Well y’all, here we are again. We’ve been stuck in this Coronavirus pandemic loop of nothingness for just over a year. But help (in the form of mass vaccination) is coming, and the end is on the horizon! Once again, it’s been almost a full year since I’ve written anything. Shocking. And I even had some good ideas! I really need to work on my procrastination issues. Maybe later…
As it is, we are back for our 6th year doing these brackets. Our bracket last year found our favorite fast-food joint in one of our closer finals matchups as Whataburger was crowned. Whataburger joins the group of champions with our fourth-year winner of favorite TV theme song which was won in a rout by The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. This joins our third-year winner for favorite breakfast food: Breakfast Tacos and Burritos. Our second-year bracket crowned The Sandlot as our champions of the Best Sports Movie Bracket. Our first champion was in the music bracket where The Beatles reigned victorious. It’s my pleasure to announce our topic this year: Christmas/Holiday Movies.
We are all cooped up thanks to the Coronavirus and going a little stir-crazy. I don’t know about y’all but personally movies have been the best mental escape out there. Specifically, this holiday season we watched just so many Christmas movies. It was a great respite from all the suckiness of not being able to get together with my absurdly large family. This bracket topic was suggested by a friend on Facebook (Thanks, Arain!) Like previous years, “scores” will be posted as the percentages from the polls.
I’ll set up polls in each round. To keep from completely swamping everyone’s Facebook and Twitter timelines, I’ll post the polls here and put a link up at the start of each new round on my Facebook and Twitter accounts. *Shameless plug* Give me a follow!
I’m going to be honest with y’all, this bracket was maybe the most difficult one I have had finding 16 spots to fill each region. I only had to cut 8 movies and five of them were in the Modern Region. Usually I’m cutting candidates for the bracket in the double digits at the end and we have to have play in games just to get down to 64. Not this year, friends! We are jumping straight in!
With that said our bracket is set. The seeding of our last movie-based bracket was *VERY*scientific. We used multiple rating sites to come up with aggregate scores to make our rankings. Well, between the winter storm jacking up my house and our world being turned upside down, there was just no time for any of that stuff. So, this year’s seeds are set by a quick discussion with Mrs. Clumsy Optimist and just completely injecting our biases.
The first round of voting will start Friday, March 19 and voting will close Sunday, March 21 at 5pm. The second round will begin on Monday, March 22. New rounds will begin on Mondays and Thursdays. Let’s get to voting! Polls are under the bracket.
CLASSIC REGION
(1) It’s a Wonderful Life vs (16) Babes in Toyland
(8) A Christmas Carol (1951) vs (9) The Santa Clause
(5) Miracle on 34th St. vs (12) Little Women
(4) Home Alone vs (13) Meet Me in St. Louis
(6) Home Alone 2 vs (11) The Man Who Invented Christmas
(3) National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation vs (14) It Happened on 5th Avenue
(7) White Christmas vs (10) Holiday Inn
(2) A Christmas Story vs (15) The Santa Clause 2
MODERN REGION
(1) Elf vs (16) A Christmas Prince
(8) The Preacher’s Wife vs (9) The Christmas Chronicles
(5) The Holiday vs (12) Jack Frost
(4) Jingle All the Way vs (13) Almost Christmas
(6) The Best Man Holiday vs (11) Four Christmases
(3) Love Actually vs (14) Christmas With the Kranks
(7) The Night Before (2015) vs (10) Trading Places
(2) How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) vs (15)Last Christmas
ANIMATED REGION
(1) Charlie Brown Christmas vs (16) Disney’s A Christmas Carol
(8) Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town vs (9) The Year Without a Santa Claus
(5) The Muppet Christmas Carol vs (12) The Grinch (2018)
(4) The Nightmare Before Christmas vs (13) Olaf’s Frozen Adventure
(6) Frosty the Snowman vs (11) The Polar Express
(3) Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer vs (14) Klaus
(7) Mickey’s Christmas Carol vs (10) Eight Crazy Nights
(2) How The Grinch Stole Christmas (1966) vs (15) Arthur Christmas
NON-TYPICAL REGION
(1) Die Hard vs (16) While You Were Sleeping
(8) Edward Scissorhands vs(9) Deck the Halls
(5) Krampus vs (12) Black Christmas (1974)
(4) Office Christmas Party vs (13) Batman Returns
(6) Eyes Wide Shut vs (11) Silent Night, Deadly Night
(3) Gremlins vs (14) Mixed Nuts
(7) Bad Santa vs (10) Anna and the Apocalypse
(2) Scrooged vs (15) A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas
Well, there it is y’all! I have a lot to say about these match-ups (starting with “There are a TON of Christmas Carol remakes and most of them are good) and how the seeding set up some wonderful, if not almost impossible to choose match-ups. But I don’t want to push the vote one way or another. Let’s get to voting and see who gets into the Round of 32!
The Clumsy Optimist 