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

Kimba--I mean...Simba...

Well, friends, today marks the halfway point of the first round of the Ultimate Walt Disney Company Performances bracket. Yes, somehow, we’re just halfway — once today’s polls are expired, 128 performances will have gone through the wringer of the bracket-style thunderdome, and 128 performances will await your vote. But today, eight performances specifically await your vote.

Don’t delay — get moving!

(6) James Earl Jones, The Lion King vs. (59) Bryce Dallas Howard, The Village: Bryce Dallas Howard is decent enough in The Village, a movie I do not enjoy very much, but against James Earl Jones as Mufasa…well, who would stand a chance? It’s gotta be Jones here — his voice, as was the case when he played Darth Vader, is too powerful to ignore.

(27) Charles Durning, The Muppet Movie vs. (38) Tom Hanks, Splash: Charles Durning is a hoot as Doc Hopper in The Muppet Movie, one of the greatest films of all time. And yes, Tom Hanks is fine in Splash, and yes, it helped turn him into a big movie star, but he’s just not Doc Hopper. (No matter how hard you may try to squint your eyes during his performance in Elvis and imagine him asking if frogs expand in that weird Goldmember-esque voice of his.)

But how do you vote?

(11) Christopher Lloyd, Who Framed Roger Rabbit vs. (54) Robert Benchley, The Reluctant Dragon: The first cinematic memory I have is of the image above. The year is 1988, and my dad had taken me (a couple months before I turned 4) to see Who Framed Roger Rabbit. I was probably a year or two too young to watch the film, but it enthralled me. Until, of course, Judge Doom revealed that he wasn’t just “any Toon!”, and that he had killed Eddie Valiant’s brother. That scared the shit out of me, but in the best way possible.

I find The Reluctant Dragon a fascinating curio of the 1940s for Walt Disney, and Robert Benchley funny enough, but…come on. Lloyd for the win.

(22) Betty Lou Gerson, 101 Dalmatians vs. (43) Maureen O’Hara, The Parent Trap: It’s not taking anything away from the luminous and talented Maureen O’Hara that she’s just not able to stand up against the powerhouse voice performance of Betty Lou Gerson as Cruella De Vil. As much as the animation of that character established her as a villainess of high esteem, Gerson’s work is delicious, outrageous, and incredibly nasty. O’Hara is asked to play much different emotions, of course, and it just can’t compare. Sorry, Maureen.