Top 10 Animated Queens in Movies & TV
#10: Queen Arianna [aka Queen of Corona] “Tangled” franchise (2010-)
Top 10 Movie Moments Where the Queen Bee Gets What She Deserves
The kingdom of Corona could not ask for a better ruler than Queen Arianna. The mother of Rapunzel, she had to endure the hardship of losing her daughter, but instead of this making her cruel and bitter, it made her gentler and kinder. When Rapunzel returns home, the two of them make an effort to spend as much time with each other as possible, and Queen Arianna, in contrast to her husband Frederic, is compassionate and understanding of Rapunzel’s need to see the world. As it turns out, she was quite the adventurer herself in her younger days, and it’s great to see Rapunzel taking after such a great woman.
#9: Queen Tara “Epic” (2013)
Top 10 Reasons to Ignore The Babysitter: Killer Queen's Rotten Tomatoes Score
Voiced by the legendary Beyoncé, it’s inevitable that Queen Tara would be a fantastic character. The queen of the forest, her role in the movie may be small, but it is one of the most powerful. While she might look humanoid, Queen Tara is just bursting with power. She has an ability called Chlorokinesis, which allows her to control the plants of the forest, and even lends her the ability to walk on water. Though she is not queen for long, her character leaves an indelible mark on the rest of the movie and her replacement has some mighty big shoes to fill.
#8: Queen “A Bug’s Life” (1998)
It’s difficult to decide how to feel about the Queen in this movie. While she’s a laidback ant that is instantly likeable due to her humor and love for her daughters, she’s also complicit in the oppression of her entire ant colony. To her credit, when Flik incites the rebellion against the grasshoppers, she easily steps in to fight alongside the rest of the ants. It’s not difficult to see her as a leader who just didn’t know what else to do in the face of a threat. And pitted against the Queen Ant in “Antz,” who also made an appearance in 1998, she is definitely the cooler queen.
#7: The Martian Queen [aka Queen Tyr’ahnee] “Duck Dodgers” (2003-05)
DC's 10 Most Disappointing Animated Movies
Looney Tunes is known for a whole host of strange and wacky creatures, and fewer are stranger than the Martians. While Marvin the Martian is one of the most well-known, Queen Tyr’ahnee, the queen of the Martians, quickly stole the spotlight when she was introduced in “Duck Dodgers.” A formidable character who is well-trained in hand-to-hand combat, she is a great match for Duck Dodgers. Their on again, off again relationship is one of the highlights of the show, though they never seem to have their happily ever after.
#6: Queen Elinor “Brave” (2012)
Queen Elinor has a hard task, reigning in her strong-willed daughter, Merida, as well as keeping her husband and three sons in line. She’s a calm influence for the most part, keeping the peace between nations, but she struggles when it comes to peaceful interactions with Merida. After being turned into a bear by an unfortunate piece of magic, she learns to respect her daughter, proving that the queenliest thing of all is to accept people for who they are. A loving mother and wife, she is the epitome of what a queen should be and Merida is lucky to have her as a role model.
#5: Nala “The Lion King” franchise (1994-)
Nala was destined to be queen. When she was born, she was betrothed to Simba, the heir to the pride. Luckily for everyone involved, the two of them grew up as childhood best friends before falling in love as adults. After the final battle at Pride Rock between Simba and Scar, she succeeds Sarabi, Simba’s mother, as queen. She’s later seen as a loving, supporting mother, whose patience and calm attitude quells the overprotectiveness of Simba, and keeps the peace between the pride. She’s one of the most likeable characters in the franchise, and indirectly, is the one responsible for the overthrowing of Scar and his tyrannical rule.
#4: Marceline the Vampire Queen “Adventure Time” (2010-)
She’s everybody’s favorite cartoon rock musician, and she’s here to play pranks and have fun. Half-demon, half-human, she grows on the audience as they learn more about her. Whether she’s playing one of her bass guitars, helping Finn and Jake out on their crazy adventures, or hanging out with Princess Bubblegum, there is no shortage of Marceline. The more the audience learns about her backstory, the more obvious it becomes that she isn’t just a fun-loving vampire, but a person with a tragic past who uses music and humor to get herself through tough times.
#3: Queen of Hearts “Alice in Wonderland” (1951)
Despite being the queen of them, it’s easy to suspect this queen of being heartless. A massive fan of beheadings, she often demands that people are killed this way for the most minor of things. She is an unstable ruler, often having her temper tantrums mitigated by her meek husband, the King of Hearts, and he is not always successful. Everyone around her must please her at all costs, which makes her a terrifying character to watch on screen. She takes pleasure in being such an unpredictable person, and poor Alice, who gets thrown into her world, is lucky to escape with her life.
#2: Elsa “Frozen” (2013)
She captured the heart of audiences everywhere in 2013, being one of the few Disney queens who is not evil. Poor Elsa isolates herself from the rest of the world because she is afraid of accidentally hurting those who mean the most to her. It falls to her sister Anna to convince her to stop the eternal winter that engulfed their homeland because of Elsa’s powers. The Queen of Arendelle is a character you just can’t help feeling sorry for, from the moment she hurts Anna as a child, to when she banishes herself from her own kingdom. And yet, there are few moments more empowering than watching her build her ice castle. Before we unveil our top pick, here are some honorable mentions: Hippolyta “Justice League” (2001-04) Earth Queen Hou-Ting “The Legend of Korra” (2012-14) Queen Leah “Sleeping Beauty” (1959)
#1: Queen Grimhilde [aka Evil or Wicked Queen] “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (1937)
Magic mirror on the wall, who’s the most iconic of them all? When “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” the first full length animated feature film, came out in 1937, it began a legacy that continued throughout Disney’s following films. But while there might be a number of evil queens in Disney’s subsequent flicks, there’s only one who is the Evil Queen. Vain and obviously insecure, she orders the death of her stepdaughter, the beautiful Snow White. When she finds out that her order was not carried out, she takes it upon herself to do the dirty work. Of course, in typical Disney fashion, the queen gets exactly what she deserves in the end.
