Disney sure wants to integrate Dancing with the Stars into its brand. Hence, Aladdin the Musical had an entire DWTS parody sequence during “Friend Like Me.”

And hence, from the opposite end, DWTS had a Disney Night this week. As a self-professed Disney nut (as in, I had a Disney costume party for my 21st birthday), this was everything I could have dreamed of. From that first glorious image of a giant mirrorball behind the castle in the logo, I knew we were in for a good night!

Things kicked off with a group intro to Disney standards like “When You Wish Upon a Star” and “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah,” most of which I spent trying to figure out who was which character (since only a few of the stars were costumed – but I recognized Peta’s hair right away!). Tom described the night as “Disney on Ice… no ice.” Except for Len’s frozen heart, perhaps. The choice of movies whose songs were chosen was fairly expected: the Big Four of the early Renaissance, three ‘60s Disney movies, Cinderella, and obviously Frozen. I would have preferred some late Renaissance songs, but oh well.

Donny Osmond was this week’s guest judge – it would appear the show is continuing this tiresome tradition in a conscious effort to distance itself from being a dance competition. Donny at least appears to be more qualified to judge than half the guest judges – he was the victor of season 9 with Kym Johnson, emerging triumphant from the second of only three finals ever to not include a Hough or Cheryl Burke. Donny did not say anything remotely useful, praising everyone’s dancing as phenomenal. The most interesting thing about him was a bromance with Bruno, followed by when he drew the ire of Cody’s legions of Twittering fans (more on that later).

After combining votes and scores nobody even remembers (from the last week and the week before), the couple eliminated in ninth place is… Cody and Witney! This is not exactly a shock – their dancing was merely okay, and most DWTS viewers are not part of the age bracket that knows who Cody is. But I am surprised that Cody’s acolytes did not do a better job mobilizing to vote for him. Or is his fanbase just very loud and not very big? Readers, please explain to me where Cody Simpson falls in popularity relative to Bieber, One Direction, and the Wanted. I’ll be listening to old *NSYNC songs in the meantime.

Also working against the couple was Witney’s newness as a pro. As the seasons go on, it gets harder and harder for new pros to succeed, since viewers have such a relationship with Our Pros. Of the four pros eliminated thus far, only Karina has been there more than two seasons, whereas all the remaining pros have been there at least three seasons. I’m not sure how I feel about Witney as a pro, I’m rather indifferent toward her.

For their final dance, Cody and Witney scored a 34, landing second from the bottom on the leaderboard (same as last week). “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King” was perhaps the most appropriate choice for this couple to dance to – since Cody (like Simba) is a youngster who wants to do it all his way (in lieu of actually trying to dance ballroom). Their Simba Samba was very high energy, though it had a bit too much crotch-work going on considering the song (save that for “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?”). The judges all had good things to say, despite Cody’s lackluster technique. Donny was completely off the mark, condemning Cody’s enjoyment of the dance versus his “phenomenal dancing” – are you sure you didn’t get that backwards, Donny? Either way, Donny is in Twitter trouble, if that’s a real thing. However, the most important part of Cody’s segment was Bruno’s statement: “I’m the Good Fairy.” ‘Nuff said.

There was definitely a missed opportunity for a Disney song to signify Cody’s departure. My personal choice would have been “If I Never Knew You” from Pocahontas, but “Circle of Life” would have been appropriate too. Come on DWTS, at least “Go the Distance” with the Disney theme! (See what I did there?) Let’s welcome our Disney stars!

First Place, 40 points: James and Peta (Contemporary). There was no way Disney Night was going to happen without “Let It Go” – maybe the whole thing was merely a ploy to get the Frozen soundtrack a tenth week at #1. But honestly, everything about this was wrong. Why have a female solo song danced to by a guy pro? The focus is naturally on Elsa (Peta), and James was… some nonentity she was getting lifted by. While there was beautiful animation accompanying the number, the song was butchered to the fullest extent. Instead of cutting verses, they just cut out lines all over, and the remaining lines were not spliced together well. This number did not work on many levels, yet it got the first perfect score of the season… prompting a lot of tears from Peta. Oh, and in case we needed another reason to love James, he’s taken a special needs girl under his wing – he couldn’t go to prom with her like she asked, so he flew her in to DWTS.

Second Place, 39 points: Danica and Val (Quickstep). This may be my favorite number ever on DWTS. It was sheer perfection! Danica and Val executed a technically superb Quickstep, one that was funny and fitting for “Be Our Guest.” Danica was the spitting image of Belle, with Val as the Beast, an animated Lumiere welcoming everyone, and The Troupe dancing alongside them as chefs and plates! Len had to be a buzzkill and give a nine, but the others gave tens across the board (Carrie Ann threw in a hug). Tom called Len a Gaston, even though a real Broadway Gaston was guest-judging next to him. Danica is just adorable, exclaiming how much she loves the dress. In the rehearsal package, she explained that she loves details and so does Val, which is why their partnership works. I could not stop grinning through this entire segment, and now I’m off to abuse a replay button.

