From the blessings of song and beauty to the
curse of a stolen voice, the concept of magic is an undercurrent in Disney animation. In
the Disneyverse, magic is multifaceted and tends to have an equal capacity for good and
evil - throughout the years, Disney’s produced an untold number of characters who wield
magic to varying degrees and for different purposes. But how does Disney’s mystical armada
stack up against each other in terms of power? I’m Kyle with WickedBinge and today
we’re taking on Disney Magic Users, from the weakest and all the
way to the most powerful. AD-INTEGRATION: But, before we begin… If you really enjoy magic, today’s sponsor has an absolute
abundance of it... Raid: Shadow Legends. When it comes to magic, you can’t go wrong
with High Elves. Some of my favorite High Elven Champions are Lyssandra and The Royal
Huntsman… But there’s an absolute ton of choices. And that’s really what I dig most about
Raid. The level of variety. For instance, the PVP Arena battles really show
off all the options available when it comes to your opponents
Champions. And winning Medals in the Arena will allow you to upgrade your
Great Hall and unlock global stat bonuses. And last month, Raid got its biggest update
yet. The main event is the Doom Tower. A giant tower with 120 floors, a ton of Secret Challenge
Rooms and a dozen bosses to go through. With this update, now really is the best time to start
playing… In fact, The Raid Team is even giving away a bunch of new stuff, as well as a special
Champion that will help get you started in the Tower… Bulwark. He’s incredible in Clan Boss and
he’ll help you tear through bosses in the Tower. Raid Shadow Legends is an awesome experience and
they’re also cool enough to sponsor our channel… But if you need more incentive to download… We’re
going to give you a huge head start in Raid. All you have to do is click
the link in our description and you’ll get your free Void Champion, an XP booster, 50 gems, some energy refills and even an
Ancient Shard as soon as you get in-game. Look at this Champion you’ll get for
free. I wouldn’t mess with that guy. Now look, you’ll find your extra rewards here in your inbox for the next 30 days
only. So you don’t miss out. It’s all that easy. Just click the
link in the description to get started. Thanks Raid: Shadow Legends for sponsoring
this video. And I’ll see you all in-game. Now, let’s get back to the video. As usual, we’ll start at the very bottom,
with our least powerful, and work our way up. Figuratively and literally, you
can’t get much lower than Morgana, who’s currently frozen solid (but also
conscious) at the bottom of the sea. As the younger sister of Ursula the Sea Witch,
Morgana is exceeded by her sister’s legacy in every conceivable way, especially in the magical
arts. While she has the standard villain powers like superhuman strength and teleportation, she is
an unskilled potioneer and relies on deceit to get what she wants in her debut (and only cinematic
appearance to date), The Little Mermaid: Return to the Sea. While she has the standard villain
powers, Morgana’s most significant magical feat is removing Melodie’s and giving her a mermaid’s
tale, inverting Ursula’s slight-of-suction-cup from the first film. But to do this, she
requires trace amounts of Ursula’s magic, not her own. Even her loyal sidekick frequently
chides her for her lack of power in comparison to her sister, something that poor Morgana has
apparently had to put up with since childhood, if her deleted song Gonna Get
My Wish is anything to go by. Just barely above that, we find Dr. Facilier,
the crooked conjuror of the Crescent City. People were rightfully pretty upset when Disney
painted voodoo, a real religion, as the source of Facilier’s dark magic. But as it turns out,
that power wasn’t even Facilier’s to begin with. Indeed, the good doctor doesn’t actually perform
any magic under his own steam - the reprise of his theme song paints out, it was all his ‘friends’
on the other side. But Facilier does have one thing that keeps him from being a mere
mortal, and that’s his sapient shadow. We never really learn if this is a separate entity
or a trick that Facilier does. We do see, though, how the shadow stays completely loyal to him,
even when all his other magic turns on him. Of course it deserves consideration for granting the
doctor heightened influence over his surroundings, but as we’ve mentioned, it is his only true magic, and it does nothing for him when
his friends come along to collect. Our third-weakest entrant may be lacking in skill, but pound for pound, he’s the richest
mouse to ever be: Mickey Mouse himself. The only incarnation of Mickey known to perform
magic regularly is as the sorcerer’s apprentice, the eponymous star of the scene from
Fantasia. Here, Mickey is a young and inexperienced spellcaster who animates a series
of household items to get out of doing his chores; he does by donning his master’s magical hat
without permission. The image of ’Sorcerer Mickey’ has since become a staple for Disney,
in fact it was probably the most significant appearance Mickey had had since Steamboat Willie.
