Evil Queens

The Walt Disney Company has taken positive steps in the past year with high-profile releases featuring arguably gay characters-Oaken, the thickly accented storekeeper from 2013's "Frozen," and Craig Ferguson's Gobber in this summer's "How to Train Your Dragon 2."

This marks another great advance for the already gay-friendly Disney Corporation, which for years has been forward thinking in its hiring practices and ahead of the curve in accepting without officially condoning "gay days" at its theme parks, despite pressure from the religious right to shut them down.

So maybe now the tide is turning onscreen, after decades of inexplicably effeminate male Disney villains (never heroes) and female evildoers who fell into "dyke" or exaggerated "fag hag" categories. Granted, the offensiveness of these stereotypes often pale next to the Siamese cats in "Lady and the Tramp" (1955), the Indians in "Peter Pan" (1953), the racially offensive crows in "Dumbo" (1941) and Uncle Remus in "Song of the South" (1947).

Fun, Fun, Fun

Stereotypes aside, even the harshest critics admit that animated and live-action villains are the studio's most entertaining characters.

And hardcore fans (most of whom have been obsessed since childhood) all have their favorites. In his book "Disney Villains: The Essential Guide," author Glenn Dakin presents an all-star team of Disney and Pixar evildoers:

� The Evil Queen from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937)
� Captain Hook in "Peter Pan" (1953)
� Maleficent in "Sleeping Beauty" (1959)
� Cruella De Vil from "101 Dalmatians" (1961)
� Shere Khan from "The Jungle Book" (1967)
� Ursula from "The Little Mermaid" (1989)
� Scar from "The Lion King" (1994)
� Sid from "Toy Story" (1995)

Most authorities polled for this article pick a favorite from this list, with a few surprises thrown in.

Cruella: An Amalgam of Gay Screen Icons

Before the heyday of muscle and custom cars, there was a crazed fur-loving fiend driving a souped-up Rolls-Royce that would never pass an emission inspection. She scared small children (and puppies, of course) and delighted everyone else. From the 1961 animated classic "101 Dalmatians" (based on Dodie Smith's book) through Glenn Close in the less impressive 1996 and 2000's live-action versions, the relentless, single-minded madness of Cruella de Vil - reportedly inspired by gay icons Tallulah Bankhead, Rosalind Russell and Bette Davis - appeals to generations of fans, young and old, gay and straight.

Chris Harmon, a storyboard artist on a number of Disney productions and a lifetime fan, says, "As a kid, I think Cruella De Vil appealed to me for a number a reasons. First, a lot of Disney villains seem to have a rote motivation. You don't really know why they're the bad guy."

But "101 Dalmatians" pushed that aside. "With Cruella, her motivation is unique. I enjoyed that," he says. "She wanted to make a beautiful coat out of puppies! That blew my mind, the woman's nuts, and that motivation was more directly related to the puppies that were the stars of that movie more than in the other stories. That made for just a crazy obsessed character.

"That was also the first, and still one of the few, Disney movies in a contemporary setting. That meant Cruella had curlers in her hair, smoked that cool cigarette that made curling smoke everywhere and drove that fantastic car."

Villain as Hilarious Sexual Predator

Out comic James Adomian ("Last Comic Standing"), who sometimes models his look on the "archetype of the gay villain," is known for his mastery of an array of stereotypically masculine characters, including Sam Elliot and Jesse Ventura.

A strong section of his act sometimes features a hilarious riff on the topic, including a defense of Ursula, whom he describes as a "big fat brassy dyke with a butch haircut ... Every time I've ever met a woman like that in my real life, she's been awesome. That is the kind of woman who goes, 'The bar is closed, but you know what? Lock the doors; one round on me!"

Kaa (voiced by Winnie the Pooh's Sterling Holloway), the python in "The Jungle Book," is a nelly killer, salivating over the young Mowgli: "Say now, look at this delicious man cub," Adomian lisps on his CD "Low Hangin' Fruit."

In his standup and as a regular on the Comedy Bang Bang podcast, he gets more laughs from his take on Robin Hood's Sheriff of Nottingham (though not necessarily Disney's version). "He's always this fabulous fop, cloaked in furs." Constantly on the make for the sexy bandit, the effeminate tyrant commands:

"Bring me this Robin of Locksley and make him, oh yes, kneel before me. Robin Hood, look at you now. Here in chains, in my dungeon ...
Bring me the most painful condoms available."

In a phone interview, Adomian stressed that Disney even extends its effeminate villain policy to cartoons targeting younger children, including Duke Igthorn, the human villain in Disney's "Adventures of the Gummi Bears" TV series (1985-1991). "The bad guy was modeled on Captain Hook; he's a prancing and preening villain."

