Disney Character Bracket

Hi bracket fans!!!!!

We are back with more bracket fun since its March!

I have found a bracket template online that is way easier to use and should allow for more brackets!

Below are our Ultimate Disney Character Brackets!!

For this bracket, my boys wanted me to do animal Disney characters + the incredibles. So I used the criteria of them having a mask if they were in the park. No face characters are in the bracket.
The 4 one seeds are the 4 main characters. Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Minnie.
I tried to place characters by personality.
More classic/hero characters in Mickey's region.
Fiery characters in Donald's region.
Goofy characters in Goofy's region.
Sweet characters in Minnie's region.

It looks kind of blurry here, but I'm posting it below
Left Side
Mickey Mouse
Timothy Mouse
Lumiere
Rex
Rafiki
Joy
Buzz Lightyear
Mr. Toad
Nala
Mufasa
Jiminy Cricket
Happy
Sebastian
Bagheera
Genie
Judy Hopps
Goofy
Dopey
Frozone
Jack Jack
Timon
Vanellope
Launchpad
Robin Hood
Tigger
Abu
Pumba
Nick Wilde
Baloo
Crush
Stitch
Hei Hei

Right Side
Donald Duck
Dash
Chip
Dale
Lightning McQueen
Rabbit
Beast
King Louie
Simba
Mr. Incredible
Grumpy
Scrooge McDuck
Woody
Kaa
Pluto
Wreck It Ralph
Minnie Mouse
Kion
Nemo
Dory
Jessie
Bullseye
Dumbo
Flounder
Winnie the Pooh
Olaf
Piglet
Flik
Baymax
Elastigirl
Daisy Duck
Koda

Here is jr.'s bracket

So Jr. loves Kion and picked him to win it. The biggest reason Kion was included was for Noland Jr. He picked the criteria for the bracket as always and I seeded them. As you can see, he loves the lion guard. He even had a lion guard birthday party 2 years ago. Its still his favorite show! The only threat was the Incredibles. Frozone made it to the finals and Dash made it to the Final Four. Kion outlasted them both though. Buzz Lightyear rounded out his final 4, but couldn't beat the Incredibles and Kion combo.

Next up, is our youngest

Our youngest loves the Jungle Book. The Jungle Book had 2 of the final four with Baloo and Bagheera each making it. Baloo was the ultimate winner for Eli. Now 3, Eli has had Jungle Book as his favorite for everything Disney since he was one. He absolutely loves the Jungle Book.

Jenna's bracket now...

Jenna still has Winnie the Pooh as her #1. She loves Pooh bear. Probably because she is sweet just like Pooh Bear. Pooh beat out Mickey Mouse in Jenna's final. Her bracket is probably the most common combo for anyone reading this. Jenna's final four was Mickey, Tigger, Donald, and Pooh.

Finally comes my bracket

My ultimate winner was Jiminy Cricket. Of course! He's the best character in Disney. How can you not love him?
I also had Baloo in my final four. Baloo went really far in 3 of our brackets and was one of the best performances. Buzz Lightyear also did really well. He didn't win any brackets, but he was in Jr.'s final 4 and most of our top 8. Jiminy Cricket beat Winnie the Pooh in my final matchup. Each of us had Pooh winning at least 1 except Eli who had Olaf in the final. Maybe that was too tough a 1st round matchup.

Until next time, keep enjoying and happy March Madness!!!

- Noland

Bracket Break

Hi all,

You probably realized that it has been a while since our last bracket. The site has not disappeared, it just turns out that a bracket even week was a bit too ambitious. I will try to do at least a bracket monthly on here, but don't hold me to it. There will certainly be a March Madness Bracket posted once it is released. If I can get more up, I will post them here. These days, I am rarely using my computer, but we are keeping up to date with our brackets. More will be posted and you will get to enjoy them.
Until then, be good to each other. :)

- Noland

South America Animal Bracket

South America might be the most underrated country when it comes to cool wildlife. The continent that is the home of the jaguar is a force to be reckoned with though. The entire continent is full of amazing creatures. There are animals here that can not be seen anywhere else in the world. This is not even mentioning all of the amazing rain-forests that cannot be seen anywhere else on earth. Lets look at all of the awesome animals from South America.

Here is the blank bracket for animals from South America.

First, let me apologize for the sloppiness and the poor clarity of the above photo. It is hard to write in some of these names in this small area. For instance, the Galapagos Land Iguana takes a lot of space to write up. This bracket is one of the main reasons we will be going to shorter names on the brackets in the future. Also working on getting typed brackets from here on out. 

