Musical Malevolence

Thomas Fritsch has one of the best voices for villains, for both speaking and singing. His notable roles for such include Scar (The Lion King) and Forte (Beauty & the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas). I've already said a lot about Fritsch before, but there are other voice associations that I find between the two villains. In the Japanese version, Scar and Forte also share an actor, Haruhiko Jo. The two villains even almost ended up sharing an actor in the English version because Tim Curry was considered for portraying Scar.

Have a listen to Fritsch's performances:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC9Pkz… (Skip to 1:39)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW_K2Z…

Forte is one of, if not the only, enjoyable part of Beauty & the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, with his impressive design and characterization along with his actors' performance. (The Enchanted Christmas is still miles better than Belle's Magical World...) He is the only character in the film to be animated in CG, which makes him stand out from the rest of the hand-drawn cast. This does invoke the uncanny valley, but it's intentional since Forte is the main villain and is supposed to be creepy. His personality has elements of a B&tB villain who was scrapped during development, Gaston's brother who seeks vengeance. It is interesting that Forte enjoys being cursed because he feels he has more purpose to the Beast/Prince before the transformation; with his musical powers to placate the Beast/Prince, he is able to keep him for himself. Forte also has some entertaining moments, such as making "Deck the Halls" sound scary and the memetic line, "I'M BOLTED TO THE WALL!" When he snaps, it's nightmare fuel all the way up to his demise. Smashing.

Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag, Thomas Fritsch!  

The Lion King and Beauty & the Beast belong to Disney.