Sunday 8 January 2012

Oswald The Lucky Rabbit

In 1924 Ub moved to California to help Walt start his new company; Disney Brothers Productions.  Which then later changed to Walt Disney Studios.  


It was at this new company that Ub created one of the most important but majorly overlooked now cartoon series that helped shape Walt Disney's future creations.  This cartoon series was soon to mark the end of 'The Silent Age'.  This was the term given to the early stages of animation where many people had begun to take note of this medium and what it could do before the adding sound to moving pictures or cartoon strips, people like Ub had noticed the medium through people like Winsor McCay's work (specifically for Ub) and wanted to explore further.  


Ub was given a contract from Universal Studios with Disney and were given a free clean start to do what they wanted.  They got to work with a team and created the character Oswald The Lucky Rabbit.  The original pilot of this series 'Papa Papa' didn't impress the executives at Universal much but they still agreed to commission and finance a set of short comedies staring the character.  His offical debut was in 1927 in the short 'Trolley Troubles'.  All in all there were 8 shorts staring Oswald including the pilot but as the characters popularity grew and grew so did the disputes in the work group that included Ub, this lead to a lawsuit where and agreement was made that Disney would lose this character and the rest of his team but Ub as he stayed loyal to his friend and stayed with him during and after the dispute.  


This for me backs up my earlier thought of that if Ub had stayed with Disney through his bankruptcy he might not have stayed with him during this dispute as there is only so much a close friendship; which it is clear to me that this was to them, can deal with and still stay strong.  


References:
TV Tropes (n.d.) Oswald The Lucky Rabbit,[online] Available at: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OswaldTheLuckyRabbit [Accessed: Sunday 8th January 2012].


Tv Tropes (n.d.) The Silent Age of Animation,[online] Available at: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheSilentAgeOfAnimation [Accessed: Sunday 8th January 2012].


Google Search (n.d.) Oswald The Lucky Rabbit. [image online] Available at: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZOBmx7wW5V-2WtfQ35PEOBMFua2q3Ib-kOGkZEdOZMkjUOF_KOpbZSc6CPBFkirzqj7gMaDRh1QMTBEcVnpYejNovoL_K18GUn9tR3wL4Hu3-v9wrPk3wR7e46ZWzZSGtTEc3DLRJ-Dku/s320/oswald-the-lucky-rabbit.gif [Accessed: Sunday 8th January 2012].

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