Themed brackets are the rage once again. The brackets here are broken down into small mammals, monkeys/sloths, predators, and the animals of the Galapagos islands. The Galapagos Islands are technically South America after all. This breakdown gives us four incredible number one overall seeds. Those four animals are the mighty jaguar, the wise Galapagos Tortoise, the Giant Anteater, and the Two Toed Sloth. As you can see the jaguar might be the favorite, but it will have some pretty strong competition. We will have to see how it breaks down.

Jenna's bracket

As you can see, Jenna did not love or even really like doing this bracket at all. She skipped several of the spots because she didn't know all of the animals. She loves the Galapagos Tortoise and the Jaguar and picked both of them in the finals. Her opinion is that those two animals are far better than any from that area of the world. Due to the fact that she wanted to move on, so will we to the 3 of us that loved this bracket...

Eli's bracket

Eli picked the jaguar just like his mom. It is the favorite after all and one of the coolest animals in the entire world. He rounded out his final 4 with Black Squirrel Monkey, Giant Anteater, and Blue Footed Booby. His favorite color is blue, the name is funny to say and the bird looks awesome. How could the animal not be in his final 2. His final match-up is indicative of his whole bracket. This guy picked everything just as we expected it to happen. He absolutely loves these animals and enjoyed this bracket. Our youngest guy made big moves!!! Our little guy turned 3 yesterday btw! Happy Birthday Eli!!!

From our joyful Eli we go to me....

My bracket

My bracket was very different from the rest of the family. I am the only one that did not pick the jaguar as my champ and I had 2 final 4 selections that nobody else had. It was difficult to pick against the Jaguar, but I personally like Giant Anteaters more. The animal is so cool and I have just always admired it. My top 4 was rounded out by the itty bitty Pygmy Marmoset that is absolutely adorable and the red footed booby. I actually didn't even know a red footed booby existed until I did research for this bracket, but now its at the top of my animal wish list to see in the wild. South American is an awesome continent to view creatures! Let's move on to the real animal lover though...

Noland Jr.'s bracket

Noland Jr. picked the favorite in the Jaguar making him the 3rd person to pick jaguars. That animal so clearly won our brackets, but let's discuss his bracket further. He was the second person to pick pink fairy armadillo in his final 4 (Jenna also did). Btw, how crazy is it that such a thing as a pink fairy armadillo exists? They exist and they are super cool. I wish you could see them more frequently because they are awesome. Jr. also picked Galapagos Hawks and Black Head Spider Monkeys in his Final 4. Those final 4 selections were ones that only he selected. He really enjoyed this bracket and all animal brackets. Now, to help take him to see these animals....

Here are our final bracket rankings for this bracket
5. Galapagos Hawk 9 spaces
T-3. Pygmy Marmoset/Pink Fairy Armadillo 11 spaces
2. Giant Anteater 14 spaces
1. Jaguar - 23 spaces
The Jaguar absolutely smashed the competition for our biggest bracket beatdown yet!!

These Jaguars are from the Jacksonville Zoo. They are Jacksonville Jaguars... I'll show myself out...

What is your favorite animal from South America?
Did you enjoy this bracket?
Do you have any suggestions for future brackets?
Leave a comment and let us know?

Join us next week for our Greatest Cartoon of All-Time Bracket!

-Noland

Super Villain Bracket

Who is the coolest super villain around?

We had that question and created this bracket as a result. Villains for all superheroes are included, though you will notice in the bracket below that they are mostly Marvel or batman villains. Some of these villains you may have even rooted for. There are a few that have a good side when the greater good is at stake like Magneto, Venom, and Loki. All of these guys are awesome heroes in their own rights. Please enjoy the super villain bracket.

The blank bracket

This bracket is divided into sinister villains in the top left, evil geniuses in the bottom left, villains with cool powers in the top right and characters with brute force in the bottom right. Some of them as always could fit multiple descriptions. I did my best to include most of the great batman villains and all the villains from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but didn't get them all. I also included the typical heavy hitters like Shredder for the Ninja Turtles.There are a few that I left off that I wanted to include hence the crossing out. Arnim Zola is one of those villains and pyro and blob are on the other side of the bracket.

This bracket is written in red pen. It was the only pen around at the time I made these, which was right before a long trip. Don't worry, many brackets in the future are typed out. I wanted to finish out the handwritten ones first before we got to the new typed ones. Anyway, here are our filled out brackets....