But Mickey’s kinda useless in this role - he can’t control the stolen magic and has to resort to
physically destroying the items he animated. It falls to his master, Yen Sid, to save him.
You might argue that this isn’t really the only time we see our favorite mouse cast a spell,
and you’d be right. But consider, even when Mickey is competent with magic, it’s canon that
he needs Yen Sid’s hat to do it, as demonstrated by a trend that’s formed among Mickey’s
opponents: simply knocking it off his head. It’s hard to imagine that this adorable
little oligarch would be a poor magician, but the jury is out on this one:
Mickey and magic just don’t mix. This brings us to Yzma, Kuzco’s deposed
adviser and longtime rival for the throne. It’s common knowledge that Yzma, as well
as the entirety of Emperor’s New Groove, underwent a total overhaul in character during
production. Yzma in particular went from a threatening magical presence to a comedic one,
and her skills were adjusted accordingly. In fact, it might be argued that she’s more of a chemist,
or at least an alchemist, since all of her feats are accomplished through the use of elixirs
and treated as science. Whatever she is, though, she falls into our weaker shades of
grey because her magical exploits often fail. While it might be argued that
her original plan to poison Kuzco only fails because of Kronk’s incompetence, Yzma
herself has a proclivity for hubris which often outmatches her wit and skill. Equally, her
magic is lacking - she’s limited to potions, and apparently only potions which turn
folks into animals, and that doesn’t really cut it when stacked up next to some
of our later entrants. So we place her here. Then there’s Snow White’s Evil Queen. Consumed by envy and preoccupied with her
own vanity, the Queen relies on her servant in Magic Mirror to survey her competition,
and deceit and disguises, and like Yzma, requires magic potions to get the job done. Unlike
Yzma, however, there’s no question that the Queen is actually into the dark arts, and her scheme
is executed more competently as.a result. And even that’s a bit of a reach, considering
that she has to sacrifice her own beauty to con Snow White in the first place. At least,
though, her transformation is well done; Snow White falls for it despite the warnings
of, like, every other life-form in the vicinity. But ultimately, for all her bluster and
cape-sweeping, the Queen’s theatrics aren’t backed by any real magical potency.
That’s not so say she’s not scary as hell, just that she’s not likely to hurt you if you’re
not dumb enough to take free food from a stranger. Our next entrant might surprise you:
Cinderella’s own Fairy Godmother. The Fairy Godmother only appears briefly in
all three Cinderella movies - in the first, she works her wonders on an unsuspecting pumpkin
and gives Cinderella her trademark ballgown. But as she informs Cinderella, this faint blessing she
gives her after years of sitting back and watching her be horribly abused will be lost at midnight.
So while she can work her wonders on a pumpkin and Calvin-Klein a dress out of nowhere, these things
don’t last for more than a few hours. And you can argue that Godmother’s limits are just the limits
of magic in general, but you’d be wrong. When the Godmother’s wand falls into Tremaine’s hands in
one of the sequels, Godmother isn’t only useless, she’s also defenseless insomuch that
Anastasia is able to turn her to stone, quite literally without trying. What’s more, Lady
Tremaine is able to undo and reshape the very fabric of reality to her will with the Godmother’s
power, and no stroke-of-twelve undoes this for her. So we’re left to surmise that the Godmother
is not only impotent without her wand, but that she’s also the weakest person in the franchise
to hold it, and we have to rank her accordingly. In the same vein we have Moana’s Maui, who
channels the power of the gods though his magical fishhook. Much of his role is similar to
our above entrant - being a demigod, the powers at his disposal are not his. Uniquely, though,
Moana explores this by ultimately stripping him of his weapon, but not before showing us
precisely what he can do with it. For example, Maui’s transformative abilities are top-notch, and with his fishhook, he can even combat
the Kakamora and the likes of Te-Ka. Though you might argue that the Godmother’s magic
is further reaching, at least with Maui, we see who he is without it. In true Disney
fashion, that makes him pretty powerful in the end. ANd you know what, why shouldn’t it?
