The Ultimate Walt Disney Company Performances Bracket -- Round One, Day Fifteen

Do you have a Top 5 list ready?

OK, everyone, the three-day weekend is over, and you may well have woken up looking just as…uh…thrilled to get things started in your life as Russell Crowe looks above. (But he’s just acting, you know.) Let’s hopefully make things easy for you in the matchups today.

Time to vote!

(3) Joan Cusack, Toy Story 2 vs. (62) Emma Thompson, Cruella: Isn’t it always nice to start off a day of matchups with an incredibly easy vote? It’s got to be Joan Cusack here, and I shouldn’t have to explain why. Don’t make Jessie the Yodeling Cowgirl cry.

(30) Sean Connery, The Rock vs. (35) John Cusack, High Fidelity: I suppose if there’s any tough matches today, it would be this one. I don’t think it’s terribly tough myself, in that I will give it to John Cusack for what arguably may be Peak Gen-X work in High Fidelity. (I also am not the biggest fan of The Rock, while acknowledging it’s Michael Bay’s best film, a low bar to clear indeed.) I can see this causing some consternation, though, among all of you — where do you stand?

(14) Russell Crowe, The Insider vs. (51) Chris Cooper, The Muppets: The thing about the 2011 film The Muppets is that it gets a little less impressive with time. (I liked the movie a great deal when I saw it in theaters, in part because I was just so happy to see the Muppets on the big screen again, but I kinda wish that they were…y’know, the leads of the movie named after them.) I do like Chris Cooper’s unapologetically hammy performance as the villain, but Russell Crowe’s work in The Insider is genuinely excellent, and the finest performance of his career. Give it to Crowe.

(19) Antonio Banderas, Evita vs. (46) Ming-Na, Mulan: Sometimes, I feel pretty comfortable in my vision of how a matchup will go. Here, for instance, I presume that Ming-Na will win for her work as the title character in the 1998 Disney animated film Mulan. But I also know that I won’t be pushing in that direction myself. I’m not going to suggest that the Alan Parker-directed cinematic adaptation of Evita is truly brilliant, but Antonio Banderas’ performance as Che is the film’s high point in every possible way. Who’s to say if people like this movie, or his work within it, as much as I do? I’m not, but I also know that if you’re asking me (and for the purposes of this paragraph, you are), I’m voting for Banderas.

You, though? Will you prove my vision right? Or offer up a pleasant surprise?