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

What a sad, strange little man.

Well, friends, we’re about to wrap up…the first quarter of the first round of the Ultimate Walt Disney Company Performances bracket. (You’ll see a new top seed in tomorrow’s matchups because, to fit the Challonge website and how they handle brackets, there are essentially 4 separate 64-seed brackets to start off this whole thing.)

Listen, when you start with 256 seeds, there have to be a lot of matchups to whittle down to 16 and beyond. So right now, it’s time for a few more of those first-round matchups. You ready? I am — let’s go!

(6) Tim Allen, Toy Story vs. (59) John Malkovich, Con Air: To me, the key of this matchup is that it’s limited to Tim Allen in the first Toy Story film. (I did italicize “first” on purpose.) I don’t think Buzz Lightyear gets more interesting over the course of the Toy Story franchise, but the characterization that Tim Allen brings to him in the initial film is very well done and nuanced indeed. Allen had a particular style as a voice actor, and it fits effectively with Buzz in the opening entry of the series, and is enough to vault over John Malkovich’s outrageous villain in Con Air. But that’s just for me. How do you vote?

(27) George Clooney, O Brother, Where Art Thou? vs. (38) Hayley Mills, Pollyanna: Hayley Mills already took my vote (at least) in an earlier matchup in the first round. And even if she didn’t, I would still vote for George Clooney as Ulysses Everett McGill in one of the goofier Coen comedies. I admit to enjoying the meta humor of the Coens mocking Clooney’s matinee-star good-looks (and Clooney being fully aware of said mocking), and his over-the-top performance is perfectly modulated to their rat-a-tat style of writing. I, too, am a Dapper Dan man. How about you?

(11) Peter O’Toole, Ratatouille vs. (54) Kirk Douglas, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Two iconic and legendary actors, but there’s nothing that can beat O’Toole’s final monologue in Ratatouille on criticism, art, and the finest chef in France. Sorry to Kirk Douglas and the seal who loves him, but it’s Peter O’Toole for me.

(22) Anthony Gonzalez, Coco vs. (43) Glenn Close, 101 Dalmatians: Two very different performances in two very different films, but I can’t deny the flamboyant charm of Glenn Close as one of the most flamboyant villains in Disney history. You get the sense that Close enjoyed diving headlong into playing Cruella De Vil (and not having to deal with any multi-dimensionality, as was the case with a more recent take on Cruella), and as much as I think the live-action film pales in comparison to the 1961 animated film, I do think Close pulls off a hell of a magic trick here. She takes my vote. How about you?