Everyone has seen at least one Disney movie. They are well known or their evil villains and innocent heroes. Colors associate with feeling and emotions to create an idea of the characters intentions in the views mind . The meaning of each color can be connected to personal experiences. Disney uses color to represent character qualities as heroes and villains are easy to spot based on attire and design alone.

Typically, villains wear darker colors.  Take Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty for example. The other fairies wore bright colors like pale green, blue, and pink. Maleficent wore a large black robe and black horns. She also had a black crow and a black staff. She is the epitome of evil as she puts a curse on a mere child.  Now, take a less extreme villain like Captain Hook form Peter Pan for example. His attire is primarily red, and while it is usually a very evil color, he has many white and yellow accents, which are usually heroic colors.

Generally, heroes wear lighter colors.  Take any “good guy” in any Disney movie. They will most likely be wearing blue, yellow, green, or some other fun and bright color. However, I discovered that heroes with slightly more questionable morals had darker variations of otherwise heroic colors. Take Aladdin for example. He is a thief, but he only steals food so he can live “…gotta eat to live gotta steal to eat...” He wears a dark purple vest and dingy white pants with a yellow patch on them. The dinginess of the pants is important to note, as he is arguably the least honest prince, as he steals and lies to Jasmine, but he is still very loveable and kind.

Conceivably, the color white seems to commonly be associated with purity, innocence, and overall goodness.  However, I found that the number of heroes and villains with white as their main color is about equal.  Take the sheep from Zootopia for example, she was very evil, but put on a front of innocence. However, the good characters that had white as their main color were the purest, such as Baymax, Duchess, and the dogs from 101 Dalmatians.

Comparatively, Disney is notorious for using the color lime green to represent evil. From sickly green eyes to the eerie green smoke surrounding most villains. Lime green is present in most Disney movies.  Perhaps the most noticed instance of this is “Be Prepared” sung by Scar and the hyenas in the Lion King or one of the final scenes from the Little Mermaid.  In this scene, Ursula is a huge version of herself, and she tries to kill Ariel and the prince. The sky around her is amidst a lime green thunderstorm, complete with swirling green clouds and green lightning.  Lucifer the cat, the evil queen, and the evil stepmother all have the trademark green eyes of most Disney villains. Lime green is used to symbolize envy, jealousy, greed, and the want for or presence of power.
This distinct color placement is nothing new. I closely analyzed the first full length Disney movie Snow White. I found that based solely on color, you can detect foreshadowing and the intentions of each character. The Huntsman, perhaps the most overlooked character, provided me with some of the best proof. His dominant colors are red, black, green, and yellow. While he did possess the evil green eyes of most villains and the most common colors of villains, red and black, he showed remorse and pity towards Snow White by not killing her, hence the yellow in his attire. I also noted some interesting color placement. In the beginning, the forest has a green tint, this was when she was running away from the queen as the huntsman ordered her to. Later, when the dwarves chase the witch off the cliff, the forest has a blue tint. I also noticed that all the animals save for the vultures and crow had white accents. This is very crucial, as the animals help her in many cases. The evil potion conjured by the queen goes through a series of color changes. It starts off gray, and changes to black, red, and finally green, lime green. The prince that awoke Snow White with true loves kiss had a white horse. This represents that Snow White had found an honest happy ending.

Thus, Disney used bold color choices to represent its characters. The color choice affects our opinion of each character dramatically. Disney has always used a lot of the same colors to portray the same traits. One can only assume they will continue to do the same in any Disney movies to come.