Not all cartoon moms are sweet, loving, or what people usually think of when they use the word “maternal.” Some abuse their own children, some annoy others for the sake of their children, and some are a bit of both. Some bad moms aren’t even real moms in the literal sense, just using “mom” as a title to show their dominance.
It helps that fairy tales have always been a favorite subject animation. Many popular fairy tales feature characters opposed by evil mother figures. Wicked matriarchs are a fixture in stories of Hansel and Gretel Unpleasant Hercules. At the end of the day, the most important thing is for viewers to be happy that these characters aren’t their mothers.
10 Shadow Weaver – The Secret of the Sword (1985)
Shadow Weaver is a Horde witch who appears in the He-Man movie, The Secret of the Sword, introducing the hero’s twin sister, Princess Adora. It is revealed that Adora was stolen at birth by the Horde and was raised to the rank of Force Captain, in the employ of the villain Hordak. Despite this, Adora isn’t actually evil, but goes along with it in part because she was raised to believe the Horde are a force of good.
Shadow Weaver, who once manipulates Adora into saying she has always been a “mother” figure to the girl, also uses her magic to keep Adora in line. This becomes necessary at times when Adora realizes how corrupt the Horde really is. In the end, Adora breaks the spell and becomes the heroine, She-Ra.
9 Queen Narissa – Bewitched (2007)
Queen Narissa acts as Disney’s antagonist enchanted. Narissa is Edward’s stepmother and tries to prevent him from marrying everyone so she can keep the throne. When Edward meets Giselle, Narissa sends the girl to a land where there is no happy ending: the real world.
Usually an homage to classic Disney villains, some of Narissa’s later plans include giving Giselle a poisoned apple and transforming it into a dragon. Ironically, if it weren’t for Narissa, Giselle and Edward wouldn’t have found their true loves: Robert and Nancy, respectively.
8 Yeh-Shen’s Stepmother – Yeh-Shen: A Story of Cinderella from China
Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Story from China is based on a Chinese version of the classic tale, believed to be one of the earliest known Cinderella stories. Yeh-Shen suffers under the care of her stepmother and stepsister. Her only friend is a talking fish named Gold-Eyes. When the stepmother learns of this, she cooks and eats the poor animal.
Fortunately for Yeh-Shen, Gold-Eyes’ ghost lives on and grants her wishes. In the end, Yeh-Shen, with the help of a golden slipper, becomes the bride of a king. The evil stepmother ends the story by boasting about how she must have raised Yeh-Shen well and will visit the new queen in the palace. However, the narrator assures us that she and her daughter got their comeuppance: they got caught in a cave-in and were never heard from again.
7 Zira – The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride (1998)
Zira acts as the villain of The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride. Zira was a former follower of Scar and is a mother figure to Kovu, Nuka, and Vitani. Seeking revenge for Scar’s demise, Zira summons Kovu, who chose Scar as his heir, to one day overthrow and usurp Simba. Unfortunately for her, Kovu falls in love with Simba’s daughter, Kiara. Zira also plays favorites with her children, giving up any semblance of caring when her children go against her wishes.
Ironically, since Kovu effectively became Simba’s successor, Zira is one of the few Disney villains who technically got what she wanted, only without the gore she also craved.
6 Gothel – Barbie as Rapunzel (2002)
In Barbie as Rapunzel, Rapunzel is raised by the witch Gothel who treats the girl like a slave and regularly reminds her that she has been abandoned by her real parents. When Gothel catches Rapunzel venturing into a nearby village and meets a handsome prince, the witch uses her magic to trap her in a tower.
It is eventually revealed that Gothel loved Rapunzel’s father and kidnapped her as revenge for marrying another woman, noting that Rapunzel would have been her “daughter” had he married her. Interestingly, “Gothel” itself is an archaic word for “godmother.”
