Dr. Facilier is the main antagonist of Disney's 2009 feature film The Princess and the Frog. He is an evil bokor who plans to rule New Orleans with help from his "Friends on the Other Side". Since his inception, Facilier has reached critical acclaim and with Disney fans; making him one of Disney's most popular villains.
Personality[]
Dr. Facilier is shown in the film to be very smooth-talking and charismatic, which leads many people to come to him for help...but he is also very manipulative and cunning, as he supposedly uses his powers to help people, but, in actuality, it is for his own benefit and it usually ends up hurting or humiliating them. Facilier is quite swindlous and crafty.
Powers[]
Doctor Facilier has the ability to give shadows a life of their own, and then give them orders. These shadows he can command can interact with the shadows of other people, and by doing so can control them, resulting in the nickname "The Shadow Man". He is also a master of the dark arts, which allows him to cast curses or spells on both humans and objects, such as turning Prince Naveen into a frog.
He can also alter his appearance, giving him more of a skeletal look. He claims that this is all possible because of his "friends on the other side". It is unknown exactly how he got such powers, but it is implied that he struck a deal with powerful voodoo spirits in order to obtain them and has owed them a debt ever since. This is possibly the reason he is not in command of his own shadow; it has a life of its own.
There are several major drawbacks to this power, primarially being that Facilier cannot use his powers on himself, only on others, hence why he requires Lawrence to impersonate Naveen. Another serious drawback is the increasing debt he continues to run up with the voodoo spirits. In order to gain additional power during the film, he convinces the spirits that he will provide them with the souls of New Orleans should he be sucessful in gaining control of the LaBouf fortune. The amulet Facilier uses serves as a magical contract of sorts, and the voodoo spirits take its destruction as Facilier's failure to hold up his end of the bargin, promping them to take collateral: His soul.
Facilier's Shadow[]
Doctor Facilier's shadow is his own shadow. However, it could move away from Facillier and even interact with people (Ex: the shadow kicks Lawrence). In fact, it could be a seperate being given to Facilier by his friends on the other side. When these friends try to capture Facillier when he fails them, they manage to grab the shadow first, dragging them both to their doom since they are both linked.
Physical Appearance[]
Facilier bears many physical traits that are similar to Jafar, such as being tall, skinny, mustached and dressed in very linear black-and-red clothing. Facilier has purple eyes and a thin mustache, as well as a gap between his front teeth. He has long, boney fingers and lanky arms and legs.
Dressed to resemble the infamous Baron Samedi, Doctor Facilier wears a top hat with a purple feather in it and a skull; the skull can be magically removed and change into a skull make-up as shown in the song "Friends on the other side". Under his top hat, Facilier has a huge hairdo to fit in his hat. Around his neck, he wears a necklace with two crocodile teeth. Facilier wears a dark maroon undertaker tailcoat and black pants, white spats over black shoes, a purple vest under his coat that doesn't entirely cover his midriff and a red cummerbund. On the whole, he looks and performs like a showman.
He wields a cane with a purple globe on top (which was possibly a crystal ball, though it is never revealed or shown to be true). Facilier seems to use his cane for show performances, a tool or a weapon. He carries a voodoo talisman, which is the fragile source of his powers. As shown, a person who wears the talisman becomes whoever they want, provided it has that person's blood - but the transformation wears off quickly.
Facilier is accompanied by his sidekick shadow that actually has a life and personality of its own, being able to move of its own free will and move objects like the voodoo shadow spirits. It may be suggested that it may be a similar spirit given by Facilier's "friends," though it fears the same fate that he will if failed to pay back his debt, and it is perhaps a physical representation of Facilier's inner evil and seems to show how Facilier is feeling at certain points (k'icking Lawrence to get him going, turning into a serpent when about to trick Naveen, etc).
Role in the film[]
He is a voodoo witch doctor and palm reader from Louisiana who tricks Prince Naveen into a fake palm reading and turns him into a frog. He is then aided by Naveen's valet, Lawrence by turning him into a Naveen look-a-like in order to trick the people of New Orleans. Doctor Facilier plans to take over New Orleans and the shadow demons who gave him his powers will take the souls of the citizens. But in the end, his plans were backfired, when Tiana broke his talisman which caused his "friends" to turn on him and drag him to their world forever, leaving behind a tombstone with his name and his horrified face.
Trivia[]
- Facilier also claims to practice Hoodoo, or traditional folk magic.
- Facilier is the only Disney male villian to have Violet colored eyes, and one of the few Disney characters to possess such.
- Like most Disney Villains, Facillier wears mostly purple, red, and black in his clothing.
- The way Facilier moves is quite similar to Michael Jackson's dancing movements.
- In an earlier script, Dr. Facilier would not just be a dark wizard who wants to conquer New Orleans with the help of his friends, he would have been Mama Odie's son, who followed the path of the dark arts unlike his mother. In this same script, there was to be a showdown between the two of them, which would have converged into a major battle during the Mardi Gras.
- Facilier's ultimate downfall is very dark: When he loses the method he needs to pay back his debt to his "Friends", they take his soul as collateral and drag him into their world - In other words, Facilier was dragged into Hell.