For many, Aardman might be known as the
cheeky British studio with lovable clay-made characters. But be warned, there’s a
dark side to this studio, with many of its villains being able to stand toe-to-toe
with some of the most vile of animated foes. I’m Kifinosi with WickedBinge, and this
is Aardman Villains: Evil to Most Evil. Now, while we won’t be touching on EVERY
Aardman film today - as some of them don’t have actual villains - we are going to try
and include as many bad guys as possible, including those that may have only been in a
short or two. With that said, let’s get started! Kicking things off, our Least Evil Aardman
antagonist is Agent Red, leader of the Ministry of Alien Detection (or M.A.D.) Honestly, it makes
sense that such a lowkey and wholesome franchise like Shaun the Sheep would have such a lowkey and
not very evil villain. Having been obsessed with proving the existence since childhood, Red quickly
goes to investigate the Farm after hearing about its UFO. Once there, she ends up accidentally
mistaking Blitzer as an alien before then taking the crashed UFO back to MAD’s base. Although she
does chase after Shaun and his new little alien friend when they escape back to the farm - even
using a mecha to try and catch them - Agent Red does eventually back down when Lu-La’s parents
arrive on Earth, recognizing them as the aliens she saw as a child and welcoming them with open
arms. Again, she was never out here trying to hurt or kill any aliens, she only wanted to prove they
existed. In that sense, Agent Red could easily be forgiven for any inconveniences or worries she
might have caused for Shaun and his friends. Following Agent Red is another pretty minor
antagonist, that being the Pirate Captain’s oldest rival, Black Bellamy. Now, given that he’s,
you know, a PIRATE, we can assume he’s done plenty of plundering and murdering in his time. But in
terms of crimes we actually see him do on-screen, Bellamy isn’t exactly much of a threat. He’s
cocky, sure, and he’s certainly not to show it, like when he rides a whale filled with gold right
into the pirate’s bar to show off his booty. He’s also a bit of a jerk, almost constantly making
fun of the Pirate Captain for all his failures, but this puts him more at the level of a high
school bully than a dastardly villain. His worst so-called ‘crime’ is when he exposes the fact that
the Pirate Captain was pardoned by Queen Victoria - but the Pirate Captain kind of brought that on
himself arguably by doing something even worse (selling out his beloved pet bird, Polly) to earn
him that pardon. So yeah, as is, Bellamy is just barely an antagonist, with even henchmen being
able to rank above him in terms of being evil. Speaking of which, next up we have Flushed Away’s
Spike and Whitey. Being part of The Toad’s rat gang, these two are mostly seen either chasing
after or helping capture Roddy and Rita. Between the two of them, Spike is definitely the
more unhinged one, being pretty obsessed with committing violence. However, he isn’t actually
that successful at committing violence - if anything, he’s usually the one getting hurt
through various forms of slapstick. Whitey, meanwhile, is incredibly soft-spoken and patient.
Even after a life of being a lab rat, he’s a pretty decent guy, being one of the few characters
to care about Spike's well-being. Sure, he may act as more of the Muscle and often has to man-handle
anyone who gets in The Toad’s way, but he never sees it as anything possible and states that he’s
just doing his job. Beyond the fact that these guys, like Bellamy, are more ‘bad’ than outright
evil or villainous, we should also note that unlike their amphibian boss, these guys don’t have
some grand master plan against rat-society. As we said, they’re simple henchmen and are just using
the gig as a means to pay their bills, which means that - after the Toad gets defeated - there’s a
chance that these two could end up going straight. Well… Okay, maybe Whitey will go straight,
Spike still might want to be a criminal. But, hey, we don’t think he’ll get very far without
getting hurt again so, at least there’s that. Following them is one of Aardman’s most recent
villains, Dr. Fry from Chicken Run’s Dawn of the Nugget. Now, Dr. Fry is an interesting case,
given that - depending on your perspective - he might not be seen as a villain at all. He is
working with (and married to) Mrs. Tweety, which certainly doesn’t earn him any good points,
but while Tweety is still as heartless as ever, Dr. Fry’s ‘mad scientist’ tendencies take on
more shades of gray than being 100 percent evil. On its own, forcing creatures to be happy and
mindless is pretty awful, we can’t deny that, but it could also be argued that granting
the chickens in his and Tweety’s factory farm a blissful death through his collars
is actually a kindness. Buuuut then again, he’s still forcing innocent creatures to their
death, and again the brainwashing isn’t great, even if it is technically ‘nicer’ than
just keeping them afraid and dreading the inevitable like the Tweetys were at the original
movie’s prison-like farm. For these reasons, we’ll acknowledge that Fry is certainly still
a villain, but we can’t rank him any higher. Keeping with the sidekicks is the French ninja, Le
Frog. Cousin to The Toad, Le Frog and his crew are the ones that the Toad calls in when things start
getting dire. Although Le Frog isn’t all that sympathetic to his cousin’s tragic past, he and
his team of frogs are still pretty efficient in tracking down and briefly capturing Roddy and
Rita. He may see the Toad’s plans as extreme, to the point of calling him “cuckoo”,
but he’ll still help his cousin out, not caring THAT much about the innocent rats
that are going to perish if their plans succeed, ultimately still siding with his own kind. He
even states that the only real reason he helps Toad is because he is family. He also cares
for his tadpole nephews and nieces, telling the Toad to just give his kids a puppy after his
plan falls through. He may still be a villain at the end of the day, but at the very least, Le
Frog is able to be civil and gentlemanly, even sharing a dinner with his men before going out
on their mission instead of forcing them to do it on an empty stomach. It’s a small thing, but it’s
more than what the Toad does for his henchmen. Similarly, Mr. Tweety is a pretty normal
guy all things considered - especially when compared to his now-ex wife - but
his cruelty towards the chickens in his care easily push him into villain
territory. Some have argued that, beyond his paranoia about “those chickens bein’
up to something”, he’s only so cruel to them because he’s taking out all the frustrations he
has regarding his marriage and how terribly he’s treated by Mrs. Tweety on them. We aren’t
sure how much validity this fan-theory has, but it certainly doesn’t excuse his
actions. He literally throws Ginger into solitary confinement multiple times for
being a troublemaker before then singling her out when it’s time to test out the pie machine.
