Oswald ending card from the Universal era.
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (also known as Oswald the Rabbit) is a series of theatrical cartoons from Universal Pictures starring the titular character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Several of the cartoons are either lost, partially missing, or unrestored.
History[]
Universal Pictures was looking to get back into the cartoon business and needed a cartoon character of its own. Because of this, Winkler Pictures head Charles Mintz told the Walt Disney Studio (who they had previously produced the Alice Comedies with) to create a character he could pitch to Universal. Since Universal felt there were too many cartoon cats on the market at the time, the character was made into a rabbit. Ub Iwerks designed the rabbit and Universal's publicity department named it "Oswald" after drawing suggestions from a hat. Winkler signed a deal with Universal for 26 cartoons with the character, and had the Disney Studio animate them.
The first Oswald short to hit theaters was Trolley Troubles (1927). The rabbit enjoyed a modest success and even had his own tie-in merchandise.
Around 1928, Iwerks warned Walt that several of his animators were signing contracts with Winkler Pictures. Walt didn't think much of it at the time.
When Walt spoke with Charles Mintz about a potential budget increase. Despite the rabbit's success, Mintz not only declined the budget increase, but cut the budget by more than half and told Walt that his animators would work at his studio instead of Walt's.
The Walt Disney Studio's Oswald contract with Winkler was terminated in March 1928. Following the termination, Walt and Iwerks went on to create Mickey Mouse.
Winkler continued to produce Oswald cartoons for Universal - Mintz signed a contract that would result in three more years worth of Oswald cartoons. However, in mid-1929, when animators Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising called Universal head Carl Laemmle to ask him to put them in charge of Oswald instead of Mintz, Laemmle terminated Winkler's contract and established an in-house cartoon studio headed by Walter Lantz. The cartoon studio would be split off on November 16, 1935, giving Walter Lantz control of Oswald. Lantz would eventually sell the studio back to Universal in 1984, which resulted in Universal regaining the rights to Oswald.
Universal had burned most of its silent film collection in 1948. The Oswald shorts may have been part of this collection.
In February 2006, The Walt Disney Company acquired the rights to the Disney-animated Oswald shorts and the character. A DVD collection was released in 2007 containing 13 of the original 26 shorts. Two more emerged in 2008, another in 2011 and one in December 2014 but 9 of the shorts are still missing. Also missing are some of the later-era shorts, including a couple that were animated by Avery.
List of lost Oswald shorts[]
Disney[]
- The Banker's Daughter (some sketches survive)
- Rickety Gin (storyboard page survives)
- Harem Scarem (some sketches survive)
- Sagebrush Sadie (a pencil test fragment survives)
- Ride 'Em Plowboy! (storyboard page survives)
- Hot Dog (storyboard page & title card survives)
Winkler[]
- Mississippi Mud
- Panicky Pancakes
- Rocks and Socks
- South Pole Flight
- Bull-Oney
- A Horse Tale
- Hen Fruit
- The Fishing Fool
- Stage Stunts
- Stripes and Stars
- Ice Man's Luck
- Saucy Sausages
- Nuts and Jolts (film reel discovered)
- Ride 'Em Ozzie (film reel discovered)
Lost Reissues[]
- Yanky Clippers (1931 sound reissue lost)
Lantz[]
- Pussy Willie
- Ozzie of the Circus
- Kisses and Kurses
- Nutty Notes (italian negative was found in 2015, english film-reel discovered in 2019)
- Bowery Bimbos (negative was discovered in 2015)
Lost Sound Prints[]
- Hot for Hollywood (audio is lost, vitaphone discovered in 2005)
- Amatuer Nite (audio is lost, print w/ sound speculated to survive)
- Kounty Fair (audio is lost)
- Mexico (speculated to have lost audio until 2015)
Lost Title Cards[]
- The Fowl Ball (1954 TV title card only found)
- Africa (original title card found, print w/ original is lost)
- Nutty Notes (italian title card found, english is lost)
- Bowery Bimbos (english and italian title card lost)
- Snappy Salesman (speculated to have lost laughing oswald title card, debunked)
- The Navy (found title card)
- The Farmer (found title card, unrestored)
- Alaska (found title card)
- The Fisherman (1954 TV title card only found)
See also[]
- Lafflets - another lost Disney series