The Disney Theme-Park Background Music Bracket -- Round One, Day Four

The world is a carousel of color...

Can you believe how wild the baseball season has been so far? I sure can’t, and it’s definitely not because I’m typing this introduction a week before the season officially begins. (Ahem.) Whatever. Today marks — I think? — the first start that Justin Verlander will have as a New York Met, and one can only hope he will be close to the same brilliant self he was last year with a different team.

As I await today’s game, let’s dive right into a new set of matchups in the first round of the Disney Theme-Park Background Music bracket.

(2) Buena Vista Street loop vs. (15) Grand Avenue loop: In general, I would say that Buena Vista Street is one of the best parts of the Disney California Adventure theme park. (The stretch of the park from Buena Vista Street through Grizzly Peak Airfield is about as atmospherically dense and satisfying as anything in Disneyland Park. I am not a crackpot.) And a large part of what I like is the thematically appropriate background loop of upbeat jazzy standards. Grand Avenue has fine modern music, but it’s Buena Vista Street for me here.

Buena Vista Street

Grand Avenue

(7) Hollywood Land loop vs. (10) The Land loop: There is not a ton of thematic daylight between Buena Vista Street and Hollywood Land in Disney California Adventure. (I used to enjoy Hollywood Land a good deal more, back when Muppet*Vision 3D was there and the Hyperion Theatre was being utilized for more than Marvel nonsense.) And so the Hollywood Land music loop is very similar, though not the same, as what you listened to above in the Buena Vista Street track. It’s quite good! But to avoid repeating similarities, I’m going to lean with the loop for The Land pavilion at Epcot. (But if you like that jazzy style, you could easily vote for two loops edited from the same aural cloth to go head to head in the next round.)

Hollywood Land

The Land

(3) World of Color soundtrack vs. (14) Goofy’s Kitchen loop: So, here is a case where audio from a nighttime show once again is likely to run rampant over its competition. I like the Goofy’s Kitchen background loop, but it’s a combination of instrumental takes on classic Disney songs that you can find in some iteration in a few different places. There’s only one World of Color. (I know there’s a new show, but note that this is the original show’s soundtrack.)

World of Color

Goofy’s Kitchen

(6) Caribbean Plaza loop vs. (11) Tangaroa Terrace loop: In this case, I’ll be voting for Caribbean Plaza, which is part of the Adventureland in Walt Disney World. (As you will likely recognize within a few seconds of clicking Play on the Caribbean Plaza loop, Pirates of the Caribbean is an Adventureland ride in Orlando.) Part of it is that I prefer longer background-music tracks when possible, and part of it is that Hans Zimmer’s score to the Pirates of the Caribbean films is pretty much unbeatable. It’s a pirate’s life for me.

Caribbean Plaza

Tangaroa Terrace