The Tuesday Top 10: Most Horrifying Cartoon Characters

One of the things that appeals to me about doing a weekly Top 10 is the ability to think outside the box and go for topics that might not be strictly tied to horror movies, but more to horror in general. Case in point: this week's Tuesday Top 10, in which I am taking a look at the most frightening animated characters it's ever been my perverse pleasure to witness.

When considering candidates, I ruled out movies/shows intended only for grown-ups; it would've been too easy to collect a bunch of baddies from Heavy Metal, The Maxx, Wizards, etc. No, I thought it would be much more of a challenge to focus on characters that have actually scared the bejeezus out of little kids--in some cases, little B-Sol himself. Oh, the benefits of a horror-drenched childhood!

10. Cruella De Vil
101 Dalmations (1961)
She resembles a harpy, has vicious streaks of white through her hair, and her all-consuming goal in life is to slaughter a gigantic litter of puppies and use their skin to make a coat for herself. If that isn't the stuff of nightmares, then I don't know what is.

9. Gollum
The Hobbit (1977)
My fifth grade teacher thought it would be cool to show us this Rankin-Bass TV chestnut in class. Imagine my ten-year-old mind reeling at the sight of this bizarre, freakish thing. Still, this movie did kick off a lifelong Tolkien obsession. "Where there's a whip...there's a way!"

8. Maleficent
Sleeping Beauty (1959)
One of Disney's more underrated evil queens, I first came across her Satanic majesty at a double-feature of Sleeping Beauty and The Black Hole way back in Nineteen-Hundred and Eighty. I maintain this is one of the Mouse House's most boy-friendly features, and this shape-shifting bitch is one of the main reasons why.

7. Skeletor
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983-85)
Kind of a no-brainer. He's a roided-out blue dude with a skull for a head. Even though he's voiced by the same guy who did the voice of that lovable Falcor in The Neverending Story, he still freaked the snot out of me every weekday afternoon after school...

6. The Apple Bonkers
Yellow Submarine (1968)
OK, I chalk this up mainly to being a really little kid, but good lord did these guys creep me the eff out. Towering, mindless drones dropping giant apples on people's heads and turning them to stone. "Smash them! Crash them! O-BLUE-TIRATE THEM!!" Shivers...

5. The Witch
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
She was pretty hot in a secret-BDSM-fantasy kinda way in her evil queen form, but once she transforms herself into that gnarled-up, bug-eyed old crone... permanent childhood trauma. Never realized how many nightmarish villains Disney cooked up...

4. Mumm-Ra
Thundercats (1985-87)
I know, I spent way too much time on weekday afternoons watching action cartoons instead of doing my homework. But how could I pass up a show in which the main villain was a jacked-up, maniacal mummy? Although I never remember hearing him say this. Would've ruled, though.

3. Gen. Woundwort
Watership Down (1978)
OK, do you see that picture over there? Do I need to say anything else? This flick was on constant rotation on HBO when my fam first got it in the early '80s, and this grizzled hideous old rabbit, kept me glued to the couch in terror. Or maybe that was just my mom's plastic couch coverings...?

2. Gargamel
Smurfs (1981-90)
A hideous wizard who tried relentlessly to track down a cute village of friendly, fun-loving little blue fairies. So he could cook and eat them. Maybe not as many kids deconstructed their cartoons as much as I did...

1. Other Mother
Coraline (2009)
My big regret is that I'll never know what it's like to experience the sublimely frightening Coraline as a child. But at least I got to vicariously experience it through my own progeny. And for my money, there has never been a more thoroughly soul-chilling creation to ever appear in an animated film than this grasping, malevolent, twisted perversion of motherhood. It just taps into the psyche on so many levels. Or at least my psyche. Paging Dr. Freud...

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Final Coraline Trailer Is the Best Yet

The last promotional clip for Neil Gaiman and Henry Selick's Coraline hit the net last night. According to Ain't It Cool News, it's Selick's personal favorite trailer, and it's pretty easy to see why. Here it is, enjoy:

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All the Coraline You Can Handle

If you're like me, then you're anxiously anticipating the February release of Henry Selick and Neil Gaiman's Coraline. Of course, if you're like me, you're also afraid to wash your hair in the shower, have an affinity for pink Neccos, and are obsessed with Yma Sumac. But let's stay on-message. Coraline looks to be an excellent adaptation of a lauded Gaiman novel by the director who gave us The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Last night, the film's official website went live with loads of quirky content. This includes plenty of info on the movie itself, most of it in video form. There's also the requisite wallpapers, etc.--although unlike most movie-themes wallpaper, these are actually unobtrusive and don't suck at all. Plus, who wouldn't want to turn themselves into a creepy button-eyed person? I sure did:


Just try going back to sleep tonight when that sucker pops into your head at two in the morning, Vault Dwellers.

Anyway, my point is, if you're interested in the flick, check out Coraline.com. It's cooler than most movie websites. Catch you tomorrow. I've just been blown away by Let the Right One In, and hope to put up a review soon. Plus... the "Cyber-Horror Elite" will soon be making more elitist pronouncements... Stay tuned.

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Neil Gaiman Discusses Coraline

Wired.com has some exclusive new footage from Henry Selick's stop-motion animated feature Coraline, based on the Hugo and Nebula award-winning novel by Neil Gaiman. The author also goes into detail on what makes this project so unique. You don't have to sell me on it. The writer of Sandman and the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas teaming up to create a twisted children's horror story? I'm in. Look for the movie in theaters in February. In the meantime, check this out:

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Creepy Kids Rule!

Get ready goth boys and girls...from the man who brought you The Nightmare Before Christmas comes another stop-motion animated flick based on a warped children's book. That's right, Henry Selick, director of the Tim Burton-produced 1993 holiday classic has been hard at work adapting Neil Gaiman's Coraline, and Gaiman himself has just posted the first bit of footage on his website. Finally, a family movie I can be proud to take my progeny to see! Check it out below. Take that, Alvin & The Chipmunks!!

For the super hi-res Quicktime version, go here.

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