This is our first tournament in a while that wasn’t conducted under lockdown conditions. While we are still out here battling COVID, it’s been nice to have a bit of a goofy respite from thinking about reality. I really do look forward to this every single year and hope you do too. Enough with the my blabbering, let’s get to the good stuff!

Our Championship Round came down to a 3 seed and a 5 seed that very well could have been top 2 seeds if there wasn’t so many other great Disney songs. I think most of us probably could have seen either of these two winning the whole thing at the beginning of our tournament. It was quite the journey for our two finalists but they persevered to make it to the finale. Time to find out how the Championship Round fared. Remember all “scores” are in percentages.

We’ve said this before but, man, this year threw me for so many twists and turns. I truly had no idea what y’all were going to do each and every week. Many of the songs I thought were shoe-ins to get to the next round were destroyed early on. We had two 1 seeds go down in the Round of 32. The average seed of our Elite 8 was almost 9. Zero 1 or 2 seed made it to the Final 4. Up is down. Left is right. Nothing made sense and I loved every dumb minute of it.

This is the third straight year that we have run though an entire bracket without having any team catch the ever elusive 100-0 final score. We got within a couple votes twice but no one was able to pull it off.

Championship

We’ll start with a reiteration of how we got here.

The left side of our bracket was won by 5 seed “Friend Like Me” from Aladdin. The Minnie Region’s champion was arguably (or inarguably if you please) underseeded at 5. But they did not let that stop them as the Robin Williams’ classic came out swinging, knocking off a great 12 seed in The Princess and the Frog‘s “Almost There” by 68 to get things rolling. The Round of 32 matchup against 4 seed, Moana’s “How Far I’ll Go”, was not close at all ending 72-28. They absolutely smashed the Cinderella 9 seed “A Spoonful of Sugar” by a final of 82-18 in the Sweet 16 and rode that momentum to a 3 vote 53-47 win in the Elite 8 over 2 seed “Circle of Life” from The Lion King – a song I thought had a great chance to win the whole thing. I thought they were set up for a barn burner in the Final 4 against Mickey Region champ 4 seed “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” from The Lion King. They made the championship by surprisingly running away with it by a final of 77-23.

Our right side was taken by Donald Region 3 seed, The Lion King‘s “Hakuna Matata”. Their road to regional supremacy started with a tougher than expected 14 seed in Hercules‘ “Zero to Hero” but they found the 85-15 victory. The Round of 32 was never close as “Hakuna Matata” went on to win wire to wire, 96-4, against Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs‘ “Whistle While You Work”. This was the second biggest point spread of the entire tournament by 1 point. The Sweet 16 seemed like it would be a closer affair, but the 2 seed “Part of Your World” from The Little Mermaid, went down hard by a final of 73-27. They kept the gas down in the Regional Final against 4 seed Toy Story‘s “You’ve Got a Friend in Me”, winning that one 74-26. Timon and Pumbaa’s ode made it to the ‘Ship by holding on for a hard fought victory against our Goofy Region champ 7 seed “Kiss The Girl” from The Little Mermaid by a final of 61-39.

This was one of the harder decisions I have ever had to make in these brackets. On the one hand you have a beautiful life motto of ultimate laid-backness in “Hakuna Matata”. “What’s a motto?” “Nothing, what’s a motto with you?!” And on the other hand, you have one of the greatest comedians and voice actors of our times introducing himself as the Genie. I was leaning “Friend Like Me” but in the end, I withheld my vote because I just couldn’t pick. I did however watch the tally over the past few days and the lead was never more than 3 votes one way or another. Just like the real life Championship, this one was so, so close and one for the history books! At the end of voting, Aladdin‘s “Friend Like Me” held off a late push to win by a final of 51-49. ONE VOTE! Out of curiosity, I did ask the Mrs. and she would have cast her deciding vote the the Aladdin bop. What an absolutely amazing finale!

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“Friend Like Me” joins our former champions The Beatles, The Sandlot, Breakfast Tacos & Burritos, The Fresh Price of Bel-Air, Whataburger, and Elf.

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Thank you all once again for taking time to vote in this tournament. I hope this thing was as fun for you as it was for me. We’ll do it again next March! As usual, I’ve got some ideas bouncing around in the old noggin for themes but I’m always looking for ideas for next year’s bracket. If you have any suggestions, feel free to get in touch with me on Facebook or Twitter.

After knocking 64 of the best, most perfect Disney songs (and having to leave a few out) down to a final Champion, our completed bracket looks like this:

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One last time, let’s enjoy our favorite Disney Song: Aladdin‘s “Friend Like Me”!