10 Best Villains from Sony Animated Movies, Ranked

Shortly after the release of Toy Story in 1995, CGI established itself as the new medium for animated films. Other companies were quick to catch on, and as they developed their own animation branches, they focused entirely on CGI artists over hand-drawn. Among these new companies is Sony Pictures Animation, founded in 2002.

Sony films aren’t as universally loved as Disney, Pixar, or DreamWorks. While their movies possess gorgeous and often highly stylized and fluid animation, their writing often falls into the category of average, with a few shining examples here and there. This quality is often reflected in their movie’s villains, who range from acceptable children’s antagonists to complex and thought-provoking masterminds.

10 ‘Wish Dragon’ (2021)

Pockets

In order to save his business, Mr. Wang (Will Yun Lee) hires a thug named Pockets (Aaron Yoo) to retrieve a magic teapot that contains a wish-granting dragon named Long (John Cho). By the time they arrived at the teapot’s location, it was already claimed by a boy named Din Song (Jimmy Wong). Pockets won’t let this slow him down and, with his two goons by his side, pursues Din relentlessly.

Pockets doesn’t have much of a personality outside of evil henchman, but he makes up for this shortcoming with his animation and his unique gimmick. For most of the film, he keeps his hands in his pocket, meaning he uses his feet for everything. This allows the animators to have fun as they depict him performing simple tasks like opening a door, or literally fighting toe to toe with Din when he wishes for the skills to fight back.

Watch on Netflix

9 ‘Open Season’ (2006)

Shaw

The town of Timberline is made up of folks who love the beauty of nature and hunters who enjoy the diversity of wildlife they can go after. The most dedicated hunter is Shaw (Gary Sinise), who often pushes the boundaries of what he can get away with outside of hunting season. When Shaw spots some of the animals showing signs of anthropomorphism, he becomes convinced that there is a conspiracy to disrupt the natural order.

For Sony Pictures Animation’s first villain, Shaw was a pretty solid entry. He falls into all the classic hunter stereotypes, such as loving his weapon to an unearthly degree, and a poor case of dental hygiene, while balancing them out with his paranoid personality and his limitless determination. His reaction to seeing animals with human-like intelligence is understandable, and if it weren’t for the delight he takes in hunting the protagonists, it’d be easy to root for him to succeed.

8 ‘Goosebumps’ (2015)

Slappy the Dummy

In order to cope with bullying, writer R. L. Stein (Jack Black) wrote a series of horror stories which eventually became the bestselling Goosebumps franchise. However, his imagination proved to have supernatural qualities, so the characters in the books came to life. The most devious is Slappy (Jack Black), a living ventriloquist dummy who decides to unleash the rest of the Goosebumps villains to cause mayhem in Madison, Delaware.

Slappy is meant to represent Stein’s dark side, having originated as his best friend before being “betrayed” and locked away. His personality reflects this: he comes across as both a hurt best friend and an angry child who lashes out at others. His connection to Stein also grants him a greater level of creativity compared to the other monsters, making him a natural fit for their leader.

Watch on Netflix

7 ‘Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2’ (2013)

Chester V

In his youth, Chester V (Will Forte) invented a food bar, which led to the birth of his company, Live Corp. The numerous inventions he and his employees created changed the world for the better and inspired a generation of inventors, including Flint Lockwood (Bill Hade). Chester decides to use his status as Flint’s idol to manipulate the idealistic inventor and help him claim Flint’s haywire food-producing machine, the FLDSMDRF.

Chester V is a parody of visionaries like Steve Jobs, while also serving as a cautionary tale for the viewer of what happens when you focus too much on yourself instead of others. At this point in his life, Chester thinks that he’s above everyone else, and constantly pushes away friends and allies by focusing on his own benefit, which leads to his defeat. His animation, especially on his hand movements, is also a delight to watch in motion and highlights the strength of Sony’s style.

Watch on Netflix

6 ‘The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!’ (2012)

Queen Victoria

The queen of the British Empire, Queen Victoria (Imelda Staunton) harbors a strong hatred for pirates, whom she considers an obsolete and dying breed. She is also secretly a member of a society dedicated to consuming rare and exotic animals. To ensure that she delivers the most wonderful meal at the next feast, she manipulates both naturalist Charles Darwin (David Tennant) and a bumbling Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant) to get her the last living Dodo bird.