Over-the-Top Ass-Kickers

"You poor, simple fools. Thinking you could defeat me.
Me! The mistress of all evil!"
-Maleficent in" Sleeping Beauty"

"I like the villains because they're usually more entertaining than the other characters and they get to be larger than life," says Alonso Duralde, Los Angeles-based critic for "The Wrap" and cohost of the Linoleum Knife podcast. Duralde appreciated Maleficent - a short-tempered fairy who turns into a dragon when angered - before Angelina Jolie played a gentler version of her in this summer's live-action/CGI reimagining of the Sleeping Beauty myth.

"I've always been a fan. I liked how badass she was," he says.

Eddie Shapiro backs him up - Maleficent makes his top-three list every time. The author of "Queens in the Kingdom: The Ultimate Gay and Lesbian Guide to the Disney Theme Parks" and co-producer of Gay Days at Disneyland is an encyclopedia of all things Disney, especially its vast array of entertaining villains.

He divides the roster into "evil" and "really evil," explaining that only a handful of animated characters in Disney films - including (the 1959) Maleficent and the Evil Queen - are truly scary, whereas Ursula, Captain Hook and most of the others have a humorous aspect that makes them less threatening to children.

The father of a daughter (she's now 11), Curt Holman, Atlanta-based film critic and an editor at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, says for younger kids Disney's less-intimidating villains are like "stair stepping" to stronger animated fare, like" Spirited Away." "For me, as a kid I remember being really scared of Monstro the whale in 'Pinocchio' (1940)."

Dakin looks for another characteristic in his villains: charm, naming "The Jungle Book" as its embodiment. "'The Jungle Book' is a creative pinnacle for Disney. It has the best characters, the best songs, and is effortlessly cool. It was brilliantly cast, using quirky and warm vocal artists, like Phil Harris and Louis Prima. The flow of comedy and characters is true cinema magic," says the UK-based writer, whose TV credits include Bob the Builder and Shaun the Sheep.

"Shere Khan (a tiger), brilliantly voiced by George Sanders, is a kind of 'breakthrough' villain for Disney," he explains. "They realized the baddie doesn't have to rant and rave and cackle, but can be charming, compelling. He has something of the art of the politician. He doesn't act in an evil way at first; he is terribly polite. His menace is all implied. He has a lofty, superior quality, which makes you believe in him as a lord of the jungle."

"He is also very funny."

Another House of Mouse zigzag was "Beauty and the Beast"'s Gaston. "He's an excellent villain, with Disney showing that for once handsome doesn't mean good," Dakin says. Holman adds, "The villains' songs always have more bite to them. For example, I really liked Gaston's song in 'Beauty and the Beast' (1991). I also like that he's dumb and conniving at the same time."

Lyrics From "Gaston"
"No one's slick as Gaston,
No one's quick as Gaston,
No one's neck's as incredibly thick as Gaston."

Okay, Let's Dish

"No matter how fast you run, no matter where you hide,
I will catch you."
-Shere Khan

So how gay, gay-friendly or anti-gay are Disney's villains? Shapiro shares, taking a milder view of the situation than Adomian, "I'm gay and I like a villain with a healthy dose of camp, with irony as well. Cruella, Ursula, Maleficent and a number of others have it in spades."

Male villains like "Peter Pan"'s Captain Hook and "Aladdin"'s Jafar definitely come across as "gay." "You do wonder if there's something subversive in that, but I don't think its intentional homophobia," he says. "I wonder if the creators of 'Peter Pan' (in the 1950s) thought of Captain Hook as gay? Though I'm sure when they were creating 'The Little Mermaid' they viewed Ursula as a drag queen. I mean the character (voiced by Pat Carroll) was based on 'Divine.' "

The Gay Days producer ticks off a list of other likely suspects, including Professor Ratigan (voiced by Vincent Price) in 1986's "The Great Mouse Detective" and Prince John (Peter Ustinov) in 1973's animated "Robin Hood."

Another "Jungle Book" fan, he adds, "You know who else is super gay? Shere Khan, the tiger in 'The Jungle Book.' And he's voiced by the effete George Sanders ('All About Eve''s Addison DeWitt)."

"I guess they're almost all either gay or drag queens."

Shapiro concludes by pointing out that Disney fully comprehends the appeal of its evildoers. "On Saturday, August 23rd, Disney World is hosting an event called 'Unleash the Villains,' " he says. "If your heart is as black as mine, you have to attend!"