The voice actor of Donald Duck has said he feels the disgruntled Disney character is still entertaining audiences after 90 years because “there’s a little Donald in all of us”. The cartoon duck, known for his semi-intelligible speech and ill-temper, is celebrating the 90th milestone anniversary on Sunday after making his film debut in 1934 in the short cartoon The Wise Little Hen. Tony Anselmo, who has voiced the Disney character since 1985, thinks Donald has become more relevant over the years due to there being “more frustration than there used to be”.
“If you watch Walt Disney’s Donald Duck cartoons, he’s really a pretty good-natured guy. He likes to have fun and he has ambitions. “He sets out to do something and it’s only when something gets in his way that he gets mad.
“So he has to get triggered, and I think we’re all like that a little bit. “If we’re in a hurry and we’re going somewhere and we end up in traffic, then we get just as mad as Donald. “And when we see him throw a tantrum, it makes us laugh because we know what it’s like to be in that situation.
” The world has become a lot more fast-paced and technological since Donald entered it in 1934, which Anselmo feels makes his attitude more relatable. He said: “I’ve been around for 64 years myself and I can tell you, the last 10 to 20, there’s a lot more frustration than there used to be.” The voice actor teased some of Donald’s upcoming storylines will see him navigating.
