“Saludos amigos, a fond greeting to you!” Those lyrics were sung in the 42-minute feature film Saludos Amigos, which had its grande World Premiere in Rio de Janeiro on this day in 1942. Four mucho entertaining animated segments were introduced, Lake Titicaca, Pedro, El Gaucho Goofy, and Aquarela do Brasil, which featured Donald Duck and …
See more
Starting on this day in 1942, audiences howled at the antics of Pluto in the animated short T-Bone for Two. This time around, our prized pooch lets the desire of a tasty bone get the best of him, and he outwits his bulldog nemesis to steal the treat. Butch, Pluto’s raging rival, appeared in 11 …
See more
1923 was not just an historic year for Disney, but for author Felix Salten as well. That’s the year his most popular book, Bambi: A Life in the Woods, was published. The Austrian novel was translated to English in 1928 and Americans quickly started “fawning” over it. Although bunny Thumper and skunk Flower were not …
See more
Near the end of production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1936, Walt Disney and his team began work on Bambi. Five years later, the film was still not complete. Walt explained that it was difficult to make “the story of all life with its loves and its tragedies and triumphs told in …
See more
Everybody knows that Mickey Mouse’s love interest is Minnie Mouse. Donald Duck pursues Daisy Duck. But what about Pluto? It was in the Pluto cartoon short The Sleepwalker, which crept onto screens on this day in 1942, that Pluto first met a seductive dachshund named Dinah, who went on to appear in a total of …
See more
During World War II, everybody at the Disney Studios got into the patriotic spirit by helping with the war efforts — even the animated characters. In May 1942, Donald Duck was drafted, and just a few weeks later Pluto attempted to join the Army, albeit without the most honorable of intentions. In the release of …
See more
As the theme song of the Disney short Donald Gets Drafted goes, “The army’s not the army anymore.” This is particularly true when Donald Fauntleroy Duck, the name provided on his draft card, gets drafted. The happy-go-lucky duck, obviously proud to serve his country, enthusiastically heads off to the draft board amidst posters depicting how …
See more
One of the great things about having your own cartoon series is that you get to play a variety of roles, and in the Pluto cartoon short Pluto Junior, released on this day in 1942, Pluto portrayed a dad. Pluto Junior, an energetic little tyke, finds it easy to get into mischief and has some …
See more
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences gives honorary awards for lifetime achievements, exceptional contributions to motion pictures arts and sciences and outstanding service to the Academy. These awards might be statuettes or certificates. The two most unusual honorary awards ever given went to Walt Disney, which was a standard Oscar® statuette and seven …
See more
The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award is presented periodically to creative producers whose bodies of work reflect a consistently high quality of motion picture production. The award is named for the “boy wonder” vice president and supervisor of production at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the 1920s and ’30s who personally supervised the studio’s top productions until his …
See more