Eli's bracket

Eli started out with Jenna's nice handwriting during our long car ride, but you will notice that the writing switches throughout the bracket. Our youngest actually fell asleep during the brackets being filled out and I finished his bracket with him when we arrived and he woke up.

As always though, Eli went with the names that sounded cooler for the most part. He picked yellow jacket to win the whole bracket. Eli thought saying yellow jacket was cool and he really likes yellow jacket's shrinking power. The boys both enjoy the ant-man movie. Yellow Jacket is a cool bad guy from that movie. Losing to yellow jacket in the finals was Red Skull, another awesome character. Rounding out his top 4 were Joker and Sabretooth. That is a solid final 4 that a lot of people would have. Yellow Jacket, Red Skull, Joker, and Sabretooth is an intimidating group of villains.

Noland Jr.'s bracket

Noland's bracket actually surprised me a pretty good amount. I thought for sure that Jr. would have Venom winning his bracket. Venom did make the final 4 though, but Lizard was the pick over Venom. Which makes sense in the grand scheme of things. Noland Jr. does not like villains, but likes the ones that are sometimes good. That is a characteristic that is true for Lizard and Venom. Killer Croc is even a good guy in suicide squad and is known to sometimes fight for the greater good.

So we have that narrative and we know that Jr. doesn't like super evil bad guys....What about one of the most evil bad guys in the Shadow King? Shadow King made it all the way to the finals and he is super bad and creepy. Shadow King never shows a good side. What gives? Well Shadow King was in an episode of X-Men in an African village. Noland loves African animals. Since he liked that episode he overlooked how evil Shadow King was. He picked the Shadow King and surprised us, but justified it because he loved that episode. Oh 5 year olds!!!

Jenna's bracket

Most people would have a bracket looking a lot like this. Two 1 seeds for Jenna and two 2 seeds. Loki, Kingpin, Thanos, and Magneto in the Final 4 with Loki winning it. How popular Loki was in the MCU, he probably should have been a 1 seed. However, Magneto, Joker, Thanos, and Doctor Doom are arguably bigger names. Still, Loki is just so dang entertaining. The master of deception is the master of Jenna's bracket and perhaps another bracket because there is still one more to come. He's sometimes good, but usually about as evil as it gets. Loki is the reason the Avengers had to come together in the first place, but he has fought alongside some Avengers in the last few movies. Such a great character with a lot of depth.

Her other final 4 picks were based on what she has seen. She absolutely loved the kingpin in the Daredevil series. He was our favorite villain from all of the Marvel Netflix series to date. We like him way better than the Hand. Thanos is a character with a lot of layers to him and she quite enjoyed seeing his flawed point of view in the Avengers. He is a really well developed bad guy. Finally, Magneto is perhaps the most iconic bad guy of all. Magneto was the main villain in the X-Men universe and the best known Marvel villain before the MCU started.

My bracket

I had a few choices that were different than others. I had Ronan going further than everyone which was a bit of a surprise to me. If Ronan wasn't up against my champ Loki, he could have made a deep run. The guy wrecked everything in the Guardians of the Galaxy movie, which was absolutely terrific by the way. I also had Juggernaut and Rhino going further than other people and Scorpion as well for that matter. I really like those characters from the cartoons of my childhood. Those characters were always my favorites. They were so big and powerful and it often took multiple heroes to stop them. Scorpion always went after J Jonah too and JJ was super annoying, let's be honest.

My toughest choices were Juggenaut over Thanos, Rhino, and then Magneto. I could have easily argued any of those in the top spot for that bracket. Dr. Doom v. Red Skull was another tough decision. Those are probably my 2nd and 3rd favorite villains respectively, but I have always enjoyed Red Skull. That character (the red skull) was always my favorite villain. My favorite villain until recently. Tom Hiddleston has done such a fantastic job with Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that it was actually impossible to pick against him. This guy is the most deserving champ and certainly the best villain. There is everything to like about the character. He has just been brilliantly done. Loki is the champ in 2/4 brackets. Let's see our top 5 overall though.

Top 5 across the brackets
T-5. Yellow Jacket/ Lizard/ Ultron (made 0 final 4s) 9 spots
4. Magneto 10 spots
3. Joker 11 spots (only made 1 final 4)
2. Red Skull 14 spots
1. Loki 15 spots

Loki is the winner of the super villain bracket!

Who is your favorite Super Villain?
Did you enjoy this bracket?
Do you have any suggestions for future brackets?
Leave a comment and let us know?

Join us in 5 days for our South American Animal Bracket!

