A gem of animation history formerly believed to be lost was recently discovered in Japan. “Neck ’n’ Neck,” a lost Walt Disney film from the 1920s featuring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, one of Walt Disney’s early cartoons that led to the creation of his classic character Mickey Mouse, was found in Osaka, Japan among Yasushi Watanabe’s personal film collection.
Years ago, Watanabe acquired the cartoon film for 500 yen (which is about $4.40) when he was only in high school not knowing that the reel was actually a lost Walt Disney film. Now, at age 84, after coming across the history of Walt Disney’s character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in a book, Watanabe reached out to Japan’s daily newspaper The Asahi Shimbun to report the recovered film. The Walt Disney Archives have verified that Watanabe’s film is one of Disney’s missing Oswald cartoons.
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was created by Walt Disney in the 1920s, and is believed to be the inspiration for the classic cartoon Mickey Mouse since the character has similar features. Shortly after loosing the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit to Charles Mintz at Universal Studios in 1928, Walt Disney then created another character that resulted in the iconic cartoon mouse Walt Disney Studios is known for. While there are 26 short films featuring Mickey Mouse’s predecessor, seven of them are still missing.
“Neck ’n’ Neck” is now being stored at the Kobe Planet Film Archive.
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