The Voice-Over Bracket, Round 1 -- Day 6

It’s a rough morning, but the bracket continues (if only to give me a temporary pause from all the roughness from last night).

Let’s go.

(6) Idina Menzel, Frozen vs. (11) Amy Poehler, Inside Out

One of the things today’s group of matchups should emphasize is this: the seeding in this overall bracket is not automatically a statement on the quality of the performances being seeded. (If nothing else, it’s a sign of my on-a-whim decisions of what performances go where.) Idina Menzel has the good fortune of having an enormous singing voice, having the best song in the 2013 Disney phenom, and playing the most interesting character, too. Menzel gets that same good fortune in the sequel; Queen Elsa is a vastly more interesting character than the rest of the film itself.

The problem I suppose I have is that Elsa’s most fascinating due to the visual representation of her powers, and because of “Let It Go”. Elsa’s arc is all well and good, but her character’s most interesting moments are expressed through one big song or without any dialogue. Amy Poehler, on the other hand, is giving a multi-dimensional performance almost entirely thriving on the spoken word. (Fair is fair: one of the most emotional, heartrending moments in all of Pixar’s films comes late in Inside Out via an unbroken close-up of Joy that’s mostly silent.) Menzel’s great in Frozen, but Poehler’s work is next-level. I’ll be rooting for her for…well, a while in this bracket. I vote for Joy.

(3) Betty Lou Gerson, 101 Dalmatians vs. (14) Tim Allen, Toy Story

Like I said: seeding is not a sign of bad quality. Though Buzz Lightyear arguably gets shorter shrift throughout the Toy Story franchise, he’s an extremely funny presence throughout the original film, thanks in no small part to Tim Allen’s ability to communicate misplaced braggadocio through his voice. The casting team for Pixar deserve big points for the first Toy Story especially — the script is extremely short, but you need only one line of dialogue per character to understand them, thanks to who’s playing those toys. Leaving aside my opinion of Tim Allen as a person, he’s well cast as Buzz, and does a very good job in the film.

But Betty Lou Gerson as Cruella De Vil is giving one of those villain performances you can never really forget. Cruella is the whole package, of course — she looks terrifying even before you know exactly what she wants with the eponymous pooches. And images like her eyes blazing in fury as she tries to ram a truck the dogs are using to escape are unforgettable. So too is Gerson’s performance, a flamboyant mix of faux-flattery and ferocity. (Say that ten times fast.) Nothing against Buzz, but I stick with Gerson.

(7) Auli’i Cravalho, Moana vs. (10) Ming-Na, Mulan

This is one of the tougher matchups of the round, at least for me. Both Auli’i Cravalho and Ming-Na deliver excellent performances as the title characters of their respective films. Mulan is arguably a more interesting character — where Moana is comfortable becoming a leader, and is empowered to do so, Mulan gains her confidence throughout her story. Ming-Na balances, too, the “natural” voice Mulan has with one meant to denote masculinity, without ever seeming too over-the-top.

But. The voice performance, at least as I hear it, has to encompass talking and singing. And while Mulan and Moana did both, the same is not true of both Craval’ho and Ming-Na. Only one of them sang their own songs, and that’s where the vote comes down for me. Two great performances, truly. Admittedly, I like Moana as a film more, but I already turned down Dwayne Johnson’s performance in favor of a performance in a film I don’t like that much. The difference here is in the music. I vote with Craval’ho.

(2) Eleanor Audley, Sleeping Beauty vs. (15) Peter O’Toole, Ratatouille

I must again remind you that seeding does not mean I think a performance is of low quality. Peter O’Toole was a legend, period. Peter O’Toole is excellent in his few scenes in Ratatouille, morphing from a terrifying villain to a human with a single bite of food. His performance as Anton Ego is a wonderful reminder of the distinctive quality of O’Toole’s voice, the richness of his tones oozing through each line. The way he spits out the word “popular” alone is god-level. He’s great.

He is not, however, the mistress of all evil. Eleanor Audley delivered two excellent voice performances for Disney in the 1950s, but the rules of the bracket are such that only one performance per actor or actress can be identified. (Who made up the rules here? I’d like to talk to that person.) As much as Lady Tremaine is creepy and disturbing, Audley’s much scarier as Maleficent. Really, she’d be on the bracket for the way she says, “…and all the powers of HELL!”. That’s why I’m voting for Eleanor Audley — I really believe she was that scary (though I’m sure she wasn’t.) Sorry, Peter.