The Ultimate Walt Disney Company Performances Bracket -- Round One, Day Two
Listen well...ALL of you!
Good morning, everyone! Hopefully you’re powering through the first week of the new year, and if you’re like me, you’re handling the transition from time off to the world of work as smoothly as possible.
The man in the photo above is compelling me to waste no further time with this introduction. Let’s get right into the votes!
(8) Eleanor Audley, Sleeping Beauty vs. (57) Bette Midler, Hocus Pocus: Wouldn’t it be wild if I told you I was leaning towards Bette Midler here? The photo above would imply as much, right? Ah, not so fast (at least not in this bracket). The obvious and correct answer is Eleanor Audley as Maleficent in one of the best Disney animated films ever made. Bette Midler is probably a very nice woman, but…no, she does not get my vote here. Come on.
(25) Susan Egan, Hercules vs. (40) Michael B. Jordan, Black Panther: If there is a tough matchup among today’s choices, it’s this one. Susan Egan is genuinely very charming as Megara in Hercules, with her take on the sly heroine making an already fascinating character even more so. But Michael B. Jordan in Black Panther gets my vote here, just barely, in part because Jordan made for one of the best, most nuanced, and most compelling villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. (The options aren’t exactly many in the MCU, but that’s a discussion for a different day.)
(9) Harrison Ford, The Empire Strikes Back vs. (56) Tom Hiddleston, Thor: The Dark World: Listen, I like Tom Hiddleston as Loki — he’s one of the other memorable villains in the MCU. But Harrison Ford as Han Solo is untouchable. You know what to do here.
(24) Hayley Mills, The Parent Trap vs. (41) Christopher Plummer, Up: One thing I didn’t note in my initial rundown — you forgot to ask, invisible reader/voter! — is that some actors show up more than once here, because some actors have delivered memorable performances in more than one film. And here we have a matchup between two actors who will show up elsewhere in the first round (both fairly soon). The good news for Christopher Plummer is that I’ll give him a vote the next time around. Against the double trouble of a young Hayley Mills in one of her earliest and best works, he doesn’t stand a chance.
Josh: “But Harrison Ford as Han Solo is untouchable. You know what to do here.”
Me: “I know.”
Really hope that the anti-classics stance that many of your voters took on Twitter doesn’t make its way over here, and that Hayley Mills keeps her lead.