Doctor Aloysius James Animo, temporarily known as D'Void in the Null Void, is one of Ben Tennyson's enemies, a mad scientist obsessed with genetic experiments on animals. He was first introduced in Washington B.C. and became one of the most recurring villains in the original series.
History [Classic Timeline][]
5 YEARS AGO:[]
Dr. Animo was once a promising researcher in veterinary science. His career was cut short when it was discovered that he was performing twisted genetic experiments on animals. He had hoped that his research would win him the Verities Award, which is an award in veterinary science. Because of the nature of his research, he lost the award to another doctor, named Kelly. This drove him mad and he went off the map for five years until he could perfect his research. Because he locked himself indoors for five years, his skin and formerly brown hair turned pale from overwork and lack of exposure to the sun.
Ben 10 series:[]
Sometime before his first appearance in the show, Animo watched a TV report showing Ben as Diamondhead saving a camp from a giant robot. This inspired him and led him to look for a way to create his own minion monsters.
Animo eventually appeared in Washington B.C., where he created a device called the Transmodulator, which gave him the ability to mutate animals into twisted giant versions of themselves. He then was able to upgrade it so it could reanimate dead cells, literally bringing dead animals back to life, although his reanimated monsters were actually zombies. Using his new army of animals, he intended to kill Kelly and get the award he had lost, but Ben eventually destroyed his Transmodulator, reversing its effects. Animo was then arrested.
He appeared again in the episode Dr. Animo and the Mutant Ray, where he created a much larger version of the Transmodulator using the broken-off faceplate of the Omnitrix and a large telescope in an abandoned astrology lab. This version mutated living creatures with alien DNA, creating odd mixtures of alien and terrestrial creatures, such as a Heatbat. He had also managed to turn Grandpa Max into a Stinkfly-larvae type creature. Before he could complete his plans to use a satellite to shoot the ray all over the world, Ben stopped him with Gwen's help. Since his mutants (with the exception of Grandpa Max) were never shown being cured, it is possible that they are still around. For some reason, his trademark giant frog is also present, though he may have simply re-mutated it sometime after his original defeat. How and when he escaped is unknown, though he could have used a similar tactic to the one he used in Divided We Stand.
In Divided We Stand, he escaped what seems to be Alcatraz Island on a mutant seagull (he had trained the seagull to smuggle in parts he could use to build a Transmodulator and then mutated it) and captured one of Ben's Ditto's to access the DNA stored in his Omnitrix. Using this DNA, he created an army of self-replicating Lepidopterran mutants, but they were destroyed and he was captured again. Afterwards, Grandpa Max deleted all of his computer files, preventing him from using any more Omnitrix DNA in his experiments if he escaped again.
In Ben 10 vs. the Negative 10: Part 2, Animo was part of the Negative 10, a team assembled by Driscoll to defeat the Tennysons. Here he uses a mutant bat and prairie dog to fight the Tennysons.
He also makes a brief appearance at the end of Goodbye and Good Riddance, wearing an ape-like exo-suit, and leading a group of animal mutants towards Ben's school.
Animo briefly appeared at the beginning of Secret of the Omnitrix, where he captured Max and Gwen and created a dangerous bomb. Although he escaped, Ben destroyed the bomb, unintentionally causing the Omnitrix's Self-Destruct Mode to be activated.
Animo briefly appeared at the end of Destroy All Aliens, where he and his mutant frog attack Ben, Gwen, and Max while they were on another road trip.