The Voice-Over Bracket, Round 1 -- Day 3

A new day and new matchups in the Disney voice-over performance bracket means you get to see where my head’s at for these ones. Let’s go.

(1) Jeremy Irons, The Lion King vs. (16) Michael Keaton, Toy Story 3

Here’s a peek behind the curtain for you, the “curtain” being my thought process for what inspires these brackets. Back in early May, an old friend of mine mentioned something about watching The Lion King with his toddler son and being impressed anew at Jeremy Irons’ voice work as Scar. “Boy, he really is incredible in that film. I oughta…hey, I oughta do a voice-over bracket!” And thus, here we are a few months later.

Anyway, listen: Jeremy Irons is excellent as Scar, to the point where I almost — not quite, but almost — empathize with Chiwetel Ejiofor. He’s an incredible actor in his own right, of course, but he had his work cut out for him in playing Scar in the animated remake from last year. (“Josh, I think you mean the live-action re—” I absolutely do not, unless you’re aware of Jon Favreau flying to Africa and filming real animals for his animated remake of The Lion King. Ahem.) The point here is simple: Jeremy Irons deserves his top seed, even if he didn’t sing all of “Be Prepared”. Listen to it again: the last verse is sung by the stalwart voice actor Jim Cummings doing his best Irons, because the real guy was apparently too ill to complete that one verse. (I have always wondered if something else was up, ‘cause…that’s a weird excuse. Anyway.)

Michael Keaton, by the way, is quite funny as Ken. I am pro-funny Michael Keaton. I am! I promise! I have absolutely set him up to fail here, which is a reflection largely of the fact that this bracket is full of 64 very good performances. But the vote goes to Jeremy…’s Iron.

(8) George Sanders, The Jungle Book vs. (9) Tony Jay, The Hunchback of Notre Dame

“Josh,” I hear you saying, “I will not stand for your criticism of the work Jon Favreau has done in remaking Disney animated classics! I demand that you, as one of the common Twitter prompts puts it, say something nice about said remakes!”

Easy as pie: Idris Elba’s performance in the 2016 remake of The Jungle Book is remarkable and terrifying. His Shere Khan isn’t flashy, but he’s genuinely creepy and truly vicious. In fact, Elba is so, so, so good at sounding scary that he retroactively makes George Sanders’ much slyer voice work as the tiger who’s hungry for a man-cub a lot weaker. I do think Sanders does a good job considering what he’s asked to do — Shere Khan is bloodthirsty but almost gentlemanly in his version. The problem isn’t that Sanders is bad, but that he feels a lot less impressive these days.

Tony Jay, on the other hand, had the good fortune of portraying perhaps the most nuanced villain in Disney animation history. Not only did he get one hell of a song in “Hellfire”, but Jay gets to do a lot more multidimensional work as the nefarious, very horny, and very conflicted bad guy Judge Frollo. Both Jay and Sanders have similar vocal stylings — to the point where Jay literally voiced Shere Khan in Disney’s Jungle Book sequel from 2003. But Jay gets my vote because Frollo is one of the great Disney villains.

(5) Eartha Kitt, The Emperor’s New Groove vs. (12) Donna Murphy, Tangled

An interesting coincidence about these two films is that they each have fierce and passionate fanbases, and I’m…not really a fan of either one. (Either film. Fanbases like these are passionate but friendly, so no problem there.) The Emperor’s New Groove has plenty of charms, but its lead character is a charisma vacuum. Tangled is unnecessarily animated in CG, and the framing device of having Flynn Rider narrate the story — even though he very quickly acknowledges it’s not his to tell — further implies what the title did, which is that Disney’s marketing team pushed too hard on the animation studio to rename one of the most recognizable fairy tales of all time to something that’s more palatable to little boys who want to be big boys.

I digress. Whatever issues I have with these films, I think their villains are the strongest parts. Eartha Kitt is a delight as Yzma, both nefarious and self-aware (the bit about the mysterious and confusing lever in her laboratory, the amusement-park-style slide to get to further secret lairs, etc.). And Donna Murphy lays on the passive-aggressive style thick when she’s playing the beautiful and cruelly selfish Mother Gothel. “Mother Knows Best” is the best song in Tangled, and not just because Murphy crushes it out of the park.

So this one’s tough. Do I go with Kitt — who I bill higher here because the Yzma/Kronk duo is just too good to dismiss, where Mother Gothel doesn’t really have anyone to play off of — or with Murphy? Though I’m always a sucker for the underdog seed moving onto the next round, in part because I’m a sucker for chaos, I’m sticking with Kitt. While I don’t love Tangled, I allow that the rest of the voice cast is doing solid work, and Murphy doesn’t have to essentially do all the work of making the film palatable. Kitt is one half of why The Emperor’s New Groove works. I vote for Kitt.

(4) Keith David, The Princess and the Frog vs. (13) Verna Felton, Alice in Wonderland

One of the things you will learn about me in this bracket is that I love The Princess and the Frog. I hold The Princess and the Frog up about as high as I hold The Rocketeer. Though the 2009 riff on The Frog Prince isn’t my favorite all-time Disney animated film, it’s very high on the list. And one reason why is that it boasts an incredibly talented cast of voice actors giving their all to this story of determination and hope.

I hope I don’t have to introduce you to Keith David, one of the great modern character actors, in this bracket. You should know him from plenty of live-action and animated fare already, but boy, I tell you, he knocks it out of the park as the nefarious and frustrated shadow man Dr. Facilier. (There’s a sadly unspoken undercurrent in his storyline that he’s chafing at how New Orleans is controlled by white men, but it’s there on the periphery.) His big song, “Friends on the Other Side”, is a great song brought to life amazingly well by David (and the animators, who visualize it remarkably). And throughout, David showcases menace and desperation in equal measure.

Now, a word or two about Verna Felton (since, as you can tell, I will not be voting for her in this matchup). Felton is one of the great character voice actors — you may not know her name, but I promise you, you know her voice. For the purposes of this matchup, she’s the voice of the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland. But she’s also the voice of Flora from Sleeping Beauty, and Aunt Sarah from Lady and the Tramp, and Winifred from The Jungle Book, and one of the nasty elephants in Dumbo. She’s a legend, though she is inexplicably not a Disney Legend. Not Great, Bob!

Felton is excellent as the Queen. She is! And yet, I cannot deny Dr. Facilier. I vote for Keith David.