The Voice-Over Bracket, Round 1 -- Day 2

We’re back at it again — four more matchups today on Twitter, and now four more ways for me to tell you how and why I’m voting the way I’d vote. If I could. Which I can’t.

Anyway.

(6) Nathan Lane, The Lion King vs. (11) Patrick Warburton, The Emperor’s New Groove

We start with a hard one. I’ve been on record before as not being the biggest overall fan of The Emperor’s New Groove. You may have noticed, for example, that while the whole bracket does include two actors from the 2000 comedy, it doesn’t feature either of the good-guy leads. Though we’ll get to a different John Goodman performance eventually, I’m not the biggest fan of his work here. And the primary reason why I don’t love this film is that I do not, for a second, enjoy the work of David Spade. Yes, he’s well-cast as an obnoxious, selfish, idiotic, and vain leader. But…well, you may have guessed why I don’t like the film that much now.

I digress. What I do agree with is that Yzma and Kronk are hilarious foils, and that the performances are a big reason why. This one’s hard for me because Nathan Lane is pretty brilliant casting as Timon, and he makes the character — who shows up kind of late in the whole story of The Lion King — a lot of fun. Lane’s one of the great Broadway performers, and it’s a real shame to bid adieu to him here. I wish I could vote for him! But…I mean, that farce scene in the cafe with Warburton is the stuff that comic brilliance is made of. Kronk gets the vote.

(3) Jerry Orbach, Beauty and the Beast vs. (14) Scott Adsit, Big Hero 6

So far in the bracket, I’ve sent two Broadway legends packing. That will not happen a third time. Let’s get that out of the way: Jerry Orbach was also a national treasure, and as much as I am now…let’s say wary of shows valorizing cops, Lennie Briscoe gets an exemption. Why does he get an exemption? Because Jerry Orbach. Lumiere is, also, light-years away from the gruff NY cop that Orbach played for more than a decade. To a kid watching Law and Order reruns on A&E, it blew my mind that Lennie Briscoe was also the Chevalier-esque voice behind “Be Our Guest”.

Orbach, thus, gets the vote. However. I do want to briefly acknowledge that Big Hero 6 is a charming animated film, and Scott Adsit is its MVP. Disney has a long history of hiring comedians or comic actors for their animated films, but I’ll admit that if you told me one of the actors from 30 Rock would be in a Disney animated film, the guy who played Pete would not have been high on the list. Yet Adsit is extremely well-chosen as Baymax, a weirdly cuddly robot whose personality grows and expands by his eventual third-act sacrifice. A very good performance!

But. Orbach.

(7) Tom Hulce, The Hunchback of Notre Dame vs. (10) Ed Asner, Up

I do think that The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a mildly underrated movie, first of all. Most of the songs are incredible — I believe the youths may call a few of them “bangers” — and the characterization of Quasimodo and Frollo is surprisingly deft and multi-dimensional. That’s why both Tom Hulce and Tony Jay are represented in this bracket, while the other actors are not. (If push came to shove, I’d also throw Kevin Kline into the mix.) I say all of this because Tom Hulce isn’t perhaps the obvious pick to play such a well-known character, in part because his own screen performances were getting fewer and further between by the mid-90s. (Fun fact: since playing Quasimodo in this and the direct-to-DVD sequel, Hulce has appeared in two [2] films. Period.)

Hulce is really quite lovely as Quasimodo. He is! But I’m voting for Ed Asner here. Carl Fredricksen is a fascinating character, brought to gruff life by Asner in a performance that doesn’t boast a ton of dialogue. Carl is not a chatty guy, as evidenced by the prologue where he’s just a tyke. But when Carl does speak, he speaks volumes. When he shouts, “I’m going to Paradise Falls if it kills me!”, it’s a devastating line reading that hints at the grim and dark shadings of our hero. A great performance in a great film. Team Asner.

(2) Phil Harris, The Jungle Book vs. (15) John Candy, The Rescuers Down Under

Few Disney films fascinate me as much as The Rescuers Down Under. Think of this movie’s legacy within the Disney Animation canon. It’s the first animated sequel Disney ever made. It’s a film that was wedged in between The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. It’s a sequel that’s at its strongest when its lead characters — the only real connection between the two movies — are not on screen. And it features a new sidekick, voiced boisterously by John Candy. I don’t need to tell you how brilliantly funny John Candy was, from his SCTV days to Stripes to Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. He’s quite good here as Wilbur, the brother of the albatross Orville, who flies Bernard and Miss Bianca to Australia to rescue a little boy who’s more than capable of saving himself. He’s so good, and Candy was so well known, that Wilbur gets a pretty hefty subplot that implies someone wanted to make him as close to a lead as possible.

I seeded him 15th, though, because while John Candy is a comic genius who we lost far too soon, and he’s very funny as Wilbur…Baloo is Baloo. Phil Harris is so charming as the carefree bear that he was called upon to essentially play a riff on Baloo in Disney’s next two animated features. I’m no great fan of either The Aristocats or Robin Hood, but when you get that quickly typecast, it says something about how memorable a character and a performance can be. Even when Baloo’s not singing, he’s a delightful scalawag and the kind of charmer who’s inspired countless sidekicks. Harris for the win.