Pixar Animation Studios has been around since February 3, 1986. Since the studio was founded, it has found a way to make its characters beloved by fans all around the world. The studio has so far made 20 animation feature films, all of which have been advertised as a Disney Pixar partnership.
The Walt Disney Company itself has become an incredible powerhouse over the last several years. Disney was founded in the 1920s, but in the last decade, it has almost gained a monopoly on the movie industry by acquiring companies like Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, and recently 20th Century Fox. While some people have noticed a big change in the Star Wars and Marvel movies since Disney took over, Pixar seemed to remain mostly the same after Disney acquired it in 2006. Even though Disney is now a parent company to Pixar, most of the movies Disney distributes under the Pixar banner are just as well received as the full-fledged Disney movies.
Over the years, Pixar has created some truly unique characters, such as Buzz Lightyear, WALL·E, and Elastigirl. Apart from having that famous Pixar animation look, the characters all have a friendly and comforting appearance, but these characters could have looked very different if they would have been the villains of their movies.
Here are 20 Pixar Characters Reimagined As Villains.
Buzz Lightyear
One of Pixar’s most recognizable characters is Buzz Lightyear. Buzz first appeared in Pixar’s first feature film called Toy Story, which also happened to be the first-ever movie to be completely computer-animated. The Space Ranger quickly became an iconic figure for Pixar due to Toy Story’s success, and Buzz even has his own ride at Disney Land.
While Buzz is always seen as a hero in the Toy Story movies and shorts, the character could have looked very different if he would have been a villain. This fan art by Andre de Freitas reimagines Buzz as not only a villain, but a zombie. Sure, realistically, plastic characters probably wouldn’t be able to be transformed into zombies, but realistically toys don’t come to life when owners aren’t looking either… or do they?
EVE
At the beginning of WALL•E, the little robot was pretty satisfied with his life. Even though Earth was abandoned and the other WALL•E units were no longer functioning, WALL•E spent his days picking up and compacting the trash left on the planet. The adorable robot spent hundreds of years doing this, but he grew increasingly lonely as he had no interaction with anybody else, besides his cockroach friend named Hal.
WALL•E’s life was turned upside down when he met EVE, an Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator, who is sent to Earth looking for any signs of vegetation. The two robots eventually fall in love, but this fan redesign by DanLuVisiArt depicts a much more ruthless and battle-worn EVE who would stop at nothing to complete her mission. This version probably wouldn’t be suitable for a Pixar movie, but is fascinating none the less.
Mr. Incredible
Superhero movies are no doubt some of the most popular, and most lucrative, forms of entertainment fans have seen in recent years. Superheroes from all walks of life have been adapted from the pages of comic books for live-action feature films. That being said, before the superhero craze really took off with Iron Man in 2008, Pixar released The Incredibles in 2004.
Brad Bird directed the movie, which saw the Parr family having to conceal their superpowers in a world that turned against heroes. The film received a long-awaited sequel this year, but Mr. Incredible was never the main villain in either movies. Mr. Incredible might have briefly turned evil in Incredibles 2 thanks to Screen Slaver, but this fan redesign by Ethan Hunsaker takes that villain twist to a whole other level.
Lightning McQueen
Pixar has released some strange movies over the last 30-some years, but among their strangest creations was Cars. Cars revolves around characters that are anthropomorphic cars that go on different types of adventures together. The movie was fairly well-received and even got two more sequels and a spinoff called Planes from Disney. While everyone has their favorite character from the Cars films, Lightning McQueen stood as the hero in the trilogy.
Voiced by Owen Wilson, Lightning was a red Corvette that is also a racecar. The character goes on a journey from being an arrogant celebrity to someone who discovers the true meaning of friendship. If Lightning wouldn’t have visited Radiator Springs in the first movie, however, he could have possibly turned into a villain like this unknown artist depicts in this work of Lightning McQueen.
Merida
Disney is known for many of their movies and storylines, but among their most iconic properties has to be their line-up of Disney princesses. Snow White takes the spot as the first Disney princess, but over the years Disney has added over a dozen princesses to their collection. The character Merida is one of the few Disney princesses who wasn’t solely made by Disney, since Pixar actually created Brave.
Merida is the eleventh Disney princess who is known for her tomboyish qualities and her frizzy red hair. Like all of the Disney princesses, Merida goes through quite a transformation in her film, but this creation from Travis Falligant isn’t the transformation most people are used to seeing. In a horrifying mashup, Falligant combines Merida with the demonic doll named Chucky from the Child’s Play series.