After all, it’s the size of the heart, right? Let’s move on to our “passable” section. You
wouldn’t want to face these guys in a fight, but they’re no major existential
threat. Those’ll come a bit later.
First is the Pied Piper, one of Disney’s
earlier cartoons and perhaps the most benign representation of the titular character to ever be
put to air. Much like in the original story, Piper uses his magical music to spirit a plague of rats
away from a besieged town ruled by a greedy king. When the people refuse to pay him, he spirits
away the town’s children using the same power. And Disney does this thing where they try to make
that not completely sinister by implying that all the children are abused anyway and that the Piper
is doing them a favor… but all the creepiness aside, his potent pipe does earn Piper a spot
on this list. And it’s nota bad spot, either, since he’s one of the few characters on
our list to employ his magic successfully and without some comedic exception.
That’s no small feat in a Disney piece. Then there’s Santa, otherwise
known as Sandy Claws. While you could argue that HalloweenTown’s general
vibe of witches and demons implies widespread magic, we don’t see much of it practiced in the
timeless holiday classic The Nightmare Before Christmas. Jack and Dr. Finklestein do meddle
with the laws of nature in their respective experiments, but this pursuit is played as more
scientific. Even Oogie Boogie, a living colony of insects, appears to be rational in nature,
insomuch as all his trappings are mechanical. The only character to undeniably pull a rabbit from
the metaphorical hat is Santa. He manages to right all the wrongs that well-intentioned-but-clueless
Jack had wrought out of his holiday, and no small accomplishment. He apparently traverses
the globe and saves Christmas everywhere without any trouble, and even finds time to
bring snow to HalloweenTown before departing. For his might, though, Santa apparently
requires his gadgets to do anything spectacular like the above example. You’d think that
the all-father of Christmas wouldn’t allow himself to be captured by three children
or be tortured by a sentient beehive, but he does. So the exact level of Santa’s
magical power is questionable, but no doubt, it’s there. So we’ll place him
here, just shy of our average. Next, another Disney hallmark herself, Tinkerbell. Tink’s abilities are expounded on in
spin-off material, but the original Peter Pan implied that pixie dust was something
that she created, so we’ll count it. And via pixie dust, Tink gains access to some
pretty choice magic, namely the ability to help others fly. Most exceptionally, this power
extends to objects much larger than herself, namely Captain Hook’s ship. As a fairy,
she’s also indestructible as long as someone’s there to praise her and assure
her that she’s believed in - seriously, in one scene she explodes herself and
basically gets healed by being affirmed. All that’s to say that, Tinkerbell is small, but she’s got the chops to sit at the
big-fairies’ table where magic is concerned. All it takes is a little faith in herself, and
there’s gotta be a lesson in that somewhere. Our next entrant is the wizard Merlin, advisor
to King Arthur in The Sword and the Stone. For being a Dumbledore-level of spacey, Merlin
is one of Disney’s mightiest wizards. This makes sense, since he’s based on the most famous wizard
in Western mythology. Disney’s Merlin is mentor to the young Arthur, and uses his magic to protect
him from his own curiosity and the wiles of his rival, Madam Mim. In fact, it’s during his
fight with Mim that his power really shows. His MO is “brain over brawn” and he warns
Arthur at one point that magic won’t solve all his problems. He advises him instead to rely
on cleverness, something he tends towards himself. When Mim cheats in their duel, he has to
resort to outsmarting her. But his magic is able to facilitate all his transformations,
even his final one which turns him into a virus. Unfortunately, his magic is powerful enough
to literally shoot him out of England like a rocket if he asks, proving to us all that
power can be a double-edged sword. Still, the guy gets a vacation of the ordeal,
so you could call that one a wash. Then we have Rapunzel. Noting that the animated
series establishes that Rapunzel’s power is not truly her’s, Rap does utilize as a natural
extension of herself, and the theatrical feature presents the Sundrop’s magic as hers, and