-Noland

North American Animals Bracket

We always think of other continents when we think of the location of the best animals. Most think Africa, others Asia, still others Australia, or South America. What about the animals right here in North America though? We have some incredibly awesome animals right in our backyard. Our family loves going on walks, and going to state parks to look at animals. Sometimes we go to the beach and look at animals there. If we are in the car, we are trying to spot birds and seeing who can find the coolest ones. Take a look at our North American Animal Bracket and see for yourself some of the awesome animals in America.

Once again, we have developed themed regions. These regions are based on the climates the animals live in. We have desert animals, snow, and an everything section. You will notice that is only 3 climates, because there are so many unique and awesome birds on this continent, we gave birds their own region as well. Animals that could fit in multiple categories, like mountain lion, were placed in the region that allowed for the greatest seperation of what I thought would be the favorites.

Our four 1 seeds are Bald Eagle, Grizzly Bear, Polar Bear, and Mountain Lion. I think most would agree that those are four of the first animals they think about when they think about this continent and its creatures. Some would say alligator or bison, but most are thinking of one of those 6 at first thought. Because of that the regions were themed around separating those animals. That being said, Moose is a really strong 3 seed. The snow bracket is so incredibly strong as a region. It is perhaps the strongest out of all the regions.

Enjoy seeing what we picked in our brackets....

Starting with the animal lover himself, Noland Jr.

Jr. goes to a school where the cougar is the mascot and he absolutely adores that school. So it is no surprise seeing the mountain lion (cougar) is his choice as overall champ. As you will notice, he tends to go with some type of intimidating predator in all of these brackets too. He chose the tiger in Asia and the cheetah in Africa. That is not by accident, he really enjoys learning about predators and looking at them.

The big surprise he had was picking the cottonmouth over the grizzly. I do not know where he got anti-grizzly all of a sudden, but he really was against them. Usually he is all about the apex predator, but not this one. He has been all about snakes lately though because they scare his mom. Isn't he too young to say things like that though? This kid said the other day he wants a pet snake. That will not ever happen in this house. At least he realizes a pet venomous snake is a bad idea. Still, Noland definitely supported the snakes in his bracket. Cottonmouth made it to the final 4 in Jr.'s bracket and was out in the first round for the rest of us.

The final four also included a Peregrine Falcon. Jr. learned all about these types of falcons on the Wild Kratts and has become obsessed ever since. They do have awesome "creature powers" as the Kratt brothers would say. A super cool bird that does many great things. I was not surprised when it made it all the way to the finals for Noland Jr. It was a little surprising to see Red Fox win that bottom right bracket, but it is an awesome predator and he is consistent with picking those. Also red is Jr.'s favorite color so it makes sense.

Next, is our other animal loving boy, Eli Thomas

Eli again shows a bias for bears. He always picks any type of bear to do really well. This bracket was no exception. Da Bears! Polar Bears won in the final over grizzly bears. Kodiak Bears only lost because they went up against Polar Bears. The only surprise is that not all bears advanced past the 1st round. Eli had Bullfrog over the black bear. I do not know where that came from. I can only think that he picked bullfrog because of leapfrog. They are both frogs and he loves leapfrog.

The spoonbill won the bird bracket for Eli. He really likes seeing them at Busch Gardens and at Animal Kingdom. They are one of my favorite birds as well. We see them in the wild in Florida every now and then and always see them near the coast. A bird with a spoon shaped beak, what isn't to like? Such a unique and majestic bird.

Also in the final four for Eli is the mountain lion. He is going to be joining Noland Jr. at school next year and likes everything Noland likes. Since Noland likes the cougar mascot, Eli likes it too. The mountain lion could win some future brackets for Eli, but it won't beat a bear. It definitely will not beat the polar bear. Now, to take Eli to see a polar bear....

Next, my lovely wife, Jenna

Sorry you didn't get to see Jenna's awesome handwriting, she was once again working on some project for her shop while we were filling these out. You will also notice some blue dots all over her paper. I left my clipboard out where I did these and the boys colored over them. Some blue marker from one of the boys was able to bleed through to her bracket. I was going to rewrite it, but I think it shows our family personality. This is for our family, so why not showcase the blue marker.

Moving on to the content of the bracket now....

Moose in the final four was the only surprise. It's not that the moose is not awesome. I just was not expecting moose to beat out polar bear on any of our brackets. Jenna really grew to like the moose on a vacation out west before we met. She took a trip to Colorado and saw some awesome moose while visiting family. There is that and the fact that moose are really cool.

