Cumulative rating:	(1 rating submitted)

Synopsis

Characters

Oswald, the Lucky Rabbit

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Distributor(s)

Universal Pictures

United States

The Adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

Germany

The Adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

Running Time: 6:38

Animation Type: Standard (Hand-drawn-Cel) Animation

Aspect Ratio: 1.37 : 1

Color Type: Black and White

Sound Type: Silent

Print Type: 35mm

Negative Type: 35mm

Cinematographic Format: Spherical

Original Language: English

Original Country: United States

Reviews and Comments

From Ryan :

This cartoon places Oswald as a hot dog vendor at the beach. One particular gag I enjoy is when Oswald sells a hot dog to a customer, the hot dog dips itself into some mustard. This was reused in both Mickey's The Karnival Kid and the Flip the Frog cartoon Circus.

From Ryan Kilpatrick at The Disney Film Project :

All Wet is a great short. No doubt about it, it reminds me of a Mickey short, although I can’t place which one, but since this preceded that, it feels like a great step for the Disney animators. At this point, you really get to see the Disney style of storytelling taking shape, and it makes my heart glad to be watching it blossom.

The key areas that tend to build that reputation here are the personalities of the characters that come through and the way that the character of Oswald is built through the action. I know that you can say that about some of the Alice shorts, but in the first few Oswald shorts, you see a character developing that is hapless yet cocky, who tries to do the right thing for selfish reasons but tends to get things to work out in the end.

This is the genius of the Disney animators – imbuing character into their drawings. For example, take the hot dogs that Oswald is selling at the beginning of the short. He has issues with the dogs sneaking off the table, and then his first customer can’t eat the hot dog because it screams for help and makes motions to discourage him.

It’s touches like this that make the Oswalds different than the Alice shorts. While Julius was a somewhat developed character, he mainly was a gag factory. You didn’t feel for him like you do Oswald. In All Wet, Oswald again meets his girl, and tries to impress her, but she’s not falling for it. The look on his face and his dejected, slumping attitude make you feel sympathy for him.

He gets the idea to be a lifeguard, paying off the lifeguard to take his badge. He has to redirect a young boy who needs a bathroom, but other than that, has no real lifeguard duties. The girl is impressed and heads out to sea and fakes her own drowning to draw Oswald in.

The plan backfires, though, as a fish grabs her and pulls her under. The panicked Oswald manages to reach her and fight to grab her as the waves pull them apart. The nice thing here is you can clearly see the fear and trepidation on Oswald’s face as he rows out to rescue his girl.

The waves toss them back on the beach, and Oswald rolls the water out of her, earning him a farewell kiss as the short ends.

Now, this is not the most original or groundbreaking short, but the return to the quality of the first few shorts after the Xerox of Great Guns is a heartening development. If you are following along with me, the Oswalds are really the first time we have seen the style of animation that you would expect in the Mickey Mouse shorts. It’s amazing to watch it develop.

From HB :

The answer is in the commentaries on the DVDs. Disney had no say-so. They were in Lantz' hands and, as mentioned by someone in an earlier post, he was reissuing them with soundtracks to get some material to market in the most economical way he could in tough times.

From Ryan Kilpatrick at The Disney Film Project :

It's interesting to me that there are so many reissues of these shorts. Let's be honest, it's not like the public was clamoring for Oswald DVDs in large quantities. So why the changes? Was the original footage unavailable? Or were there things in the footage that Disney just removed?

From Mac :

This Oswald short has similar elements to two Mickey cartoons, but I won't spoil the surprise and let you discover them for yourself!

Again this is a reissue cartoon which means missing scenes! I have no idea what else might have been in this cartoon originally, but I would guess at an extended rescue sequence (maybe with more scenes of the fish). The flow of action from the shot of Oswald and Fanny going up on the wave to the shot of them flying through the air doesn't seem very smooth to me.

History

Sources