Lady Tremaine (also known as the Wicked Stepmother and also known as Cinderella's stepmother) is the primary antagonist of the franchise. She is based on the original character from the Cinderella fairy tale created by Charles Perrault. Animators Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas, in their book The Disney Villain, describe animating Audley's voice as a difficult assignment but a thrilling one, working to that voice track with so much innuendo mixed in with the fierce power. In contrast to the broad treatment given to some of the other characters, Lady Tremaine was animated in malevolent and subtle realism.A cruel, cold, and calculating passive-aggressive tyrant, Lady Tremaine wants nothing more than her daughters to succeed. Unlike most Disney villains, who sport fiery personalities and desire power and the spotlight, she possesses a more cunning, subtle personality with a shrewd intelligence and ability for manipulation, particularly towards her daughters. She rarely yells, speaking in a calm, collected voice, even when angered. She wishes her daughters to succeed so that she may reap the benefits when it best suits her.She is introduced in the prologue of the film. Cinderella's father, a widower anxious for his daughter to have a mother figure, married Lady Tremaine, who is described as a woman of good family . She was a widow herself, with two daughters from her first marriage. After an unspecified amount of time living happily together as a family, Cinderella's father tragically died and Lady Tremaine revealed her true colors. She lets the chateau fall into disrepair while pampering her own selfishly spoiled daughters and forcing Cinderella to become a maid in her own home. Lady Tremaine allows Cinderella to attend the Royal Ball, on the condition that Cinderella finishes all her chores and finds a suitable dress. When Cinderella actually finishes her work and appears ready for the Ball in a suitable dress, Lady Tremaine mildly mentions the beads and sash that Jaq and Gus found after Anastasia and Drizella threw them out. Enraged, her daughters cruelly tear apart Cinderella's dress, leaving her unable to attend the ball. When Cinderella, with the help of a Fairy Godmother, nevertheless attends the ball, her stepfamily does not recognize her, but Lady Tremaine notes a familiarity about her appearance as she dances with Prince Charming.News promptly arrives by way of a Royal Proclamation that the Prince will marry the girl whose foot fits the glass slipper accidentally left behind by Cinderella at the ball. Lady Tremaine overhears Cinderella dreamily humming the song So This is Love as she heads to the attic, and realizes that she was the mysterious girl at the ball. Hoping to pass off one of her daughters as the mysterious girl, Lady Tremaine follows Cinderella up to the attic and locks her in her room, putting the key in her pocket. However, two of Cinderella's mice friends, Gus and Jaq, steal the key from the stepmother's pocket (after Lady Tremaine almost boils Gus in a tea cup) and succeed in returning the key to Cinderella, who rushes downstairs to the Grand Duke just as he and the footman are about to leave. Lady Tremaine attempts to convince the Duke that Cinderella is merely a lowly scullery maid who did not even attend the ball. But the Duke, who is required by the King's Royal Proclamation not to skip a single maiden in the kingdom on his quest for the mysterious girl the Prince danced with, solemnly rebuffs Lady Tremaine. The Duke also finds Cinderella strikingly familiar to him. He proceeds to try the glass slipper on Cinderella. In a last-ditch effort to foil Cinderella's dreams, Lady Tremaine trips the footman bearing the glass slipper, causing it to smash. She deviously grins with wicked satisfaction as the Duke wails in despair and fear of the King's reaction when he finds out that the slipper was broken. But Cinderella still manages to come out on top by revealing that she has the other slipper, and that it fits her foot, proving that she is the girl who danced with Prince Charming, much to her stepmother's appalled horror.She made her second appearance in the direct-to-video sequel Cinderella II: Dreams Come True, this time voiced by Susanne Blakeslee. In this film, she only appeared in the An Uncommon Romance segment, where Anastasia has to go against her mother for the first time. A likable, slightly plump humble baker falls in love with Anastasia, as does she with him. Lady Tremaine and Drizella do everything they can to thwart this romance, but Cinderella encourages Anastasia to follow her own heart (which she does).Her latest animated appearance was in the second direct-to-video Cinderella sequel, Cinderella III: A Twist in Time, again voiced by Blakeslee, wherein she resumes her role as the pivotal antagonist. This time, she acquires the Fairy Godmother's magic wand after Anastasia finds it. Lady Tremaine, strangely still bent on ruining Cinderella's life (in what she believes to be revenge) then uses the wand to reverse time to undo Cinderella's happily ever after ; she manipulates the glass slipper to fit Anastasia so that