The other final 4 are not surprising. Bald Eagle is a deserving champ. Mountain Lion was a #1 seed and how do you choose against a grizzly?

Pretty solid bracket right here from my wife, but the best bracket is still to come...

Finally, you can see my bracket...

How do you not pick the symbol of America in the Bald Eagle? I could not do it and selected the Bald Eagle as my overall champion. It is by far my favorite type of bird and I get goose bumps everytime I see one. It does not matter where I see it, but I really want to see a bald eagle whenever I go on a hike, in the car, or to a zoo. They are one of the first animals I look for. It is just truly a magnificent creature.

I almost went entirely chalk and pick all four one seeds. However, I chose one wildcard. The majestic pronghorn knocked off the mountain lion for me. Their speed and grace is truly magnificent. I have yet to see one and it is near the top of my creature list to see. I think of pronghorns as America's gazelles. It sure would be cool to see one in the wild.

Polar Bear would have been a great pick to win and I'd love to see them in the wild as well. It would be absolutely thrilling to see (not too close though). However, I could not put it over a Bald Eagle. The polar bear is my favorite type of bear though and I really have enjoyed seeing the few I have. Still, seeing one in the wild has to be the ultimate thrill.

We really do have some amazing creatures on this continent. Let's look at the top 5 selections based on spots advanced.
5. Porcupine - 10
4. Grizzly Bear - 13
3. Bald Eagle - 14
2. Polar Bear - 15
1. Mountain Lion - 16

These are some mountain lions that we found resting at the Jacksonville Zoo. Probably my favorite place to see these animals was the Catty Shack Ranch in Jacksonville though. There you can see them feeding. However, we were more interested in the tigers and African Lions feeding that day and didn't get a good picture. Still, these mountain lions are absolutely fantastic creatures. The mountain lion is the winner of the North American Animal Bracket.

What do you think of our picks?
What are your favorite animals from North America?
Did we leave any important animals out?
Do you have any topic that you want to see used on a bracket?
Leave us some comments and let us know.

Have a great weekend and a great summer (it is officially summer now!!!)
Join us in 5 days as we do our super villain bracket!!!

- Noland

Coolest Animated Bear Bracket

This is the most specific bracket we have done to date and possibly the most fun. Who is the coolest animated bear? A debate you may have not known you had, but certainly are thinking about now.
Is it Yogi?
Baloo?
Pooh?
Another Contender?

There are so many surprising, and wonderful options to select here. I hope you take a look at what we have put out there for you. I know the intrigue is killing you, so why don't we just go on ahead and release the bracket already....

There are themed regions as always. This time it is mean bears in the bottom right, adventuring bears in the top right, bears with personality in the top left, and caring bears in the bottom left. The bottom left could also be labeled the care bear regional. That is where most of the care bears are. It was the hardest regional for me and my family to do because we don't watch care bears. We did it based on colors and designs of the bears as well as names. The four obvious #1 seeds were Yogi, Baloo, Smokey, and Winnie the Pooh. Most would assume most people will go chalk and pick those 4, but not so fast my friend. The Bear in the Fox in the Hound is the 16 seed in the mean bear regional.

Let's go over some of the lesser known characters and clarify. Whistlestop Jackson is a pilot in the series TaleSpin. Vladimir Gryzlikoff is a villain in the cartoon Darkwing Duck. Ted is who you think it is, that vulgar bear from the adult movie. It was tough to find this many bears and I figured to include him for any people that might want to fill one out. Koslov is the giant polar bear from Zootopia. Most don't know his name, but he is an intimidating presence and Eli loves him. None of us really know who honey bear is, but he is a bear that comes up in searches. Just type animated honey bear and he will be there. Brother Bear, Sister Bear, Mother Bear and Papa Bear are from Berenstein Bears. There is also Mama and Papa Bear which I have designated as Disney. Those ones designated as Disney are from the series Goldie and Bear. Jack A. Bear is the main bear from Goldie and Bear. Tug is the giant, friendly bear from the movie Brother Bear. Bongo the Bear is a circus bear from early Disney and Lulubelle is his girlfriend. Bernard the polar bear is from his own standalone series. I had never heard of him, but apparently there is some cult following.

Let's start with Jenna, because this was her favorite bracket so far...

