Given that Illumination literally started with a movie all about a supervillain,
it shouldn’t be surprising that there are plenty of Illumination baddies to
talk about - with many of them even being able to rival the likes of Disney and Dreamworks in terms
of evilness and showmanship. However, for most of Illumination’s villains,
things don’t quite work out as planned. There aren’t many villain deaths for the studio, but
there are plenty of endings. So today, we’re going to rank them all!
I’m ____ from WickedBinge, and this is Illumination Villain Fates:
Harmless to ‘Worse Than Death’.
Starting off, we have the villains who either didn’t receive any punishment at all or had
a completely happy ending. These are the “Ones Who Got Off Easy”.
Naturally, we had to start off this list with Gru. Starting off his career as a
supervillain very early on, Gru stole Queen Elizabeth’s crown at only eight years old.
He completely got away with this crime, as we do see the crown make a small cameo in “The
Rise of Gru”, and Gru continued to advance his criminal career from there. He’d cause
minor property damage, mess with others and mostly focused on stealing other things like
the Times Square Jumbotron and a couple different mini landmarks from Las Vegas
before finally accomplishing his greatest feat: stealing the moon. Ultimately, Gru got away
with EVERY SINGLE ONE of these crimes, not really getting punished for any of them. Furthermore,
he was able to transition from villain to hero after being hired by the Anti-Villain League,
and he was able to find a family for himself with his three adopted daughters,
his loving wife Lucy and his long-lost brother Dru - as well as a whole army of Minions. While
Gru may have had his own struggles throughout his life, avoiding the police or dealing with
jail time has never really been one of them, so we feel he more than earns this spot on our list.
Coming up on another villain turned hero, we have the bunny Snowball from “Secret Life of Pets”.
Being abandoned by his previous owner, Snowball was incredibly bitter and hostile towards humans,
wanting nothing more than to destroy all owners so that pets could rule the world. With his army
of Flushed Pets, Snowball considered himself to be an ‘evil mastermind’ of sorts, believing
he could still pack a punch despite his super cute and fluffy exterior.
While he did attack the drivers of an Animal Control truck and tried to kill Max and Duke,
Snowball doesn’t really get punished for any of this. Instead, this bunny is rewarded with
a brand new forever home after being found by a little girl named Molly. While this
happy ending might not have been earned by Snowball, we are at least happy to see that
he was able to turn his life around after this and try to become more of a hero.
Next on our list is the Bear Mob from the first SING movie. While these three bears
are ultimately minor antagonists in the film, they still cause quite a bit of conflict for
both Mike the Mouse and Buster Moon. They threaten to eat Mike if they don’t get the
money that he owes them, and then after Mike offers them the contest prize money instead,
they inadvertently destroy the entire Moon Theatre. However, they don’t get arrested for
this, and are instead able to just go back to their hangout spot for another round of
cards - which then allows them to catch Mike’s performance later on. While it seems like Mike
and his girlfriend are going to escape at first, in the last scene we see of them,
we also see one of the bears managing to hang onto their car. Given that we never see Mike in
the sequel, we can only assume the worst, meaning that the Bear Mob ultimately got exactly what they
wanted in the end without any punishment. So hey, maybe crime DOES pay sometimes.
Finishing off this section is the one and only Grinch. You’d think that trying to steal
an entire holiday would warrant more than a small apology. But hey, that’s the power of
Christmas spirit for you. Being nothing more than a Who-hating jerk, the Grinch spent most of his
time being rude and grumpy, refusing to make any friends and isolating himself with his dog, Max.
When the holidays became too much for him, the Grinch decided he was going to try and steal it
once and for all. And, when it comes to stealing the physical symbols of Christmas, he succeeds!
Buuut we all know the story by now, and once the Grinch realizes the true meaning of Christmas,
he takes it upon himself to return everything that he stole. In the Illumination version of the
classic tale, we actually see the Grinch try to humble himself and give a public apology. It may
not seem like much, but compared to our previous few villains, it’s still something and still
technically a punishment. Of course, it doesn’t take much for the Whoville citizens to accept
the Grinch’s apology, and he gets to celebrate the holidays with others from that point on.
For our next section, we have the villains that were either arrested or transformed in some way,
whether they be physical or metaphorical - like a change in
status or something similar. These are “The Arrests and the Transformations”.
Beginning this section is Carlos from “Hop”. While we may sympathize somewhat with Carlos,
as it can’t be easy being denied a promotion just because of your species, we still can’t
deny all the evil he accomplished during the film - from attempting to overthrow the current
Easter bunny and wanting to hand out worms and bird seed instead of candy, to even attempting
to murder both Fred and Mr. Bunny using a vat of boiling liquid candy. After finally getting
his hands on the Egg of Destiny staff, Carlos is transformed into a bunny-chick hybrid - though,
despite his hatred of bunnies, he doesn’t seem to mind this transformation so much.
