Disney's Donald Duck Still Going Strong at 80 Agencia EFE
go to original June 19, 2014

The Three Caballeros (1945) Trailer (TheTrailerGal)

More than 200 feature films in 80 years is a record few can hope to attain and one who did is Donald Fauntleroy, though not many know that behind the name is none other than Donald Duck, one of Walt Disney Studios' most popular characters.

Donald Duck, created by artist Dick Lundy on June 9, 1934, appeared for the first time in "The Wise Little Hen," an 8-minute short of the "Silly Symphonies" series (1929-1939), a mix of all the Disney characters.

In that first appearance, Donald had only a supporting role but won the audience from the very first minute, mainly due to the practically unintelligible voice provided by Clarence Nash, who would dub the duck's voice for 51 years until the day he died.

In the first years of his life the duck was like a guest sharing the adventures of more famous characters like Mickey Mouse, or else shared stardom with Pluto - but in 1937 and after his makeover came the premiere of "Don Donald," the first animated short in which he had the leading role.

Debuting in that first solo adventure was his girlfriend Daisy, who together with nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie - who would join the cartoon cast a year later - and his uncle Scrooge McDuck - created in 1947 - make up Disney's duck family of Duckburg.

Donald's first animated feature film was "The Reluctant Dragon" in 1941, but his best-known animated cartoons are "Saludos Amigos" (with the original title in Spanish), a mid-length cartoon made in 1942 and set in South America, and "The Three Caballeros" (1944), a Disney classic in which Donald is off to Brazil and Mexico.

He also appeared in 1988 in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," which combined live action with animation and represented breakthrough film technology at the time of its premiere.

See the original at La Prensa

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!