If you’re a parent looking for fictional characters your children might look up to, you’ll likely turn to Disney. It’s familiar, it’s tried-and-true, and it’s typically G-rated, so kids are definitely in safe hands. Whether they choose to sing along with mermaids and sea creatures in The Little Mermaid or build imaginary snowmen alongside Elsa and Anna in Frozen, they’ve got options. That said, given how easily people can edit and manipulate images— no matter how innocent they may be intended to be— even the most wholesome character can be become scary.
Various artists have taken the initiative to give certain Disney princesses a makeover, but not in the traditional sense. In these cases, the makeovers have less to do with beauty and everything to do with villainy.
These depictions of Disney princesses definitely bring out their darker side. In some cases, the princesses are transformed into familiar movie villains, while other illustrations simply have them zombified or modified in such a way that their traditionally decent behavior takes a turn for the worse.
Keep reading to check out 16 Disney Princesses Redesigned As Villains.
Dark Elsa
Frozen’s Elsa wasn’t always going to be one of the good guys. She’s fighting with an inner struggle concerning her ice powers, but when all is said and done, she’s not your average Evil Ice Queen. Tilda Swinton has those grounds more than covered in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
Still, it’d be interesting to see what Evil Elsa might look like in some alternate reality—which is exactly what artist Courtney Lovett went ahead and did.
This version of Elsa may not seem as aggressive as some of the other more violent princesses on this list, but there is some obvious malice on display. What’s more is that she’s fashioned purples spikes out of icicles, which is definitely an evil queen movie.
Wild Belle
When Belle is imprisoned by the Beast in Beauty and the Beast, hope isn’t lost. In no tie at all, the tides turn and their relationship ends up turning into something beautiful, turning their love story into a “tale as old as time.” But what if things worked out differently? What if the Beast’s aggressive nature got the better of her, the enchanted rose lost all of its petals, and Belle was trapped with the Beast until the end of their days?
Well, according to the artist Jeffrey Thomas, the curse would apparently take hold of her as well. Only, instead of transforming her into a piece of furniture, as it did to the rest of his castle, it’d transform her into a beast as well.
How lovely.
Ariel of the Black Lagoon
The concept of anthropomorphic sea creature differs from person to person. In some cases, these characters are more human than creature, like Ariel in The Little Mermaid. The bottom half of her body may look like the tail of a fish, but everything waist-up is 100 percent human, making her 100 percent more approachable than something like the Creature from the Black Lagoon— which is 100 percent unapproachable (well, before Guillermo del Toro warmed audiences up to him in The Shape of Water).
Artist Travis Falligant was commissioned by Break.com to create monstrous versions of famous Disney princesses, and this is just one example of his work. In fact, speaking of The Shape of Water, this may as well be concept art for the sequel.
Disney Princess Stormtroopers
When Disney bought Lucasfilm, it was only a matter of time before the internet had its way with fusing various Disney properties with the Star Wars universe. However, transforming classic Disney princesses into low-level Stormtroopers is definitely far from expected.
Not only are these young women fighting for the dark side, they’re a long way from the comforts of royalty.
What’s worse is that they don’t even have the luxury of ruling as villains; they’re just stationed with all the other expressionless grunts to serve some greater purpose. Artist Isaiah Stevens was commissioned by Zimbio to give make classic Star Wars and Disney characters one and the same.
With any luck, these princesses will be a better shot than most of their other comrades, putting that “aimless” stereotype to rest.
Elsa and Anna as The Grady Twins
In earlier drafts of the script for Frozen, Elsa wasn’t just a troubled queen, but a truly wicked queen, per Disney tradition. She was evil, and her ice powers only added to her malice. Later on, Disney thought better of this concept and gave her and her sister the happily ever after they deserved.
Unfortunately, Travis Falligant got his hands on them, not only going back to Disney’s original design for the character, but possibly getting a little too carried away with the whole “evil” angle. In fact, he even brought Anna along for the ride.
This version of the characters has them doubling as the Grady Twins from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. Nowadays, it seems as though you can’t escape these characters anymore. Between Ready Player One, Mr. Robot, and now Disney, there’s really nowhere to hide.
Zombie Esmerelda
In The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Quasimodo’s biggest issue is to get people to look past his physical flaws. He’s cast out by society, forced to hide away in a bell tower simply on account of looking different than the locals, and it’s through these circumstances that he encounters the gypsy Esmeralda.
In the movie, she’s a sight for sore eyes, but Quasimodo is far more interested in her kindness than her looks. She accepts him for the person that he is, not the monster’s he’s been led to believe he was.
That said, it’d be interesting to see if his perception of her would have changed at all had he seen her through the Jeffrey Thomas lens (aka had he seen her as q zombie). It’s one thing to accept a person’s physical disfigurements, but to accept their flesh-eating tendencies is a challenge all its own.
Evil Cheerleaders Aurora, Cinderella, and Snow White
In traditional Disney canon, the princesses typically stick to their own movies. They may cross paths in straight-to-streaming or home video, but for the most part, they’re lone wolves. And maybe this is for the best. In most cases, there is strength in numbers, but according to an artist known simply as Lidia (or buttercupLF), uniting certain Disney princesses may well have violent consequences.
In her depiction of Cinderella, Snow White, and Aurora, the princesses are conniving, bloodthirsty cheerleaders a la the trio from Jawbreakers or Heathers - those high school girl gangs of the ’80s and ’90s.
Don’t let the pep in the step fool you; they mean business - and in this case, “business” equates to “violence.”
Merida as Chucky
Merida from Brave is made out to be one of the most daring and adventurous princesses in the Disney universe. That said, she definitely has a proclivity for weaponry. While most princesses are expected to act a certain way, she breaks the rules, rebels against the status quo, and becomes proficient in archery. Still, that doesn’t automatically make her a violent criminal.
