The Voice-Over Bracket, Round 2 -- Day 4

Well, it’s the final day of the second round of the Disney/Pixar voice performance bracket. That means today’s the last day of the overall bracket with four matchups. Starting with the Sweet Sixteen, we whittle it down to two per day.

Anyway, let’s run ‘em down and I’ll share my picks.

(1) Cliff Edwards, Pinocchio vs. (9) John Goodman, Monsters, Inc.

These are two excellent performances, as has been the trend lately. (I can’t really deny that most of the 32 winners in Round Two pretty much deserved to be there.) It’s easy to acknowledge that John Goodman’s got more to work with in his role as Sulley than Cliff Edwards did as Jiminy Cricket. But even the tiniest conscience is given a lot of weight and dimension, much more so than any of the other heroic or on-the-side-of-good characters in Pinocchio. Part of this is just a standard with Disney animated films, a good number of which may be named after one character but spend much more time giving supporting characters memorable moments and/or arcs.

So, even as I type these words knowing that he’s losing — the disadvantage to finalizing this newsletter in the morning is that sometimes my 8-month old son is sleeping in my arms, and while I could type this out with one finger instead of with two free hands, I’m not going to — I will tell you that I’m sticking with Cliff Edwards. “When You Wish Upon a Star” is my favorite Disney song of all time, and though it’s for many reasons, Edwards’ quavery voice is the top one. And his huffy performance throughout is a lot more fascinating to me than even the fine work done by Goodman. It may be in vain, but I vote for Cliff Edwards.

(5) Susan Egan, Hercules vs. (4) Jodi Benson, The Little Mermaid

This is a very difficult choice for me. As I mentioned in the first round, I struggled with the vote for Jodi Benson. She’s got a lovely voice and is pitch-perfect as Ariel…but the performance is deliberately truncated because of how long Ariel spends in the film as an intentionally silent presence. The same argument can be mounted here — I would wager that Susan Egan (not even playing the lead character) has as much dialogue as Benson does, or it’s very close. And as mentioned before, her line readings are charmingly off-kilter in ways that aren’t true for Benson.

And yet. I will once again vote for Jodi Benson. It’s a close decision, but I keep coming back to “Part of Your World”. This won the Disney Songs bracket, and even though it’s not my personal favorite, it’s one of the very best and most influential pieces of music in the studio’s history. And as much as we can attribute its success to Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, the singer has to get a ton of credit too. Benson’s perhaps not in enough of The Little Mermaid, but I can’t deny her entry to the second round.

I vote for Benson.

(6) James Earl Jones, The Lion King vs. (3) Paul Winchell, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

I would not have chosen James Earl Jones to move to the second round, as you may remember. Albert Brooks’ performance in Finding Nemo is exquisite and complicated and funny and thoughtful. It’s excellent work. But sadly, I can’t vote for him here because of the way the popular vote shook out. And with that in mind…well, I am voting for James Earl Jones now.

I don’t particularly think there’s a ton of nuance in either Mufasa or Tigger as characters. The latter, being a child’s plaything, is intentionally one-note. Mufasa is less so, but we really only ever see him through the eyes of his rebellious son, and so we see an eternal father figure whose careful guidance comes in handy at inopportune times. Jones is able to do this kind of work in his sleep. But he’s that capable because he’s just so goddamn good at it. Paul Winchell does great work as Tigger, but Jones as Mufasa…well, this time, the iconography wins out for me.

I vote for Jones.

(10) Clarence Nash, The Three Caballeros vs. (2) Hans Conried, Peter Pan

So, the problem with having enough time away from the matchups is that my mind starts to change on me a bit. Here’s what I mean: when I built out the overall first round of 64 picks, I also filled out a personal bracket. In doing so, I wound up choosing both Clarence Nash and Hans Conried to move on. All good so far. But I originally chosen Conried over Nash. That was a few weeks ago (I build out the overall bracket a while before you ever see them).

Now, though, as I look at this matchup, my mind works in a different way. As I mentioned during the first round, I’ve seen both Nash and Conried in the flesh in other films. (If you have Disney+, you too can see each of them for yourself, in The Reluctant Dragon and the second Davy Crockett movie, respectively.) Hans Conried didn’t look anything like Captain Hook or George Darling, but his voice didn’t have to change too much. You can hear the flamboyant intonation if you close your eyes. But Clarence Nash’s speaking voice is not Donald Duck’s. The level of difficulty is remarkable — just seeing him turn on his ability to sound like the aggravate duck is impressive in ways that I don’t think are true regarding Conried. Both excellent actors and performances.

But I’m disagreeing with my past self, and voting for Clarence Nash.