I think the Walt Disney Company has established a tradition among some of its voice actors. For iconic characters such as Donald Duck, the respective voice actors have to choose and train an heir who will continue to portray that character's distinctive voice and personality. For example, Clarence Nash, Donald's first voice actor, personally trained Tony Anselmo to speak in Donald's highly distinctive accent.
LightLife4 I use to ABSOLUTELY love this special growing up. My dad taped it years ago for my older brother. I was only a year old when it aired but we use to watch it constantly growing up. It made me love Disney so much and want to go to Walt Disney world so badly. Well, because of this special, years later I signed up for a college internship and lived and worked at Walt Disney world for a year. It was super neat. In the back break room behind adventure land, they had a huge picture from this parade. Seeing that picture, the circle was complete! I went on eBay and bought a “happy 50th birthday Donald” vintage tee shirt from the 80s to cap it off. Was a little pricey but I had to buy it because it was the only one I found that was in my size! (A vintage large is a medium in today’s fitting)
I was there in 86 and I was 5 years old. My mom took pictures of the parade but she also took pictures of me as I sat on my dad's shoulders. You can run it like a flip book with my eyes as wide as saucers and mouth hanging open in pure blind amazement as I followed the parade.
I was just a kid when i saw this for the first time... it is really touching and it brings back such great memories... i all used to cry from 2:03 onwards...
In many ways, Donald Duck is an ingenious character. He is good-natured and mostly genuinely friendly, but he is also brash, bad-tempered and sometimes mischievous. Of the original Disney cartoon cast, Donald was the one so-called "good" character with negative traits. In this way, he is used as a buffer to balance the purity of characters such as Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and Goofy. With his complex personality, Donald Duck can be seen as the most "human" of the Disney cast.
That's interesting. I'm not as familiar with the older Disney cartoons, but I've heard that the original Mickey Mouse was a real scoundrel, although he became "nicer" and better-behaved as the years passed.
I was in a gift shop in the Contemporary Resort at Walt Disney World on Saturday night and they were playing this song on the speakers in the store. I got all misty -eyed.
(Donald, we thank you for the joy that you bring, so have a great birthday. Now everyone sing 🥹) Today is his 90th birthday, congratulations and happy birthday one of my favorite toon ducks 🦆🎂🎈🎉9️⃣0️⃣
Interestingly, the Treasures line started to release Donald's classic cartoons in mid-2004, around the time that Donald had his 70th birthday! And one of the bonus features, about Clarence Nash, the original voice of Donald, mentioned a snippet of this special, specifically the part with Nash being at Grauman's Chinese Theater in 1984, when Donald put his hand- and web-prints in cement in front of the theater with other stars!
I think I'll have to agree with Cayetanini - this made me cry happily too. Incidentally, this must be the earliest appearance I've seen of the park versions of Scrooge (in his red coat from the comics, no less!) and HD&L, and maybe also the only time they ever had Grandma Duck appear at the parks.
So far, Uncle Scrooge makes appearances during the holidays. Donald's nephews nowadays are seen in Disneyland Paris. Last time I saw the Big Bad Wolf and Robin Hood was in Share a Dream Come True Parade and Spectromagic.
If they have another big celebration for his 85th birthday, would characters such as Dipper and Mabel Pines, Star Butterfly, PIXAR characters, and post-Tangeled princesses join in?
Holy crap, the March Hare was in Disneyland back then?! O.o Wow.. Anyways, yeah, all the character's voices sounded a bit different.. Well, that is back in the day.
slwalsh when I worked there in 2007, I saw the nephews and Uncle Scrooge? I don’t know if they were out for a specific reason or whatnot? Maybe because they were releasing ducktales on dvd? I did see them though!
@greenmotorcar yeah but im just wondering whats with the characters voices back in the 80's at disney world and disneyland especially mickey,minnie, chip n dale, and donald
Just picture... if an intelligent alien species had been observing that area that day... Holy crap man, their brains probably violently imploded in utter confusion. XD