Cinderella never gets to try on the slipper herself, then she brainwashes the Prince into forgetting Cinderella and marrying Anastasia. When Cinderella tries to set things right, Lady Tremaine thwarts her efforts, aided by the magic wand. Ultimately, Anastasia is her mother's undoing; feeling guilty about marrying someone she does not love and who does not love her, she rejects the Prince at the altar. Furious, Lady Tremaine tries to turn Cinderella and Anastasia into toads, but the Prince defends the two from the spell and reflects it back with his sword, turning Lady Tremaine and Drizella into toads instead. Anastasia then gives the magic wand to Cinderella so that she can undo all the wrongs that had been committed. During the end credits, Lady Tremaine and Drizella have been restored, but are wearing scullery clothes identical to those Cinderella used to wear, implying that they will be working in the palace as servants as their punishment.Aside from the films, Lady Tremaine has also made various appearances on the Disney Channel series House of Mouse; she frequently shares a table with another famous wicked stepmother, the Evil Queen Grimhilde, Snow White's evil stepmother, from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Again, in these appearances, she is voiced by Susan Blakeslee. She also makes an appearance in the Who Framed Roger Rabbit Special Edition DVD in one of the menus.She appears in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, along with Anastasia and Drizella. In the game, she is much crueler and is even hinted to be a sadist. She plays out the same role as in the film, only this time, the extreme darkness in her heart creates two Unversed, fuelled by her hatred of Cinderella. Aqua makes note of this as she passes Lady Tremaine, and later goes to the Tremaines' chateau to assassinate her and her daughters before their darkness kills anyone, but the Fairy Godmother stops her, advising her that Light and Darkness must co-exist. After the slipper fits Cinderella, Lady Tremaine gives into her fury once again and her negativity transforms Cinderella's pumpkin coach into a giant Unversed, the Cursed Coach, who is then sent to murder the now-freed Cinderella. When Aqua jumps in and rescues Cinderella, the Cursed Coach accidentally drops a fire bomb in front of Lady Tremaine and her daughters, which explodes and leaves their fate unknown, though they are assumed dead.She is voiced by Eleanor Audley in the original film, and by Susan Blakeslee in subsequent appearances.In the 2015 live-action version, Lady Tremaine was portrayed by Cate Blanchett. A woman of grace and refinement, she married Ella's father for the sake of her two daughters; shortly after her first husband, Sir Francis Tremaine, died. At first, Lady Tremaine did not seem to bear any particular animosity towards Ella, but her jealousy and spite was incited after overhearing a private conversation in which it was confirmed that her second husband loved his biological daughter more than he did her, and that he still cherished the memory of his first wife. After he died while on a business trip, Lady Tremaine was hurt and jealous that his dying words had only been of Ella and her mother. She takes her jealousy out on Ella, firing all of the servants and forcing Ella to take up most of their duties. She even joins in her daughters' childish taunting of Ella, and mocks her as Cinderella . When she and her daughters are getting ready to go to the ball, Ella comes downstairs at the last minute, wearing a gown of her mother's. Lady Tremaine rips one of the sleeves and encourages her daughters to help her tear the dress apart. At the ball, she is as mystified as all the other guests when a mysterious girl in a blue gown enraptures Kit, but realizes that it's really Ella based on her attitude after the ball.The next morning, she discovers a glass slipper hidden in the attic. Knowing that the other slipper will fit Ella, she demands that Ella make her the head of the royal household and to ensure that Drisella and Anastasia find proper husbands. Ella rejects this out of hand, telling her that she isn't about to let Kit fall into her stepmother's clutches after she failed to protect her father. An enraged Lady Tremaine locks Ella in the attic. She then blackmails the Grand Duke into ensuring that she will become a countess, in return for keeping the secret so that Kit can be married to a princess from another kingdom, as his father had originally intended. When the Captain finds Ella hidden in the attic, Lady Tremaine initially tells the Captain that as her mother, she will not allow Ella to try it on. Ella curtly tells her that she is not, nor will she ever will be, her mother. Ella leaves with Kit, but forgives her stepmother for every cruelty she had bestowed upon her. The Tremaines, along with the Grand Duke, are forever banished from the kingdom for treason.In Disney Descendants: Isle of the Lost (novel): Lady Tremaine obtains a grandson, Anthony, by one of her children and several granddaughters (referred to as the step-granddaughters) and teaches Evil 101 on the Isle of the Lost. Show less «