Hello, Disney Bracketeers!

Thank you for participating in this March Mouse Madness Disney Bracket! After an intense battle, YOUR CHAMPION is…

That’s right, MULAN defeated the entire Hun army AND the other 63 contenders for the coveted title of Ultimate Disney Character! Mulan took 56% of the 48 votes cast in the final round.

We’re going to play a new bracket in the summer!  VOTE HERE by Friday, April 21 to weigh in on the summer bracket.

Okay but who SHOULD have won?!

Everyone who voted in the final championship got the chance to tell me who SHOULD have won. The envelopes, please…

Who SHOULD have won Region 1: Leading Ladies?

• Mulan, 23 votes

• Belle, 5 votes

• Elsa, Moana, 3 votes each

• Ariel, Cinderella, Jasmine, Rapunzel, Megara, Mirabel, 1 vote each

Who SHOULD have won Region 2: Leading Men?

• Robin Hood, 10 votes

• Simba, 8 votes

• Aladdin, 5 votes

• Shang, 3 votes

• Tarzan, Flynn, Beast, Kristoff, Hercules, 2 votes each

• Prince Eric, Quasimodo, Cuzco, 1 vote each

Who SHOULD have won Region 3: Villains?

• Ursula, 12 votes

• Scar, 11 votes

• Yzma, 7 votes

• Jafar, Maleficent, 2 votes each

• Hans, Rattigan, 1 vote each

Who SHOULD have won Region 4: Everyone Else?

• Genie, 21 votes

• Stitch, 6 votes

• Mushu, 5 votes

• Kronk, 3 votes

• Olaf, 2 votes

• Tinker Bell, Sebastian, 1 vote each

Who SHOULD have won the whole thing??

• Genie, 10 votes

• Mulan 8 votes

• Stitch, 5 votes

• Ariel, Robin Hood, Ursula, 2 votes each

• Simba, Kronk, Maleficent, Baloo, Rafiki, Olaf, Baymax, Cruella De Vil, Yzma, 1 vote each

Who SHOULD have been included but wasn’t?

• All the Star Wars characters are Disney now, right? Where’s Princess Leia, hmmm?

• Dory

• feels like should be more Pixar or no Pixar options (e.g. Dory, Woody, Mike Wazowski, Ian/Barley Lightfoot, Edna Mode); Bagheera & Kaa (jungle book)

• I mean... Nani and David from Lilo and Stitch are pretty wonderful

• I'm just mad you made me choose in the first place I LOVE THEM ALL

• Iago

• Mickey Mouse! and other original Disney characters

• No one- you are perfection though many voters are lunatics

• Philoctetes

• Pumba

• Roger Rabbit!!!

• Stitch belonged in the male protagonists bloc. Otherwise, I think it was pretty reasonable tbh

• The faeries from sleeping beauty, the mice from cinderella

• Timon and/or Pumba

• Winnie the Pooh

Observations about the results

To tell you the truth, when I first made this bracket, my money was on Genie to take it all. But I should have known that Mulan has all the strength of a raging fire in our bracket community, considering that “Make a Man Out of You” won the Ultimate Disney Song Bracket last year. Mulan just kicks ass.

As many commenters have observed, our specific community of mostly millennials from mostly midwest, USA shows a strong bias towards the Disney Renaissance era. Ah, nostalgia. This leads to some interesting patterns. I wanted to share some similarities between the results of this year’s Character Bracket and last year’s Song Bracket:

• Mulan / “Make a Man out of you” wins the whole things

• Ursula / “Poor Unfortunate Souls” wins the villain category, defeating Scar / “Be Prepared” in a head-to-head match along the way

• After being seeded as heavy favorites and dominating earlier rounds, no character or song from THE LION KING progressed to the Final Four

• Elsa lost to Moana in the Character Bracket, and “Let it Go” lost to “How Far I’ll Go” in the Song Bracket

Observations about the process

Lots of commenters asked about how the seeding works (“asked” in heavy quotes there). I use a combination of spidey sense and light googling to estimate the relative strength of a long list of contenders (more than the 64 who ultimately make the cut). Then I confer with a small committee of friends who do a vigorous but not remotely scientific review, offering contradictory advice and a healthy dose of pregame outrage. Once everyone on the committee is equally offended, I figure I’ve hit the right balance and we’re ready to share the bracket with the world.

Based on the feedback from last year’s bracket, this year I had a few general guidelines. Only characters from movies produced by Disney Animated Studios were allowed (no Pixar, MCU, Star Wars, etc). I only allowed 1 contender per film per region. Each region had at least 1 contender from an older Disney movie in a top 4 seed (#4 Cinderella, #4 Robin Hood, #1 Maleficent, #2 Tinker Bell). As this was a “best character” bracket, I gave weight to characters who are the titular main character vs the titular character’s love interest. I did not enter any characters who are really inseparable from another character or 2 (hence no Timon and Pumbaa, no good fairies from Sleep Beauty, etc)

There’s some interest in a double elimination bracket in the future - a very cool idea! The main impediment is administrating it, since it’s more complicated. I’m exploring options that might be more robust than google forms. Stay tuned!

Also, you’ll notice this message is a proper newsletter instead of just an email. This will make it easier for folks to subscribe / unsubscribe in the future, and for me to track things. Feel free to send feedback my way!

What’s next?

I’m looking to grow our bracket community and branch out beyond Disney fandom. The next bracket is tentatively slated for summer break.

I want to run something that will be fun for current bracketeers. So of course, we need a poll to decide what to do next! I leave the fate of the summer bracket in your hands. VOTE HERE by Friday, April 21

Thanks for playing!

These brackets are SO fun and they wouldn’t be possible without you! Looking forward to playing again soon.

-The Mouse Czar, aka Emily

You get the final word: quotes from the final bracket

“Aladdin’s mobility would give him an easy win against Mulan in a basketball game.”

“always a fun time”

“here's the deepest agony everyone knows: here's the seed of the seed and the bracket of the bracket, and the choice of the choice of a matchup called howdareyou, which makes one madder than a soul should be or comment can hide: i carry ALL the Disney characters in my vote (i carry them in my vote)”

“I am truly baffled by the Mulan love. I've underestimated my fellow Disney Snacket-er-Bracket colleagues, who I am slowly sorting out are probably mostly women. There's still time, however, for the Genie to make a man outta you!”

“I let my 4yo pick and the child isn’t familiar with either of the final characters and WHAT does that even mean.”

“I might actually cry when Genie wins. FOR ROBIN!!!!!!”

“I'm so greatly pleased about the championship match!”

“I’m not proud of how ACTUALLY ANGRY I felt that Ursula got knocked out. I have lost almost every vote in this competition. Clearly I need some emotional regulation. Or am I just older than everyone else voting???”

“If you don’t vote Genie, you don’t have a soul.”

“MANIFESTING THE MULAN SWEEEEEEEEEP”

“Sad to have seen Ursula lose, but if I now must choose I want Mulan to win so I can say Ursula was second.”

“Sorry Mulan, you’re going to bring great dishonor to us all.

Genie…. You have always been the hero we never deserved.”

“Thanks for putting this together. It brought back so many fond mammaries from my childhood.”

“This was the tournament I learned how thirsty everyone is for furries. I await your fursona drops posthaste.”