Evil queens, witches, enchantresses, ancient deities and Aztec gold of the cursed variety – who says Disney movies are all fairies and operatic musical numbers?
1. The Curse of Cortes – Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl
882 pieces of Aztec gold delivered in a stone chest to one Hernan Cortes – a conquistador fueled by greed. According to legend, the gold was delivered to Cortes as blood money. But the gold, fueling Cortes’ greed, would be cursed by the Heathen Gods – any mortal to remove a medallion from the chest would be forever damned. Only when the all 882 pieces of the plundered treasure were restored and a blood debt was repaid, would the curse be broken. A lesson that Barbossa’s crew of the Black Pearl, would not soon forget.
2. The Witch’s Curse – Into the Woods
Beautiful, glamorous at the front of fashion – this Witch wasn’t always your typical boils and hunchbacks. She had a flair for gardening, passed along by her mother – beans, magic beans in particular. Don’t let anyone take the beans, her mother warned her against a curse of ugliness if she let anyone take the beans. Unbenounced to her, Mr. Baker snuck into her garden one night and stole the beans for his cravings ridden pregnant wife. Now turned by the curse of ugliness because of the baker’s greed, the Witch placed a curse over the baker’s family tree, that his house would always be a barren one. Don’t steal. Stealing is bad.
3. The Poison Apple – Snow White
Evil queen, fueled by vanity and tortured by jealousy, is determined to kill her step daughter to retain her title as ‘fairest of them all’. Only trouble is, step daughter is tricky to kill. Evil queen poisons an apple with a death-like sleeping curse, disguises herself as a helpless old hag and delivers said apple to an unsuspecting Snow White at her not-so-safe house in the woods. Don’t eat it Snow! You’re not even hungry!
4. The Frozen Heart – Frozen
This one’s a bit of a doozy – a fatal curse that turns a heart to ice. A curse accidentally placed on Anna by her sister Elsa. In the opening sequence of the film, ice harvesters can be heard singing of the curse’s legend, “Cut through the heart, cold and clear; strike for love and strike for fear; there’s beauty and there’s danger here; split the ice apart! Beware the frozen heart”.
5. The Curse of Te Ka – Moana
In the islands of Polynesia, Te Fiti created and brought life to the earth. When Maui, a demi-god, stole her heart, she became Te Ka – an all-consuming darkness killing all that Te Fiti had created. In order to defeat Te Ka and bring life back to the earth, Maui would need to return the heart to Te Fiti.
6. The Beast’s Curse – Beauty and the Beast
A young prince, not unlike our earlier noted evil queen fueled by vanity and selfishness, ruled over his kingdom with cruelty. When he fails to show kindness to an enchantress however, she curses him, transforming the prince into a terrible beast. Only when he truly learns to love and is loved in return, will the curse be broken and the prince along with his kingdom, be restored to their original form. But who could ever love a beast?
7. The Sleeping Curse – Sleeping Beauty
Possibly the most iconic curse in the Disney cannon, cast by possibly the most iconic Villain in the Disney Villain lineup – the sleeping curse. Which actually wasn’t a sleeping curse at all. Maleficent curses Aurora to prick her finger and die on her 16th birthday. But clever Merryweather, a good fairy, musters enough magic to amend the curse to only a death-like sleep. 100 years. The whole kingdom. Except for Prince Phillip somehow – which will come in handy later. Only true love can break the curse, obviously.
