Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (partially lost series of Walt Disney animated short films; 1927-1928)

Oswald ending card from the Disney era.

Status: Partially Lost

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit is a series of short cartoons made from 1927 to 1928 by Walt Disney and from 1928 to 1943 by a variety of animators under Universal Studios. After the failure of his Laugh-O-Grams and Lafflets, and the minor success of the Alice Comedies, Walt Disney wanted to compete with stronger cartoon characters of the era like Felix the Cat. After successfully pitching Oswald, Winkler Pictures gave him a talented animation staff and a budget.

Background

Walt began production on the shorts in 1927. Oswald was well received and became the first Disney character to have his own tie-in merchandise. Oswald's success over the competition was due to the more ambitious, innovative, and raunchy animation and humor compared to the others, which tended to be more conservative and safe. Despite the success of the series, after 27 shorts, the budget was cut by more than half and nearly half of Walt's animation team was moved to other projects. Disney soon quit working at Winkler and started his own animation studio with some of his most talented Oswald staff. Having lost the rights to Oswald, Disney proceeded to create a new character named Mickey Mouse.

After Disney left Winkler, Oswald's shorts were animated by many rising animation legends, such as a young Tex Avery. The Oswald cartoons eventually featured color and sound but were ultimately discontinued in 1943 due to a fall in popularity. Those shorts are still owned by Universal. In addition, a few Oswald cartoons were remade into Mickey Mouse cartoons by the Walt Disney studio.

Rediscovery

In 2005, when Oswald's copyright expired, Universal (which had distributed the Winkler shorts) gave the Walt Disney company the rights to Disney's original Oswald shorts. A DVD collection was released in 2007 as part of the Walt Disney Treasures line, containing 13 of the original 27 shorts. Several more shorts appeared in some form over the next few years.

The shorts Poor Papa and Africa Before Dark were included as bonus features on The Walt Disney Signature Collection Blu-Rays of Pinocchio and Bambi. Two minutes of a further short, Neck 'n Neck, was discovered in Japan in 2018, and these two minutes were leaked in 2019.

Six of the original Oswald shorts made by Disney are currently missing. Three others are incomplete. (Oh Teacher was reissued in 1932, and this reissued version is the only one that survives at the moment.) Many shorts past the Disney era are lost as well, but these are less likely to be found due to them being even more obscure than the Disney shorts.

Theatrical Shorts

#	Title	Year produced	Status
1	Poor Papa	1927	Found
2	Trolley Troubles	1927	Found
3	Oh Teacher	1927	Found
4	The Mechanical Cow	1927	Found
5	Great Guns!	1927	Found
6	All Wet	1927	Found
7	The Ocean Hop	1927	Partially Lost
8	The Banker's Daughter	1927	Lost
9	Empty Socks	1927	Partially Lost
10	Rickety Gin	1927	Lost
11	Harem Scarem	1928	Lost
12	Neck 'n' Neck	1928	Partially Lost
13	The Ol' Swimmin' Hole (The Ole Swimmmin' 'Ole)	1928	Found
14	Africa Before Dark	1928	Found
15	Rival Romeos	1928	Found
16	Bright Lights	1928	Found
17	Sagebrush Sadie	1928	Lost
18	Ride 'Em Plowboy	1928	Lost
19	Ozzie of the Mounted	1928	Found
20	Hungry Hoboes	1928	Found
21	Oh, What a Knight	1928	Found
22	The Sky Scrapper (Sky Scrappers)	1928	Found
23	The Fox Chase	1928	Found
24	Tall Timber	1928	Found
25	Sleigh Bells*	1928	Found
26	Hot Dogs	1928	Lost
27	High Up	1928	Found

(*) While reels of these films are known to exist, they are not currently available for public viewing.

See Also

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

• Poor Papa (found "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit" Walt Disney animated short film; 1927)

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• The Incredibles (found full version of McDonald's Happy Meal commercial for Pixar animated film; 2004)
• The Incredibles (found online promotional trailers for Pixar animated film; 2004)
• Pixar (partially lost early CGI animated commercials from animation studio; 1989-1998)

Animation (Disney)