We also can’t forget how he still tried to stop the chickens from making their grand escape by
kicking down their plane’s launch ramp. Really, the fact that he’s able to fully acknowledge that
they’re thinking, feeling, organized creatures and STILL wants to stop them from escaping to
a better life just shows that, while he may not be as iconic as his ex-wife, Mr. Tweety
has his own dark side that can’t be ignored. But while complex or morally-gray villains
can be interesting, sometimes you just need a simple bad guy - or a penguin with a gun,
whatever works. Next we have Feathers McGraw, Aardman’s very first villain. Despite his humble
and almost cute demeanor at first, McGraw is far from just an innocent animal. He’s a criminal
in the making, a mastermind and a “bird of many faces” who’s able to be pretty manipulative when
he wants to be. Once he’s able to successfully rent a room at Wallace and Gromit’s place, he
quickly puts together a scheme to try and use Wallace’s new Techno Trousers to help him steal
a valuable diamond. Through this, we can see how selfish McGraw is, not really caring about
Wallace’s safety or whether or not he’d be sent to jail in his stead. When Gromit tries to fight
back against him, McGraw just threatens to shoot him and the two get into a mini train-chase when
McGraw tries to escape. It may seem a bit silly to put a diamond-stealing penguin this high up on
our list, but the fact is that McGraw is still an incredibly efficient antagonist, being both clever
and crafty as well as malicious and even somewhat intimidating when he wants to be, not caring about
the wellbeing of anyone who gets in his way so long as he still gets the prize he wants. Really,
it’s no wonder so many people - including the crew at Aardman, if all the cameos they give him are
any indication - still remember this little guy. We’ve finally arrived at the first of what could
be called Aardman’s large-scale villains, starting with Early Man’s Lord Nooth. On the surface,
Nooth is far from intimidating. He’s a lazy, greedy emperor who simply cares about taking
land and resources for himself and his kingdom, assuring that he can be the richest ruler around.
He doesn’t care about the wellbeing of his people, forcing them to pay outrageous ticket prices in
order to watch the bronze city’s soccer matches, and he certainly doesn’t care about the cavemen
that he’s forcing out of their ancestral home. When Dug challenges him and his city to a soccer
match, it doesn’t take long for Nooth to become underhanded. He first tries to undercut Dug’s
confidence, telling him that his ancestors were terrible at soccer and reminding him of the cruel
fate that awaits his tribe in the mines if they lose the game. When Dug and his team decide to
still play, Nooth quickly resorts to cheating, becoming the game’s new referee and showing
blatant favoritism to the Bronze City’s team. While he may technically be powerful,
being the emperor of an entire city and all, Nooth is still a cowardly and selfish weakling
who has his own boss that he has to answer to. He’s still an awful person who certainly
counts as a villain, but there are easily other Aardman baddies who outclass him both
in terms of intimidation and overall evilness. After all, taking hostages or prisoners is one
thing. Being an actual attempted murderer as well as a pretty cruel hunter on the other
hand is quite another, as we see with Lord Victor Quartermaine. Being the main rival to
Wallace and Gromit’s pest control business, Quartermaine takes a more violent approach to
best control, preferring to use his gun and essentially seeing any humane means of capture
as a waste of time. What’s more, he goes out of his way to try and antagonize Wallace out of pure
jealousy. Between his snobby pettiness towards a guy who really didn’t do anything except charm
his crush and just the overall attitude he has towards Lady Tottington, this guy easily earns
both the Envy and the Lust medals. However, Quartermaine takes his villainy to a whole new
level by the time the film reaches its climax, where we see him try to kill Wallace while he’s
in his were-rabbit form. Yeah, he fully knows that the Were-Rabbit is actually Wallace - and
he doesn’t care! He doesn’t even hesitate! If anything, he sees taking out the goofy inventor
as killing two birds with one stone: he becomes the town’s hero AND he gets rid of his rival once
and for all. Some may only see him as the wacky Aardman version of Gaston, but this doesn’t stop
him from being his own unique brand of diabolical. But if you thought Quartermaine was crazy,
Piella Bakewell just takes her crimes to a whole other level just out of sheer scale. Coming
from the short “A Matter of Loaf and Death”, this former actress went from being a simple
fan of bakery products who made the mistake of eating too much to a full on serial - er, cereal -
killer who specifically targets bakers as revenge. Though she may come off as sweet, Piella is in
actuality incredibly ruthless and cold-hearted, even towards people who never wronged her, all
for the sake of feeling like she’s getting some sort of vengeance against the bakery products that