What ends up being his true punishment, however, is when he is forced to help pull the Egg Sleigh,
losing whatever power he would have had if he had remained Head of the Easter Chicks. While it may
seem like he got off a bit easy, losing whatever he had left and being forced to do annual physical
labor instead is a pretty fitting punishment for someone as power-hungry as Carlos was.
Next up is the former child star turned supervillain, Balthazar Bratt. Having one
of the longest and most impressive criminal records around, Bratt ends up being much more
than just his gimmick and is actually pretty competent in his evilness, allowing him to
almost kill Gru and his family. During the film’s climax, however, once Dru is able to take out
Bratt’s mecha, Bratt and Gru are able to have one final showdown. Before Bratt can use his keytar
to blow him away, he and Gru have another dance fight where Gru is able to get the upper hand,
snatching Bratt's keytar and uses it to both blow him away and humiliate him, leaving Bratt
floating away in his gum while naked as AVL helicopters swarm in to arrest him. We’re still
putting this one the low end of things since even if he didn’t get to accomplish his ultimate goal,
Bratt was still able to cause quite a bit of destruction around Hollywood before getting
shut down. But even so, getting humiliated and finally arrested after avoiding the authorities
for his entire villain career certainly counts as a well-deserved fall from grace.
Stepping over to Thneedville for a bit, we’re going to be ranking Aloysius O’Hare next. O’Hare
was a ruthless businessman, only ever caring about profits and thus being willing to use
intimidation tactics to threaten anyone who seems like they may be doing something to
cut into those profit margins. But while he’s the head of a company that sells air - something that
everyone needs to, you know, live - O’Hare actually doesn’t have a ton of power. Sure,
he has wealth as well as his goons, but these guys end up turning on him in the end after they
and the rest of the town see O’Hare for how callous and selfish he truly is. With this,
O’Hare ends up getting strapped to a rocket and flown out of town. We had to put this fate on
the low end of things as, while it may be a villain's defeat, we don’t know what happens
to O’Hare afterwards. We don’t know if he gets injured after his flight, if he gets arrested,
or even if he loses access to his company. Heck, we don’t even know what happens TO the company
right away, as it will likely take a while for the new Truffula Trees to start positively impacting
the environment in a major way. See what we mean when we say that it’s hard to really measure just
how much of a set-back this is for O’Hare? As stated before, it’s still a fairly satisfying
defeat, but we really couldn’t put it any lower for all the reasons that we mentioned above.
Following him is the most “macho” bad guy around, El Macho. El Macho AKA Eduardo Perez had a pretty
impressive plan, all things considered. With the help of Dr. Nefario, he was able to kidnap
hundreds of Minions, transforming them into rabid and incredibly dangerous monsters to act as his
army. Once Gru, Nefario and the Girls are able to figure out how to turn the Minions back to normal,
El Macho decides to take the PX-41 formula himself, turning himself into a giant monster.
Similar to Carlos, El Macho doesn’t seem to mind this transformation - which makes sense,
given that he’s all about being strong. He’s not invulnerable, however, as we see him get tasered
and then later knocked out by Nefario’s fart gun. While we don’t see him getting arrested on-screen,
we feel like this is a given considering his criminal record - and with this arrest,
he would also likely lose his restaurant, “Salsa & Salsa”,
which was incredibly successful. Because of this, we consider El Macho’s defeat
to be much harsher than Bratt’s, since it seemed like El Macho had much more to lose.
Keeping with the “Despicable Me” villains, we’re going to rank the Vicious Six next. Armed with the
Zodiac Stone, these five infamous baddies likely could have been the rulers of the entire world,
being powerful enough to defeat any AVL agent in their way and being armed with super strength and
super abilities like extending fangs and fire-breath. Their reign didn’t last too
long, however, as once Gru was able to get his hands on the stone and his Minions gave
him an opening, the junior villain was then able to turn the five villains into harmless
rats that are then put into an AVL cage. We don’t see them get turned back into humans,
so we can assume that the AVL just kept the Vicious Six in that state to make them easier
to lock up. It would already be a harsh fate for these guys if all they had to deal with
was losing their power as villains, given how much money and fame they were able to
make off things like merchandise. But all that PLUS losing their human forms, thus making it
even more impossible for them to break out, just seems like it adds insult to injury.
Stepping away from our human villains for just a moment, we’re going to be ranking SING
2’s Jimmy Crystal next. Jimmy was the head of an entertainment empire. He had riches,
power, fame and - above all else - he had a reputation that he would do anything to protect,
even if it meant resorting to threats and murder. While Jimmy was able to get away with quite a bit,
his luck ultimately ran out after the second time he tried to kill Buster, which is when his
assistant, Suki, decides that enough is enough and helps the police with arresting Jimmy. Now, you
could say that since Jimmy still has access to his wealth and probably a few lawyers,
this arrest probably won’t be too much of a hassle for him. So, why is he still ranked here? Well,
that’s where the second part of his punishment comes in. After Jimmy attempts to take all the
credit for Buster’s show and tries to claim that the show will be performing again at his theatre,
Buster and the crew abandon him on stage, leaving Crystal to look like a fool,
causing him to be humiliated and laughed at by the entire audience - which was essentially his worst
nightmare. Even if he was able to pay off whoever he needed to in order to get out of prison,
Jimmy’s reputation was still damaged with his former fans now seeing him as either a joke
or an attempted murderer, so we can’t really see his so-called entertainment empire lasting
much longer. You’ve gotta love villain fates that have just an extra bit of irony thrown in there.
