Day #2 of Disney March Madness featured a good ol’ fashioned buzzer beater in the Mickey Region, as #7 Sleeping Beauty barely edged out #10 Monster’s University by a 2 vote margin in a see-saw affair, 115-113. While schools around the country are closing their doors due to the Coronavirus, Monster’s University is shutting theirs for a different reason.
Don’t be! Survive & advance is all that matters, kid!
For those folks on the losing end of that contest, take heart. The betting line in Vegas was “Monster’s University” +3, so if you had money on the game, you ended up covering.
Unfortunately, Sleeping Beauty’s heart-stopping win was where the day’s excitement ended though. Our other 3 match-ups all ended up being runaway blowouts right out of the box, as “Inside Out,” “A Bug’s Life,” and “WALL-E” all cruised their way to easy victories.
#9 “A Bug’s Life” pulled off a mild upset as they laid waste to the 100 Acre Wood, defeating #8 “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh” by a score of 148-81. A Bug’s Life will now face the winner of the “Toy Story” vs “Meet the Robinsons” match-up.
Team captain, Flik, with the inspiring pre-game pep talk
Over in the Small World Region, not even the Knights of the Roundtable could keep #4 seed “Inside Out” from taking down #13 “The Sword in the Stone,” as King Arthur and the boys ended up suffering a humiliating 162-60 defeat. On the upside, that win will give my girl, Riley, a much-needed boost to the ol’ self esteem.
Members of the Inside Out team counting down the final seconds …
In our final game of the day, #8 WALL-E’s robot-like precision enabled them to clean house with #9 Fantasia, as the old man himself, Mickey Mouse, is “one and done” and out of the tournament.
Don’t let the door hit ya on the way out, Mick!
All in all, despite Monster’s University taking a hard fought “L,” the Pixar Conference is looking very strong thus far, going 3-1 on the day. They’ll be a force to be reckoned with throughout the tourney.
Turning our attention to today’s schedule, the 1st round continues with 4 more contests on tap. Reminder: Polls are only open for 24 hours:
PIXAR REGION: #2 “Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs” vs #15 “Tarzan”
Snow White & her gang of tiny roommates try to take down the Lord of the Jungle. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Tarzan, but it’s got that awesome Phil Collins song in it, so that has to count for something, right?
MICKEY REGION: #8 “Dumbo” vs #9 “The Princess & the Frog”
With apologies to Shrek’s ever-talkative sidekick, I may not have seen a flying donkey before, but I sure as heck have seen a flying elephant before. That’s right, everyone’s favorite ample-eared Pachyderm, Dumbo, takes on that kick-butt NOLA Princess and her lily-pad hopping little buddy:
SMALL WORLD REGION: #8 Pinocchio vs #9 Bambi
This one’s a match-up of a couple of old school classics, as #8 Pinocchio (1940) hopes to prove they’re a real boy by taking out #9 Bambi (1942). Yeah, that’ll really show ’em, tough guy.
PRINCESS REGION: #3 “Toy Story 3” vs #14 “Tangled”
The mighty Toy Story franchise gets their 1st taste of tournament action, as their 3rd installment, that aptly named “Toy Story 3” (2010), takes on “Tangled” (2010), Pixar’s version of the Brother’s Grimm “Rapunzel” tale.
Gotta tell ya, my sense going in is that Tangled will have a bit of an uphill climb here, but after the news that Tom Hanks has now fully recovered from his bout of Coronavirus? Well, that’s going to have their fans absolutely fired up for today’s game. Tangled is really going to have their work cut out for them here, in my opinion.
Over and out,
The Commish
PS- Here is the complete updated bracket:
Click to expand