King Penguin

Some part of me is saying that, while Madame Medusa's a fine villain and all, what might have happened if the rescuers had found out that a polar bear had been abducted from a zoo by an evil penguin king, who planned to use the bear to perform in freak shows?

That allegedly may very well have happened at a certain point in development. The bear was to be named Louie, and voiced by Louis Prima (did he EVER portray characters with names OTHER than his own?), but I have no idea whom Disney had intended to voice King Penguin. Perhaps Hans Conried, who portrayed the villainous yet infantile and over-the-top Captain Hook in their 1953 classic, "Peter Pan". OR, if we're talking tyrannical animal monarchs, than I believe SIR PETER USTINOV would've been the way for Disney to go. After all, Ustinov had previously portrayed the leonine version of Prince John in Disney's "Robin Hood" (1973).

Of course, if the polar bear was the one in need of rescuing, then Penny the sweet, gorgeous, angel-faced orphan girl would not have been. Interestingly enough though, concept art from early conceptions of the film depict a little girl (who I assume is Penny, based on her outfit and pigtails) sitting on Louie's shoulders (though why Louie appears to be a brown bear, like Little John, in that particular picture, and not a polar bear is beyond me...)

Nah, Medusa's fine and all and the finalized film had a very sweet performance by Penny/Michelle Stacy. But I'm still curious about this Antarctic tyrant. He MIGHT (and note I say MIGHT) have made an even MORE interesting Big Bad than Medusa. (After all, many leading villains Disney animated features canon tend to be humans; the only exceptions I can think of at the moment being Shere Khan from "The Jungle Book", Prince John in "Robin Hood", Professor Ratigan in "The Great Mouse Detective" and Scar in "The Lion King", though the Horned King, Maleficent, Ursula, and possibly Madame Mim are also a few that come to mind as nonHUMAN, if not truly animal.)