Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, or simply Oswald, is an anthropomorphic rabbit and the first cartoon mascot created by Walt Disney.

Personality
In early cartoons, Oswald was very similar to the early incarnations of Mickey Mouse, that being the mischievous but well-meaning character made popular among cartoons in the 1920s. He was quite energetic, inventive, adventurous and almost always caused trouble, but found his way out through cunning and wit. Oswald loved to play and make others laugh, but despite his flaws, he has morals and always tries to do the right thing. His personality traits were something never seen at the time, as most cartoon stars had no personality, and he favored the new "emotion" gag over slapstick.

In his current revival (especially in the Epic Mickey series), Oswald is portrayed as more aggressive, serious, and short-tempered than Mickey, though he does have a sense of fun and humor. Oswald is not welcoming towards strangers and even comes across as spiteful towards people he doesn't trust. He is very brave, but overconfident, which makes Oswald impulsive and bordering to the point that Oswald can be ignorant and ultimately fumble. Ironically, despite having the moniker of "lucky," Oswald is prone to bad luck as much as good luck, which has led him into many unfortunate situations often caused by his own overconfidence - he can only escape from these by his own good luck.

Despite his less-appealing traits, Oswald remains fundamentally good-hearted. He is motivated by a love for adventure and heroism. A recent interview with Disney historian David Gerstein has highlighted the difference between Mickey and Oswald in terms of personality: Oswald has also been shown harboring a strong jealousy towards his "replacement" for effectively stealing his life. Some materials indicate this relationship outside of spin-off material; pictures were approved by Walt himself that depicted Mickey and Oswald meeting for the first time and support these sentiments.

With luck on his side, Oswald is willing to take risks and will attempt to do what's best for his family and friends. Though he doesn't appear to be, Oswald can be quite friendly if he wants to. His love for Ortensia is just as strong as Mickey's love for Minnie.

The Walt Disney/Universal Era
In January 1927, Winkler Pictures head Charles Mintz told Disney and Iwerks to create a cartoon character they could sell to Universal Pictures - Universal wanted to get into the cartoon business and needed a character of it's own. Disney began working on both the character and the films shortly after he moved his studio to Hyperion Avenue.

Disney opted to make the character a rabbit since there were already two popular animated cats at the time, Felix the Cat and Krazy Kat. Universal's publicity department chose the name of the character by drawing it out of a hat filled with slips of paper with different names on them.

The first Oswald cartoon, Poor Papa, was poorly received by the Universal executives and Mintz. Universal initially did not distribute it to theaters. Disney and Iwerks created a younger and neater Oswald for their next cartoon, Trolley Troubles. It was well-received and Universal released it to theaters on September 5, 1927.

As time passed, Disney feared that Mintz would forgo renewal of the contract, partly due to Iwerks informing Disney that George Winkler, at the behest of Mintz, had been going behind Disney's back during pick-up runs for Oswald reels and hiring away his animators. Eventually, Walt traveled with his wife Lillian to New York to shop the series to other distributors, including Fox and MGM, prior to meetings with Mintz. As Walt later recalled, he placed two Oswald prints under one arm and—feeling "like a hick"—marched "one half-block north" on Broadway to MGM to visit Fred Quimby. During this period, Walt and Lillian attended the premier of the Oswald short Rival Romeos, which debuted at the Colony on 53rd and Broadway.

In the spring of 1928, Disney traveled to New York City in hopes of negotiating a more profitable contract with his producer Charles Mintz. But as economic problems were apparent at the time, Mintz figured Disney should settle for a 20% cut, although large turnarounds were promised if the studio's finances showed considerable growth. While most of his fellow animators left for Mintz's studio, Disney decided to quit working on the Oswald cartoons. On his long train ride home, he came up with an idea to create another character, and retain the rights to it.

Disney and Iwerks would go on to develop a new cartoon in secret, starring a new character called Mickey Mouse. The first Mickey Mouse cartoon to be filmed was Plane Crazy in the summer of 1928, but it was produced as a silent film and held back from release. The first Mickey Mouse film with a synchronized soundtrack, Steamboat Willie, reached the screen that fall and became a major hit, eclipsing Oswald.

Oswald continued to appear in cartoons and comics after Walt stopped working with the character. One of Oswald's last appearances while under Universal's ownership was in Férias Frustradas do Pica-Pau (1995), a Woody Woodpecker game released for the Sega Master System in Brazil only.

In 2004, shortly before Disney acquired the rights to Oswald, Universal Pictures utilized an Oswald similar in appearance to the Disney/Iwerks design, but with blue fur and yellow shorts. In Oswald's first, official short, Poor Papa, he was a considerably older rabbit with a far more aggressive attitude. While the short was poorly received, it was significant in introducing Oswald's children, who would later reappear in Trolley Troubles and Oh, Teacher. Only three known recordings of "Poor Papa" are known to exist today. As mentioned above, the following short, Trolley Troubles, was the first to showcase the Oswald the world knows today. He was portrayed as a small, mischievous rabbit, often finding himself in trouble. He would always be saved, however, through his luck (hence the name). He was also shown to have the ability to disassemble his body parts at will, as seen when he literally detached his leg and kissed it for good luck. This trait would carry on to later incarnations.
 * Appearance, personality, etc.

