Disney’s weirdest villain lived and died as a pipe organ

Disney villains have a following to rival the ever-lucrative Disney Princess brand. For those drawn to a darker, edgier aesthetic and some of the best songs in the Disney canon, the Disney Villain brand is a welcome change from the saccharine rest of the official Disney lineups.

But it’s tough here for Disney Villain fans. Recent Disney animated films have lacked real villains, opting for more metaphorical and thematic antagonists at the expense of snazzy character designs and mind-blowing musical numbers. And many live-action remakes have put sympathetic spins on even the most vicious villains (don’t blame Cruella de Vil for wanting to skin dogs – her mother was killed by a pack of Dalmatians).

The source of Disney villains has run so dry you may be longing for it Good bad good old days, with nothing to amuse but bad guys you’ve seen a million times before. These days, the only real way to truly re-experience that beloved macabre theatricality is to plunge into a largely forgotten era and hang on to the strangest, strangest Disney villain of them all: Maestro Forte, the sentient pipe organ that torments Belle in Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas.

Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas is a product of Disney’s direct-to-video era, where the House of Mouse released cheaply made sequels, prequels, and midquels from 1994 to 2008. Of course I watched them all. Enchanted Christmas is a midquel, taking place somewhere in the events of Beauty and the Beast, so the Beast is still a beast and the rest of the castle staff are still furniture. The movie poses a burning question for anyone watching the original Beauty and the Beast definitely had in mind: Will Belle successfully throw a big Christmas party for the whole castle and defy the Beast (who of course hates the holidays)?

What does this have to do with a pipe organ? Well, with Gaston presumably on a Christmas hunt at a posh lodge, the movie needs a bad guy. And that villain is Maestro Forte (voiced by Tim Curry), a gloomy pipe organ who may be the only piece of furniture in the entire castle that absolutely loves being an object.

The whole deal about the organ is that he actually not wants Belle to break the curse on the Beast. Why? As Prince Adam’s personal musician, Forte was never appreciated for his dark and somber rearrangements of popular songs. But because the Beast is so anxious and grumpy, he likes dark music! Forte finally feels like he’s getting the recognition he deserves. Forget Jack Skellington, emo kids and goths – this pipe organ should be your new idol.

Image: Disney

So while the rest of the Beast’s loyal servants just want to be human again, Forte thinks being a pipe organ is the coolest shit that’s ever happened to him. Not only is all of his music inherently dark and gloomy, it’s also very loud and can literally bring the house down (so as not to spoil the movie). He blooms. He wants nothing more than to be a pipe organ for the rest of the time. (Sidebar: Can the servants die of old age in furniture form? Or is it a case of when your object is worn out beyond repair, your consciousness goes with it? What if Chip the cup had siblings that broke?!)

All of these direct-to-video films had significantly lower budgets than their theatrical counterparts. In Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, it seems that 80% of the money has gone into rendering Forte in CG. He’s the only character to have been performed this way, which makes his shapely luscious lips and heavily coiffed but totally empty eyes all the more unsettlingly terrifying.

With Tim Curry bringing his A-game to the role, Forte is the most memorable part of this entire movie – and arguably the most memorable villain of the direct-to-video era. Many of the villains during this time were simple offshoots of the mainline baddies — or the baddies themselves became… a bit underwhelming and lame. Ursula’s sister swears revenge on Ariel in the Little Mermaid sequel, as Scar’s most loyal devotee comes for Simba in the second Lion King. Jafar returns inside The return of Jafar (shocking!) and thanks to quasi-historical accuracy, Ratcliffe is back Pocahontas 2. But The Enchanted Christmas has its own batshit villain, separate from Gaston, with its own unhinged mission, design and motives. The bar is set low, but sometimes, in a world where Cruella is now a girl boss and Maleficent an anti-hero, you just need a whole emo pipe organ.