we count her on those grounds. And just going by the theatrical feature, Rapunzel does have some
of the most powerful healing magic in the series. Rather than simply pulling someone back from the
brink of death, she manages to reach into the void and cram Eugene’s screaming soul back into his
body with just a teardrop. That is pretty intense. And again, this is to say nothing of the
animated spin-off, where he powers are decidedly more godlike, giving her the magic
beams and light explosions befitting a Disney protagonist. We also get to watch her hone
and develop these abilities over the course of episodes, something that highlights the
scope of the abilities in the final product. Next up, Ursula. It’s an interesting bit of trivia that the
Broadway version of The Little Mermaid’, established Ursula as Triton’s sister and implied
that she herself was once a mermaid. It further connotes that it was her continued practice of
dark magic which gave her her monstrous visage and mannerisms. Both these tidbits are based on
concepts which never made it into the final film, but they paint dark magic as a more
integral facet of Ursula’s character than it ultimately was. That almost feels like
a missed opportunity in hindsight, because though the movie doesn’t go into it, Ursula
appears to be an incredibly powerful sea-witch. Over the course of the film, Ursula demonstrates
exceptional skill in transmutation. She is remarkably able to give Ariel two functioning
human legs and herself a fully-functional human disguise. Unlike most sorcerers of her
caliber she doesn’t appear to borrow her magic from some external MacGuffin. Everything
she does, she accomplishes under her own power. There is the matter of the climax of the
film where she draws power from the Trident, but even then, it speaks to her might
that she was able to wield the weapon so easily in the first place. Ursula’s real
power is in her ability to make a sale, of course, but credit where credit is due,
she’s no pushover in terms of magical prowess. You really pity any poor-
unfortunate soul who goes up against her without a pirate ship to spare. So we’re ween the weak and the not-so-week,
now let’s take a crack at the guys who are really something to write home about.
That’s right, we mean the Powerful. First, The Blue Fairy. If we consider the widespread theory that
the Blue Fairy is also Evangeline the Evening Star and the gateway to Neverland, the Blue Fairy
certainly places higher. But by her only canonical appearance in Pinocchio, she ranks here. Make no
mistake, this lady’s pretty potent to be so blue: she not only grants Pinocchio life but
also humanity, two things that, notably, no other Disney character has done in tandem. And
the ethical implications of giving a puppet flesh and bones aside, that she does it is no small
matter. Returning someone to life is one thing: given a block of wood a set of functioning organs
is quite another. You definitely get the feeling that the Fairy is one of those deities that can do
anything but won’t unless they deem it ‘the right thing’ to do. Again, moral implications aside,
she’s a powerful spellcaster to say the very least, certainly powerful to begin this section of
our list.But again, moving aside the implications of giving a human brain to an object, that she can
do it at all earns the Blue Fairy her placement. And speaking of impossibly powerful deities
treating mortals as their playthings, let’s take a look at The Enchantress. Most agree
that the Enchantress, regardless of the good her curse eventually did, she herself is morally
ambiguous. Without considering the age-old implication that she cursed the Prince when he was
eleven, she also takes out his entire kingdom in one fell swoop, and nearly condemns them all
to a disproportionately bleak eternity, and leaving grim prospects for the one saving grace.
Nonetheless, this sorceress is more than mighty, considering the width and breadth of her curse.
Not only does she successfully transfigure a castle of servants into houseware and a
man into a chimerical monstrosity, she also warps the entirety of his castle and could
apparently keep his magic in place indefinitely. It’d probably be more in line with the filmmakers’
intentions to consider the Enchantress as less a character and more a force of nature,
but to have the chops to be a force of nature, we give her props, and a place on our list. The Enchantress herself is morally ambiguous.