Like many classic Disney characters, some stories revolving the rabbit would center wooing a love interest. Oswald's original love interest was named Fanny; a sultry rabbit. She would later be replaced by a cat named Ortensia in The Bankers Daughter.

Before he was introduced to Mickey, the infamous Pete was an enemy of Oswald's. The two were bigger rivals, often at odds for varying reasons, though Oswald would always come out on top, due to the impressive strokes of luck.

Return to Disney
In February 2006, the Walt Disney Company received a number of minor assets, including the rights to Oswald, from NBCUniversal in exchange for sending sportscaster Al Michaels from Disney's ABC and ESPN to NBC Sports. At the time, ABC had lost its contract for NFL broadcast rights, and despite recently signing a long-term contract with ESPN, Michaels was interested in rejoining broadcast partner John Madden at NBC for the Sunday night package.

The deal included the rights to the character and the 26 short films made by Disney. Rights to the Winkler and Lantz/Universal-produced Oswald films would be kept by Universal. Iger had been interested in Oswald because of an internal design document for a video game, which would ultimately become Epic Mickey. Walt Disney's daughter, Diane Disney Miller, issued the following statement after the deal was announced:

"When Bob [Iger] was named CEO, he told me he wanted to bring Oswald back to Disney, and I appreciate that he is a man of his word. Having Oswald around again is going to be a lot of fun."

Around the same time, the Kansas City Chiefs and New York Jets made a similar deal, the Chiefs giving the Jets a draft pick as compensation for releasing coach Herm Edwards from his contract. Referring to this trade, Michaels said:

"Oswald is definitely worth more than a fourth-round draft choice. I'm going to be a trivia answer someday."

To celebrate the acquisition, a line of special merchandise was released at Disney Stores nationwide and a Walt Disney Treasures DVD set was released compiling all of the surviving Disney-produced Oswald cartoons.

Oswald makes a cameo appearance near the end of Get a Horse!, waving to the audience from the bottom right side of the screen when Mickey and the gang all rejoice at Pete's defeat when Minnie drives Pete's car through. This was Oswald's first appearance in a Disney animation production in more than 84 years. However, Oswald's cameo was so well hidden that it was not noticed by the public that Oswald even appeared in the short until this fact was announced by Jerry Beck on his Facebook page in a post made on September 28, 2013.

Disney Japan also released a small Christmas short with Oswald and Ortensia online for the holidays. Creating the first new pure Oswald animation since his return to Disney. The story simply revolved around Oswald hiking up a mountaintop to visit Ortensia for Christmas.

Mickey Mouse
Oswald can be seen in the hieroglyphics in the short "Entombed". Oswald made his first physical appearance in the episode "Canned", where he is dug up from a heap of trash by Mickey and promptly thrown into a trash can. In "Year of the Dog," a billboard featuring Oswald appears next to the Shanghai World Financial Center. He is subsequently seen in a number of hidden cameos through the episodes. In the episode "Hats Enough", upon fitting the magician's hat, Mickey would perform a magic trick and briefly turn himself into Oswald. However, the gag was cut for time.

Big Hero 6
A sticker of Oswald's face can be spotted atop the ceiling of Hiro's bedroom during the scene Baymax tends to his toe-stubbing injury.

Zootopia
A stamp of Oswald appears briefly on the abandoned subway train Doug operates in. This was also shown and confirmed in The Art of Zootopia.

Trivia

 * Despite Oswald's origins being a hand-drawn, black and white character for Universal Studios, Oswald's first appearance for cinema within the ownership of Walt Disney Motion Pictures is in a CG format (Get A Horse!).
 * Oswald, Goofy, and Pete are three of the very few characters from the Classic Disney Shorts to have a biological child instead of a traditional niece or nephew. Goofy has Max, Pete has P.J. and Pistol and Oswald has the Bunny Children. Donald has a son in How to have an accident at work, but it's a one-time instance.
 * In the Bonkers comics, there is a character named Nimrod the Rabbit, a comedian and keeper of the Toonstone, who is very similar to Oswald.
 * In Walter Lantz' use, Oswald's last name was "Rabbit", and the comic book to his name (running alongside Disney books such as Mickey Mouse and Uncle Scrooge) was subsequently called Oswald Rabbit. To this day, Oswald's official name is "Oswald Rabbit" in Japan, but this is unstated in all English-language media.
 * Oswald's Japanese appearance from this time may have inspired the character design for the Bunny Children, as each Bunny Child is blue in color.
 * Before Disney acquired the rights back for Oswald in 2006, he had been previously voiced by Bill Nolan in 1929, Bernice Hansen from 1932 to 1938, Walter Lantz in 1935, Dick Beals in 1952, Mel Blanc in 1957, Gloria Wood in 1957, Pinto Colvig in 1930, Mickey Rooney in 1931, and June Foray in 1943, and is now currently voiced by Frank Welker.
 * Unused concept art by Disney artist Kevin Nelson for Wreck-It Ralph had Oswald being proposed as a racer for Sugar Rush.
 * Oswald was actually considered to be the final villain of Epic Mickey, but the idea was scrapped.