Alan Young, RIP.

Alan Young was still doing voiceover work as Scrooge McDuck for Disney when he was well into his nineties, which is quite an achievement. In cartoon form, his last appearance as Scrooge was in "Goofy's First Love", one of the recent Mickey Mouse cartoons. In videogames, he can be heard in Ducktales Remastered, Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep and Ducktales: Scrooge's Loot.

And of course, the original Ducktales TV series and Mickey's Christmas Carol. He was actually the 2nd actor to have played Scrooge (the 1st was Bill Thompson in Scrooge McDuck and Money) and reprised the role in Ducktales after Will Ryan played the tycoon in the TV special Sport Goofy's Soccermania. It's no secret that Alan was not going to be the voice of Donald Duck's wealthy uncle again for the upcoming Ducktales episodes premiering on DisneyXD next year, but whoever the 4th Scrooge will be (possibly Craig Ferguson - my choice), he's got big spats to fill. Young's Scrooge voice was instantly likeable, hearty, feisty. Prior to the show, Scrooge was purely a comic book character whose token appearances in animation were a reminder of Disney characters lives expanded on ancillary tie-in merchandise; afterwards, it felt like he had always been part of the cartoon stable - or an oversight that had finally been corrected. It's become his best-known work - eclipsing his co-lead role in the sitcom Mister Ed - at least where social media is concerned. I'm particularly fond of Darkwing Duck creator Tad Stones' tribute, so it got a prime spot as the headliner for this post.

I'm well aware that Disney still offers Volume 1 of their Ducktales series DVDs at very affordable prices, and the theatrical feature, Ducktales: Treasure of The Lost Lamp, is still available.* If you don't own those videos, I recommend them as a good viewing experience, particularly as a marathon. And if you own any Mister Ed DVDs..sure, give those a spin as well.

Alan Young, RIP.

*Some day, Disney will get around to releasing ALL the remaining episodes of Ducktales on DVD, AND hopefully re-release Volumes 2 & 3 - and Volume 1 is still in circulation as an "Anniversary Edition", yet carries no bonus features?...