Snoops nor her two pet crocodiles Brutus and Nero can fit through it. Much to her disappointment, the cave entrance is much too narrow for her to fit through. Prior to the film, Medusa discovers that the world's largest diamond named the Devil's Eye is buried deep underground in a pirate's cave in Devil's Bayou. She wore a purple fur coat while driving to the airport and, in Devil's Bayou, she wore a dark cloak whenever she left the riverboat. She wears a red, shoulder-baring dress and pink high heels. She has excess makeup, sagging breasts, green eyes with artificial eyelashes, and wild, fiery red hair to suit her fiery personality. Madame Medusa bears a hideous appearance, of which she seemingly remains unaware. Even Penny, who was completely unafraid of Brutus and Nero, found her intimidating. Yet the way she speaks to Penny shows no true kindness, only seeking to manipulate her into doing what she wants, even shaming her for wanting to leave Devil's Bayou or get adopted.ĭespite being somewhat bumbling and possessing a comical fear of mice, Medusa's ruthlessness intimidates anyone on the receiving end. Though ill-tempered, she is also able to instantly don a façade of gentleness when anger would serve her poorly, taking pride in how she is able to deal with children. Despite this, she is a cunning villain: she shows significant patience, waiting three months for Penny to find the Devil's Eye and only stepping in to speed the process when she learns the girl had sent a message in a bottle. At her most impatient, she took Penny's teddy bear hostage and refused to pull her back up even as the cave began flooding she even tried shooting at Penny when the girl tried escaping with the Devil's Eye. Medusa is utterly ruthless in her goals: because of the small entrance to the pirate's cave, she kidnapped Penny, a little orphan girl, and showed no issue repeatedly sending her down into the cave to find the Devil's Eye. As demonstrated with Penny, Snoops, and even Brutus and Nero, the only thing she values in others is their usefulness, and she has no qualms betraying or attacking them if they are no longer useful to her. Her chief goal is to obtain the Devil's Eye, the world's biggest diamond, and she craves this single-mindedly to the point of giving no regard to smaller and still very valuable treasures. She is obsessed with diamonds when we first see her pawn shop, there is a prominent sign advertising half rates for people who bring in diamonds. Medusa is an obsessive and greedy person.

Whenever the Rescuers character stares at Penny, the girl freezes temporarily whoever looked the Greek monster in the eye would turn to stone. The monster had snakes for hair the Disney character has normal red hair, which looks rather snaky.

Medusa's name most likely comes from the Greek mythological monster of the same name. 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).

However, Medusa has a somewhat wilder, more eccentric personality than the Diamond Duchess. 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). Cruella and Medusa share certain characteristics, including fixation on a single goal, a fiery temper, vanity and a tendency to drive recklessly. (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. Drawings by Ken Anderson depicted her in alligator skins, suggesting that she would have visited, or had dealings with, Devil's Bayou. The design eventually settled on a hideous appearance (of which she seemingly remains unaware), with an excess of makeup, false eyelashes, sagging breasts, green eyes, and wild, fiery red hair to suit her fiery personality.įor 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. 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.

Madame medusa