Walt Disney Treasures - The Adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

While most people know that Walt Disney’s star really rose with the advent of Mickey Mouse, not as many people are familiar with his animated shorts before Mickey. Immediately before Mickey, he and his animators were working on shorts starring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, but that work came to an abrupt halt when his distributor decided to cut Walt out of the process, something he could do since he owned the rights to the character. It wasn’t until 2006 that the Disney Company got back the rights to Oswald, and they wasted little time in releasing this two disc The Adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit collection in 2007.Walt only worked on 26 cartoons starring Oswald, and only 13 of them are preserved here. Since Disney didn’t own anything having to do with these cartoons, the company has had to track down any prints they can and restore them if at all possible. I have a feeling that these 13 are the only ones they had tracked down as of the release of the set. As to the prints themselves, they look good, especially considering they are 80 years old. Yes, there are issues a few times, but most of it is not that noticeable.Since Oswald was originally a silent cartoon series, they asked a composer to create some silent era soundtracks to accompany the cartoons. These certainly feel like the music you might have heard in those old theaters and it adds to the viewing experience. I’ll admit I wish we had the option to watch one or two truly silent for the novelty, but maybe that’s just me.What about the cartoons themselves? They were all done in 1927 and 1928, and they are actually pretty fun. As with the early Mickey’s there is little continuity between shorts, so in one Oswald is in a transatlantic plane race and in the next he’s working on a trolley, a member of the Mounties, or fighting to win the hand of his love in Medieval times. While the animation is certainly not up to today’s standards, it is easy to find the humor in many of the site gags. I enjoyed watching them.There are other similarities between Oswald and the early Mickeys. Oswald at times looks like a long eared Mickey, and his love interest, a rabbit at times a cat most of the time, wears a costume similar to early Minnie. Finally, the heavy is Putrid Pete, and one of his aliases is Peg Leg Pete.In the way of extras, the first disc has commentaries from animation historians on six of the titles, a fragment of another one, a short documentary on Disney’s loss and regain of Oswald, and a stills gallery.So what’s on the second disc? It is devoted to Ub Iwerks. The majority of this disc is an hour a half documentary on his life called The Hand Behind the Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story put together by his granddaughter. Ub was a friend of Walt’s who was an animator at the studio during this time. In fact, he singlehandedly did the animation on the first few Mickey Mouse cartoons. Later, he tried opening his own studio before going back to work for Disney in the special effects department. The documentary is an interesting look at a life that all Disnerds have heard of but few really know. Rounding out the disc are three of the Alice shorts that Ub worked on, plus the first two Mickey’s and the Silly Symphony “Skeleton Dance” that was all his. It’s a chance to really see his work, and I appreciated not having to track these shorts down from other collections in the series.Honestly, I think this collection will appeal more to the die-hard Disney fanatics. For most Disney fans, Oswald is an interesting footnote along the way. But those who are interested in all things Disney will love getting to see these early efforts. Plus, they are entertaining.So The Adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit isn’t for everyone. But those who are interested will really enjoy what they find here.

To most hardcore cartoon geeks (including myself) who knew about these films through cartoon history books, these have been on the must-see list for years! In my case, it's partially personal. My Dad (who was also an animation aficinado) was born in 1922 and remembered seeing the Oswald toons as a kid. He would tell me stories about the crazy things Oswald did with his ears and in his adventures.Now that I've finally seen these for myself-here goes. Ozzie RULES! These cartoons really do live up to the hype! Don't buy that stuff about them being "crude," as the abominations "South Park" and "Family Guy" are not exactly DaVinci. Some of the animation of the heroic hare is quite sophisticated even by modern standards. But as for the toons themselves. TROLLEY TROUBLES is an amusing slap-happy number with our hare on a runaway train. Some of the future Looney Tunes crew worked on these cartoons, and it shows. GREAT GUNS is a hilarious WW1 satire. Love the scenes where the cannon's mouth takes up the entire screen and the warplanes fight by hitting each other with their wings.THE MECHANICAL COW is an interesting mixture of gags and character study (which tends to evolve as these cartoons progress). The title character is quite likeable as he assits our hare. BRIGHT LIGHTS is a fascinating number. The neon sign in the first scene is a visual delight and the heroic hare tries to sneak back stage to meet "Madame Zulu" (a takeoff on Josephine Baker, perhaps?). The sly dog (er, rabbit) even tries to squeeze her booty in a pre-code moment (there is a lot of what a commentator calls "barnyard humor" in these cartoons, but none of it will really offend anybody today but the most prudish and PC of viewers). OZZIE OF THE MOUNTED obviously has a few skips on this print, but that does not overtly distract from this crazy chase story that predates Dudley Do-right by 4 decades. OH TEACHER is quite inventive, and the last gag involving the bully is quite hilarious!Overall, we can see why the Oz was so popular in 1927-28. Uncle Walt, Ub Iwerks, and the early Looney Tunes crew gave the beloved bunny (admittedly not as agressive as Bugs would become) a personality that viewers could identify with mixed with outrageous and inventive stories. They make you smile as well as laugh. It makes one long for the lost 13 Oswalds that have yet to be found (an extremely rare pencil test for the lost SAGEBRUSH SADIE is shown, which gives a good idea of what it was like).As for the extras-The Ub Iwerks documentary is interesting, but tends to drag in some parts with the overemphasis on technical details. A few complete FLIP THE FROG cartoons would have helped. Three Aice cartoons, including my favorite (next to Alice's Egg Plant with the hilarious Communist chicken Little Red Henski which is elsewhere on DVD) ALICE GETS STUNG. The gag involving the mother rabbit (no obvious relation to Oz or Bugs) telling a sob story to Julius the cat is one of the most touchingly funny moments of early animation. Two very early Mickeys from 1928 are here, PLANE CRAZY and the legendary (if overrated in my view) STEAMBOAT WILLIE (the funnier GALLOPING GAUCHO, which is elsewhere on DVD, would be included if I had my druthers).In either case, this DVD marks the end of a truly triumphant year for cartoon collectors and gives us much cause to shout. Thank you Walt, thank you Ub, and yes, even you Leonard Maltin.