Walt Disney Treasures presents a formerly lost treasure in The Adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Oswald debuted on screen in 1927 and became the first animated star for Disney and his partner, animator Ub Iwerks. When Disney went to renegotiate a more beneficial distribution deal, producer Charles B. Mintz told him he had to take a budget cut instead. Mintz tired to pressure Disney by secretly signing most of his animators to new deals, and since the character belonged to Universal, Mintz let Disney know the studio could make Oswald shorts without him.
Disney refused to be bullied, so when his contract was up, he, along with Iwerks, who remained loyal to him, struck out to try his hand as an independent. Together, the first new cartoon the two men created featured Mickey Mouse. Other animators at Universal, including Walter Lantz, the creator of Woody Woodpecker, continued to create Oswald cartoons until 1943.
In 2006, the ABC network, which was then owned by the Walt Disney Company, had lost the broadcast rights to the NFL. The rights were picked up NBC/Universal. Sportcaster Al Michaels, who was under contract to another Disney property, the sports cable channel ESPN, was interested in following the NFL to NBC, so The Disney Co. facilitated a trade of assets, which included a transfer of ownership of the character and the 26 Oswald cartoons produced by Disney.
Oswald is reminiscent of Otto Messmer’s Felix the Cat. He has a series of wild, surreal adventures that can turn in any direction for a gag. When Oswald tries to fly in “The Ocean Hop,” he ties a regular balloon to the back end of a dachshund and for the front he uses a word balloon and attaches it with a question mark. In “Oh What A Knight,” he steps away from a swordfight, allowing his shadow to continue the battle, while he sneaks off to get a kiss from the princess.
Iwerks and the other animators made great use of perspective and points-of-view to create visually interesting cartoons. In “Trolley Troubles,” the trolley has to constantly change shape as it travels across the varying widths of track. The viewer is placed at the front of the trolley as it heads into a darkened tunnel and everything goes black and then white as the lighted exterior quickly expands in the frame.
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