ended her career. While she’s unable to get away with taking out the final victim of her Baker’s
Dozen plan thanks to being foiled by Gromit, we should note that Piella was still able to
successfully murder 12 other bakers! That is just… okay, seriously, what is with the Wallace
and Gromit franchise and including murderers as its villains?! The fact that this lady
might just have the highest body count of any other Aardman villain is honestly kind of
shocking. But if you really need to emphasize just how delusional this lady was, Piella was so
determined to kill Wallace that - once all other methods fell through - she was ready to finish
the job by setting off a bomb inside his house, showing just how little she cared about
anyone but herself. All this easily earns her a high spot near the top of our list, and
we’ll throw in a Gluttony medal for good measure. For our Bronze Medal of Evil, we’re giving it
to her royal majesty, Queen Victoria. If there was any Aardman character that truly earned
the Wrath medal, it would have to be Ms. “I Hate Pirates” without a doubt. Seeing pirates
as “outdated”, Vicky wants nothing more than to wipe them out for good, whether that’s through
sending her navy after them or trying to kill them with her own two hands. It’s implied that
she’s imprisoned and executed plenty of them, making the crew’s fear of her all the more
warranted. But, what makes Victoria interesting is that her selfishness actually overshadows
her hatred in that she’s willing to work with the Pirate Captain to get what she truly wants,
that being the rare dodo-bird, Polly. Like some of the best villains out there, Victoria is not
only a powerhouse but is able to be clever and extremely manipulative towards characters
like the Pirate Captain and Charles Darwin, acting charming for as long as she needs to before
then backstabbing them. We also can’t forget to mention the final twist with this character,
in that she’s a member of an exclusive club of other royals and leaders who exclusively feast
on rare and nearly-extinct animals. So, yeah, if being an awful, hostile and manipulative
queen wasn’t enough for you, we’re sure her cruelty towards innocent animals would put
her high on any person’s evilness ranking. Earning the Silver Medal of Evil is our final
Flushed Away villain, The Toad. In any other film, Toad might have just been your typical
mob boss - and to be fair, he does come off as that in the first half of the film. He
tries to come off as classy and sophisticated, taking pride in his collection of royal items and
being courteous towards Roddy once he learns that he’s from the surface, but it doesn’t take much
for the Toad to show off some of his inner rage and willingness to be shady, whether that’s
through theft or through freezing people who get in his way. After Roddy and Rita inadvertently
put his upcoming plans at risk, however, we get to learn just how evil the Toad truly is. Using both
the sewers and a big soccer game to his advantage, the Toad’s grand plan was to completely wipe
out all the innocent rats that live there by opening the gates and flooding everything before
then repopulating the underground city with his own tadpoles. So, yeah, rat genocide?
Not exactly an easy crime to overlook, even if he wasn’t able to get away with it in the
end. What’s more, the Toad still froze (and likely killed) quite a few rats, not to mention all
his other thefts and attempted crimes. Overall, the Toad is driven by hatred and rage,
and the only real ‘good’ side he has is that he seems to be a fairly loving father,
even if his tadpoles sometimes annoy him. Finally, our Gold Medal of Evil goes to the
one and only Mrs. Tweety. Yeah, yeah, we know, predictable choice and all that. But honestly,
there’s a reason why she’s the only villain Aardman ever brought back for a second round,
and while Vicky and Toad were definitely close, we really couldn’t give anyone else this top
spot. Mrs. Tweety is calculating and cruel with a capital C, willing to do whatever - and
use whoever - she needs to in order to get rich. While we do see her care quite a bit about
revenge against chicken-kind in the sequel, money and status remain her prime motivation,
easily making her Aardman’s greediest character (and earning her our Greed medal). It could
be argued that at least the Toad cared about his family. Mrs. Tweedy on the other hand, as
evident by how she treats her two husbands, truly doesn’t care about anyone but herself.
Heck, likely the only reason why she agreed to Fry’s mind-control collars was to help assure that
there wouldn’t be another chicken escape attempt at her new factory farm, and once this plan falls
through, she seems to take a disturbing amount of delight out of grabbing her trusty ax and trying
to take out the rebellious chickens herself, refusing to let them escape with their lives. She
even threatens to cut off Molly’s head as a means to intimidate Ginger into surrendering. While
some may question her business methods, in terms of pure evilness and just overall being a true
monster at times, Mrs. Tweety just can’t be beat.
