Happy Birthday, Walt! Oswald the Lucky Rabbit will finally get a voice (in Epic Mickey 2)!

It's Walt Disney's 111th birthday today, and there is news from the video game world that probably would have made him smile: Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, his pre-Mickey Mouse, silent-era creation, is finally getting a voice after 85 years! Oswald has appeared as Mickey's (silent) partner in 2010's Epic Mickey, but the sequel to the game, Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two (which just came out for Wii U, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Mac, PC coming in January), will let him speak for the first time ever. Who will be providing the voice of Oswald? None other than the legendary voice actor, Frank Welker, who is now the official, permanent voice of Oswald for any future cartoons. My Disney-loving heart has melted. (via Mashable)

Photo credit: Disney Wiki

When she isn't nerding out that the holidays are coming, Jamie is a reader at Monday Night Fan Fiction at Fontana's in Chinatown, NYC (next date: TBA, 7:00 PM). All work is original, written by the readers, so if you have a brilliant fanfic idea stuck in your head, send it via Twitter: @jamielikesthis

MORE: Entertainment • Epic Mickey • Frank Welker • Oswald the Lucky Rabbit • video games • Walt Disney

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Brainspore

I would have gone with James Earl Jones, but hey.
adonai

I suppose it’s only a shame that it is in such an average game.
Andrew Singleton

Something about Mickey’s half brother finally getting a home and a voice makes me smile.
http://twitter.com/RelatedTrivia RelatedTrivia

It’s the same exact voice (both actor and inflection) as the new ‘Fred’ voice from any recent incarnations of Scooby Doo.
Megan N. O’Donnell

I swear he had a voice in the first game…
artbyjcm

That’s so cool! This isn’t his first time playing a rabbit for Disney either. He did the voice of Fall Apart Rabbit in the show Bonkers. I loved that show so much. It was pretty much set in the Who Framed Roger Rabbit universe, but modern day (for the 1990s anyway) so it had references to “The Toons” as being a race of creatures living alongside normal people.

I was always hoping for more references, maybe an episode with dip, or Rabbit himself. Never happened, but still one of my favorite cartoons.