Congratulations to Donald Duck for making the Hollywood Walk of Fame at the age of 70! My dad sent me a link to this recently, and today I noticed it made the MSN home page. However, one line in the MSN article caught my eye.
“A beaming Donald (actually someone in a duck costume) and Mickey Mouse were among those who attended the star’s unveiling…”
The first thing I thought was, “They actually have to point out it was someone in a duck costume?!”. Then, rereading it I noticed they didn’t make the same claim about Mickey. So, if I understand it, the star of the event was an imposter, but Mickey is the real deal.
Ever since developing a fondness for Donald Duck, I haven’t been much of a Mickey Mouse fan. However, I do like him in one feature – The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. I will admit that this is partially because of the reason for its addition to Fantasia. I heard it said in a “making of fantasia” special (or something similar) that one of the reasons they added The Sorcerer’s Apprentice to Fantasia was because Donald was becoming “too popular” and Disney felt the need to turn the attention back to Mickey – his star. I have not been able to find any support for this claim (though I haven’t tried hard), but I did find the following…
“His fiery temper endeared him to audiences, and in the 1940s he surpassed Mickey Mouse in the number of cartoons reaching the theaters.” – Disney Archives: Donald Duck
And…well…Fantasia was released in 1940, I believe. So, it’s possible that the dates are a bit off, but one day, I will find proof :).
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