Interest
Early Disney Animated Oswald Film Discovered in Japan
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge
Before Mickey Mouse steered the ship in Steamboat Willie, Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks created the character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit at the behest of Charles Mintz for Universal Studios. The character would star in 27 one-reel animated pictures starting with his first appearance in Trolley Troubles in 1927. The character didn't say with Walt Disney, however, as Charles Mintz took the rights for Oswald to Universal where the character remained until 2006. It was Oswald that pushed Disney and Iwerks to create a character for Walt Disney Studios that could rival his popularity: Mickey Mouse.
Oswald didn't have the same kind of staying power as Disney's mouse and seven of his animated shorts were lost over the years. Disney animator David Bossert wrote the book Oswald the Lucky Rabbit: The Search for the Lost Disney Cartoons that discusses the lost physical footage of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. In a serendipitous development, it would be this book that would lead to the discovery of one of the lost shorts.
Yasushi Watanabe is an 84-year-old anime historian with a collection dedicated to his fascination with animation. While reading Bossert's book, he remembered a film in his own collection--one he purchased 70 years ago in Osaka for 500 yen (US$4.50 at current exchange rate). The film was labeled "Mickey Manga Spide" when he purchased it all those years ago, but the cartoon didn't star Mickey at all. It was actually the Oswald film "Neck 'n' Neck." The Asahi Shimbun newspaper confirmed with Walt Disney Archive that Watanabe's discovery was the real deal.
The original short had a five-minute run time but was then cut to two minutes for home video sale on 16-mm reels. Watanabe's reel was one of the two-minute versions sold to the public. The film is now housed at the Kobe Planet Film Archive. Watanabe's "Neck 'n' Neck" reel is the second version of the Oswald short found in Japan, in part due to Bossert's book. Another version, this one 50-seconds long on 35-mm film, was found at the Toy Film Museum in Kyoto. A separate lost Oswald short titled "Sleigh Bells" was found in the British Film Institute archives in 2015.
Source: The Asahi Shimbun (Erina Ito), BBC News