Third Place (tie), 37 points: Amy and Derek (Waltz). This week, Amy’s lack of feet caught up with her – it’s easier to just shake your hips in the Latin dances, but doing heel-leads without heels proved quite the challenge. After a good cry, Amy came back ready to figure it out… and they somehow figured it out. I’m sure the smoke all over the floor was there for a reason, and there were lifts to create the illusion of rise and fall (which Carrie Ann did not penalize – another Disney miracle!). Still, Amy pulled off a good waltz to “So This Is Love” from Cinderella. Amy and Derek were not as committed to the staging as Sabrina Bryan and Louis were during their version of this in the All-Star Season. Amy’s dress was the wrong color, and the slipper was not left on the stairs… but I can forgive all that, because at the end of the dance three animated mice were doing a celebratory jig in front of the judges’ table. Did you prefer Amy and Derek’s version or Sabrina and Louis’s?

Third Place (tie), 37 points: Charlie and Sharna (Jazz). It’s Disney Night, so I’m feeling warm and fuzzy, and liking the couples I usually don’t… and I really liked Charlie and Sharna! For the first time, Charlie got a routine worthy of his skill as a dancer. He handled it with aplomb, performing a fiendishly-paced number to “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” (and no, I did not use Spell Check for that). In other news, we have found Charlie’s Achilles heel: a complete lack of hand-eye coordination! I’m in the same boat, so he gets my sympathy. The routine featured a lot of work with a cane and umbrella – tossing, twirling, and so forth. Charlie fumbled one catch and had to take a second to collect his cane, but persevered as if nothing had happened. Most of the judges gave nines because of that, but Disney magic warmed Len’s heart, and he gave his first ten of the season. As a cherry on top, Charlie and four digital penguins danced us in from a commercial later, providing one of the cutest visuals of the entire night. I said a few weeks back that either Charlie or Meryl will make the finals, depending on who grows a personality first. After tonight, I’m pretty confident it’ll be Charlie.

Fourth Place (tie), 36 points: Meryl and Maks (Samba). Um, Maks? Samba doesn’t have to be sexual. Samba is the party dance; rhumba is the sexy one. And if the competent pros could choreograph non-sexy rhumbas in past seasons, Maks should have been just fine with a non-sexy samba. Instead, we got Mowgli getting sexy with his lady friend next to some digital monkeys, set to “I Wanna Be Like You” from The Jungle Book. Oy vey. As a samba (ignoring the theme), this was really good. After the dance, Erin and Meryl spent quite a bit of time examining Maks’s torso and debating why it sparkles. Insert Twilight joke here.

Fourth Place (tie), 36 points: NeNe and Tony (Foxtrot). Nene as Cruella de Vil was a perfect match, and she delivered by far her best performance yet (and received all nines for her troubles). She was so overcome by this that she couldn’t even speak. But the real story of the week was the backstage drama. Nene felt that Tony was either jealous of Derek or preferred being with Candace after the Switch Up, and actually stormed out of practice. It’s hard to say what really happened aside from what was edited into the video – Tony probably was a bit irked, but it didn’t seem like cause for a tantrum. After their dance was successful, Carrie Ann attempted to wrap up the storyline by saying the Switch Up is the best thing to happen to Tony and NeNe… and Tony absolutely was not having it. He refused to take Carrie Ann’s kinda-compliment, and ferociously argued that the Switch Up sucked. This is the second time Tony has gotten into it with Carrie Ann this season – I guess there’s a limit to the fools even Tony will suffer. I kind of like this new side of Tony!

Fifth Place, 35 points: Candace and Mark (Samba). Wow! I was amazed at how good this dance was. It was Candace’s best dance by miles, and Mark’s best choreography in years. I don’t know what synthesized for them this week, but they were one of the best couples! Candace was Ariel and Mark was Sebastian in “Under the Sea” – which, let’s face it, is a perfect showcase for Mark’s unique brand of crazy. There was plenty of basic samba steps, as well as some new kooky crab move of Mark’s that I rather enjoyed. See, Maks, this is how you do a non-sexy samba! In an ironic twist, during Disney week Candace was finally comfortable showing some skin, because she was Ariel. Their scores went from sevens to mostly nines. If this week wasn’t just a fluke, we might be seeing a lot more of them than I thought.

Last Place, 28 points: Drew and Cheryl (Quickstep). A Quickstep to “Friend Like Me” from Aladdin was already done on this show ten seasons ago, by Shawn Johnson and Mark. When compared to Shawn’s stellar technique, Drew’s performance pales in comparison. Not even an animated Genie dancing between Drew and Cheryl could entirely salvage this number. Even though Donny was sympathetic to the difficulty of the Quickstep, all the judges gave sevens. While Cheryl looked uncannily like Jasmine, Drew had a ways to go before looking like Aladdin, though I did like that he did start off the dance by rubbing a lamp. I just feel like it’s time for Drew to head home already.

Are you sad to see Cody leave? Which Disney homage was your favorite? And which Disney song are you sad they left out?