Kids' cartoons are almost as full of unimaginable horrors as their fairy tale forebears. Monsters, demons, and soulless crimelords are pretty much par for the course. However, since children's media operates under certain unavoidable laws, these things are also inevitably defeated by whatever cartoon cuties are handy. Whether it's big-eyed children punching out a lobster-clawed Lucifer, incipient Sith Lords facing off against plushies, or literal mountain-sized demons faced down by juvenile unicorns, kids can rely on their heroes to pull out the win.
This doesn't immunize young viewers from terror and trauma, though. These scary cartoon villains are among the most frightening to grace the small and silver screens.
10 Doctor Claw: An Evil Disembodied Voice Defeated By A Child & Her Dog
Doctor Claw is an obvious candidate, but also a questionable one. In his eternal struggle with his nemesis, Inspector Gadget, this disembodied mummy hand's raspy, rage-filled voice is bound to strike terror into kids' hearts. However, like many of his peers, he's also reliant on a network of incompetent henchmen— and for all of his power, the source of his rage is his inability to defeat an incompetent cyborg.
More importantly, Claw doesn't realize who's really defeating him. With the exception of the episode "M.A.D. Trap," Gadget never wins any fights or really thwarts or rescues anyone. It's Gadget's tweenaged niece Penny and her dog, Brain, that actually stop Claw's international terrorist organization while he's distracted by the idiot in the trench coat. In the end, Claw's no more competent than his presumed rival.
9 Te Ka: The Lava Demon Spawned From A Lifeless Future
Moana's final boss is one of the most terrifying creatures ever unleashed in any Disney film. Immense and malevolent, she seems unstoppable as she hurls magma at anyone who comes in range. Even being dismembered by a demigod only slows her slightly and fuels her rage. As physically frightening as Fantasia's Chernabog, she's made even more terrifying by the fact that she's what's left of the Goddess of Life, Te Feti. Just by existing in her heartless state, she threatens Moana's world, and killing her would also kill their world's last hope.
Maui is clearly Te Ka's most powerful opponent, but he's no match for her. It takes a brave, benevolent teenager and her brainless chicken to finally restore her heart, defeating the goddess by giving her what she actually needs.
8 Hawk Moth: Corrupts The Innocent, Lives In Fear Of A Teen With A Magic Yoyo
Miraculous is a strange series burdened with questionable heroes and supervillains and convoluted lore surrounding the magic "Miraculous" objects that give the protagonists— Ladybug and Chat Noir— their powers. However, its villain, Hawk Moth, is genuinely sinister. From his secret observatory, he sends out shadowy butterflies, offering Faustian power bargains to unhappy souls throughout Paris in their moments of weakness.
Intimidating and evil, he nonetheless is afraid to face Ladybug and just take her Miraculous for himself. Instead, he repeats his doomed strategy of empowering randos while he hides and shakes his fist. While Ladybug's super ability, The Power of Creation, sounds impressive it boils down to a combination of fighting evil with a super yo-yo while wearing a disturbingly tight outfit and "creating" an unlikely object that will somehow solve all her problems, like a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Mouseketool.
7 Quellor: Powered By Evil Itself, Loses To A Teddy Bear
The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin was surprisingly well-written for a long-form serial about product placement. While its main antagonist was a hapless baddie named Tweeg, Quellor added a genuine sense of menace to the show. A taloned giant whose face is concealed in shadows, Quellor was also probably the smartest character in the series. When supernatural evil was unleashed across the land, it seemed to choose him as its vessel, allowing him to break out of the prison the teddy bear and his giant grub friend had sent him to. He then tried to transform the entire world into a reflection of his own evil.
Unsurprisingly, Teddy Ruxpin and his incredibly cute buddies stopped Quellor, severely undermining Q's position in the pantheon of dark badasses.
6 Magica De Spell Is A Murderously Obsessed Living Shadow
A classic villain from Carl Barks' Uncle Scrooge comics, this sorceress supreme was defeated by Scrooge McDuck before the 2017 reboot of DuckTales began. He banished her to a shadow realm inside of his Lucky Dime, and her attempts to restore herself to body and power infest the show's first season. She exists as a shadow, and sometimes terrifyingly possesses other characters, filling them from inside as a living viscous black liquid. When she finally breaks free, she first imprisons Scrooge inside of his own magical dime, then steals an entire city's shadows to power her magical conquest of Duckburg and Scrooge's Money Bin. In one sequence she seems to literally murder a child.
However, it's De Spell's own juvenile animated shadow, Lena, who defeats the mad mage. Along with her best friend, a ducky prepubescent named Webbigail, the two use the Power of Friendship Bracelets to send Magica back to the shadow realm and later steal her powers entirely.
5 Paddywhack: Pennywise? Are You A Duck Now?
Most of Darkwing Duck's villains echo the hero's aura of semi-competent whimsy. In "The Haunting of Mister Banana Brain," though, Darkwing encountered a terrifying foe.
Voiced with joyous malice by Phil Hartman, Paddywack was a 9-foot tall fang-faced harlequin who lived in a cursed jack-in-the-box. Usually slithering around as a shadow or possessing toys, the creature claimed to feed on mischief but seemed to grow fat on fear and suffering instead. He also targeted naughty children and the mentally ill as recruits into his practical joke wielding cult. Probably Darkwing's most potent threat, he was only defeated by the fact that he couldn't take a joke.
4 Baron De Ghost: The Biggest Demon Ever Murdered By A Big-Eyed Unicorn
The Unico films are billed as children's anime. Admittedly, cultural standards vary a bit, but Baron De Ghost is more than a little scary. He's downright disturbing.
His horrible predatory assault vibe is where it starts. He kidnaps and drugs Unico's friend Katy cat and places her on his bed for undisclosed purposes, oozing malice. After Unico, a kawaii unicorn, stabs The Baron, he falls to his doom and he returns as an immense demon. He almost kills the juvenile unicorn, but Unico gets diabolical assistance from his friend Beezle, becomes a giant unicorn, and impales the demon's final form.
3 Him: The Powerpuff Girls Beat Up The Devil (A Lot)
The Powerpuff Girls' enemy Him is a delightfully creepy presence. Clearly modeled on none other than Satan, no one has to explain His devilish presence or intentions. He's made more sinister by his Santa suit, giant lobster claws, red thigh highs, and high-pitched voice. Him also tends to be a subtle villain, seducing the girls into turning on each other or giving in to selfish desires.
None of this helps Him win, though. By the end of the episode, He's always consigned to whatever infernal waste he dwells in, often missing a few teeth.
2 The Trivium: Demon Of Petty Tasks, Ogre Of Wasted Effort, And Monster Of Habit
The animated version of Norton Juster's classic, The Phantom Tollbooth, has its share of symbolic strangeness. It's the dapper-but-faceless Trivium who frightens young audiences most, though. A creature of wasted time, the Trivium convinces the heroes to move piles of sand with tweezers and empty wells with eye droppers, all while dripping with oily self-satisfaction.
Of course, demon or not, it's no match for a young boy, a Watch Dog (made out of an actual watch), and a curmudgeonly Humbug.
1 The Greedy: It Eats Itself Forever, But It Only Wants A Ragdoll's Living Heart For Dinner
A monster made of candy, The Greedy appeared in Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure. Eternally hungry, this thing constantly devoured its own unpleasantly sticky body.
It decided that Raggedy Ann's heart might quell its eternal appetite, though. The stuffed siblings worked together to drown the monstrosity in taffy, defeating and possibly destroying this grotesquerie. Not that they stuck around to find out.