When was the blue Oswald the Lucky Rabbit created?

Hello friends, I hope that you are doing well. Today I want to talk about a question I didn’t have an answer for. As you may know I’m a huge fan of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. I’ve done plenty of blogs about the character. No doubt I will write about him more in the future. What I didn’t know was when the character officially turned blue. I know that he was presented in an old rubber hose design, with blue fur, and yellow shorts when Universal Studios Osaka had his merchandise in their park. That was from around 2001-2004, just before the Disney company reacquired the rights. But was that really the first time the character was reimagined for audiences? I’ve been wondering if this new look was spearheaded by Japan, or the US.

I’ve also wondered how exactly this redesign came to be. After all, in the mid ‘90s Oswald was still brown in color, and looked like a traditional cartoon rabbit character. He had more or less stayed the same since his old comic book run from around 1937 until the mid 1990’s. There was a time stamp that showed one of his last media appearances from that era. In Brazil Woody Woodpecker was known as Pika Pau. “Coehlo Osvaldo” was brown in the game Férias Frustradas do Pica-Pau aka Woody Woodpeckers Frustrating Vacation. The title came out in October 1995 by Tectoy for the Sega Master System, and Sega Mega Drive. In it Oswald gave Woody a magic paintbrush. Mind you this was 15 years before the magic brush in Epic Mickey!

The next time Oswald appeared in an officially licensed game was in Woody Woodpecker Escape from Buzz Buzzard Park for the GameBoy Color. It was developed by Planet Interactive Development, and published by DreamCatcher Interactive (North America) on August 14, 2001. Oswald appears in Level 2 in his blue form. This time he wasn’t friendly with Woody, and would actually attack you with a drop kick.

A few years later Oswald got a cameo in a Japanese pachinko machine called CR Woody Woodpecker. Developed by Maruhon, and released in December 2004. In the game the blue Oswald made a short cameo on the game screen. In 2006 the sequel CR Woody Woodpecker 2 was released. Again the blue Oswald got a cameo on the video screen. What was interesting about this appearance was that it was the same year that Disney had gotten the rights back from Walter Lantz / Universal. This could possibly be the last piece of media featuring that version making it a rare collectors item. The blue Oswald was indeed in circulation between 2001-2004 just as I thought. The pieces were falling into place, however the pachinko machine made me realize the updated look lasted longer than I first suspected. 

It turns out that the blue version had actually been proposed much earlier. Universal was looking at relaunching the Walter Lantz IP with a new Woody Woodpecker show in the mid 1990’s. This meant that the characters would be receiving a minor stylistic update, to make their look a little bit more contemporary. You can read the details on the New Woody Woodpecker show on the Walter Lantz Fandom page. Not only were Lantz’ biggest stars like Woody Woodpecker, and Chilly WIlly getting a refresh, but rare characters like Space Mouse, and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit were also getting a makeover. The show started development around 1997, with a few revisions made before production began. The new designs were posted by Daily Woody Woodpecker on Twitter. As these new versions were being finalized the comics, and games featuring the updated begun licensing. 

Sadly we wouldn’t actually see Oswald, or a few other rare characters make it into the new cartoons. They would appear in Latin American comics, and the aforementioned games, and pachinko cabinets. As for Oswald’s earliest blue design, the oldest officially licensed item that I could find with him was a rectangular dish / tray from 1998. He was very loosely drawn, and didn’t have the standardized look used in the Universal Osaka merchandise. Altogether the blue Oswald lasted for about eight years. I began wondering if I could track down any US merchandise from this era, but I’ll probably stick to the Japanese items. Were there any rare cartoon characters that you want to see return? Perhaps in game form? Tell me in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

The evolution of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, part 3...

It is rare for a character to maintain their original design. Whether we are talking about a comic book or a cartoon there are very few characters that have stayed visually consistent. It is possible that Otto Messmer's Felix the Cat is the one that has undergone the fewest changes since his debut in 1919. Almost every cartoon character in the Disney library has had a visual makeover through the years. Some were subtle, a change in wardrobe or voice, others were a bit more radical. The same could be said for those characters from MGM, Universal and Warner Bros. Of all the cartoon characters that ever was none changed as much as Oswald.

Within the span of a few years the character went from silent movie star to talking anthropomorphic rabbit. His look was radically different from year to year. The confusion this created may have cost him fans along the way. Even the studios producing the films sometimes couldn't find consistency on the posters they created.

The seeds for a radical makeover were planted around 1935. Up until then the changes in Oswald had been subtle. Over the span of five years he was given shoes, a shirt and even a voice. His head changed shape and his pie-eyes became widened with eyebrows added for emphasis. This look was consistent in the films and comic strips featuring the character. The first strips were published by DC, making the Lucky Rabbit one of their first star characters. This was a decade before Superman or Batman had been created! Yet something happened in 1936, Lantz was trying his hand at producing the comic strips and submitted a few samples that were never published. The look of Oswald had changed drastically. He suddenly looked more like a traditional rabbit. His shorts were gone and replaced by overalls. It was a mix of something new and a nod to the early wardrobe created by Ub Iwerks. The rare scans are courtesy of James Halperin . Contrary to what some people think Walter Lantz and Walt Disney held no ill will for each other. They were in fact good friends. Disney trusted that Lantz and Carl Lammle would treat the Oswald with respect so long as Universal held onto the rights. It was Charles Mintz and his dealings that Disney did not care for.

Walter Lantz wouldn't actually get the rights to Oswald until 1940 but he was still in charge of the character before then. Universal trusted his direction and his team. Mintz was seen at failing to recreate the success of Disney after stealing his character and staff. Universal fired Mintz once they realized that Oswald and / or Mickey Mouse could have been theirs if only the partnership were handled differently. Lantz in turn would run with Oswald for decades, yet couldn't quite manage to recreate the level of success that Mickey Mouse enjoyed no matter how hard he tried.

Rather than follow the mouse Lantz eventually decided to give the rabbit a makeover. The previous redesigns were co-created by Bill Nolan but the comic strip and animated makeover were owed mainly to Lantz. Oswald was a rarely seen in animation past the mid-1930s. He didn't really appear in any prominent short until the color musical Egg Cracker Suite in 1943. It was a rift on the Disney Silly Symphonies and was the last time Oswald would get a starring role. Oswald never really quite recaptured his star power. Not in animation nor in comic books. It didn't stop Lantz from directing. In fact it probably spurred him to create his own library of characters. Some of which would eventually prove to be more popular than Oswald.

 

Andy Panda debuted in 1939. The young panda bear was naive but quite lovable. A year later Woody Woodpecker debuted and the true star of the Lantz films was born. Others would join him as well, Wally Walrus (1944), Buzz Buzzard (1948) and Chilly Willy (1953) just to name a few. These characters helped carry the Lantz studios on throughout the years. Oswald lingered in the background for a long time. His stint in comics lasted until the late '50s but was left to reprints in foreign markets for the rest of the 20th century. It wasn't until the new millennium that Oswald would be reintroduced to audiences. Find out how this happened in the next blog. If you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!