One area where Pixar is deficient compared to classic Disney.

[Thestral]

Then we'd have to ask what a cultural icon is. I don't recall any of the villains mentioned here except Cruella de Vil and Ursula reaching that sort of status (Frollo's been sort of forgotten, for example)..

The definition given by Wikipedia seems accurate:

A cultural icon can be a symbol, a logo, picture, name, face, person, building or other image that is readily recognized, and generally represents an object or concept with great cultural significance to a wide cultural group.​

By that definition, I think we could include the following animated Disney villains among a list of cultural icons:

• Queen Grimhilde
• Maleficient
• Cruella de Vil
• Captain Hook
• Jafar
• Ursula
• Gaston
• Emperor Zurg

Formerly, Shere Khan, Kaa, and Monstro would probably have counted among the iconic Disney villains, but their movies have faded somewhat from the public consciousness. Frollo and Hades may or may not be iconic; it's hard to say; their movies fared poorly, but they appear to be relatively widely recognized (Frollo seems to have enjoyed a Youtube afterlife due to Hellfire).

Interestingly, the iconic Disney villains are those merchandised most easily and widely. There's probably a connection.

Let's not forget Scar.

 

[Thespeckledkiwi]

How about Hades?

 

[Cicero]

Then we'd have to ask what a cultural icon is. I don't recall any of the villains mentioned here except Cruella de Vil and Ursula reaching that sort of status (Frollo's been sort of forgotten, for example)..

The definition given by Wikipedia seems accurate:

A cultural icon can be a symbol, a logo, picture, name, face, person, building or other image that is readily recognized, and generally represents an object or concept with great cultural significance to a wide cultural group.​

By that definition, I think we could include the following animated Disney villains among a list of cultural icons:

• Queen Grimhilde
• Maleficient
• Cruella de Vil
• Captain Hook
• Jafar
• Ursula
• Gaston
• Emperor Zurg

Formerly, Shere Khan, Kaa, and Monstro would probably have counted among the iconic Disney villains, but their movies have faded somewhat from the public consciousness. Frollo and Hades may or may not be iconic; it's hard to say; their movies fared poorly, but they appear to be relatively widely recognized (Frollo seems to have enjoyed a Youtube afterlife due to Hellfire).

Interestingly, the iconic Disney villains are those merchandised most easily and widely. There's probably a connection.

Let's not forget Scar.

For some reason, I thought I'd included him.

 

[Hunter X]

Egon wasnt the villain of Ratattoullie, Skinner was.
I thought Hopper was a great villain in Bug's Life, Kevin Spacey was awesome in that movie!

I don't think the question is so much about whether or not Pixar has had good villains; it has. But they haven't really become iconic. If you showed a picture of Ursula, Jafar, Scar or Cruella de Vil to just about anyone on the street they'd probably be able to tell you where they were from and their name. Do that with Hopper or...well, I'm drawing blanks on the names of the bad guys from Monsters Inc. or The Incredibles. People may sort of know where they were from, but I doubt anyone would be able to pull their names out of the air just like that unless they were Pixar buffs.

Oh yes, Syndrome! That was the Incredibles guy. Still can't remember the Monsters Inc. monster. I think it was something like Lenny.

Anyways, what Pixar does specialize in is iconic protagonists. Not only do they create memorable "good guys" with just about every movie, but they often create many such characters. For example:

Woody
Buzz Lightyear
Nemo
Dory
Mr. Incredible
Wall-E
Dug
Carl Fredricksen
Lightning McQueen
Mike
Sully
Boo

And so on. I'd venture to guess that every Pixar movie aside from Ratatouille has at least one character that your average person would recognize and be able to tell you where that character was from.

(That's not a knock against Ratatouille, it's one of my favourite Pixar films. I just don't think Remy and the gang have made as much mainstream impact as the rest.)