Finishing our arrests and transformations section, we have Scarlet and Herb Overkill. Similar to the
Vicious 6, these two were considered to be the Best of the Best and had fans throughout the
Villain Community in addition to all their wealth and power. That all changed, however, when the
Minions came into their life. While some of the Minions’ actions were accidental,
it still resulted in the Overkills’ home getting destroyed, Scarlett getting humiliated and she
and Herb both getting blown up. Thanks to her shielded coronation dress, however, the couple
was able to survive and tried to steal the crown again, desperate for one last victory
after losing everything. And this is where Young Gru steps in, taking the crown for himself after
freezing the couple solid. As Scarlet says, she was “completely ruined” by the end of the film,
losing whatever power and influence she might have had. With nothing to defend herself with,
it’s likely that she got arrested by the AVL - and even if she didn’t,
she still had to deal with plenty of freezer burns and possible frostbite from Gru’s freeze
ray. A very painful end indeed for the woman who was once the world’s greatest supervillain.
Finally, we have the cruelest villain fates that we’ve seen from this story. These fates are
“The Gruesome and the Worst Than Death”.
For our Bronze Medal of Gruesomeness, we have a pretty surprising entry: the Once-Ler. Now, you
might think we’re either crazy or just too sympathetic, but we really do feel like this
is the section where the Once-Ler belongs if we’re comparing all the Illumination villains’
fates. And if you doubt us, just imagine being in his shoes. His defeat might have ultimately been
self-inflicted, but it was still an incredibly harsh fall. Once the last Truffula Tree fell,
the Once-Ler was left penniless and without any friends or family in a completely polluted
environment, stuck in isolation for decades with the knowledge that there was only one Truffula
seed left - and it was all his fault. That’s gotta be a rough life, being weighed down by
all the guilt and loneliness. Though he does technically help give the film a happy ending,
the credit for that mostly goes to Ted and the others, with the Once-Ler only being the one
to supply the seed. Though this acts as his moment of redemption, it still doesn’t take
away from all the years he had to stew in his guilt and regret. You may disagree with us,
but we still feel that this is one of the harshest fates that an Illumination villain had to endure.
Moving onto our Silver Medal of Gruesomeness is Sergei from “The Secret Life of Pets 2”. Cruel and
abusive, Sergei is probably one of the darkest villains that Illumination has ever created,
not being quite as campy or humorous as some of their others. For most of the movie, Sergei seems
to have the upper hand, armed with a pet monkey and wolves in addition to whatever power he may
have as the owner of a circus. Thankfully, during the climax of the film, the animals
are able to fight back and attack Sergei. Though the cruel circus master does try to shoot them,
he’s stopped when the Cat Lady hits him with her car. Not just once, but twice!
Ouch… Similarly to O’Hare and El Macho, we don’t see what happens to Sergei after this point,
but we could guess that he possibly either got kicked out of show business or got arrested.
But even if neither of these things happened, Sergei gets this spot for receiving a ton of
physical damage during his defeat - something that, as we’ve previously discussed, doesn’t
happen with many other Illumination villains. So, even if his defeat wasn’t entirely satisfying,
it’s still gruesome enough for us. However, there’s still one villain fate that tops it.
Getting our Gold Medal of Gruesomeness is the nerdy villain who essentially started it all,
Vector. While this guy may not look like much, Vector certainly proved himself as a villain
throughout the first “Despicable Me” film - and we think you’ll all agree that every great
villain needs a just-as-great villain defeat. For as confident and cocky as Vector might have been,
this proved to be his downfall when he refused to listen to the Girls about the moon when it
started to re-grow, causing him to get ran over by it several times - which was pretty painful,
even before it returned to its full size. Though Vector tried to get the last laugh,
he ultimately failed and ended up stranded on the moon - with a small airbag within his suit being
his only source of oxygen. For as cartoony as the “Despicable Me” franchise can be, it still doesn’t
take away from how harsh this defeat was for Vector. Despite having a small supply
of oxygen on him, Vector’s survival chances aren’t looking too good, given how the moon doesn’t have
any food or water for him, not to mention the fact that space can be pretty cold - freezing,
actually. Even if Vector’s father was somehow able to rescue his son, it would still likely
take him a while. So even if Vector didn’t die a slow and painful death, he’d still have to
go through a ton of pain prior to that - which, yeah, probably well deserved for a kidnapper and
attempted child murderer. For all these reasons, we felt that no one else deserved this spot
more than Vector, easily having the most gruesome non-death villain fate in all of Illumination.
But let us know in the comment section if you agree with our ranking,
and tell us what we should cover next! Remember to hit that notification bell
and binge more of our videos. But most importantly, stay wicked!