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Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (also known as Oswald the Rabbit or Oswald Rabbit of just Oswald) is an anthropomorphic rabbit and animated cartoon character created by Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney for funny animal films distributed by Universal Pictures in the 1920s and 1930s, serving as the Disney studio's first animated character to feature in their own series.
History[]
26 animated Oswald features were produced at Walt Disney Animation Studios (the Walt Disney Studio at the time) before Walt Disney was eventually separated from the project and went on to create Mickey Mouse. Charles Mintz, and later Walter Lantz, took over production, creating new Oswald cartoons until 1943.
In 2003 Buena Vista Games pitched a concept for an Oswald-themed video game to Disney President and COO Bob Iger, who then became committed to bringing Oswald back to Disney. In 2006, nearly 80 years after Disney left Universal, The Walt Disney Company managed to acquire the intellectual property of Oswald and the catalog of Disney-produced Oswald films (with NBC/Universal effectively trading Oswald for the services of Al Michaels as play by play announcer on NBC Sunday Night Football).
Oswald returned to prominence in Disney's 2010 video game, Epic Mickey. The game's metafictional plot parallels Oswald's real-world history, dealing with the character's feelings of abandonment by Disney, and jealousy towards Mickey Mouse. He has since appeared in Disney theme parks and comic books, as well as two follow-up games, Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two and Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion. More recently, Oswald made a cameo appearance in the 2013 animated short Get a Horse!. Oswald was the subject of the 2015 feature film Walt Before Mickey. Oswald also appears as a townsperson in Disney Infinity 2.0.