Jenna went mostly chalk and had 3 1 seeds in her final. With Koda pulling some upsets in the other bracket. This could be a trend in our family as we loved the Brother Bear movies with the star Koda. The characters in those two movies could do quite well throughout the brackets. Plus, as mentioned earlier, we aren't big care bear fans, so you might see them knocked off. Jenna also enjoyed the Berenstein Bears as she had the characters from those shows advancing further than the rest of us. She even had Brother Bear advancing to the sweet 16. Jenna is the only one to pick Sister Bear over Funshine Bear (although she did it after saying Funshine first hence the cross out)

To the surprise of nobody, her champion was Winnie the Pooh. If you remember our Disney Movie Madness bracket, you will remember that she picked The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh as her champion. You might also remember she wrote that Pooh was the kindest, sweetest bear. He is her favorite Disney character of all. Not just her favorite Disney bear. There is no beating Winnie the Pooh for her on any bracket.

Her final four was rounded out with Yogi and Baloo. I was actually a bit surprised with Baloo as I thought she would go Kenai due to her affinity for Brother Bear. However, she stuck with the family favorite and took Baloo into the final. It is impossible not to like Baloo after all. Yogi making it was not surprising as he is an iconic character. What was surprising was Nita's first round exit. As cool as Po is, Jenna loves Brother Bear. I assumed Nita would be up against Kenai in the next round.

Next, let's look at the boy who inspired this bracket in Eli Thomas...

Eli is all about Baloo. It is his favorite character. He absolutely loves that bear and Jungle Book and TaleSpin. You can see that he had that TaleSpin bias with Kit Cloudkicker also making his Final Four.
Although it's not really bias because Kit Cloudkicker and TaleSpin are awesome. The only TaleSpin characters knocked out before the Sweet 16 were Whistlstop Jackson who was knocked off by TaleSpin alumnus Becky Cunningham, and Molly Conningham who was bested in Rd. 2 by the super popular Little John.

The two other characters in the Final Four were Koslov and Koda. Brother Bear was a family favorite and Koda did well in all of our brackets. That little bear from Brother Bear was expected to make it that far. But, Koslov? Most don't even know his name. That being said, he is popular in our house as we absolutely love Polar Bears. Eli especially loves Polar Bears. I'm looking up places we can see polar bears as we speak so that he can see one in person. A fascinating animal that Koslov happens to play very well.

Eli had Special Agent Oso going further than either his mom or I. He also had Bedtime Bear further than any of us. Other than Cheer Bear making the Elite 8, there were no other huge surprises. Eli and I picked Tug from Brother Bear further than the rest of the family did. We just really like Tug. Finally, another upset over Smokey, maybe you are starting to realize a trend.

I guess we will do my bracket next....

That final is so tough for me. Winnie the Pooh or Baloo, how do you choose? I have gone back and forth on the two of them several times over the years. Each of them always finishing in my top 3 characters. Recently, as my 2nd and 3rd favorite characters respectively. I usually say I like Pooh more, but I go back and forth a lot. The tiebreak for me recently is how much Eli adores Baloo. When your kids like something more, it makes you like it more as well. Eli's love for Baloo won it for the bear. It is just one more thing Eli and I get to bond over, Jungle Book and TaleSpin.

I kept the trend going with Koda to the Final Four like everyone else so far. He truly is a one of a kind character. It is always nice to see that movie recognized and to recognize it ourselves. Speaking of Brother Bear, Jenna and I both selected the character Brother Bear to the Sweet 16. That character is from Berenstein Bears though not the Disney movie. The other main character from the Disney movie Brother Bear, Kenai, also did really well in the brackets. Kenai made it to the Elite 8 in both mine and Jenna's brackets.

My Final Four was rounded out by Br'er Bear. This character from Disney's Song of the South and Splash Mountain is known for the ride more than anything else. That ride is my favorite and it brings me joy when I see Br'er Bear around the parks. He is just fun to me even though he is a bad guy. Lots'O or Br'er Bear was a tough decision, but the Splash Mountain connection was the tie-breaker.

Now up, the bracket king, Noland Jr.....

Junior had a crazy upset off the top with Kwicky Koala (who he doesn't know) over family favorite Baloo. This was rather surprising as Jr. has always loved Baloo. He was just messing with his brother who is obsessed! You will notice quite a few upsets in Jr.'s bracket actually. Whistlestop Jackson even made an appearance in his final four.The Bear from Fox and the Hound upset Yogi and went all the way to the Elite 8. Another surprise elite 8 appearance came from Birthday Bear. We haven't watched Care Bears so that was quite the shock. The explanation wasn't shocking though, because who doesn't love birthdays. He said he picked him because he loves birthdays.

