Taurus Bulba

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Taurus Bulba
First appearance	"Darkly Dawns the Duck" (September 1991)
Created by	Tad Stones
Voiced by	Tim Curry

Taurus Bulba is a fictional character created for the animated television series Darkwing Duck. He is a villain who was featured predominantly in the two-part pilot episode Darkly Dawns the Duck and later reappeared in Steerminator. Taurus Bulba is voiced by Tim Curry.

The character's name comes from that of Taras Bulba, the eponymous character from Nikolai Gogol's famous novella. (The reference is quite possibly the most obscure for any character in the Disney canon.)

[edit] Darkly Dawns the Duck

An anthropomorphic bull, Taurus was Darkwing's first major enemy as far as the series goes. He proved a formidable adversary, exploiting Darkwing's ego and getting Darkwing imprisoned. Despite serving a 99-year prison sentence in an unnamed maximum-security prison, Bulba was able to carry out business as usual right underneath the nose of Warden Waddlesworth (he eventually escaped at the end of Part 1) and hatched a scheme revolving around the Waddlemeyer Ram Rod (a device that could lift and destroy buildings), which his three henchmen Hammerhead Hannigan, Hoof and Mouth stole from the army. However because he did not know the arming code for the weapon, Bulba sought to abduct Gosalyn Waddlemeyer to learn how to activate the device, as Gosalyn's grandfather, Professor Waddlemeyer, was the inventor of the Ram Rod.

Numerous points in the pilot establish Taurus as probably the most malicious villain ever to appear in the series. It is strongly implied his henchmen murdered Gosalyn's grandfather (Some think he did it himself), and his men and pet condor Tantalus also nearly kill Gosalyn as well. However, Taurus remains a somewhat comedic villain nonetheless, such as a scene in which he mocks Darkwing by imitating his heroic mannerisms and poses. At the end of Part 2, Bulba builds the Ram Rod on top of Canard Tower, the tallest building in St. Canard, and forces Darkwing to give him the arming code by threatening to drop Gosalyn to her death. Darkwing destroys the Ram Rod, but a large part of Canard Tower destroyed as well. Though heavily injured, Darkwing survived, perhaps due to dumb luck. Taurus was presumably killed in the explosion.

[edit] Minions

Taurus Bulba is depicted as having numerous subordinates in his employ.

• Hammerhead Hannigan, Hoof, and Mouth - Taurus' three main henchmen, a goat, a donkey, and a ram, respectively. They stole the Ram Rod for him and later tried to kidnap Gosalyn. See main article, Hammerhead, Hoof and Mouth for further details.
• Clovis - a surprisingly attractive blonde cow, Clovis is possibly Taurus' most intelligent and reliable subordinate. For the most part she is depicted as being his secretary and assistant, but she also pilots his airship. Clovis is distinguished by her monotone personality and emotionlessness. Despite her attractiveness there is never any indication that she and Taurus have anything other than a purely professional relationship. Apparently, her parents wanted her to grow up to be a dental hygienist, as mentioned when she escapes the exploding Ram Rod. She was voiced by Marcia Wallace.
• Tantalus - Taurus' pet non-anthropomorphic condor, trained to follow his commands. His name is taken from that of Tantalus from Greek mythology. Tantalus often serves as Taurus' contact with his henchmen by wearing a two-way miniature television screen on a collar around his neck, which allows Taurus to literally have a bird's eye view of things. Tantalus' squawks are actually eagle voice recordings.

[edit] Steerminator

Taurus Bulba was resurrected by F.O.W.L. and rebuilt into a cyborg called the Steerminator (a spoof of The Terminator). They did this in the hopes that Bulba would replace Steelbeak as their chief agent, but the Steerminator refused their offer. Equipped with an impressive arsenal of weapons, including lasers mounted on his horns, the Steerminator casually destroyed F.O.W.L.'s headquarters.

He has since tried at least once to get revenge on Darkwing, but after being defeated (thanks largely to faulty wiring given to his mechanical body by F.O.W.L.), Bulba transformed into a jet and flew away, vowing to return. His abrupt exit was, indeed, meant to ultimately lead into his return (and inevitable defeat) in the fourth season; the cancellation of the finale season, of course, meant that this plot line would never be resolved.

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Characters
Main Characters	Darkwing Duck/Drake Mallard | Gosalyn Mallard | Launchpad McQuack | Honker Muddlefoot
Villains	NegaDuck | Megavolt | Bushroot | Quackerjack | The Liquidator | F.O.W.L. | Splatter Phoenix | Taurus Bulba | Hammerhead, Hoof and Mouth | Dr. Fossil | Phineas Sharp
Minor Characters	Herb, Binkie and Tank Muddlefoot | J. Gander Hooter | Vladimir Goudenov Grizzlikof | Gizmoduck | Morgana Macawber | Stegmutt | Dr. Sarah Bellum | DarkWarrior Duck
Other
Misc	St. Canard | Calisota | Darkly Dawns the Duck | Characters
Media	Episodes | DVDs | Darkwing Duck video game
See also	Tad Stones | DuckTales | Double-O-Duck | The Disney Afternoon