Here’s a link to the comedy website “Cracked” , they have an article called “7 most terrifying Disney Deaths”. It’s pretty funny if you want to check it out!
You don’t think it’s ironic that a once very intimidating villain was gobbled up by a cutesy little bird in a second? I think that’s why the audience was laughing. I mean, for a death, it was fairly amusing to watch.
IV, it’s probably because seeing a human character in a Pixar film get an on-screen death makes us envision ourselves in the same situation, and it’s really a pretty gruesome way to die. The way they handled that scene was more comical/lighthearted, but thinking about it in terms of everything Syndrome felt is…unsettling.
That reaction could be considered a little strange then. I don’t really find Gaston’s death as funny as I do a relief to the story. Then again, we have to consider that Disney (or Pixar or whatever animation studio) might intentionally add humor to the villain’s demise to lighten the fact that they, well, died or were hurt very badly. There’s probably a fine balance the filmmakers have to find between morbidity/seriousness and a funny way to get rid of a jerk character.
As for Syndrome, I think that was just a straight-up disturbing way to die, and the way it was “filmed” (via computer? haha) made it even more so to the audience. I can’t remember off the top of my head, which is silly considering I watched it like 2 weeks ago, but there’s kind of a pause when you realize Syndrome’s fate, and I don’t recall there being a strong presence of the score then, which therefore makes it more realistic. And yes, the computer-animated element adds to the realism as well, but in a very subtle way. But I might have to watch it again to verify all that. For all I know, I could be making stuff up!
I’m gonna say Clayton or Syndrome, like a lot of people, purely because whilst other villians were asking for it, like Frollo, Ursula, Muntz, Hopper etc, by being downright evil, these 2 just seemed to be engulfed in glory more than anything else. Not saying their actions were right, but Clayton’s shooting wasn’t something unusual for his position, and Syndrome was more in despair than anything else, and of course, the deaths themselves…