It's only appropriate that the Walt Disney animated classic "Lady and the Tramp" be released just before Valentine's Day. After all, what other movie comes to mind every time you share a romantic spaghetti dinner with your significant other?
"It's my favorite scene and it's listed somewhere, officially, too, as one of the most iconic, romantic film scenes of all time," Diane Disney Miller told me in a recent interview. "It would delight my dad to know that. When the dogs' lips meet on the span of spaghetti, it's a moment that's appreciated worldwide as a great romantic scene."
Slideshow: "Lady and the Tramp" behind the scenes
Disney Miller, 78, is an integral part of the Blu-ray release of "Lady and the Tramp" (Walt Disney Home Entertainment), which makes its debut in stores Tuesday. Disney Miller, the oldest of Walt and Lillian Disney's two daughters (her sister, Sharon Mae Disney, died in 1993), appears on the disc's bonus featurette, "Remembering Dad."
"I love to really let people have insight into what kind of a man he really was," Disney Miller said.
Disney Miller said the era of "Lady and the Tramp" -- the quintessential purebred-meets-mutt love story -- was an eventful one for the Disney family, and in many ways, was very personal.
"I married my husband, Ron, in 1954 and our first child was born at the end of 1954, so dad became a grandfather then," Disney Miller recalled. "At the same time, the film was in production and Disneyland was in the works. It was a very exciting, sweet time in our lives. The film itself is such a sweet story. It's about all the ups and downs and the drama in that makes a story interesting and exciting. It's basically about love. It was a lovely time in our lives."
Of course, with all that was going on, Disney Miller saw her father worry, but she knew those fears would be alleviated because he was used to pressure -- or at least the pressure of making an animated film. You have to remember, Walt Disney is the man who risked everything to make "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."
"Animated films he had done, but the park was something he had never done before," Disney Miller recalled. "But I can't remember any frustrations he had with it. Of course he worried, he and his brother (Roy O. Disney) both worried when they were in debt with the banks and the banks were getting on their necks, but he never let it get him down. He didn't obsess on it for long. He saw his way out and he always felt that things would turn out right in the end."
These days, Disney Miller spends a great deal of time highlighting the stories of her dad's many achievements -- Disneyland and "Lady and the Tramp" among them -- as one of the co-founders of the Walt Disney Family Museum, which opened in 2009 in the Presidio of San Francisco.
"I wanted to present my father to people in a way so they could get to know him," Disney Miller said. "They would have to get some prejudiced biographer's opinion of him or lies perpetrated by others. He had a very inspirational story. I hope that people of all ages will walk out of this museum thinking, 'I got to know Walt Disney,' and also be inspired by the way he lives on. In any time of your life, if you want to do something like change your career, you should do it if you can."
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