Writer of Pop Culture

1959: ‘Ben Hur’ Races In

There have been six different movie versions of the film Ben Hur, but the most famous is Charlton Heston’s version that was released on this day in 1959.

At the time, Ben Hur had the largest budget ($15.175 million), the largest sets, a wardrobe staff of 100, over 200 artists, about 200 camels and 2,500 horses and about 10,000 extras.

Filming began on May 18, 1958, and didn’t wrap up until January 7, 1959. The film crew worked between 12 to 14 hours a day, six days a week.

The chariot race scene lasts for nine minutes in the finished film and Miklos Rozsa’s film score is the longest ever composed for a film. (Image: MGM)

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1928: Happy Birthday Mickey Mouse

Mickey Mouse made his first public debut on this day in 1928 at the Colony Theatre in New York with his appearance in Steamboat Willie. Today is also considered Mr. Mouse’s birthday.

However, this was actually Mickey’s third cartoon. His first was Plane Crazy followed by The Gallopin’ Gaucho. Both were silent films, but Walt Disney had trouble finding a distributor. However, by the time Walt was working on Steamboat Willie, the technology had changed, and his studio was able to create the first sound cartoon.

Contrary to popular belief, Disney did not animate the early versions of Mickey. That was the job of Ub Iwerks. However, Walt was the voice of the Mouse for many years, but his first words were not spoken until 1929’s The Karnival Kid where he uttered, “Hot dog!” In 1978, he would become the first cartoon character to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Minnie didn’t receive hers until 2018. (Image: Disney)

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1988: Oliver Becomes a Kitten

Loosely based on the Charles Dickens novel, Oliver Twist, Oliver and Company became Walt Disney Picture’s 27th animated feature film and was released on this day in 1988. This time around, Oliver is played by kitten and becomes an unlikely member of a gang of dogs.

Oliver was voiced by a very young Joey Lawrence, and the pooches were voiced by Billy Joel, Natalie Gregory, Cheech Marin, Bette Midler, Richard Mulligan, Roscoe Lee Browne and Sheryl Lee Ralph (although her singing voice was that of Ruth Pointer). Dom DeLuise played the role of Fagin. The movie received mixed reviews but did okay with the box office.

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1998: Power Puff Girls to the Rescue

Three little girls with the names Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup actually appeared in the short film, Whoopass Stew! by animator Craig McCracken while he was attending CalArts in 1992. Before submitting the film to Cartoon Network, he smartly changed the name to The Powerpuff Girls.

The network showed the film during the series called World Premiere Toons in 1995. A second film, Crime 101 debuted in 1996. Then the series produced by Hanna-Barbera was greenlit and a new series was born on this day in 1998.

The three girls lived with their father, Professor Utonium, and lived in the town of…Townsville. In each short episode, the girls battled a variety of super villains but always coming up on top within 10 minutes or so. The series ran for six seasons (the last episode was aired on January 20, 2014) plus three specials.

In 2020, it was announced that the trio would be give a live action treatment for a new show to air on the CW aging the girls up to their mid-twenties. The series was being written by Heather Regnier and Diablo Cody. A leaked script received a lot of negative reviews, and the new series was dropped completely by May of 2023.

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