Dr. Facilier, the villain in the animated movie The Princess and the Frog (2009), is a mixture of several celebrities. Dr. Facilier got some of his moves from the legendary jazz singer Cab Calloway and got his appearance from Baron Samedi, the master of the dead, who is often depicted as a skeleton or a black man who has his face painted with a skull. He wears a top hat, black tailcoat, dark glasses, and cotton plugs in the nostrils. That is how corpses are dressed for burial in the Haitian style. So Dr. Facilier has a lot of these characteristics.

But the biggest influence when creating this character was Michael Jackson. It is especially seen when the villain is performing his songs. Jackson’s dance moves seemed simple and effortless but in reality required a lot of work and talent but Disney animators managed to show it off on screen.