The Live-Action Performances Bracket, Round 6

Well, here we are, friends. It’s the Top Two of the Disney live-action performances bracket. To my great surprise, I was wrong on both sides of what the Top Two would look like. (I would tell you that it’s all because I put my thumb on the scales, but I firmly believe it is not — the right people signal-boosted each of the polls, including one Twitter account that a) has 33,000 followers and b) is a fan account for the actor in question.)

Anyway, here’s your Top Two.

(1) Bob Hoskins, Who Framed Roger Rabbit vs. (2) Tim Curry, Muppet Treasure Island

Listen, I’m as pleased as anyone that the Top Two of the bracket is my personal Top Two. These are two of my favorite performances in basically any movie. But just as I had no hesitation in telling you who I would’ve voted for in the Final Four, the same is true here.

I vote for Bob Hoskins. It’s nothing against Tim Curry, whose work in the 1996 Muppet movie is excellent and hilarious and rich and flamboyant. It’s that Bob Hoskins was essentially creating a new form of acting, a) without realizing it and b) without ever getting the same credit that most of the other people involved with the 1988 film receive.

Did Bob Hoskins get an Oscar nomination for his stellar work? He didn’t, though the film itself got plenty of love from the Academy Awards. He should have, as the film’s truest special effect. It’s easy enough to believe animated characters running rampant in the real world. It’s easy enough to be thrilled by the action and suspense. But Bob Hoskins is the one who grounds the material, who makes you believe it’s all real. Hoskins sells you on Eddie Valiant’s emotional arc, which should be ridiculous — his brother gets killed by a Toon, via a piano on his head? Come on. — but feels emotionally three-dimensional.

Two great actors. Two great performances. But I vote for Valiant.