It was a very nice celebration of Disney’s Hollywood Studios 30 years of adventure yesterday with a special ceremony taking place at Center Stage. The 30th Anniversary Ceremony was a lovely tribute to a theme park that is in the middle of a massive expansion… Read More »30th Anniversary Ceremony at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
As Disneyland prepares for its Diamond Anniversary celebrating 60 years of adventures, it’s a good time to flashback to 30 years ago in 1985 when the park was still a young 30 years old. This special report aired on CBS and features a glimpse at… Read More »Throwback Thursday: Disneyland’s 30th Anniversary
The 30th Anniversary of Walt Disney World’s EPCOT Center took place on Monday October 1st. While the park didn’t get the multi-month celebration it deserved, the events on Monday were quite good in their own right. Here are a few video highlights of the small… Read More »Highlights from EPCOT’s 30th Anniversary
EPCOT Center, the first Disney theme park to break the Magic Kingdom mold, turns thirty on October 1st. While the mission has shifted from the original vision for the future and the name is now just Epcot, it’s still spectacular in many ways. The 1st… Read More »EPCOT Center Celebrates 30th Anniversary With Small Event, Talks
In celebration of Disney’s recent release of The Fox and the Hound and The Fox And The Hound 2 as a 2-Movie Collection on Blu-ray Hi-Def & DVD Combo Pack in celebration of the 30th Anniversary, Disney has made available a brand new interview with Mickey Rooney, the voice of Tod, from the Disney classic and an un-rivaled Hollywood legend!
In the mid-1920’s, an up-and-coming young animator had a brief encounter with an up-and-coming child star. Although they only met in passing, Mickey Rooney remembers Walt Disney as “a very charming man.” More than 50 years later, in 1981, Rooney would find himself starring in one of Walt Disney Studio’s most beloved animated films, The Fox and the Hound. Rooney voiced the character of Tod, an orphaned fox cub who forms an unlikely friendship with Copper, a coonhound voiced by Kurt Russell. The film also stars Pearl Bailey, Pat Buttram and Jack Albertson. The Fox and the Hound and its sequel The Fox and the Hound 2 was released in a 30th Anniversary 2-Movie Collection on August 9, 2011.
Although he is quick to deny it, Mickey Rooney is the definition of a Hollywood legend. With a career that spans nine decades, he has defied the odds in an industry that often typecasts performers. He got his start crashing his parents’ vaudeville act while still a toddler and, just a few years later, he became a silent film sensation; starring in the popular “Mickey McGuire” shorts.
In the 1930’s Rooney made a successful transition to sound films, headlining in the long-running “Andy Hardy” series and teaming with his friend Judy Garland in such classic musicals as “Strike Up the Band” and “Girl Crazy.” Rooney was awarded a special Juvenile Oscar at the 1939 Academy Awards ceremony and the next year was nominated in the competitive Best Actor category for “Babes in Arms,” the first of four Oscar nominations. He also won an honorary Academy Award in 1983 in recognition of 50 years of memorable film performances.
Having also won an Emmy and two Golden Globes by that time, many actors would be content to rest on such precious laurels but Mickey Rooney, now 90, continues to work on stage, screen and television and recently wrapped a cameo role in the highly anticipated Walt Disney Pictures Holiday 2011 release, “The Muppets.”