I have written articles for my son and daughters (well one was whether it would be another daughter or son), but have yet to ‘pen’ one for the love of my life, my sweetheart and best friend, my wife.  I have been pondering what stamps to base the article on, when I came across the “Disney Sweethearts” set at a local show this past weekend and decided that this would be the perfect theme.

Issued on May 30, 1996 by the island nation of Palau, the “Disney Sweethearts” set composes a set of 6 (which this article is based on), a mini sheet of 9 and 2 souvenir sheets. Each of the stamps is perforated 14 x 13½ (13½ x 14) for one of the souvenir sheets and are printed using lithography.

The first stamp in the set features Simba and Nala from the Lion King. As young lion cubs, Simba and Mala were friends, but after Simba disappeared there was no contact between the two young friends. As adults the two meet up when Nala is trying to kill one of Simba’s rescuers. The two fall in love and eventually have a cub together.

From the film Oliver and Company, come our next two sweethearts, Georgette and Tito. Tito a chihuahua is a gruff, tough, street dog who seems and looks a little rough around the edges. When Tito first sees Georgette he falls for her right away. Georgette, a poodle, is repulsed at first by Tito at one point she refers to him as a “bug-eyed little creep”. Eventually she falls for Tito, but her ideas for his cleanliness, wardrobe and bathing frighten him away.

Next are Duchess and O’Malley from the Aristocats. The two meet when O’Malley, an alley cat, rescues Duchess and her kittens in the woods. He is instantly attracted to her but is at first put off by her having children. He realizes his mistake and falls in love with all of them. He is forced to rescue them and eventually becomes a part of Duchess’s family and marries her.

The fourth set of sweethearts comes to us from the Rescuers Down Under. Jake, a smallish kangaroo rat who is the typical tough guy talking trash about people he doesn’t like. When Jake first sees Bianca he immediately becomes smitten with her. In the end it isn’t Jake that Bianca, selects it is Bernard. In the end Jake, gives his friend the thumbs up and is happy for the two of them.

The movie The Fox and the Hound tells us the story of how Tod falls in love with the vixen Vixey she takes care of Tod after finding out that he has been released into the wild on his own. When Tod, forst meets Vixey he tries to impress her by catching a fish. He fails and all the animals laugh at him. He insults Vixey and refuses to speak to her. They start talking eventually and he opens up to Vixey that he has no survival skills. It is after this that Tod and Vixey come closer together.

The last stamp features Thumper with his wife Miss Bunny and Flower with his wife Bluebelle from the movie Bambi. During the movie, Owl warns the threesome of Bambi, Thumper and Flower not to be ‘ twitter-patted’ as we soon see despite their best intentions at the end of the movie Thumper marries Bixby and they have a litter of little bunnies. Flower also falls in love and ends up marrying Bluebelle and they have a baby and name it after Bambi.

I hope you have enjoyed this brief glimpse into the theme of love on stamps. After all it has been said that love is what makes the world go round.

Sources:
Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simba
Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Aristocats
The Disney Wiki. http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Georgette
The Disney Wiki. http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Tito
The Disney Wiki. http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Jake
The Disney Wiki. http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Vixey
The Disney Wiki. http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Thumper
The Disney Wiki. http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Flower