5 Mom – Futurama: Bender’s Game (2008)
In the world of Futurama, Mom is the rich head of Mom Co. Mom acts as a matriarch of sorts to Earth’s robots, presenting herself as kind and sweet, but she is cunning and vengeful and is the closest thing to the main villain of the series. Constantly plotting to take over the world, literally or financially, Mama once even turned her robot children against the human race. Mom isn’t even that nice to her real sons, she treats them more like minions.
Mother notably appears as the villain of the Futurama movie Benders game. When the world is transformed into one Dungeons and Dragons inspired fantasy, Mother naturally becomes an evil sorceress, “Momon”, complete with snakes in her hair like Medusa. Momon even succeeds in her goals, but is defeated when the world returns to normal.
4 The Other Mother – Coraline (2009)
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In Coral, the other mother is not really anyone’s mother, but is an evil witch who lures children into her world posing as twins of the child’s real mother. The Other Mother is kind and generous at first, showering her new house with good food and toys. However, the Other Mother only sees her children as possessions and eventually grows tired of them, causing them to languish until she moves on to another target. Her true colors become apparent when she asks her pupils to sew buttons onto their eyes.
The ghosts of her previous victims, who seem to be imprisoned in her realm, even refer to her as the “beldam,” an archaic word for “witch.” The word is also reminiscent of the ballad ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’ or ‘the beautiful lady without mercy’, which describes an evil fairy who also lured victims to their deaths.
3 Mother Gothel – Tangled (2010)
Confused is Disney’s take on the Rapunzel story and gives viewers a cunning villain in Mother Gothel. Gothel kidnaps Princess Rapunzel as a baby and raises her believing she is her daughter. In reality, Gothel is interested in harnessing the girl’s powerful hair, hoping to keep herself young and beautiful. Gothel imprisons the girl in a lonely tower, feeding her to depend on her and fear the outside world.
Gothel’s manipulations aren’t too successful, as Rapunzel still longs for the outside world. However, Gothel is willing to destroy anything and anyone that gets in the way between her and her prisoner. Notably, Mother Gothel also suffers a macabre defeat: when Rapunzel is stripped of her powers, Gothel soon rots into nothing but dust and a cape.
2 Lady Tremaine – Cinderella (1950)
Lady Tremaine is Cinderella’s stepmother in the Disney adaptation of the classic fairy tale. Proving that a mother’s love can be as sinister and corrupt as it is powerful, Lady Tremaine refuses to accept her stepdaughter as her own because she is more charming than her natural daughters.
Lady Tremaine proves she can destroy Cinderella’s happiness without lifting a finger, as when she manipulates her daughters into tearing up Cinderella’s mother’s dress. If Lady Tremaine suspects that Cinderella is the girl the Prince is looking for, she will do anything to prevent the girl from becoming the Prince’s bride. At first, Lady Tremaine locks her stepdaughter in her tower room, knowing that no one will hear her scream for help. Young viewers can only guess in horror what Lady Tremaine would have done to Cinderella if her mouse friends hadn’t rescued her in time. When Cinderella escapes, she destroys the glass slipper, disregarding the girl who kept the matching slipper to prove her identity.
1 The Evil Queen – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1938)
In Snowwhite and the Seven Dwarfs, the devilish queen is Snow White’s stepmother and has already opened the story after making the princess a scullery maid. Hoping that a lifetime of servitude would destroy Snow White’s beauty, the Queen is horrified when her magic mirror reveals that Snow White’s beauty surpasses her. The Queen’s first action is to order a servant to cut out Snow White’s heart.
When that plan fails, the Queen decides that Snow White deserves a fate worse than death: to curse her with the “Sleeping Death”, while cackling that the girl will be buried alive. Disguised as an old woman, the Queen tricks Snow White into eating a poisoned apple, promising her innocent stepdaughter that all her wishes will come true. Fortunately, the queen meets her end when Snow White’s loyal dwarf friends chase her to the edge of a cliff after she is struck by lightning. The fact that it took either a force of nature or a higher power to defeat the witch shows that Snow White’s stepmother was one of Disney’s most powerful villains.