Portal:Disney/Selected article/2

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit is an anthropomorphic rabbit animated cartoon character created by Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney for films distributed by Universal Pictures in the 1920s and 1930s. Oswald was introduced in 1927 after Disney’s series of Alice Comedies had run its course. Disney signed a new contract with Universal Studios head Carl Laemmle where he would produce a series of cartoons for Charles B. Mintz and George Winkler. The first Oswald cartoon, Poor Papa, was rejected by the Universal studio heads due to poor production quality and the sloppiness and age of Oswald. After this, Disney, together with Ub Iwerks, created a second cartoon called Trolley Troubles featuring a much younger, neater Oswald. The short officially launched the series and proved to be Disney’s greatest success yet.

A few of Oswald’s adventures dealt with humor related to the procreative abilities of his species, as illustrated in the episode description of Poor Papa: “Oswald gets a visit from the stork... again and again and again. He has to resort to a variety of strategies to stop the continual flow of babies.” Trolley Troubles also showed Oswald surrounded by numerous baby rabbits, this time heckling him while on the job. Other cartoons, however, generally placed Oswald in more human-type conditions and situations.