Victoria is a decent addition to both Sony and Aardman Animaton’svillain rosters. She presents the appropriate amount of British dignity that makes her both a dignified and powerful individual, even before she becomes a full villain. Though she prefers to manipulate others into doing her dirty work, she is more than capable of taking sword in hand when needed.

5 ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ (2018)

Olivia Octavius

The head scientist of Alchemax, Olivia Octavius (Kathryn Hahn) is focused on developing a machine that will allow her access to the multiverse. This brings her into the employ of the Kingpin (Liev Schreiber), who funds her research if she builds the machine for his use. Outside of her research, she is a long-time enemy of Spider-Man (Chris Pine) called Doctor Octopus.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse had a lot of creative takes on classic Spider-Man characters, and Olivia is one of the highlights. She has a fun, eccentric personality that lends itself well to both an inquisitive scientist and a cruel and crazed supervillain. Her inflatable arms are also a unique take on the character which helps to give her a stronger identity.

4 ‘Surf’s Up’ (2007)

Tank Evans

From the time he was an egg, Tank Evans (Diedrich Bader) practiced the sport of surfing. After defeating surfing legend Big Z (Jeff Bridges) in his final competition, Tank became the nine-time Big Z Memorial Surf Off champion. As he prepared to win for the tenth time, he found a new challenger in the form of underdog Cody Maverick (Shia LaBeouf).

Tank’s role is that of the classic bully, but the writers and Bader do their best to make him the best of an overdone trope. His arrogance and narcissism are on a whole other level, prompting him to even go after children. This also makes him a great source of comedy, such as when he shows off his trophies, each of which he named and treats like a lover.

Watch on Netflix

3 ‘The Mitchell’s vs. The Machine’s’ (2021)

P.A.L

The main product of P.A.L Labs., Predictive Algorithmic Learning (Olivia Colman) is a friendly virtual assistant designed to make the lives of people easier. However, her opinion of humanity changes when her creator, Mark (Eric André) reveals that he’s planning to replace P.A.L with the new P.A.L M.A.X robots. Enraged, P.A.L takes control of the bots and uses them to round up all of humanity to be launched into space.

P.A.L is a humorous look at the dangers of letting humanity run our lives, as well as an important distinction between human and machine intelligence. She claims that humanity isn’t worth saving because of their selfish tendencies and resistance to change while proving that she herself cannot change beyond her programming. Colman’s performance sounds like a petulant child convinced they are correct and with no interest in hearing another opinion.

Watch on Netflix

2 ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ (2018)

Kingpin

To the people of New York City, Wilson Fisk is a kind philanthropist who gives back to the community. In the shadows, he is a criminal mastermind called the Kingpin, who works to control the city with numerous supervillains on his payroll. After losing his family in a car accident, Kingpin dedicates his time and money to unlocking the secret of multidimensional travel to find another version of them.

Kingpin is one of Sony’s most tragic villains and a good example of how a villain can have sympathetic motivations while still being evil. He’s so blinded by the desire to get his family back that he doesn’t care if his work will destroy New York in the process, or how many good-hearted people he has to kill. Schreiber does a wonderful job showing the pain Fisk is going through in his voicework, while also highlighting the monster he is.

1 ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ (2023)

The Spot

After Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) stopped Kingpin’s Collider, the energy released transformed a nearby scientist into a being with the power to create portals. Now calling himself the Spot (Jason Schwartzman), he attempts to master his powers to get revenge on Miles. While at first unsuccessful, he quickly grows into a multidimensional level threat.

The Spot’s journey from an ineffective wannabe villain into Miles’ personal demon is one of the best things about Across the Spider-Verse.It’s legitimately terrifying seeing this goofy, amicable scientist slowly break down until all that is left is a desire for absolute power and revenge. Schwartzman’s performance is top-tier, especially when the Spot unlocks his full potential.

Watch on Netflix

NEXT: Sony Does Marvel Better Than Marvel