With this post, I'd like to say happy birthday to the luckiest cartoon rabbit, right behind Bugs Bunny, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit!
I, personally speaking, have been an Oswald fan and historian since 2015. I mostly was into the Disney Oswalds at first, but recently I've been watching more of the Lantz ones.
I'd like to talk about 3 Oswald cartoons I would recommend anyone to watch! I haven't seen many of the Winkler shorts so I won't bring them up here.
Ozzie of the Mounted (1928)
According to Dave Bossert's excellent book Oswald the Lucky Rabbit: The Search for the Missing Disney Cartoons (I own the first edition), this short was lost entirely until 2005, when the first minute or so of a 16mm print was found. Eventually, a 35mm print was found in time for the 2007 Walt Disney Treasures Oswald DVD set. This short is about Oswald the Mountie trying to catch the notorious Peg Leg Pete. This short was later remade in 1931 for the Looney Tunes series, titled Big Man from the North, with Bosko taking Oswald's place.
The animators here are Ub Iwerks (who does the opening), Hugh Harman, Rollin "Ham" Hamilton, and future Old Man, Les Clark.
Another thing to note, the "GET YOUR MAN" intertitle on the 16mm print was absent on the Treasures set, this print here is from said set, so it does not reinstate it, but I'm sure it can be found on YouTube elsewhere.
Hells Heels (1930)
Ah yes, easily one of (we'll discuss the other one after this), if not, the best Lantz Oswald short.
This short revolves around Oswald, Pete, and another unnamed character (I'll call him Bill, because the first shot he appears in is animated by Bill Nolan) robbing a bank. Pete and Bill force Oswald to rob the bank, then the bank explodes, killing Bill and Pete, while Oswald survives, and is then chased out of town by the sheriff, who tells him to never come back or he'll be dead. Oswald comes across the sheriff's little son, who Oswald has to entertain in order for him not to get killed.
The animators here are the aforementioned Bill Nolan, Ray Abrams, Manuel Moreno, and Clyde "Gerry" Geronimi.
Spooks (1930)
Here's the other Lantz Oswald everyone holds in high regard.
The plot revolves around Oswald and his girlfriend Kitty at an opera house, and Sadie gets kidnapped by the Phantom, and Oswald has to save her, so this is technically a parody of the 1925 film The Phantom of the Opera, which was rereleased around this time. There's even an unmasking scene in both the film and the cartoon! But the one part everyone seems to remember is the ending, supposedly animated by Ray Abrams.
The Phantom asks Oswald "What does a chicken say when it lays a square egg?"
Oswald thinks and replies "I d-d-don't know."
The Phantom slaps him, causing Oswald to yell "OUCH!", to which the Phantom says that "Ouch is correct" and disappears, causing Oswald to smile as the curtain draws over the short, ending it (Yes, that's exactly what happened.)
Animators here are the same as Hells Heels, but Pinto Colvig, who later became the voice of Goofy, also gets credit as an artist.
Overall, these are three really good Oswald shorts you should give a watch, you won't regret it, trust me!
