Mufasa’s clumsy number ‘Bye Bye’ shows exactly how Disney villain songs went wrong
Every day, Disney strays further from the wishing star’s light. And there’s one big reason for that: a staggering lack of animated villains. The studio has only produced a handful of movies with actual villains over the last 15 years, and as Disney fans frequently note, that means we’ve lost a glorious entertainment staple in the Disney villain song. The big musical number is a vital part of most great villains’ identities — it often lets the audience see all their glorious viciousness in action. Between 2000 and 2023, Disney only gave us five villain songs, and just three of them since 2010 — “Mother Knows Best” in Tangled, “The Backson Song” in Winnie the Pooh, and “Shiny” in Moana. (“Love Is an Open Door” in Frozen is technically a duet with a villain, but it isn’t a villain song by any definition.)
But hope is not lost: The villain song is on the rise again. Disney’s Wish gave us our first true villain song in 13 years with “This Is the Thanks I Get?!” Moana 2’s fiery “Get Lost” doesn’t quite count, since Matangi reveals herself as Moana’s ally, but it’s styled and presented as a villain song. Mufasa: The Lion King also features a full villain song: “Bye Bye,” sung by Mads Mikkelsen as white lion antagonist Kiros.
