If I'd Voted, Once Again

If you’ve been following along with the newsletter long enough, I’m sure you know what time it is. Time for me to reveal my own choices for the Disney live-action movies bracket that’s been dominating your Twitter feeds for the last three-plus weeks. (I’ll assume that’s true for all of you.)

Without further ado, here it is.

One thing that I find genuinely surprising about this bracket is how much overlap I ended up having with the actual results. My Final Four? The exact same Final Four that we ended up having. My Top Two? The same Top Two that we ended up having. There are a few films I moved forward further than all of the voters did — as much as I like Pete’s Dragon (2016), I cannot deny the charms of Bedknobs and Broomsticks. And I can safely say that I had no idea there were enough Lindsay Lohan fans out there to propel the remake of The Parent Trap to the Elite Eight.

I was, I will freely admit, pleasantly surprised at the fact that The Rocketeer made it all the way to the Final Four. I adore this film so much, but I also realize its fanbase isn’t quite as large. (The context I will give you: Alan Sepinwall of Rolling Stone, as it turns out, is also a big fan of the film, enough so that he signal-boosted the poll four separate times during its face-off against the first Pirates of the Caribbean. He’s got a big Twitter audience! And the film only won by 42 votes. It was a very close race.) Of course, as you’ll note, I didn’t send the film to the Top Two, simply because it faced a film that I cannot deny. Who Framed Roger Rabbit is my first cinematic memory, and basically perfect. Sometimes, nostalgia wins.

You’ll note that I left the victory space blank. Not because I can’t choose a winner, but because I felt like revealing it here. The photo at the top gives you your answer: I’m going with Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Frankly, the Final Four we ended up with is great. I have no complaints, and would have no complaints with any of these titles winning the whole bracket. But Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a modern classic, a groundbreaking piece of cinema from its zany opening sequence to its thrilling conclusion. It’s Robert Zemeckis’ best film, featuring one of the all-time brilliant screen performances. It’s gotta be Roger.

Now, stay tuned. Tomorrow, I’ll reveal the details of my next bracket, all about Disney heroes and villains. (In case you are wondering the obvious — when will I stop these brackets? — well…not for a while.)