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

Pull the strings!

Good morning, friends, and a happy Saturday to you all. (He said even as he typed the words “happy Saturday” ten days prior.) Are you, like me, in awe of the fact that Avatar: The Way of Water keeps trucking on at the box office? Not surprised, per se, but still in awe of it? Even if studios aren’t putting out their best competition, it’s still amazing. Amazing enough that even though I’m typing these words ten days before you’re reading them, I feel comfortable keeping this commentary here because…well, I don’t think the film’s going to let me down. (And if it does, feel free to say so in the comments.)

Anyway. Who’s ready to vote? Let’s go!

(4) Jason Schwartzman, Rushmore vs. (61) Fred Willard, WALL-E: For all of you who keep telling me in the comments that Rushmore is better than The Royal Tenenbaums, a) I disagree (imagine me as Adam Sandler in Uncut Gems saying that right now), and b) …well, this poll is for you! Schwartzman gets the vote here.

(29) Martin Landau, Ed Wood vs. (36) Jodie Foster, Freaky Friday: Two Academy Award winners going head to head! And one of them is battling it out in the role that netted him an Oscar! And…well, listen, Jodie Foster’s a legendary actress, but we don’t think first of her work in Freaky Friday, not even in the films in her career from the 1970s. (Fun fact: Freaky Friday premiered 10 months after Taxi Driver. 10 months!) Landau’s excellent in Ed Wood, even if I don’t think his career-level Oscar was worth winning over Samuel L. Jackson’s career-defining work as Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction.

Anyway. It’s Landau for me. How about you?

(13) Samuel E. Wright, The Little Mermaid vs. (52) Ian McDiarmid, Return of the Jedi: As much as I love songs like “Under the Sea” and “Kiss the Girl” for their dexterous lyricism and unforgettable music, Samuel E. Wright brings those songs to such vibrant life through his rich and delightful voice. Ian McDiarmid is indeed quite scary as Emperor Palpatine (before he somehow returned in the sequel trilogy), but that’s as much a triumph of makeup as it is of his performance. He just doesn’t have — takes off sunglasses a la David Caruso on CSI: Miami — …the Wright stuff.

(20) Adam Driver, Star Wars: The Last Jedi vs. (45) Sebastian Cabot, The Jungle Book: As I have made clear before on Twitter, I am fully pro-The Last Jedi. So this one’s pretty easy for me — it’s gotta be Adam Driver. (I like Sebastian Cabot as Bagheera in The Jungle Book, but if I had to vote for him, I’d prefer to do so for his narrative work in the Winnie the Pooh package film from 1977.) No question here. For me, that is. How about you?