Jesse
From the three main Toy Story movies and the various animated shorts, there have been many characters that are instantly recognizable as Pixar and Toy Story characters. Jesse is one of these characters and she was first introduced in Toy Story 2. Voiced by Joan Cusack, Jesse is a cowgirl who was from the same famous toy line as Woody. Her character has a fear of being trapped in a box, but fans will likely be scared of her now, thanks to this fan artwork.
This zombified Jesse comes from digital artist leagueof1 who actually has an entire collection of zombified Disney and Pixar characters. With the current popularity of Toy Story and zombies, it was only a matter of time before someone thought of this idea.
Boo
Another one of Pixar’s famous movies is the 2001 Monsters, Inc. The film revolves around monsters living in Monstropolis that are tasked with collecting children’s screams to power their city. By the end of the movie, it is discovered that children’s laughter is much more powerful, but this artist took a different approach to the movie.
This artwork by Chris Collins imagines the sweet little Boo grown up as a full-fledged villain. She is surrounded by monsters that clearly do her dirty work and protect her from those who wish to harm her. Some may be wanting to see Mike Wazowski in this artwork, but given the RIP tattoo on Boo’s left leg, it appears he wasn’t suited for this brutal version of Monstropolis.
Bing Bong
One of Pixar’s more recent movies was called Inside Out. The film centered around the emotions of a young girl named Riley, which are shown as being actual little creatures inside the girl’s head. The movie was beloved by many fans and even won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature in 2016. Among the lovable characters in the film was Riley’s imaginary friend named Bing Bong.
At first, some people might have thought Bing Bong was a villain, but he ends up sacrificing himself to get Joy back to Emotion Headquarters. This artwork by Wednesday Wolf takes a different approach to Bing Bong’s story however, imagining him as a full-fledged villain, and the result is horrifying.
Miguel
Another one of Pixar’s recent movies is Coco. The story revolves around a young boy named Miguel who travels to another world to find his fallen grandfather who was a legendary singer. Many people who saw the film enjoyed it, and the movie even won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film in this year’s Oscar ceremony.
The main antagonist of Coco was a character called Ernesto de la Cruz, but the artist down2thebone imagines Miguel as the villain of Coco. The artist may not specifically state the character is a villain in the artwork, but Miguel is a vampire covered in blood with red eyes, so it’s not that big of a stretch. That being said, even as a villain, Miguel still looks sweet and innocent.
Elastigirl
Incredibles 2 may have not been as well received as the first Incredibles movie, but after 14 years, fans were just happy to finally have a sequel. In the film, Elastigirl ends up being the character chosen to do undercover superhero work for the city, while her husband is left at home to take care of the kids.
Near the end of the movie, Screen Slaver is able to turn several superheroes into villains using mind control, which happens to include Helen Parr. That being said, this fan artwork of Elastigirl by Rafael Dukenny as a villain is much eviler looking than what showed up in Incredibles 2. Needless to say, Incredibles 2 would have been very different if Elastigirl would have remained a villain.
Carl Fredricksen
Pixar is great at several aspects of animation, but they also have a way to make viewers absolutely bawl their eyes out. The beginning of Up, when Carl Fredricksen’s wife passes away, may be one of the saddest moments in animation history, but even his wife’s passing couldn’t turn Carl into a bad guy. He may have turned into a grumpy old man in his later years, but the character is still one of the main heroes in the film.
In this Star Wars and Pixar mashup by Mark Chilcott, Carl is actually seen as the villain Darth Sidious. Emperor Palpatine wouldn’t be nearly as scary in Star Wars if he slowly moved around with a walker with tiny Death Star’s on the bottom, but for Carl, the look is perfect.
Fear And Sadness
Aside from the horrifying character Jangles in Inside Out, the movie didn’t really have a villain. The story was more about accepting that all of human emotions are important, rather than pitting two emotions against each other. The emotions in the movie, Joy, Anger, Fear, Disgust, and Sadness, were all important characters to the story Inside Out was trying to tell, but all of them obviously had drastically different personalities.
Leagueof1 imagined Fear and Sadness as mindless zombies for his fan art. That being said, Fear and Sadness were the two likely characters to get zombified since zombie movies and TV shows are often filled with fear and sadness.
Dory And Marlin
Marlin and Dory are both crucial characters to the story in Finding Nemo and Finding Dory. In the first movie, Marlin comes across Dory after his son Nemo is captured by fisherman, but in the sequel, Marlin and Nemo are the ones searching for Dory. Each film had its fair share of horrifying sea creatures like sharks and giant squids, but among the scariest was the Black Sea Devil.
