| “ | Oh, not to worry, the water will be along shortly. I'm off to claim my throne! | „ |
| ~ Ludmilla |
Ludmilla is the main antagonist in Don Bluth's direct-to-video 10th animated feature film Bartok the Magnificent, which serves as the prequel to the previous animated feature, Anastasia. She is the former trusted advisor of Prince Ivan Romanov who wishes to take the throne herself and become queen of Russia.
Ludmilla was voiced by Catherine O'Hara, who also played Duchess Rowena in Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses, Shock in The Nightmare Before Christmas and Kaos' Mom in Skylanders: SWAP Force. While in her dragon form, her vocal sound effects were provided by Frank Welker; who also did the sound effects of Max 3000 in Man's Best Friend, Red Death in How to Train Your Dragon, Rudy in Ice Age; Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Mor'du in Brave, Harvesters in Independence Day, the Rhino in James and the Giant Peach and Sabor in Tarzan.
Personality[]
Ludmilla is best described as vain, ambitious, manipulative, selfish, deceitful, devious, and short-tempered. She is completely full of herself and believes a beautiful woman deserves the throne instead of the young Prince Ivan. She also sees Bartok as nothing but a nuisance. Ludmilla is extremely sly as she was able to kidnap Ivan and frame Baba Yaga for it, then send Bartok on a fool's errand to "rescue" Ivan, just to get the bat out of the picture. She also has no patience when her henchman Vol misunderstands her orders and locks him up along with the heroes for his failure. All in all, Ludmilla's supreme vanity proves to be her undoing when she drinks the magic potion believing she's as beautiful as a flower, only to instead transform into a dragon, which eventually leads to her downfall.
Appearance[]
Ludmilla is a very slender woman with blonde hair, blue eyes, red lips, and pale skin. She wears a black and gold corset with pink ribbons, a purple skirt with a yellow ribbon shaped like a tie, and black slippers.
When Ludmilla drinks Baba Yaga's potion, her body gradually takes on a grotesquely fat reptilian form. Her transformation begins with a tail, then cartoonishly large hands, wide reptilian bosom/hips, and ending with her head and face. When her transformation is complete, she ends up as an enormous, morbidly obese, purple dragon with three yellow and green horns crowning her head, warts and dark scales on her back, a gigantic stomach, huge thighs and a giant fat tail, but no wings.
Biography[]
From the beginning, Ludmilla seems to be a woman of means and also seems to be a little shy, hesitant and mysterious. She planned the kidnapping of the young Russian monarch, named Ivan and seemed to use Bartok's help to dispose of this singular bat, putting the witch by the name of "Baba Yaga" as the main enemy and the kidnapper of Ivan.
Bartok goes to Baba Yaga's house in the Forest of Iron. As he does three tasks for Baba Yaga, the mystical witch makes a potion for Bartok. Once the potion is finished, she shows to Bartok the place where Ivan is and that she did not kidnap him - in fact, he never even left the castle. The magic potion was made to help out Bartok. Its mystical powers apparently make the drinker be what he is inside on the outside ten times.
Bartok goes to the Castle of Ivan (now Ludmilla's) and claims that Ivan was never kidnapped. He tells her "He is in the TOWER!". Ludmilla is surprised and confident, so she goes with Bartok to the tower, where Ivan was being held. Ludmilla snaps at her minion Vol, stating that she told him to "get Ivan out of the way". Vol retorts that he did just that, by locking the prince in the tower. Exasperated by her henchman's cluelessness, Ludmilla furiously screams to Vol that she meant kill the prince. She then places Vol along with Bartok and Ivan (again) in the prison. With nothing else in her way, Ludmilla snatches the potion from Bartok and drinks it as she leaves.
She believes that (be what she will be on the inside on the outside ten times) she is more than a beautiful woman, thinking that inside she is as "lovely as a flower". However, while she sings "The Real Ludmilla", she was instead gradually becoming a giant, fat and hideous purple dragon as she gets bigger and fatter while she loses all of her clothing. As she attempts to speak to her people, they flee in terror at the sight of her dragon form. Ludmilla accidentally breathes fire and she finally sees herself as a dragon from her reflection on the polished floor. At that moment, she completely loses her human consciousness and her ability to speak as she becomes a violent monster, thus completing her dragon transformation. She flies into a rage and breaks out of the palace, intent on destroying the kingdom.
Once Bartok escapes from the tower, he goes against Ludmilla to save the kingdom. Bartok intercepts Ludmilla just as she's about to incinerate a young girl and brashly headbutts her, much to Ludmilla's amusement as the hero's attack does far more damage to himself. Realizing her scales made it impossible for him to fight her physically, Bartok flies off while Ludmilla sprays gouts of fire in his direction. While taking cover at the nearby smithy Bartok uses Ludmilla's careless use of her flames to catapult a large boulder into her mouth, causing a group of onlookers to cheer for the tiny bat.
The dazed Ludmilla struggles to free the boulder from her maw before giving up and using it as a cudgel to crush Bartok, who flies away. When she catches back up to the distracted Bartok, he nervously scrapes up a handful of pebbles and begins to juggle them in front of her; luckily for him, seeing the rhythmic motion of the rocks seems to have a hypnotic effect on the beastly Ludmilla, lulling her into a trance. With Ludmilla under his spell, Bartok leads her back to the tower as part of his plan to use the water within to put out the town's fires. Coming to her senses when Bartok fies up to check on his friends, Ludmilla pulls her massive body up the side of the palace and breaks the boulder loose against the side of the tower, destabilizing the entire structure while streams of water pour out from the cracks.
Knowing his friends had escaped the tower safely, Bartok flies upwards, dodging a jet of fire on his way to the top of the tower. Goaded on by Bartok, Ludmilla digs her flabby claws into the side of the tower and pulls herself up in order to reach him. With a body even larger than the onion-shaped dome of the tower, the grotesquely obese Ludmilla struggles to maneuver herself as she spews fire at the nimble little bat. Knowing how easy she is to provoke, Bartok tricks her into lashing out at him with her claws, shifting the weight of her enormously fat body from atop the tower's tallest point and causing the structure to shake.
Knowing Ludmilla's fate was sealed, Bartok flies up to her face, cheerfully quipping "Have a nice trip, see you next fall!" Her enraged expression turns to shock and horror as the bottom of the tower finally gives way, sending a screeching Ludmilla plummeting backwards along with the collapsing tower. Ludmilla's massive body smashes into the ground with the tower crashing down on top of her, killing her on impact and crushing her for good measure. Water from the crumbled tower pours forth and disperses across the town, leaving Ludmilla's broken corpse lying in a pile of rubble at the water's source. As the townsfolk gather around her lifeless body, Bartok is hailed as a hero; not only for ending Ludmilla, but also for showing Baba Yaga compassion.
Gallery[]
Images[]
Videos[]
Trivia[]
- She is the second female main antagonist in a Don Bluth film after Queen Gnorga.
- She is also the first and only female main antagonist in a Don Bluth film to be human.
[]
Marcelle Maurette's  Villains
| ||
|
Don Bluth films Golden Films Secret of Anastasia 2016 Musical: | ||