Mickey Rooney, who while diminutive in size was an actor who spanned a wide range of moxie, versatility, and range, culminating in him becoming one of Hollywood’s true A-listers in its colorful history, has died at the age of 93 after battling a long illness reports TMZ. Rooney died of natural causes.

Mickey Rooney’s career as an actor and as a showman spanned ten decades, and he packed a lot into what appeared to be, at face value, a puckish, aw shucks kind of visage and frame. But he was able to stretch his talents into much more than a one-note artistic flair to appear in films that were some of the mid-20th Century’s most successful and more revered of all time.

Pete’s Dragon
Blu-ray l Blu-ray/DVD Combo
DIRECTOR: Don Chaffey
STARRING: Helen Reddy, Jim Dale, Mickey Rooney, Red Buttons, Shelley Winters, Sean Marshall
Walt Disney Home Video
RELEASE DATE: October 16, 2012

Two hours represents a worthy portion of the day that could be used to engage in many activities. Cleaning the house. Raking a yard full of leaves. Painting a room. All of those chores seem much more entertaining than watching portions of Pete’s Dragon, an inept entry in the Disney catalog.

This musical-themed drama/comedy symbolizes why general audiences may have failed to connect with some of what the company produced during the 1970s.