We all know the first Mickey Mouse short, ‘Steamboat Willie’, which is currently part of the collective imagination, but… Did you know that Mickey was nothing more than a replacement for a character that Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks lost? And not because it was being a failure precisely. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was born in 1927, one year before Mickey was created.. If you don’t know him, this is your chance to do so, because he’s back in style.
Rabbits and mice, a hellish world
The story is well known: Oswald was created for a short called ‘Trolley Troubles’ on September 5, 1927. Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks were working for Universal at the time, and after the success of their previous shorts, which mixed animation and live action (the very curious ‘Alice Comedies’), they decided to focus on this rabbit as a new star character. Such was the success that Disney felt the need to go ask for a raise… but, instead, they cut the budget by 20%.
As a result, Disney and Iwerks left, created their own studio, and left the character behind, creating a certain mouse that may sound familiar to you. Contrary to what is believed, Oswald continued to work during the 1930s with other entertainers and his trail completely vanished at the end of the decade, with different changes made to the character to, paradoxically, adjust it to what Disney was doing at that moment.
In 2006, Walt Disney got the rights to Oswald backinitially for the video game ‘Epic Mickey’, where this rivalry was treated in its own way and at the same time the brotherhood between the two characters, and shortly after his merchandising began to be sold in amusement parks. It has not been until 2022 that Oswald has returned in style, with a short film that Disney has posted directly on YouTube.
Not only is this the character’s first appearance in nearly 85 years, but it’s also It is the first short actually created by Disney. after an appearance here and there. Is Oswald here to stay with a new series of shorts or It has been just a nod to appear in the history books of animation? We’ll have to see it.