 |
he
marvelous villainess Ursula is one of Disney's classics. She has the
gross unsubtlety of Ratigan from "The Great Mouse Detective" but substantially
more brio. Although facially somewhat similar to "The Rescuers'"
Madame Medusa, Ursula's screen impact dwarfs that of her predecessor. Bejewelled
and lip-pouting like an overweight, over-rich, over-pampered, over-the-top
society hostess gone mad, she is all flair, flamboyance, and theatricality
mixed with a touch of con-artistry. Except when her wrath -- the only
genuine emotion she seems capable of expressing -- bursts through, her
every movement is a deceitful artifice, as if she's performing for an
audience. Her vile hobby of collecting souls so that they can suffer humiliation
in her morbid garden is utterly in keeping with her society-hostess-from-hell persona. |