• Aladdin (found Howard Ashman treatment of Disney animated film; 1988)
• Alice in Wonderland (partially lost original draft of Disney animated film; 1939)
• American Dog (partially found original version of "Bolt" Disney animated film; 2007-2008)
• The Black Cauldron (partially found deleted scenes of Disney animated film; 1985)
• Chanticleer (partially found production material of cancelled Disney animated film; 1940s-mid 1960s)
• Chicken Little 2 (partially found production material of cancelled sequel to Disney animated comedy film; 2006)
• Disney Circle Seven Animation (partially lost production material of cancelled Pixar sequel films; 2004-2006)
• Dumbo II (partially found production material from cancelled Disney animated sequel film; 2000s)
• Fantasia 2006 (partially lost production material for cancelled Disney animated sequel film; 2002-2004)
• Fraidy Cat (lost production material of cancelled Disney animated film; 2004-2005)
• Frozen (partially found early drafts of Disney animated film; 1937-2012)
• Gigantic (lost production material of cancelled Disney animated film; 2013-2017)
• The Jungle Book (lost Bill Peet version of Disney animated film; 1963-1964)
• Kingdom of the Sun (partially found original version of "The Emperor's New Groove" Disney animated film; late 1990s)
• The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (partially found production material and deleted scenes of Disney animated sequel film; 1995-1998)
• Music Land (lost Disney animated anthology film; 1955)
• My Peoples (partially found production material of cancelled Disney animated film; late 1990s-early 2000s)
• The Search for Mickey Mouse (lost production material of cancelled Disney animated film; 2002)
• The Seven Dwarfs (partially found production material of cancelled direct-to-video prequel to "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" Disney animated film; 2000s)
• Tangled (partially found early drafts of Disney animated film; 2001-2010)
• Tinker Bell (partially found first draft of Disney animated film; 2007)
• Treasure Planet II (lost production material of cancelled Disney animated sequel film; 2002)
• Wild Life (lost production material for cancelled Disney animated film; late 1990s-2000)
• Zootopia (partially found pre-rewrite version of Disney animated film; early 2010s)

Animation (Pixar)

• A Tin Toy Christmas (lost production material of cancelled Pixar animated Christmas TV special; early 1990s)
• Cars 3 (lost deleted scene of Pixar animated sequel film; 2017)
• The Good Dinosaur (lost original version of Pixar animated film; 2011-2013)
• Inside Out (lost original Bing Bong death scene of Pixar animated film; 2015)
• Made in Point Richmond (found miscellaneous content from Pixar DVD; 1986-2000)
• Newt (partially found production material of cancelled Pixar animated film; early 2010s)
• Toy Story (partially found early test footage of Pixar animated film; 1992)
• Toy Story 4 (found original script of Pixar animated sequel film; 2013-2017)
• Toy Story & Toy Story 2 (partially found intermissions for 3D double feature re-release of Pixar animated films; 2009)
• Toy Story "Black Friday Reel" (partially found rough cut of Pixar animated film; 1993)
• Toy Story "Jessie" (found Patsy Montana Award acceptance speech animation of Pixar character; 2000)
• WALL·E (partially found original treatments of Pixar animated film; 1994-2008)

Audio

• Fantasia (partially lost original audio of Disney animated film; 1940)
• Jack Wagner (partially lost Disney Park background music collection from American actor; 1970s-2001)
• Mars Needs Moms (found Seth Green vocal performance of Disney motion-capture animated film; 2011)
• Pinocchio (lost Mel Blanc's "Gideon the Cat" dialogue from Disney animated film; 1940)
• Toy Story 2 (partially found Bullseye dialogue test footage from Pixar animated sequel film; late 1990s)

Live Action

• 101 Dalmatians (found "Spotted Landmarks" teaser trailer of Disney live-action film; 1995-1996)
• Enchanted (lost deleted song from Disney live-action/animated fantasy comedy film; 2007)
• Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (found deleted scenes from Disney live-action film; 1993)
• Sleeping Beauty (partially found live action reference material for Disney animated film; 1959)
• Walt Disney (lost physical Mickey Mouse animation reference footage of animator; late 1930s)

Short Films

• Blowin' in the Wind (found Pixar animated short film; 1985)
• Mickey and Minnie Mouse (lost unauthorized pornographic animated short film; existence unconfirmed; 1936)
• Mickey's Man Friday (partially found production material of unproduced remake of Disney animated short film; 1939-1941)
• Language Arts Through Imagination (found series of Disney educational short films; 1988-1989)
• The Princess Academy (lost production material of cancelled Disney animated short film; 2009)
• Short Subject aka "Mickey Mouse in Vietnam" (found unofficial animated short film; 1968)
• Tales from Radiator Springs "To Protect and Serve" (lost episode of "Cars" animated miniseries; 2015)
• Uncle Walt (lost unauthorized Disney short film; 1964)

External Link

• Oswald series overview on the Disney Wiki.