Cinema has produced some of the best stories, several beloved characters, and franchises. One of the best ways to tell a good story is through conflict, especially between a hero and a villain. Although many of the greatest films are renowned for their deep character studies, many good movies are made great by more cartoonish characters. This is especially true of villains.

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There are a few ways to get fans to love a great villain. While deep villains are great, the fact is fans love a villain who's bad just for the sake of it. While a simple, malevolent villain may be most associated with Saturday morning cartoon bad guys like Skeletor, the formula works great across mediums and genres. Indeed, some of the most popular villains ever to hit the big screen were some of the most cartoonish too.

10 Hertz Had A Looney Tunes Rivalry With Smith

Shoot 'Em Up

Paul Giamatti as Hertz in Shoot Em Up

Shoot 'Em Up has remained a cult classic action flick with fans thanks to its hero, villain, and over-the-top action. When a drifter, Smith (Clive Owen), gets roped into a conspiracy of murder and politics, he is pursued by the trigger-happy Hertz (Paul Giamatti).

Hertz is a henchman of a number of powerful interests, and is charged with tying up loose ends. He leads many attacks on Smith, mostly unsuccessfully. At every turn, his interplay with Smith is defined by a Buggs Bunny / Elmer Fudd-style rivalry that leads to an eventual showdown.

9 Simon Phoenix Was A Pure Agent Of Chaos

Demolition Man

Sylvester Stallone stares down Wesley Snipes in an image from Demolition Man

Fans love Demolition Man for its interesting and unique spin on dystopia, set in a future where a bureaucratic state micromanages people's lives. Beginning in the 1990s, a hardened cop, John Spartan, and a chaotic criminal, Simon Phoenix, are both frozen in time after a rescue mission goes awry.

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When Phoenix is let out of his icy prison by the villainous dictator of the future, he wreaks havoc. In response, the police bring Spartan out and charge him with taking down Phoenix. From excessive violence and reveling in crime to frequent puns, Simon Phoenix loved chaos.

8 Mola Ram Was The Maniacal Leader Of A Death Cult

Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom

Mola Ram holds a heart in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom follows Indiana in India, accompanied by a young boy, Short Round, and a dancer, Willie Scott. When he finds a small village in poverty with no children, his search for answers leads him to Pancot Palace, home of a Maharaja.

When Indiana ventured into the depths of the palace, he encountered a horrifying death cult of Shiva, led by the murderous Mola Ram. From his deep, booming laugh to ripping people's hearts from their chests, Mola Ram remains one of the franchise's scariest villains and most cartoonish.

7 Goldfinger Was A Classic Mustache-Twirling Bond Villain

Goldfinger

Auric Goldfinger James Bond

The James Bond franchise is well known for its mastery of classic action and spy tropes, cliches, and archetypes. Whether it's unique gadgets, interesting henchmen, or love interests, Bond has a well-defined formula. One of the best features of the franchise is its great villains.

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The motives and personalities of these villains range, but one that stands out is Auric Goldfinger. The German businessman hatched a plan to irradiate all the gold in Fort Knox to increase the value of his reserves. His scheme included the now iconic retort, "No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die!" and a slow laser execution method.

6 Beetlejuice Loved Being A Menace

Beetlejuice

Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice in the 1988 film.

Tim Burton's excellent Beetlejuice follows a young New England couple who die and become ghosts. Unseen by most, they are forced to watch in horror when a wealthy and eccentric family moves in. When their initial attempts to scare and haunt the family away, they turn to Beetlejuice.

Beetlejuice is a ghost who specializes in haunting and scaring the living. His wild and profane personality turns off the couple, and they demand he stops. However, he sets his sights on marrying the family's teen daughter so that he can make his existence permanent among the living and be an immortal menace.

5 Barbossa Remains One Of The Greatest On-Screen Pirates

Pirates Of The Caribbean

Captain Barbossa returns from the dead in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

From his first scene in Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, fans fell in love with Geoffrey Rush's Captain Barbossa. The captain of the eponymous Black Pearl, Barbossa, led his crew to Port Royal in pursuit of a final piece of cursed treasure.

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Barbossa abducted Elizabeth Swan, whom he believed possessed the final piece. Once the first mate of Captain Jack Sparrow, Barbossa was a ruthless pirate who had no hesitation in killing a man on the spot. He loved the life of piracy and went about his plundering with a smile on his face – despite his curse.

4 Mister Freeze's Live Action Appearance Had Him Reduced To Puns

Batman & Robin

Mister-Freeze-Batman-and-Robin-Film

Despite the popularity of the first Tim Burton Batman movie, each subsequent entry was more disappointing to fans. That all came to a head in Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin. The movie was a mess, mainly due to its one-dimensional villains. The worst of these was Mister Freeze (Arnold Schwarzenegger).

Despite his sympathetic story in comics, Batman & Robin turned Freeze into a musclebound crook obsessed with bad ice-based puns. Any depth the villain could have had was ruined, and fans look back on him as one of cinema's worst depictions of a comic book character.

3 Judge Doom Was A Literal Cartoon Villain

Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Judge Doom Reveals Himself In Who Framed Roger Rabbit

One of Christopher Lloyd's most memorable roles, Who Framed Roger Rabbit's Judge Doom, was truly imposing as a villain. Set in a world where cartoons and the real world coexist, the movie follows a private eye, Eddie, as he helps Roger Rabbit, a toon framed for murder.

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Judge Doom and his cartoon hyenas went about murdering toons with vats of acid, watching as they screamed in their final moments. Though he spends much of the movie disguised as a human, it's later revealed that Doom was a toon himself and the murderer of Eddie's brother.

2 Emperor Palpatine Loved Being Evil

Star Wars

Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) smiling evilly in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi

The pinnacle of unapologetic, irredeemable cartoonish villainy, Emperor Palpatine remains one of the evilest characters ever created for cinema. The Star Wars villain was the supreme dictator of the galaxy, and he ruled with an iron fist under the Imperial forces spearheaded by the stormtroopers.

Star Wars and its characters are among the best-known and most widely recognized in cinema. The Sith lord Palpatine is arguably the go-to character for describing true, unrepentant cinematic villainy. At his core, Palpatine sought control over the galaxy – and he got it.

1 Doctor Evil Parodied The Evil Genius

Austin Powers

Dr. Evil and Mr. Bigglesworth in Austin Powers

The main antagonist of the Austin Powers trilogy, Dr. Evil, was designed to be the ultimate cartoonish villain. Primarily based on James Bond's Blofeld, Dr. Evil was a supervillain from the 1960s who struggled to assert himself going into the 21st century.

The Austin Powers movies loved parodying the spy-action genre, from its goofy henchmen to its scandalous hero. However, Dr. Evil and his clone, Mini-Me, steal the show from the other characters. Evil owns villainy as his nature, and spends his life thinking up new schemes to take down Austin and make some money.

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