No, for that to be the case, she needs a makeover courtesy of Travis Falligant.
Given her way with weapons, as well as her ginger locks, Falligant transformed her into none other than Chucky the doll from Child’s Play.
Brave is all about transformations, but Disney and Pixar were definitely going for something a little less R-rated.
Mulan as Samara
Disney is a true saving grace for most parents. Especially when parents are desperately looking for free time to manage their own lives, popping in a movie for their kids to keep them occupied is one of the most helpful distractions known to man.
Wth that being the case, the last movie any parent would want to show their children is The Ring— not only because it’s terrifying, even for adults, but because it’d likely scare them away from television sets forever.
Thankfully, they can rest assured this will never happen. The closest kids might ever come to seeing Samara from The Ring is in Travis Falligant’s creepy Mulan makeover, and even then, its creepiness won’t have any direct ties to TVs. Thankfully.
Evil Jasmine
When it comes to getting a villainous makeover, the final product doesn’t necessarily have to be nightmare-inducing. In some cases, the transformation can simply be a gothic overhaul courtesy of Hot Topic. At least that’s how the artist known as Fitz0blong seems to see it, given their villainous take on Jasmine from Aladdin.
Jasmine has always been a bit of a rebel; wanting to run away from home, steal, and date the guy her father doesn’t approve of.
This version of the character is not letting restraints hold her back. Equipped with a whip, her trusty pet tiger, and a very devil may care sort of attitude, this is the kind of Disney princesses who seems very much inclined to follow a “take no prisoners” sort of mentality.
Evil Rapunzel
Having been locked away in a tower all her life, it’s anyone’s guess how Rapunzel didn’t turn out to be inherently bad to the bone. She’s unaware of the fact that she was stolen as a child, and that the woman posing as her mother is actually an evil witch, but even aside from that, spending one’s entire life as a prisoner can’t be beneficial to anyone’s mental health.
Artist Jeffrey Thomas is well aware of this, so when he decided to tackle Disney’s Tangled, his approach was even more realistic than Disney’s— even though the result was decidedly more evil.
In this version of the character, Rapunzel still puts her famously long locks to work, just in a slightly less kin way than she does in the movie.
Pocahontas as Jason Voorhees - Friday the 13th
When John Smith and his fellow explorers/invaders happened upon the Native Americans in Pocahontas, they were met with equal parts curiosity and fear. For Smith, though, he was in the clear; meeting Pocahontas was love at first sight, and though their love story didn’t end up having a traditionally happy ending, all was well.
That said, there was still a sliver of a chance that Pocahontas might have turned out to be a very different sort of forest dweller and American staple.
In this Travis Falligant makeover, Pocahontas isn’t the kind and welcoming native that kids have come to love, but the evil Jason Voorhees who camp counselors have grown to fear. Both characters are misunderstood, but only one of them is willing to sing and dance “with the colors of the wind.”
Demon Moana
Easily the cutest aspect of Moana is in the opening of the movie when audiences are treated to baby Moana. She’s as explorative as she is adorable, and even though she seems like she might be a lot to handle for her parents—running off, trying to swim in the ocean, preferring scary stories over traditional playtime—it’s completely endearing.
Had she been portrayed as Safwen Laabidi illustrated her, however, audiences might have thought differently.
In this version of the character, baby Moana is literally a little devil. All of her troublemaking tendencies are personified in a traditional devil makeover, robbing her of that adorable island charm. Still, though, if you’re willing to look past the horns and the wings and the tail, maybe it’s not so bad after all.
Tiana as Candyman
When Princess Tiana is faced with an evil curse in The Princess and the Frog, it’s unfortunate, but it’s fixable. She spends the length of the movie as a frog, hopping her way through the Louisiana bayou, trying her best to reverse the curse despite the setbacks. As it were, the moral of the story is overcoming hardships, no matter how difficult they may be, so the transformation here is actually fitting.
That said, she’s lucky that the curse remained in a mostly G-rated realm. Had Travis Falligant had his way, she may well have gone the way of one Daniel Robitaille (aka the main victim/villain in Clive Barker’s Candyman).
Coming back from being a frog is one thing, but coming back from being a vengeful spirit whose evil soul is powered by the swarm of bees that ended him is something else entirely.
Evil Mulan
Mulan is easy to root for. She’s a nonconformist who selflessly puts her life at risk so as to protect her father. That’s definitely someone parents would be pleased to have inspire their children. But what if history rewrote itself?
What if Mulan’s true intentions sided more with the evil Shan Yu than the Emperor?
Had the artist known as Willemijn1991 had their way, that’s exactly how things might have gone.
Forget all about Mulan’s most treasured characteristics; this version of the character is self-serving, callous, and—one would imagine—unrelentingly evil. In case you weren’t sure why, the furrowed brow and darker ensemble ought to give it away.
The fact that Mulan is based on an actual person makes this transformation all the more unsettling.
Zombie Megara
Meg was easily the best thing that ever happened to Hercules. During the bulk of the movie, he spends most of his time trying to prove his strength, so that he can become one with the gods and live out the rest of eternity as a glorified celebrity. Once Meg enters the picture, he starts to understand the value of love and humility, and as a result, he decides to live out of the rest of his mortal life on Earth with her by his side.
Thankfully, everything went as planned. Had either of them taken one wrong turn during their fight against fate (and the actual Three Fates), the Underworld might have gotten the better of them, forcing them to spend eternity in the deep pits of Hell.
Sure, they’d have been together, but they’d also be rotting zombies whose career revolved around taking people’s lives.
Who’s your favorite evil Disney princess? Let us know in the comments!
