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

Remember...mother knows best.

Welcome to February, everybody! Hard to believe though it may be, we have somehow already completed the first month of 2023. (And now we’re in the shortest month of the year, so it’ll fly by even quicker.)

Who’s ready for some more matchups in the first round of the Ultimate Walt Disney Company Performances bracket? There’s only 12 more spots in the second round of 128 seeds, and actors like the ones below want to squeeze their way in. So let’s go!

(7) Jerry Orbach, Beauty and the Beast vs. (58) Jodi Benson, Toy Story 2: Now, if this was Jerry Orbach as Lumiere against Jodi Benson as Ariel, it’d be tough. But Jerry Orbach as Lumiere against Jodi Benson as Barbie is…less tough. Orbach’s Maurice Chevalier-esque turn in Beauty and the Beast is delightful and warm (natch), and full of more depth than the goofiness of Tour Guide Barbie. Don’t worry, Jodi. You’ll get your chance.

(26) Johnny Depp, Ed Wood vs. (39) George Sanders, The Jungle Book: This may be tough for some voters, if only because George Sanders’ silky tones make Shere Khan a particularly sly villain, if not an automatically terrifying one. (It’s honestly a little weird when he transitions from the veddy-British voice to growling and snarling at Mowgli.) But Johnny Depp as/in Ed Wood is my favorite performance of his next to his work in the first Pirates of the Caribbean. Like the film itself, it never pokes fun at or mocks Ed Wood — it would be easy to do that, but Depp’s work is careful and honest in ways that may seem surprising considering the subject.

How do you vote?

(10) Jamie Lee Curtis, Freaky Friday vs. (55) Roger Miller, Robin Hood: 2003 was a very good year for exuberant comic performances that did not get enough love from awards-giving bodies. Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, Jack Black in School of Rock, and Jamie Lee Curtis in Freaky Friday. It would’ve been easy to assume that Lindsay Lohan would be the standout, doing a kind of dual performance again, but Curtis throws herself into the idea of playing a teenager in a grown-up’s body with such brio that it is impossible to ignore. I know some folks adore Robin Hood, but…no to that man. Curtis for the win.

(23) Donna Murphy, Tangled vs. (42) Kathy Najimy, Sister Act: This is a tough one for me, if only because I do think Kathy Najimy is very funny in Sister Act. (She’s a hell of a lot more fun here than in Hocus Pocus.) But Donna Murphy, aside from being a Broadway legend, gets such a wickedly passive-aggressive villain song in “Mother Knows Best” (the best/only good number in Tangled, I will not be taking questions at this time).

Like I say, though, this could be close for you. How do you vote?