You have *no* idea the trouble we had getting the ferretbrain to publish this. For some reason it had very strong views about Fightclub - apparently it doesn't think Tyler can be viewed as a messiah. I think it's become self-aware, it's the only possible explanation. Anyway, ruminations on the fickle ferretbrain aside, this was great fun to read. I'm glad Scar made it into there but I think you're discounting Claude Frollo from Hunchback. He's the *only* Disney villain - or indeed the only cartoon I can think of - who gets his own rape song.

I think the reason that lots of people prefer Cox as Lecter over Hopkins (including me) is that Cox manages to get a performance which is at least as effective as Hopkins', despite the fact that Sir Anthony has every single factor in the scene working to help him scare the audience.

Hopkins can spook you by loudly talking about eating people inside a mental hospital which is essentially a medieval dungeon with modern bars and uniforms, with spooky music and howls and lighting effects helping him out, but pretty much anyone can do that. Cox can scare you by sitting on a simple chair in a clean, bright hospital, with no music playing, and making pleasant conversation on the telephone with people's secretaries while chewing gum.

I confess I don't Claude Frollo's rape song. That may have affected the article all right.

It's the Heaven's Light / Hellfire thing. He's just seen Esmerald dancing (sluttishly, to be fair) and he does his villain song in front of an enormous fire. One of the verses goes something like:

Protect me, Maria
Don't let this siren cast her spell
Don't let her fire sear my flesh and bone
Destroy Esmeralda
And let her taste the fires of hell
Or else let her be mine and mine alone

Also throughout the song he keeps singing on about it not being his fault and it being hers for being such a hottie. See. Disney song about rape. It *rocks* I love Frollo (although Disney do a hatchet job on him, he's much more interesting and complex in the book - oddly enough they cut the him torturing Esmeralda scene, wonder why) but Scar is voiced by Jeremy Irons so ... it's a tough call.