming they have a gay character when it’s a blink and you’ll miss it. Hi live action LeFou.
And yes we are getting breadcrumbs like Seb and Carlos in he High School Musical tv show or Agatha and Rio from Agatha All Along but breadcrumbs aren’t enough. Yes, I understand that we shouldn’t look to giant companies to tell our stories. It’s a miracle that Lumity were able to get together. Having said that though, Disney is the biggest entertainment brand in the world and they can afford to do better instead of cow towing to right wing Karens. So many people in the LGBTQ+ community are also Disney fans (hi me). So seeing characters we love being mistreated by the suits and execs to stifle their vision is beyond frustrating and make no mistake, Riley is one of my favorite Pixar characters. The thing people misunderstand about Riley is they only view her as the setting for the movie. And that’s partially true, there are two settings. The inside of Riley’s mind for the emotions and in the sequel, hockey camp for Riley. Joy is the main character in the setting we mainly follow being Riley’s mind and Riley is the main character in the hockey camp setting. That’s the great thing about Riley, in lesser hands she would only be a setting for the characters we follow but that is not the case as she is also her own character.
