HOME | DD

Description

Here’s something unique I thought I would try. Oswald starred in over a hundred shorts back in the day, and the first twenty-seven were directed by a certain Walt Disney. During the early days of animation, Universal needed a mascot. They needed a competitor to Felix the Cat and Betty Boop. This led to Disney and his partner Ub Iwerks to create a mascot character named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. He went through many peaks and valleys in his day, but Oswald was a seminal piece of animation history from the start of his career.
Oswald was a pioneer from the early days. He made great use of squash-and-stretch action, musical timing, and even some early attempts at storytelling. The personnel on these shorts reads like a Who’s Who of Animation. Ub Iwerks, Hugh Harman, even Tex Avery all worked on these shorts alongside Disney. You can see the inspiration for everything which came after for them with the portrayal of these characters and even some stories. “Rival Romeos” is like an early “Steamboat Willie”. “Oh, What A Knight” is “Knighty Knight Bugs” but with Oswald. All of it is clever and polished. So while it may not have been overnight, Oswald’s innovation shone through.
Oswald himself is quite the character. He’s like a crazier, trickster version of Mickey. Oswald uses his brain and knowledge of the animation medium to outsmart his enemies. Altering his body and even using his shadow makes for some great physical comedy, and in a medium where anything can and does happen, Oswald serves as the poster child for cartoon physics and manipulating them in a way HE likes. Plus the smooching with his girlfriend Ortensia and some of the cartoon violence against Pete impressed me. You wouldn’t see that in a Mickey short!
What impressed me most about these shorts though was the energy and timing of the animation. There is always movement, always something going on, and all of it seems to further the story in some way. There’s never downtime, but at the same time the fluid motion gives life and allows the story to move in a certain bounce and timing. The characters are some of the most elastic and rubbery ever put to animation also. Oswald changes shape, disassembles and reassembles his body, and even at one point splits into mini-Oswalds who reform into the large one again. The introduction of gags like walking in the sky before looking down and parachuting clothes make the scenes funny also. And it can be quite the interesting diversion to see where these gags originated.
Alas, Disney could not stay to keep his beloved baby in his custody. We all know he left the company after the big bosses took his animators and forced him to work for no pay. I don’t blame Walt for leaving when he did. But of course, this leaves a story open for what would have happened had Disney stayed, or at least fought to keep Oswald. For those of you who hate Mickey for stealing Oswald’s thunder, remember Walt didn’t have a choice. He HAD to rip off Oswald because he didn’t own the character. This is why the Disney company has been so protective of their work ever since. If anything, you should hate Charles Mintz for firing Disney and George Winkler for taking the character away from him. They killed Oswald! But that is a story for the next batch of shorts.
This scorecard was hard since so many of these shorts, especially from the early period, are either lost or don’t have any viewable footage online. I tracked down through the Lost Media Wiki the shorts they had left, and they were for the most part pretty fun. I do hope we can have more Oswald later. He deserves this newfound boom in popularity.

The following shorts are known to have been found, but don’t have any links available:

“Empty Socks” (1927)
“The Ol’ Swimmin’ Hole” (1928)
“Sleigh Bells” (1928)
“High Up” (1928)
If you could grant me links to any of those shorts, that would be cool of you!

Description

Here’s something unique I thought I would try. Oswald starred in over a hundred shorts back in the day, and the first twenty-seven were directed by a certain Walt Disney. During the early days of animation, Universal needed a mascot. They needed a competitor to Felix the Cat and Betty Boop. This led to Disney and his partner Ub Iwerks to create a mascot character named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. He went through many peaks and valleys in his day, but Oswald was a seminal piece of animation history from the start of his career.
Oswald was a pioneer from the early days. He made great use of squash-and-stretch action, musical timing, and even some early attempts at storytelling. The personnel on these shorts reads like a Who’s Who of Animation. Ub Iwerks, Hugh Harman, even Tex Avery all worked on these shorts alongside Disney. You can see the inspiration for everything which came after for them with the portrayal of these characters and even some stories. “Rival Romeos” is like an early “Steamboat Willie”. “Oh, What A Knight” is “Knighty Knight Bugs” but with Oswald. All of it is clever and polished. So while it may not have been overnight, Oswald’s innovation shone through.
Oswald himself is quite the character. He’s like a crazier, trickster version of Mickey. Oswald uses his brain and knowledge of the animation medium to outsmart his enemies. Altering his body and even using his shadow makes for some great physical comedy, and in a medium where anything can and does happen, Oswald serves as the poster child for cartoon physics and manipulating them in a way HE likes. Plus the smooching with his girlfriend Ortensia and some of the cartoon violence against Pete impressed me. You wouldn’t see that in a Mickey short!
What impressed me most about these shorts though was the energy and timing of the animation. There is always movement, always something going on, and all of it seems to further the story in some way. There’s never downtime, but at the same time the fluid motion gives life and allows the story to move in a certain bounce and timing. The characters are some of the most elastic and rubbery ever put to animation also. Oswald changes shape, disassembles and reassembles his body, and even at one point splits into mini-Oswalds who reform into the large one again. The introduction of gags like walking in the sky before looking down and parachuting clothes make the scenes funny also. And it can be quite the interesting diversion to see where these gags originated.
Alas, Disney could not stay to keep his beloved baby in his custody. We all know he left the company after the big bosses took his animators and forced him to work for no pay. I don’t blame Walt for leaving when he did. But of course, this leaves a story open for what would have happened had Disney stayed, or at least fought to keep Oswald. For those of you who hate Mickey for stealing Oswald’s thunder, remember Walt didn’t have a choice. He HAD to rip off Oswald because he didn’t own the character. This is why the Disney company has been so protective of their work ever since. If anything, you should hate Charles Mintz for firing Disney and George Winkler for taking the character away from him. They killed Oswald! But that is a story for the next batch of shorts.
This scorecard was hard since so many of these shorts, especially from the early period, are either lost or don’t have any viewable footage online. I tracked down through the Lost Media Wiki the shorts they had left, and they were for the most part pretty fun. I do hope we can have more Oswald later. He deserves this newfound boom in popularity.

The following shorts are known to have been found, but don’t have any links available:

“Empty Socks” (1927)
“The Ol’ Swimmin’ Hole” (1928)
“Sleigh Bells” (1928)
“High Up” (1928)
If you could grant me links to any of those shorts, that would be cool of you!