Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney and welcome to the finale of the Sterling Holloway Spotlight. Today, I've decided to go through and Re-Rank his characters. I'm calling this a re-ranking because in the past, I did a Top 6 on Sterling. The only rule that I had for this list was that it had to be characters, so that ruled out his narration and I'm not going include Jock's Song for the same reason and moreso because I'm not 100% certain that was Sterling. And the best thing, it actually came out to7 with all of his animated characters taking those considerations out of the equation. With that out of the way, let's begin.
7. Roquefort - The Aristocats
This character is just boring. There is nothing to him, he's barely in the film at all to leave an impression. When watching this film, itself dull I kept asking myself "Is Sterling even in this film?" because his character was so forgettable that I'm not even sure that Sterling remembered that he was in this film.
6. Amos - Ben and Me
Let me make one thing, I hate this short with a burning passion, even more now that I had to watch it again for this spotlight but I don't hate Amos. More, I'm just frustrated by him. He's a good character and very likable and I feel for him, when Ben betrays his trust but that is my biggest issue, he stays with Ben Franklin who mistreats him way too long.
Admittedly, there isn't much to Adult Flower but Sterling still does an admirable job with the character in making him as likable as his childhood counterpart but he just isn't as memorable save for when he got twitterpated. That was so darn cute.
4. Mr. Stork - Dumbo/Lambert The Sheepish Lion
I like Mr. Stork, he has this old time Americana feeling to him or as Les put it, Norman Rockwell. What I like about Mr. Stork is that he is so simple and down to earth and dedicated to his job. He takes it rather seriously, even if he does mess from time to time but hey, we wouldn't get Lambert otherwise and he is so much fun to watch, when singing Happy Birthday on the train. But in all, the great thing about this character is that he is able to take you back to a simpler time.
3. Winnie The Pooh
Oh boy, some people aren't going to be happy that Pooh Bear isn't # 1. Don't get me wrong he's a great character, very fun and very lovable old bear stuffed with fluff. And it's easy to see why Pooh Bear is so popular as he embodies childhood and for many Pooh Bear captures (me included) their childhood perfectly.
2. The Cheshire Cat - Alice In Wonderland
The Cheshire Cat is an interesting case because your not really sure, where he stands. There is a debate on whether or not, he's actually a villain and looking back, I said that I thought he wasn't. Well now, I'm not so sure, I mean he isn't threatening but he does cause mayhem and mischief for poor Alice. Always getting in her way and getting her in trouble but having said that, he is so much fun to watch and h sums up Wonderland perfectly stating that everyone is a little mad there. Also, this has to be Sterling's creepiest performance. He does a great job of selling the creepy factor of The Cheshire Cat and it just works so well that even if you don't think that he is truly evil, he can still send shivers down your spine with that laugh.
1. Kaa - The Jungle Book
Y'know this one is probably going to surprise a lot of people but I honestly feel that Kaa is Sterling's best character. There is just so much about him to like, sure he may be a bit of a bumbler but if you actually go back and watch The Jungle Book, he's actually a bit of a threat for Mowgli especially with "Trust In Me" , I honestly find that Kaa is rather threatening and intimidating. While also still being funny, something his later appearances seemed to forget but when Sterling played him, he was able to find the perfect balance between both and I think is what made me like Kaa so much and make him stand out above every character Sterling has played. It was a great mixture of threatening and hilarity.
There you have it, the finale to the Sterling Holloway Spotlight. I hope that you've enjoyed this event as much as I enjoyed getting to talk about the works of my favorite voice actor. It was kinda nice to try something different for my third big weekly retrospective series. You can expect a page for all of these blogs to go up on A Look at Disney sometime in the future. Before I close out, I want to talk some more about why I like Sterling so much. It's simple really to me, his voice is the voice that I associate with the older Disney features. Let me explain but to me, Sterling will always be the Disney voice I think of first. In part because I've watched so many shorts featuring his voice during this blogs almost three year existence. Let's go back to Pooh Bear for a second, and how many people think of Pooh capturing the essence of childhood. Well, that is very true and for me, no matter what it may be I'm watching, if I hear Sterling's voice, it usually takes me back to childhood. The most vivid memory I have of Sterling and I think this may have been the first time, I heard his voice was watching The Cold-Blooded Penguin. I was only about 3-4 at the time, so I wasn't going to pick up on this was the same person that voiced Winnie The Pooh or Kaa. Perhaps, the first time I took notice of Sterling's voice as his own wasn't until I was a little older and watched Goliath II for Classic Shorts Showcase. It was a pleasure getting to do this and I hope that you enjoyed my look at one of the most prolific VA's that Disney had. Might have to do this again, next year. Maybe with Billy Bletcher. Until then, peace!
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