The Voice-Over Bracket, Round 5
Well, friends, we have a Final Four in the Disney/Pixar voice performance bracket, and still just one matchup per day moving forward.
You want to know what I would choose? Good, let’s go.
(1) Robin Williams, Aladdin vs. (2) Pat Carroll, The Little Mermaid
So, over the last few days, I’ve been thinking about this brief reply to the bracket from film producer Keith Calder.
Now, we’re still not there yet. I would argue that Pat Carroll has her biggest challenge in this matchup. But she’s made it to the Final Four, which is very impressive indeed especially since she wouldn’t have made it this far if I had my druthers.
And sadly, I am not voting for her today. To be clear, she’s excellent as Ursula, and “Poor Unfortunate Souls” is one of Howard Ashman’s great songs. But here’s the thing: if we are (and we should be) considering the song and her work within that song as part of the performance, I find it hard to give her the vote. Robin Williams also got to perform a Howard Ashman song. In fact, and this is where my decision becomes easier, he got two songs from Ashman, where Carroll got only one.
Call that unfair if you like. But I’m voting for Robin Williams because “Friend Like Me” and “Prince Ali” combined are enough to fend off “Poor Unfortunate Souls”.
(1) Sterling Holloway, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh vs. (10) Clarence Nash, The Three Caballeros
Well, color me surprised, folks. I’m delighted and truly bowled over that anyone in our Final Four got in for a performance from a film before the 1980s. Suffice to say, I wasn’t expecting either Holloway or Nash this far into the competition. Hell, when I chose to add Nash, I did it on a whim mostly because it felt wrong not to acknowledge one of the longtime performers of one of the most iconic figures of the entire Walt Disney Company. (I could’ve nominated Walt Disney himself as Mickey Mouse, but chose not to.)
Now, the challenge here is who to pick. I, at least, am going to stick with the general guidelines of the bracket. To wit: I’m limiting myself to judging these Disney Legends not only on the specific characters of Winnie the Pooh and Donald Duck, but on just the movies listed above. I could consider Holloway for his lengthy career with Disney, yes, or the many shorts in which Nash voiced Donald Duck. But it’s just these two.
And really, my vote would be the same either way. I cannot deny the physical taxation of playing Donald Duck. If, say, you watch Sterling Holloway in a live-action film (like Stanley Kramer’s It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, where you’ll spot him in the climax as a firefighter who’s shouted at by the main characters), you can hear the voice of Pooh or Kaa or the stork from Dumbo. Yet as I’ve mentioned before, if you watch The Reluctant Dragon and watch Clarence Nash, an unassuming-looking man, speak in his normal voice as well as his Donald Duck voice. It’s sorcery.
I vote for Clarence Nash. Let’s see if he gets to the Top Two. I just might vote for him there too.