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Revision as of 06:19, 8 February 2011
Madame Medusa is the main antagonist from Walt Disney Productions' classic The Rescuers. She is the proprietor of a seedy pawnshop in New York.
Personality
Medusa is described as greedy and obsessed. She is also very crazy, ill-tempered and sometimes unstable; which makes her intimidating at times. However, she has a bit of a bumbling nature, which makes a little hard for people to take her seriously as a really scary villain. She is very intelligent and patient, but when she comes to the point of losing it, she is not someone you want to be around. She will stop at nothing to get what she wants; such as using Penny, a little girl, to go down into a dark cave just to retrieve the Devil's Eye.
Appearances
The Rescuers
Prior to the film, Medusa discovers that the world's largest diamond, the Devil's Eye, is buried deep underground in a pirate's cave in Devil's Bayou. Much to her disappointment, the cave entrance is much too narrow for her to fit through. Neither her incompetent henchman, Mr. Snoops, nor her 2 pet crocodiles Brutus and Nero, can fit through. It is then that the witch decides to return to New York City, where her pawnshop is located, and abducts the poor orphan, Penny to fetch the diamond for her. 3 months later (when the film The Rescuers introduces her), Medusa finds that although Snoops has managed to force Penny down into the cave, he is unable to persuade her to search. Moreover, he has caught the little girl sending out messages in bottles. Medusa, frustrated with Mr. Snoops’ inability to manage an orphan girl, takes the next flight back to Devil's Bayou to take charge. She ultimately decides to force Penny down into the cave, holding her teddy bear hostage, and refusing to lift her back out until she has found and retrieved the diamond. Because the cave fills with water at each high tide, Penny is aware that Medusa's threat is a potentially lethal one.
House of Mouse
Origin
Ken Anderson drew many different designs for Medusa, including a Lauren Bacall-esque 'grande dame' (with snake-like locks of hair, true to her name), a vain, sinister, slender lady and a portly woman with a facade of make-up, in an attempt to find the right personality. The design eventually settled on a rather hideous appearance (of which she seemingly remains unaware), with some fiery red hair to suit her character. For a small amount of time early in the film's production, the Disney story team was heavily considering reusing Cruella De Vil from their 1961 classic, One Hundred and One Dalmatians. Drawings by Ken Anderson depicted her in alligator skins, suggesting that she would have visited, or had dealings with, Devil's Bayou John Canemaker, "Before the Animation Begins: The Life and Times of Disney inspirational Sketch Artists". This idea was abandoned, as the studio was not interested in producing sequels at the time, and Madame Medusa was created. Cruella and Medusa share certain characteristics, including fixation on a single goal, a fiery temper, vanity and a tendancy to drive recklessly. Medusa is loosely based on the Diamond Duchess, an elderly woman who served as the villain in Margery Sharp's original novel, Miss Bianca, and who similarly wanted to obtain a specific diamond and was using an orphan girl in her plan (named Patience in Sharp's novel). However, Medusa has a somewhat wilder, more eccentric personality than the Diamond Duchess. In addition to inheriting some traits from Cruella, Medusa may well have passed on of her traits on to Ursula, including a similar appearance, and the possession of 2 scaly green pets (Brutus and Nero for Medusa; the Moray Eels, Flotsam and Jetsam for Ursula). Medusa's name most likely comes from the Greek mythological monster of the same name. The monster had snakes for hair; the Disney character has normal red hair, which nonetheless looks rather snaky. Whenever the Rescuers character stares at Penny, the girl freezes temporarily; whoever looked the Greek monster in the eye would turn to stone.
Gallery
Trivia
- Madame Medusa is one of the 10 villains featured in the tongue-in-cheek Disney Villains: The Top Secret Files. Medusa's section of the book includes a photo of Nero and Brutus as babies, and a catalogue of the world's greatest diamonds (most of which Medusa has scrawled 'too small!' over). Medusa is ranked as the ninth greatest Disney Villain at the end of the book.
- It has been noted that Madame Medusa and Ursula share a similar facial structure.
- Actress Geraldine Page who provided the voice of Madame Medusa was married to the actor Rip Torn. In 1997, 10 years after Page's death of a heart attack, Rip Torn provided the voice of Zeus in Disney`s Hercules.
- Both Medusa and Mcleach end up being chased by crocodiles.
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