The overall champ for Jr. was Kit Cloudkicker. That made for quite the TaleSpin Final Four. Kit Cloudkicker and Whistlestop Jackson both making it into the Final Four. The young bear (Kit) is another favorite in our household and in particular a favorite of Jr. He has always enjoyed Kit and his bravery. That glider doesn't hurt Kit's case either.

Also in the Final Four was the ever popular Koda. Well, he's popular in our house anyway. Finally, the top group was rounded out by Special Agent Oso. Jr. has always enjoyed Oso. The yellow bear showed us 3 special steps to making it in the Final Match U. He is a pretty neat character, but Noland had him going twice as far as the rest of us combined. While Noland picked Oso, I thought Baloo would win that regional in everyone's bracket. I guess I was wrong.

Bonus Pick: My little brother Justin asked whether it was TaleSpin Baloo or Jungle Book Baloo. I stated that it is whatever Baloo you want it to be. He picked Baloo to win it all specifying that it must be the version from TaleSpin. He claimed that Baloo would drop water from the Sea Duck on the fire started by Smokey the Bear in the championship

Here are our top 5 according to most spaces advanced on the brackets (not including Justin since we don't have a full bracket).
5. Special Agent Oso (11 spots)
T - 3. Koda/ Kit Cloudkicker (16 spots)
T - 1. Baloo/ Winnie the Pooh (17 spots)

Super jammed at the top. Baloo wins 2 brackets, but has to tie with the overall win because Jr. decided to pick a Koala he has never heard of lol. He really does love Baloo, he was just messing with his brother. We will give the overall win to Baloo because of that and him winning Justin's bracket as well!

What did you think of our brackets?
Who are your favorite bears?
Got any ideas for future brackets?
Leave us any feedback you wish in the comments

Join us back here in 5 days for our North American Animal Bracket

- Noland

Asian Animals Bracket

People always tend to think of Africa when it comes to coolest wildlife. I think it would be foolish to sleep on Asia when it comes to cool animals though. The land of the tiger has their own amazing creatures to behold. Here we look at some of those amazing creatures from the vast Asian continent. I really hope you enjoy our bracket for the coolest Asian Animal.

Much like our African Animal Bracket, this is just picking the coolest animal. Enjoy our brackets for the coolest Asian animal. Take a look at the blank bracket first.

Some of these names are harder and some of them are a little harder to read. The brackets are separated by themed regions once again. Animals with spots are in the top left corner of the bracket with the Giant Panda as the #1 seed. Those circles around the pandas eyes were counted as a spot. Asian elephants were the #1 seed in the bottom left bracket for the region labeled heavy hitters. With this region all of the animals are big, strong, and powerful. Top right we have striped animals with the #1 seed of a tiger. The bottom right is graceful animals. The number 1 seed in that bracket is the Orangutan. Separating the regions this way gave us a good bracket breakdown and allowed for the separation of those four easily identified animals. Some of the striped and spotted animals are stretches, but those being the brackets made for an interesting contrast.

You will notice that this bracket is far more specific than the African Animals bracket and therefore has longer names written in. Indian Rhino instead of just Rhino. Arabian Ostrich instead of just plain ostrich, although it is just the same thing in that case. One of the hardest to read is brown long eared bat, which is the 11 seed in the grace regional. To more difficult ones are the golden spotted monitor (13 seed spot regional) and the golden snub nose monkey (10 seed spot regional). Other than that you should be good here. If you have a question of what the animal is, I suggest a google image search. Some of these animals are not well known, but they sure are magnificent.

Now, let's look at Eli's bracket...

Komodo Dragon was the ultimate champion for Eli's bracket. The thing that won Eli over was the komodo dragon feeding we saw a few years ago. Noland Jr. also had a class pet (Bearded Dragon) and that helped both of the boys love lizards. They often try catching lizards in the back yard. Good thing they don't have a Komodo Dragon to catch though. Those things are so dang powerful and deadly. Another point in the dragons favor is that is the closest thing we have on this planet to a living breathing dinosaur.

The biggest upset in this bracket came when Tree Kangaroo beat the mighty Tiger. I thought Tiger would be in a toss up matchup with Komodo Dragon in the Final Four. I never expected Tiger to lose to the Tree Kangaroo. We have never seen a Tree Kangaroo in person, but they look super cool. Now, I got to locate one in this country for the boys to see.

Aside from the Tree Kangaroo, his final 4 was rounded out by Snow Leopard and Sloth Bear. He picked Sloth Bear because that is what Baloo the Bear is. Snow Leopard was the other pick, just because they look cool and he enjoyed saying it. They are super cool. Eli kept picking the big predators too other than that Tree Kangaroo.