But her curse was a powerful one, insomuch that covered a very large expanse of land and
affected vast number of people. She was also able and prepared to keep it up indefinitely if the
prince failed to learn his lesson. These things demonstrate the Enchantress as one of Disney’s
most powerful unseen figures. And if you ask us, that’s way better than the half-characterization
they gave her in the live-action. They also gave her a magic book in this adaptation wh ich
she leaves with the prince - this adds to her ranking and even has roots in the original French
story. Like most everything about the remake, nothing significant comes of this, but
it is an interesting bit of trivia! Only a few more fairies, we promise. We present the Three Good Fairies,
Flora, Fauna, and Merriweather. For all intents and purposes, this trio is the
collective protagonist of the Sleeping Beauty film; infighting and all, they behave as a
single unit who’s shared arc of protecting Princess Aurora is the most developed arc of the
film. And while a major facet of this arc is an abstinence from their magic, they’re no
pushovers when it comes to using it. In fact, while Flora and Fauna are convinced that their
magic can only be used to ‘spread happiness’, the innovative Merriweather pushes their
boundaries considerably by practicing magic combatively. And let’s be real, they’re the
ones who fight Maleficent in the final battle, at best Prince Phillip is a conduit. It is another
case of characters who require their wands to do anything, but it’s also implied that this is a
conscious limitation they place on themselves during their time as Aurora’s guardians, so…
lets just not look this one in the mouth, yeah? Finally, everyone’s favorite old-blind-voodoo-lady-who-lives-in-a-boat-in-a-tree-in-the-bayou,
Mama Odie. Odie’s style and cadence is very Christian-coded;
her musical number is in the style of a gospel song and her egret chorus is reminiscent of a
church choir. Nonetheless, they don’t shy away from Odie as a sorceress, and a powerful one at
that. Early development had Facilier on the docket as her son, who chose the ‘dark arts’ while his
mother stuck to the lighter half, and the two were set to do battle using their magic at Mardi Gras.
Of course this didn’t come to fruition (presumably because is would have been too awesome) but Odie
still has her moments. She can positively waste the shadow demons, transfigure her snake into
whatever, and apparently answer the whims of anyone who can find her. While she is discerning
and won’t answer peoples’ wishes if they’re ‘blind to what they need’ it is implied that she
could. It’s also implied by the way that she can effortlessly summon her torch that her magic is
actually her’s, rather than given to her by an outside force. Mama Odie’s a great example of the
principle, ‘you’re only as old as you feel’; the film indicates she’s as old as New Orleans itself
by the time of the film, and she’s still kicking. Of course, next we have Elsa, the beloved
Elemental and former Queen of Arendelle. As a reincarnation of a powerful ‘fifth
element’, Elsa’s ice magic was originally treated as something to hide for the scope of
the damage it could do. Even as a child, Elsa’s magic was powerful enough to freeze an entire
ballroom. As she grew, her power did as well, and a major arc for her in the first film was
keeping it from hurting anyone. To see why Elsa places so highly, one need only watch the Let It
Go sequence, in which she builds a castle just by stomping on the ground a few times. She can
also create life, apparently, if Olaf and her snowman bodyguard are anything to go by. She
also demonstrates her power by beginning and ending a deep freeze of her kingdom, culminating
in a blizzard. The sequel only adds to this, especially in the climax, when it falls to Elsa to
keep Arendelle from literally being washed away, Of course, people remember Elsa for her pretty
gowns and for Idina Menzel’s incredible vocal performance. But she should also
be known for being one of the most powerful wielders of magic whom Disney
has ever created. So, we rank her here. Then there’s Maleficent. At the height of her might, Maleficent boasts
that “all the powers of Hell” are hers to command, and then she turns into a fire-breathing dragon
nearly fifty feet high. Just in the climax alone, she becomes a firework, grows a briar forest, and
commands the might of a storm to keep Phillip away from Aurora’s side. It’s safe to say Maleficent
is one of Disney’s most powerful figures, especially noteworthy is how the good fairies
admit that they aren’t powerful enough to stop her - they eventually do take her out by
running her through with a metal spike but I mean, who wouldn’t that kill? Even her
curse can’t be lifted by the fairies’ gifts, it can only be mitigated so that the girl doesn’t
straight up die when she touches the spindle. To be as evil as she is, Maleficent has the
power to back it up. We’ve seen in all the spin-off material that includes her, she’s no
pushover as a fairy. In fact, she’s Disney’s only take on an evil fairy godmother, a
trope which they helped to popularize. In one House of Mouse bit, Satan
herself watches her transformation and admiringly says, “I love your work.” We
ask you, is there higher praise than that? Next, The Spirits of Christmas
Past, Present, and Yet to Come. Considering these guys are very much the
intellectual property of Charles Dickens, we’ll judge them based on Disney’s interpretation
in their 2009 adaptation of A Christmas Carol. Remembered for it’s uncanny-valley
mo-cap animation, this film’s unique aesthetic was beneficial to the depiction of the infamous
Spirits. To let the animators flex a bit, the movie included bits from the book that
would have been impossible to stage otherwise, such as Christmas Past being a candle and
Christmas Present flying them around in Scrooge’s disembodied drawing room. Collectively,
these guys make it clear that they exist in the quasi-dream world that they lead Scrooge
through but that they can also influence events which happen in the real world. In either
reality, however, their skills are praiseworthy. Scrooge himself comments, “they can do anything
they like, of course they can”. It’s lucky that whatever greater reality they belong to, though,
is concerned with spreading Christmas cheer and not… enslaving the human race or something.
