#8 - Paige O'Hara as Belle - Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Best Song: Belle (Reprise)
DISCLAIMER: This is not a fair placement. By all means it should be higher, but personal bias stands in the way.
Let me explain.
For years, I was not a big fan of Beauty and the Beast. It's only recently that I've realized that there's really something there (lol) under the surface that I never really caught on to that makes it a somewhat deeper story than most classic Disney fare, and I realized why it gets all the love and appreciation that it gets. I still have my reasons for not thinking it's the MOST fantastic, but Belle really is a good heroine. She's a multi-layered human being, not your typical Disney princess, and she's smart, resourceful, and generally just a good person to have around.
Paige O'Hara brings all of this across in spades. She really does. Her voice is soothing like perhaps nobody else I put higher than her, and her songs (despite the fact that she really needed a solo - see: "Home" from the Broadway show for details) are very nicely sung. Where she, personally, really shines is in the reprise for "Belle". Something about her voice on "I want adventure in the great wide somewhere!" just sticks with me, and when I think of that musical segment, it's always her voice that pops in my head.
But that leads me to my biggest problem with her, and the reason I couldn't put her any higher on the list. Whose voice pops in my head on literally every other song? Susan Egan. And I'm sorry, but Susan Egan on the Broadway cast recording is just...better. Let's take, as an example, the following lyrics from the song "Belle":
Oh, isn't this amazing?
It's my favorite part because - you'll see!
Here's where she meets Prince Charming -
But she won't discover that it's him 'til Chapter 3!
Paige sings this very muted and understated; very calmly and soothing. Whereas, on the Broadway recording, Susan Egan is absolutely jubilant when she's singing these lines, though she's still able to rein it in like Paige does for the calmer parts. And that's really what this placement is about - Paige does a brilliant job, don't get me wrong, but I've been spoiled by getting used to listening to Susan Egan's recordings. Which, with the exception of the aforementioned reprise, are just better. And I'm not biased because of the wonderful additional songs that Susan gets to sing, which obviously help flesh Belle out even more as a character - I'm talking solely about the songs both actresses share. Susan wins out, and thus Paige has been pushed down to a slightly lower rung as a consequence.
It's not fair, but then again, who said anything on these lists had to be fair? I'm the one writing it, dammit. That said, she does do a remarkable job, as has been noted. She wouldn't be in the Top 10 if she didn't. I just adore Susan Egan's voice (spoiler alert), and she has a variety of emotion that is just barely missing from this performance. Sorry, fans, but this was as high as I could justify putting Paige O'Hara.
HINT for the next write-up: We've got one of those Princesses of unusual (for Disney) ethnicity coming up next.. See if you can guess which one.