A Needlessly Exhaustive History of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was Disney's first big cartoon star, and one of the first ever Disney characters, predating Micky Mouse. This video tells the story of the complete history of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, starting with his origin in the early days of animation, his creation and first cartoons, his changing of hands between different studios, disappearance, reacquisition by Disney, presence today, and where he might be going in the future. Oswald is one of my favorite Disney characters, and telling his story has been a passion project of mine for a long time. If you want to see more Disney history videos like this, consider subscribing to the channel. Thank you so much for watching and always remember that you're extraordinary!

Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
05:20 Part One: The Beginning
07:23 Part Two: Oswald's Creation
10:50 Part Three: The Oswald America Would Come to Know and Love
15:59 Part Four: Betrayal
18:59 Part Five: Deja Vu, All Over Again
20:24 Part Six: Poker
23:40 Part Seven: Oswald Disappears
24:28 Part Eight: Oswald's Restoration
27:16 Part Nine: Oswald Makes His Comeback
30:14 Part Ten: The Lucky Rabbit

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[ExtraordinaryPeoples]

Update: The Epic Mickey video I promised in this comment is now available to view. You can watch it here: A Needlessly Exhaustive History of Epic Mickey - Featuring AtlasGeneticist

Hey, everyone, thanks for watching and commenting on the video! I have just a few notes of clarification on some things in the video.
1. The story I tell of Mickey's creation in the video is the overly simplified and likely embellished version that Walt Disney told. Multiple aspects of this story are most likely exaggerated or even false. For example, Walt Disney probably didn't draw the first sketch of Mickey on the train. Also, it's very possible Lillian didn't actually name Mickey.
2. In the video, I say that Woody Woodpecker has been "Largely forgotten in pop culture." This is true for most of the world, but the character remains popular in Latin America, hence the Brazil-exclusive video game release I also mentioned. I should have clarified this in the video as my wording implied that Woody Woodpecker was mostly forgotten everywhere.
3. Yes, I make a joke about overly long history video intros right after making one myself. This was intentional. The intro may seem somewhat unnecessary to Oswald's story, but I was trying to establish what animation was at the time, how young it was, and how stealing ideas would be a common theme in the story. I felt all of this made the intro necessary for the story I wanted to tell.
4. Although I didn't mention how or when Ortensia got her name, the obvious inference is that she was named when she debuted in The Banker's Daughter. This is not accurate. She was actually named during the development of Epic Mickey.
5. Speaking of Epic Mickey, I am currently working on a video about the game, since several of you asked for it.
6. I state in the video that Oswald's final cartoon was "Feed the Kitty." Technically, this was the last short in the Oswald series, but not the last cartoon to star Oswald. That would be 1943's The Egg Cracker Suite, which is a "Swing Symphony" cartoon.
I think that's everything I need to cover. If you made it this far, thanks for reading and remember that you're extraordinary!

[ProfCoolio]

I heard a great theory as to why Ortensia is Oswald’s love interest: he’s a lucky rabbit, she’s a black cat. Opposites attract.

[QueSeraSeraaaa]

I feel completely neutral about Mickey, but Oswald is such a national treasure.

[TenshiLove]

I know its just a fictional character but it really touches my heart that they got the boy back and have made him feel better about being abandoned. The video of his song in the parade made me choke up. 😢

[AvengedHate]

I’m so happy Oswald is finally getting some love he deserves

[kathleenpeoples]

This video is phenomenal. I cried. I so wish Walt could have known this went full circle back to him. This is so well done, informative, and even funny. Great job.

[brandonthomas]

Damn, Oswald must've been rubbing that lucky foot of his for all of those years. It certainly paid off!

[mreevee_]

Oswald is literally the most underrated character of all time

[SlashManEXE]

Side note for Oswald’s first comic by National Allied Publications: that was the very first DC comic book. They were pioneering collections of new comics not reprinted from newspapers

[Poyostar]

Oswald The Lucky Rabbit will always be my favorite Disney character of all time. While I will admit that I would've loved for you to go into more detail on the development of Epic Mickey and Oswald's role in the story, including how he eventually learns to trust and respect his younger brother and how he lost Ortensia to The Blot, this is otherwise a perfect video about his history.

[CaptainCat]

Oswald is my favorite Disney character. Mainly for the history of the character, but I legitimately live his classic shorts

[saladbar]

i loved every second of this video dude. he's my All Time favorite character im always scrounging around for more content and this was just such a joy to watch :))))

[higbeeproductions]

Oswald is the best! He really have a fantastic part of animation history and cartoons. Mickey Mouse is seen as a Icon to many but It was really Oswald, who helped him part of that.. Whether if people like to admit it or not, Mickey was mostly known at the time as the replacement for Oswald success.. even though it did started all with a mouse But technically, if it hasn’t been, for Oswald wasn’t been a Mickey So even though Disney all started with a mouse.. animation really all started with a rabbit especially because of how they push the boundaries at the time with Oswald being one of the first cartoons to have a personality, unlike Felix, who is mostly made for gags

[gugurupurasudaikirai]

Oswald in a way is the direct progenitor of the Looney Tunes as well. While still working on Oswald, Ising and Harman also didn't trust Mintz and copyrighted Bosko a few months before Disney copyrighted Mickey as his backup plan. Bosko would go on to become the first Looney Toon after Ising and Harman went to work for Warner Bros

[asteroidrules]

I had no idea the recovery of Oswald was such a bizarre trade. For the longest time I only knew of the character as a footnote in the early days of Disney's career, the One Man's Dream show at Disney World mentions Oswald when explaining the origins of Mickey Mouse but that was basically the only reference to him the Disney company made prior to getting him back.

[theotherjared]

If Charles Mintz wasn't a massive dick, we wouldn't have Mickey Mouse, Looney Tunes, Woody Woodpecker, or Al Michaels on NBC. You could write a book about this and it would be panned for being too unrealistic.

[judethedude]

Love waking up everyday to the Oswald theme (I set it as my alarm)

[KaiserFritzprod]

Literally came to this video after the announcement of the Epic Mickey Remake

[WaterShowsProd]

I never considered the name connection between Oswald and Lee Harvey Oswald. That certainly would have been hard for America to handle at the time, especially as they were both simply referred to as "Oswald" at the time. I don't know for certain when I first heard of Oswald The Lucky Rabbit, but I seem to think it was in a Disney magazine in The 1970s, mentioning how he came before Mortimer Mouse who then became Mickey Mouse. That would imply the company was still thinking of him, keeping his memory alive even though he'd disappeared by then.

[noone]

The first time I remember watching Oswald was in the animated Tsum Tsum short “Monochrome”. I didn’t play Epic Mickey until recently when I found it at a thrift store, but I already had developed a fondness for him because of the fanart I’d seen and his cameos in other Mickey shorts. Plus the knowledge that he was some sort of unintentional secret intrigued me. The only Oswald merch I have is my keychain lanyard, my cousin got it somehow but didn’t know nor care who Oswald was so when I got all excited they gave it to me. I didn’t know he has a store so maybe I will end up in Disneyland someday.