We Did A Disney Character Tournament Inspired By March Madness…Here’s How It’s Going

It’s March, and no doubt you’ve been glued to your TV screens to take part in the excitement of March Madness! Well, for us here in the Heart and Home Orlando family, we’ve spent this month undertaking a huge project just for the fun of it, inspired by our home here in Disney’s Backyard of Horizon West, Florida: a Disney Character Bracket! In case you haven’t been keeping up with the slew of posts on my social media platforms this month, here are the current tallies, plus some behind-the-scenes fun facts about the process! 

Setting Up The Tournament 

In case you haven’t noticed…Disney has A LOT of characters! It would be impossible to include every single one in a tournament with only 68 spots. So we gathered the team to decide which characters would make the cut and which ones would be kicked to the curb. 

For our first time trying a tournament like this, we decided to cast a wide net and choose only a few (or even only one) character from some of Disney’s biggest hits both young and old. Mickey took the top seed, obviously, and even Donald wedged his way into the tournament, but some hard hitters didn’t quite make the cut: other classics like Daisy, Goofy, Pluto…notably, though Toy Story’s Woody took a spot in the tournament, we didn’t have room for Buzz this time around! Quite the upset, I know! 

From there, we seeded the characters based on their first appearance in the Disney canon. This led to lots of “Old School vs. New School” matchups where classic characters like Snow White and Mickey went toe-to-toe with the new kids on the block like Moana and Olaf. Then…it was time to vote!

Casting Your Votes

We went all-out on this one. Instagram Reels and Stories, TikToks, and polls on our weekly live stream, Coffee Time Live! In addition, I got my own vote, as did Eric, our data analyst Forrest, our social media manager Aly, and Daisy, the official dog of Disney’s Backyard. If you’ve been following along on social media, I’m sure you’ve seen all the many matchups and watched the votes pour in in real-time!

And The Winner Is….   

We don’t know yet! The big win is still up for grabs, and you can take part in moving your faves forward! In case you haven’t been keeping up, here’s how the votes have shaken out so far. Just the highlights, don’t worry! If you want the full rundown, make sure you’re following Heart and Home Orlando on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Youtube.

In our first round, Mickey Mouse beat Baymax by a landslide. Hercules, Jack Skellington, and Aladdin also took home victories in the Heroes bracket. Meanwhile, the Heroines bracket saw lots of close calls with matchups including Snow White, Moana, Jasmine, Pocahontas, and more. Some classic villains beat out their lesser-known challengers, too, with Jafar toppling Oogie Boogie and Maleficent absolutely demolishing Clayton. Last but not least in the Wildcard bracket, Donald surprisingly took out Frozen’s Olaf, and my personal favorite, Pooh, moved on to the next round over Stitch! 

As I’m writing this, we’re going into the Sweet Sixteen. Here are the characters battling for their spot on the Elite Eight: 

Heroes: Hercules, Aladdin, Simba, Woody

Heroines: Jasmine, Rapunzel, Ariel, Belle

Villains: Evil Queen, Maleficent, Ursula, Gaston

Wildcard: Donald, Pooh Bear, Mike Wazowski, Lumiere

Have a favorite pick to win? Leave your top characters in the comments…or better yet, follow me on social media and show your support by casting a vote yourself! 

The tournament may be coming to a close in the coming weeks, but it’s not too late to call Disney’s Backyard your home! When I’m not championing Pooh Bear in Disney character brackets, I spend my days as the top real estate agent in Horizon West! If you’re ready to buy or sell your home in Disney’s Backyard, call or text me on my cell at 407-848-8042, email me at amy@heartandhomeorlando.com, or submit a wishlist right here on my website to get started!