Disney revived Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in animation

In celebration of Disney’s 100th anniversary, the studio released a brand-new animated short featuring one of the company’s oldest and most frequently forgotten characters, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

If you’ve heard of Oswald, it might be because the character was featured in the 2010 game Epic Mickey. The spunky rabbit was created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, an animator. This happened in 1927 when their fledgling animation studio had been contracted to Universal Pictures. Oswald appeared in several popular shorts. However, Universal claimed ownership of the character, so he removed the rabbit from their animation stable and made Mickey Mouse, which he would later own.

Oswald returned to the Walt Disney Corporation’s ownership in 2006, and while the character subsequently appeared in games, merchandise, and around the parks, this is his first appearance in an animated short since then.

“Oswald is such a plucky scamp. We wanted to bring Oswald back, and in the short, he literally returns to his original home, the movie screen,” says director Eric Goldberg. “We wanted to have Oswald do all of the ‘squash-and-stretch,’ ‘rubber hose’-animation style, celebrating that first generation of Walt Disney’s artists.”

You can watch the short video on YouTube.