It’s probably not a stretch to say that we wouldn’t stand much of chance. But
all three pale in the face of our next spirit. Of course we mean Chernabog,
the Demon of Bald Mountain. Chernabog is perhaps the most evil Disney
villain: not for his goals or general demeanor, but rather for simply being the amalgamation of
all darkness. Chernabog is the god of the wicked souls and the king of demons. His mere presence
recalls the damned from hell and criminals back through the noose. Top that off with Disney’s most
metal animation sequence to date, and you’re left with a pretty solid bad guy. You also have his
veritable legion of loyal servants to consider, as well as his ability to shoot columns of fire
out of Earth itself. Indeed, Chernabog is a force to be reckoned with, so long as it is nighttime.
Actually, this weakness is so great that it keeps him from placing any higher. Because for all
the demon’s power, he only gets one night a year for it. In keeping with the European folklore that
this sequence is based off of, Chernabog can only work his wonders on Walpurgis Night, which only
comes once annually. Thus, our man spends 364 days each year as a mountain, and that leaves him in
the pixie-dust in the face of our other entrants. Like Genie. We all know how the Genie of Aladdin boasts
phenomenal cosmic powers in exchange for an itty-bitty living space. We’ve seen what those
cosmic powers entail, as well. To say nothing of the nigh-omnipotence Genie must possess to pull
off the visual gags that he does, he can also defy any and all logic to grant his master’s wishes.
In Al’s case, this extended to transmutation, teleportation, and conjuring a whole caravan and
menagerie out of nowhere. But of course, he’s also bound by that pesky ‘it must be wished for’
rule and his three famous limitations, and these almost cost Al his life. Luckily, through sheer
panicking, Genie is able to avert that. But you’d think that once Genie’s freed from his lamp, his
power would be unmatchable. Thing is, it isn’t. Because Genie was freed from his lamp, he took
a pay cut in terms of power. In the two sequels and the spin-off TV series, Genie is still
able to use reality as his props department, but he’soccasionally unable to undo some of his
spells, and he’s even outdone by our next entrant. That’s right, here’s Jafar. Jafar was already pretty powerful in the
first film. His use of magic to help move his political ambitions along quickly establishes
him as a threat. But the real kicker comes at the end of the first film, when he goes from
all-powerful sorcerer to all-powerful genie. What’s more, as a bound genie, Jafar’s
power outstrips that of Al’s genie, per his sequel-villain musical number. In fact, Jafar is most threatening in the second
movie in which he gets a musical number boasting about how - as a proper genie - he bests
our Genie. And his placement really is that simple - Genie is among our most powerful entrants
and - by technicality - Jafar one-ups him in terms of the feats he can accomplish, Still, Jafar
never manages to free himself from his lamp, and that leads to… consequences when said lamp
takes an unexpected bath in some wayward lava. Finally, for our Bronze Medal
of Disney Magic goes to Te Fiti. While she’s undoubtedly the most
powerful figure in Moana’s mythos (based on indigenous Samoans cosmology), it
can’t quite be said for Te Fiti that she’s the most powerful magic user in the Disneyverse.
