OBIT: Earlier this month, we'd lost a familiar talent who was best known for playing straight man to a talking horse. English/Canadian/American actor Alan Young died of 'natural causes' on May 19. Born on November 19, 1919, Young was exactly 96.5 years of age when he'd expired...

Mr. Young was best known on TV as 'Wilbur Post' (an architect), whose best friend is a talking horse named "Mister Ed" (which aired on CBS from 1961 to 1966). His film credits included "Androcles And The Lion" (1952), and two George Pal features, "Tom Thumb" (1958) and "The Time Machine" (1960). To anthropomorphic fanatics, Young also provide his voice to a number of animated works, such as the role of rodental inventor 'Hiram Flaversham' in Disney's "The Great Mouse Detective" (1986). But he will be best remembered as the voice of 'Scrooge McDuck' on "DuckTales" (1987-90) and in the short subject "Mickey's Christmas Carol" (1993). His last vocal stint in that role was in a pair of 'Mickey Mouse' shorts (which debuted on Disney Channel): "Goofy's First Love" (2015) and "No" (2016)...

VIDEO GAMES: For those of you who used to get your kicks playing "Frogger" at the video arcade many years ago, here's a new variation of this game that allows you to play one (or more) of your favorite cartoon characters, as you dodge traffic in a 3-D environment. Disney's "Crossy Road" (from Hipster Whale) is an 8-bit endless adventure to cross the road without splatting! Besides playing such obligatory characters as 'Mickey Mouse' and 'Donald Duck', you can also play other animal characters from Disney feature films like "Zootopia", "The Lion King", "The Jungle Book", and even "Alice Through The Looking Glass". For more information, go to this link: http://games.disney.com/disney-crossy-road

MOVIES: The folks at Disney believe in this film-making philosophy: "when in doubt, make a live-action version of one of our animated works". The formula seems to be working, so far, with the April, 2016 release of "The Jungle Book". But the real acid test will come in March, 2017, when a live-action remake of "Beauty And The Beast" comes out. The current trailer seems to tempt fans of the early 1990s cartoon feature; but only time will tell... Speaking of trailers, I have a link to a new animated feature from Illumination Entertainment, as the studio behind "Despicable Me" is attempting to release two animated features within the same year: "The Secret Life of Pets" (due out later this Summer) and "Sing" (which hopes for a Christmas release). The latter title seems to be a "Zootopia" knock-off, with other talking animals left out of the Disney feature (including simians, reptiles, amphibians, and birds), as a singing contest (a la "The Voice") is held, helping to raise awareness to saving an old theater where said contest takes place. Having seen the trailer to "Sing" via the "Cartoon Brew" website, this film does show some sort of promise. Here's the link to it:

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-.....ng-139913.html

Finally, one more follow-up about Disney's "Zootopia" (prior to its 'home entertainment' release on Tuesday, June 7th). Earlier this week, I went to see the CGI feature on the big screen for the sixth time (and the first time not in 3-D). I was looking for more Easter Eggs (such as the spoof of other Disney titles in those bootlegged DVDs being sold by 'Duke Weaselton'). Of course, I'd thought that I was an Easter Egg myself - the first time I saw "Zootopia" back in early March - when I saw my RL name JED as the first three characters of the license plate on the back of the van belonging to 'Gideon Grey' (late in the story). But during the sixth screening, I finally got to read the rest of the characters on said plate... and I nearly fell out of my seat! The next two digits following JED were 3 and 1 - which, by coincidence, happen to be the numbers corresponding to my birthday (March 1st)! But that's where the similarities ended. The last two digits were 1 and 3, and I was born in '54. Had I'd been born in '13, that would mean I would be either three years old or 103 years young! Not very likely!