The fish with the giant teeth and the light on its antenna is actually a real fish, but benjelfs combined the designs of Marlin and Dory with the Black Sea Devil to create some true nightmare fuel. Thankfully, these combinations of sea creatures are not real!
Toy Story Aliens
The aliens in Toy Story have almost become as iconic as the main characters Buzz and Woody. They were first introduced in the first Toy Story when they were the prizes of a claw machine in Pizza Planet. They appeared in the two sequels and even ended up saving the toys from being incinerated in Toy Story 3. The aliens are tiny green rubber toys that are actually quite adorable.
That being said, artist Justin LaRocca Hansen takes a very different approach to them by drawing them as horrifying space creatures. His fan art imagines an army of green Toy Story aliens being led by Tars Tarkas from the movie John Carter, and the end result couldn’t be any more perfect.
Mater And Lightning McQueen
While Lightning McQueen and Mater are the two main characters in Pixar’s Cars trilogy, the characters also happen to be best friends. They have had their ups and downs as the series progressed, but nothing seems to be able to keep these two from being best friends. Lightning is a red Corvette, while Mater is a rusty old tow truck. That being said, this fan art by Sylvain Sarrailh gives Mater and Lightning a big makeover.
Both characters look almost like post-apocalyptic vehicles that could be used if zombies were to take over the world. Both cars are covered in blood and look truly like vicious villains. If Pixar ever decides to make an R-rated Cars movie, they will know the artist to find.
Sulley
While the characters in Monsters, Inc. use the screams of children to power their city, none of them are really all that scary. Sulley is like a giant blue teddy bear, and Mike looks like a giant tennis ball, but neither of them are really that frightening. That being said, if Dennis Carlsson would have been in charge of creating the characters for the movie, the children in the movie wouldn’t have been the only ones screaming.
This fan artwork of Sulley as a villain would surely scare anyone watching Monsters, Inc. Also, it is hard to imagine this version of Sulley making anyone laugh as he does at the end of the movie.
Woody
While Toy Story is one of Pixar’s most popular movies, The Shining is often regarded as one of the best horror films ever made. Based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name, The Shining shows Jack Torrance spiral into madness after he gets a job as a caretaker for a hotel over the Winter. One of the most iconic scenes in the movie involves Jack (played by Jack Nicholson) smashing down a door with an axe to get to his wife Wendy.
Artist Kyle Lambert made a drawing of this scene, but instead of Jack Torrance, he threw in Woody from Toy Story. The original design for Woody looked truly horrifying, so this horror Pixar mashup actually kind of makes sense.
Violet Parr
Violet may be a timid fourteen-year-old in the Incredibles movies, but she is still an incredibly powerful superhero. She is the oldest child in the Parr family and has the ability to turn invisible and produce force-fields. She may get into fights with Dash during The Incredibles and Incredibles 2, but this fan art by Warrwickwongdesign shows Violet as the leader of the Parr family after Helen and Bob pass away.
While she may not exactly be a villain in this fan art, her design could totally be used in a movie where Violet turns into a villain. Between her neck tattoo and her battle-worn costume, Violet has clearly seen some traumatic incidents that could turn her evil.
The Emotions
Inside Out didn’t really have a true villain, but what if the emotions themselves were the villains? That’s exactly what artist mintmovi3 imagines in his horror mashup poster of Inside Out. The poster is actually a redesign of the poster used for the 2009 horror movie Phobia 2, but the design actually works quite well for Inside Out.
In real life, movie theaters around the country accidentally played Insidious: Chapter 3 instead of Inside Out since the first five letters of both movies are the same, which could have been the inspiration behind this fan artwork. Either way, this rendition of the Inside Out poster truly makes the emotions look like horrifying villains.
Buzz Lightyear
Buzz Lightyear is a hero in every sense of the word. He may be on this list twice, but given his popularity for Pixar, this addition seems fit to be included. This drawing by Max Grecke depicts Buzz as a crazed and broken toy. Not only does he have red and bulging eyes, but he is also severely damaged.
Buzz’s right arm is completely missing, his wings are chipped, the button for his wings is popping out, and his right leg is not only missing the external plastic, but is completely bent the wrong way. Hopefully his air isn’t toxic, because that helmet also looks pretty cracked.
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Are there any other Pixar characters that would look good as villains? Let us know in the comments!