Still, through the power of her detachable heart, she is imbued with the power of creation
and restoration. And you can tell that the artists really had a good time showing her
‘make-everything-pretty-again’ life-giving, but her power actually extends beyond that, even
without her heart. Because once it’s removed, Te Fiti doesn’t just wither and die like Grandma Tala
says she does. She rises again as Te Ka, a violent entity with dominion over earth and fire. In this
form, she’s capable of Olympian-level destruction, calling down the punishment of the natural world
on any who cross her. Not only this, Te Ka also has the power to recall the life she gave as
Te Fiti, which nearly condemns Moana’s home and (eventually) the entire known world to
destruction. While she never utters a word of dialogue, Te Fiti is quite the goddess, one who
you definitely don’t want to make mad. Seriously. The Silver Medal of Disney Magic
goes to the Gods of Olympus. While it’s true that this twelve-fold
pantheon is not one singular character, we rank them all as one because it is established
by the Hercules canon that these gods are evenly matched among themselves. As such, they
constitute the very apex of magical talent in the organized universe. They’re so powerful
that their magic both sustains and alters the physics of the mortal world. You really do
end up wishing they got more of a chance to shine in the original movie, where they’re
admittedly pretty useless, save for Hades. It’s the animated series where they really shine -
but even they were no match for our gold-standard. Before we reach our finale ultimo, though, let’s take a moment to appreciate a few
honorable mentions, all of whom have proven themselves as magically magnificent, but
don’t make our list on various technicalities. We’ll start by recognizing Vanellope von Schweetz. You might argue that it’s technically not magic
since the video game world doesn’t have to obey our natural conventions. But in her own right,
Vanellope does successfully disrupt the fabric of her reality through her unique abilities
as a glitch. And like conventional magic, this is a skill that comes naturally
to her but must be honed to be useful. And her power is pretty great, too. She also
appears to have the implicit power of restoration, seeing as she both undoes Turbo’s disguise and
revitalizes her world after the Cybug invasion. But it’s a bit of a stretch, or
at least too long of a discussion, to call her glitching abilities a mystical art.
We can’t place her on the list in good faith, but she at least deserves a shout-out here. Second Honorable Mention
goes to The Witch from Brave It’s important to note that Brave is
Pixar, something that the other Disney princesses consider when they mention Merida.
We don’t count the Witch for that reason alone. Still, what a witch, right? To be one of Pixar’s
few magical characters, the Witch is no Ursula. She doesn’t deceive and she has no ill intentions,
but that still doesn’t stop her magic from making a mess of things. Even so, the blame for that
one falls on Merida. The Witch’s magic is mostly rooted in transformation, both in a literal and
metaphorical sense. Provided she’s not away at a festival, we definitely know who to go to if
we ever need to turn someone’s mom into a bear. And our last honorable mention
goes to Ian, from Onward! He’s Pixar’s first earnest attempt at a
high-fantasy protagonist and it shows in just how ‘human’ Ian ultimately feels. Much like
the world around him has abandoned magic for safer and more predictable alternatives, he too
has transitioned to a more conventional way of living. Contrasted with his older brother, Ian
just wants to be seen as ‘normal’. So of course, it ends up being him who’s forced wields
the magic staff on the cross-country roadtrip he takes with his father’s
disembodied legs. But to be a novice, Ian does a good job using it throughout
the movie. He also manages to restore magic to its original glory in his homeland,
which earns him brownie-points as well. Finally, the most powerful entity in the
Disneyverse. Well, once again, entities, plural. The Titans. In Greek mythology, the deposition
of the Titans by the Olympians symbolized order coming from chaos. Hercules
establishes this in a far more literal sense by casting the Titans as
single-minded and destructive. But the Titans do possess the most significant
power in DIsney animation, just in the brief moment they’re allowed to roam the earth freely,
they absolutely demolish the countryside, and that’s before they take the fight to Olympus,
where they make quick work of the gods themselves. It’s a philosophical discussion as to the ‘winner’
in the eternal battle of creation vs. consumption. But when push comes to shove, Zeus is unable
to pull a rabbit from the cosmic hat twice, and the Titans are able to subdue him. So
how are our ultimate magic-users brought to their knees? By a mere mortal, and through
brute strength. Make of that what you will. But what do you think? Who are the most
powerful Disney Magic Wielders? Let us know. Make sure to hit that notification bell and binge
our Good-to-Evil playlist, where we break down the morality of the characters in your favorite
cartoons. But most importantly, stay wicked.
