Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Returns to Disney Animation for First Time in 95 Years
The original Disney character makes a comeback.
Classic Disney character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit just debuted his first short in 95 years.
Celebrating Disney’s 100th anniversary, the studio released Oswald the Lucky Rabbit on YouTube – a new hand-drawn short featuring the legendary character.
“Oswald is such a plucky scamp,” said director Eric Goldberg. “We wanted to bring Oswald back, and in the short, he literally returns to his original home, the movie screen,” says Goldberg. “We wanted to have Oswald do all of the ‘squash-and-stretch,’ ‘rubber hose’-animation style, celebrating that first generation of Walt Disney’s artists.”
Oswald made his debut back in 1927. Created by Walt Disney himself, and co-designed by animator Ub Iwerks, Oswald starred in a total of 27 Disney shorts before the character was sold to Universal.
But in a 2006 deal, the studio successfully obtained the rights to Oswald once more.
“On the eve of Disney’s 100th anniversary, it was such a joy to create the first new Oswald short from our studio since 1928,” said producer Dorothy McKim. “Our hand-drawn animation team – including our hand-drawn legends Mark Henn, Randy Haycock, and Eric Goldberg, as well our wonderful team of 2D apprentices, had a ball animating in the style of Oswald’s era.”
The short itself is black and white, mimicking the classic animation style of Oswald’s earlier appearances, and uses traditional animation techniques throughout.
After Disney lost the rights to Oswald, he was soon replaced with a slightly more memorable character – none other than Mickey Mouse.
Alongside the cool new short, Disney has also launched an Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Snapchat lens, allowing users to channel the classic animated character using AR technology.
Oswald was also featured in the 2010 Disney video game, Epic Mickey.
Want to read more about Disney? Find out about the return of former Disney CEO Bob Iger as well as Disney’s recent addition of Doctor Who to its Disney Plus service.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
