"An Oswald, the Lucky Rabbit Cartoon"

Release Date September 19, 1927

Running Time 5:53

Synopsis

Oswald's sweetheart is stolen by a schoolyard bully, so he has to fight him during recess to win her back.

Characters

Oswald, the Lucky Rabbit

Credits

Director : Walt Disney

Animation

Ub Iwerks

Hugh Harman

Les Clark

Friz Freleng

Ben Clopton

Norm Blackburn

Rollin "Ham" Hamilton

Paul Smith

DVD

Disney Treasures : The Adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

Disney's Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (Non-Disney : Tom's Vintage Film)

Technical Specifications

Color Type : Black and White

Animation type : Combination live-action and standard animation

Sound mix : Silent

Aspect ration : 1.37 : 1

Negative format : 35mm

Print format : 35mm

Cinematographic process : Spherical

Original language : English

Released by M. J. Winkler Productions

Gallery

Click on the thumbnail for the full-sized picture

Comments

From Jesus Daprice : For those of you who have ever gotten into a fight at school with a bully anytime in your lives, this may be the short for you. I remember back when I was in high school, a skinhead bully wanted to fight me and ended up dislocating (possibly) the bone in my right-hand ring finger. It was painful!

Well, the story begins with Oswald riding on his scooter on his way to pick up his girlfriend. He is pulling petals off a flower saying (in his mind) "She loves me. She loves me not." Well, she obviously loves him since he's jumping up and down. Oswald arrives at the girl rabbit's house and picks her up. They go off riding on their way to school. Meanwhile, a little pig is seen with his mother who sends him off on the schoolbus. This looks more like a paddywagon (a police truck for transporting criminals to prison) than a schoolbus (but I guess children have always thought of school as being a sort of prison). Pete is shown hanging on the back of the bus and the driver blows exhaust at him causing him to jump off. Pete sees Oswald and his girlfriend and decides to bump Oswald off. A question mark pops out of Pete's head and he stretches it out, attatchs it to a tree and when the two rabbits scoot by, Oswald falls off. Pete is driving now and soon lands into a lake. Oswald runs over to help his sweetheart, but Pete pushes him out of the way and saves her. She is soon smitten with Pete and rejects Oswald. Oswald challenges Pete to a fight at recess that day. Here we have Oswald with a brick in his hand by the side of the schoolhouse and Pete walks right behind him and taps him on the back. Oswald looks behind him and Pete throws the brick up on the roof. With some pure luck, the brick falls down the gutter and knocks Pete out. Oswald's girlfriend comes over and sees him shouting at Pete. She soon loves Oswald again.

This was a great cartoon even though it was silent.

From Ryan : This short was better than "Great Guns." It depicts the life of an elementary/middle school student. As the other guy pointed out above, the school bus looks more like a paddy wagon than a bus. Yes, also as he said "children have always thought of school as being a sort of prison." I know I sure did once in awhile. In this short, Pete has evolved into a cat, but he is still a child. In some ways, this short reminds me of the 1936 Mickey cartoon "Mickey's Rival."

From Rich : This is the first Oswald cartoon I've ever seen, but it definitely won't be the last! I noticed for the first time just how similar Oswald is to Mickey, in the sense that neither of them is a rough, physical fighter when it comes to dealing with Pete, who Oswald tussles with in this cartoon (for those of you that have seen this cartoon and noticed that the bully was Pete, awfully small, isn't he?) Great cartoon from the silent era.