Walt Disney Treasures - The Adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Oswald the Lucky RabbitBrand: Buena Vista Home Video
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Animated, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 234 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-12-11
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Walt Disney Video
Movie Reviews of Walt Disney Treasures - The Adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
Movie Review: PRE-MICKEY DISNEY ICON
Summary: 4 Stars
The history of Oswald the Rabbit is as eccentric as the character itself. Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks created the character in 1927 but they were created specifically for Universal Studios. With some 26 shorts created, Disney sought an increase in their budget for the series. He was not only turned down but instead had his budget cut by 20%. When Disney scoffed he was basically told too bad because Universal owned the character and had actually already hired away most of the animators who worked on the series.
The one animator who didn't leave was the great Ub Iwerks. With Oswald gone, he and Walt set about creating a new character. That character would become the symbol of Disney, Mickey Mouse. Mickey was, at first, pretty much a pure copy of Oswald. Universal would continue to produce Oswald shorts for another ten years, picking Walter Lantz, best known as the creator of Woody Woodpecker, to produce them. Ironically, during his later years, Oswald would be softened a bit and end up resembling Mickey Mouse.
Now here is where it gets interesting...In 2006, ABC, which is owned by Disney, lost the rights to NFL football. Monday Night Football broadcaster, Al Michaels, asked to be released from his contact at ABC so he could join his partner, John Madden at NBC. Disney agreed but only if the rights to Oswald Rabbit were returned to them. Thus, I'm pretty sure this was the only time in history a broadcaster was traded for a cartoon character...I think Disney got the better of the deal.
Naturally Disney set about putting together a Treasures collection for Oswald. The only trouble is that only 13 of the original 26 shorts could be found and their quality differs quite a bit. This set features all 13 of the Oswald shorts and is filled out with several "Alice" shorts (Disney's first animated star) and also some early Mickey Mouse shorts including "Plane Crazy" the first Mickey Short, and "Steamboat Willie" the first Mickey short featuring sound.
While the animation on the Oswald cartoons is somewhat crude it's also very inventive with unique perspectives and shadowing effects. This is best exemplified in "Oh what a Knight" as Oswald tries to rescue his sweetheart from a castle, engaging in a sword battle with her father. Oswald periodically hands his sword to his shadow to continue the fight while he goes and smooches his girl. It's quite well done and one of the best looking shorts in the collection.
I also enjoyed "All Wet" in which Oswald is selling hot dogs at a beach (and the hot dogs keep trying to escape). When the cute girl rabbit pays him no attention he pays off the lifeguard to do his job and the girl fakes drowning in order to get Oswald to rescue her.
"Bright Lights" is another frantic bit of hilarity as Oswald sneaks backstage at a show and hides in a box that turns out to be a tiger's cage. Soon the Tiger is chasing Oswald throughout the theater.
The complete list of shorts includes:
Trolley Troubles
Oh, Teacher (with commentary by Mark Kausler)
The Mechanical Cow
Great Guns!
All Wet
The Ocean Hop (with commentary by Mark Kausler)
Rival Romeos
Bright Lights (with commentary by Leonard Maltin and Jerry Beck)
Ozzie of the Mounted (with commentary by Jerry Beck)
Oh What A Knight (with commentary by Leonard Maltin and Mark Kausler)
Sky Scrapers
The Fox Chase (with commentary by Jerry Beck)
Tall Timber
Featurettes include "Oswald Comes Home" a history of the character and "The Works of Ub Iwerks".
Oswald isn't the "Holy Grail" of animation finds that some may claim but it's certainly nice to have them back at Disney where they can be seen for the first time in decades.
Summary of Walt Disney Treasures - The Adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
Before Mickey there was Oswald the floppy-eared star of Walt Disney's first cartoon series THE ADVENTURES OF OSWALD THE LUCKY RABBIT. Fun and mischievous the cheerful rabbit's popularity quickly multiplied and so did his shorts. Between 1927 and 1928 Disney created a bounty of legendary and rarely seen Oswald cartoons. Now for the first time ever on DVD we present the premiere collection of Disney's Oswald shorts -- all featuring new scores composed especially for this release. The long-lost rabbit's life story from his birth to his long-awaited return to Disney and a documentary on the legendary Ub Iwerks set the stage for the comeback of one of the most important stars in Disney's menagerie. Featuring exclusive introductions by film historian Leonard Maltin this is a timeless collection from generations past for generations to come.System Requirements:Running Time: 234 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: CHILDREN/FAMILY Rating: NR UPC: 786936716344Before Mickey, there was Oswald: By 1926, Walt Disney's first series, the live-action/animation "Alice" comedies, had run its course. Under pressure from distributor Charles Mintz and Carl Laemmle of Universal, Disney and his artists created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in 1927. Within months, Moving Picture World praised the cartoons' "astounding feat of jumping into first-run favor overnight." During the "Oswald" series, Disney's talents as an organizer and story man began to emerge; his friend and head animator Ub Iwerks designed Oswald's appearance and imbued him with a jaunty style of movement. But in 1928, Mintz took the character away from Disney. To replace Oswald, Walt created Mickey Mouse.
This important collection includes the 13 surviving silent "Oswald" shorts (of 26). Many of them feel like rough drafts for later Mickey cartoons. When Oswald enters a trans-Atlantic race in "The Ocean Hop," the antics he performs in his airplane prefigure the ones in "Plane Crazy." In "Sky Scrappers," Oswald takes a job on a construction site where his girlfriend (an unnamed cat) sells box lunches, anticipating the Mickey and Minnie cartoon "Building a Building" (1933)--down to the opening shot of a dinosaur-like steam shovel at work. The silent "Oswald" shorts have rarely been seen since they were first released 80 years ago: Some viewers may grow impatient with these relatively crude cartoons, but they remain intriguing examples into Walt Disney's early work.
Leslie Iwerks' informative documentary The Hand Behind the Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story (1999) traces the life of her grandfather. One of the greatest talents of the silent cartoon era, Ub Iwerks animated the first Mickey shorts and "Silly Symphonies" almost single-handedly. Iwerks left Disney to start his own studio in 1930. Although it attracted an impressive array of talent, it closed in 1938. Two years later, Iwerks returned to Disney, where he won two Oscars for innovations in visual effects technology. Hand suggests that the Iwerks cartoons were too sophisticated for the era of the Hays Code. But for all his talent as an animator and technical innovator, Iwerks was not an effective director: His studio's cartoons simply weren't very good. Included on this disc are three "Alice" comedies, "Plane Crazy," "Steamboat Willie," and "The Skeleton Dance," which showcase Iwerks' endearingly bouncy animation. (Unrated: suitable for all ages: cartoon violence) --Charles Solomon
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