Let's check in on the brother Eli adores, with Noland Jr.'s bracket...

Noland's bracket looks far different than Eli. He had an entirely different Final Four. The toughest match-up for him was taking Chinese Pangolin over the Komodo Dragon. He really enjoys pangolins though and really wants to see one. Every knew the tiger would win overall though as that has been his favorite animal forever. Even at 3 months he used to always get a big smile when seeing a tiger and hearing the word tiger. He absolutely loves them. The Final Four was rounded out by the Draco Lizard and the Sun Bear. He picked the Draco because of its unique gliding creature power (as the Wild Kratts would say). The Kratt brothers even did an episode on the Draco Lizard. While the Sun Bear is just super cool and has an orange stripe across its chest. Noland Jr. thought that stripe was the coolest.

There were a few upsets here, most specifically the bears over the rhinos. I did not see those upsets coming. The Mugger Crocodile advancing two rounds, including past the Asian Elephant, was also a big upset. Most surprising, was his selection of the Asian Water Monitor over the clouded leopard. It is super awesome, but this boy is usually such a big cat fan that I thought the lizard stood no chance against the mighty leopard. Also surprising was the Indian Star Tortoise knocking off the Giant Panda. I thought the Panda would make it deeper on his bracket.

Now their mother....

Jenna went chalk as is typical for her. She enjoys the fan favorites when it comes to animals. All four #1 seeds made it into her final four, with Asian Elephant taking the crown. She did it in her own special style too with the notes and all. As you can see her tough choice was Orangutan over Komodo Dragon. Both animals performing pretty well across the brackets, but more on that later.

Jenna had two question marks on her bracket. I'd assume that would happen on some if everyone were to fill these out. She had a hard time picking between the Golden Snub Nose Monkey and the Gibbon, so she didn't pick one. There was no preference one way or the other and she just decided not to pick. The same thing happened with Bactrian Camel and Mugger Crocodile. She wanted to move on from those animals because she wasn't picking them more than one round anyway. Jenna was working on another project during this and wanted to do the bracket quick. This is the only bracket of hers with question marks. Jenna is much more excited for our next bracket, which she labeled her favorite so far...

Time for me....

I really enjoyed this bracket. It was one of my favorites to complete. African Animals is always my default answer when I am asked which continent has the coolest animals. However, this bracket made me realize that Asia is a strong contender. This continent has some really incredible creatures. I actually think I prefer it after doing the research. You forget how many different climates are in Asia. That makes for such an incredible diversity of wildlife. It was hard to limit this bracket to 64 choices.

We did limit it though and it was fun to do. A species of rhino ended up winning my bracket, just like in Africa. I ended up selecting the Indian Rhino in the finals. They have an Indian Rhino at the Tampa Zoo and it is my favorite exhibit at the whole zoo. I just love the armor that these guys have. Such an incredibly neat creature. I have never seen a Sumatran Rhino in person, but it was almost my pick to win it all. Now, I have to find where we can see one of those.

My final four was rounded out by Komodo Dragon, Tree Kangaroo, and Snow Leopard. Komodo Dragon is my second favorite animal. Rhinos are first. This bracket was incredibly predictable for my family based on that fact. Although I was fascinated by the Tree Kangaroo. My second hardest selection was Tree Kangaroo over Red Panda. Those little guys are so dang cool. The Tree Kangaroo just narrowly beat it out. Snow Leopards are super neat as well. That is one of the coolest animals that I have seen in person and I want to see one again. They are simply brilliant creatures. All of these animals are actually. I was impressed with the wildlife from Asia.

Here are our top 5 animals across all the brackets.
5. Indian Rhino (11 spots)
T-3. Draco Lizard/ Asian Elephant (12 spots)
2. Snow Leopard (14 spots)
T-1. Komodo Dragon/ Tiger (17 spots)

For the first time, we have a tie at the top. A tie of ferocious predators. The Komodo Dragon and the Tiger reign supreme. If you haven't seen a feeding with either of these guys, we highly recommend it. Pictures are of feeding with these two animals.

This was a massive tiger eating at the Catty Shack Ranch in Jacksonville, FL

This was the Komodo Dragon sensing its food at the Jacksonville Zoo in Jacksonville, FL. Super cool!!!

What did you think of our picks?
What is your favorite animal from Asia?
Got any picks on your bracket?
Anything you want us to do a bracket of?
Feel free to leave any feedback as always.
In 5 days we will have our animated bear bracket. That bracket was inspired by our Baloo loving Eli.

Until next time,

- Noland