The BBC is reporting that the 1928 animated Walt Disney short Neck ‘n’ Neck – featuring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, the precursor to Mickey Mouse – has been discovered in Japan.
The short had been held by anime historian Yasushi Watanabe for the past 70 years, with Watanabe unaware of its significance until he read the book Oswald the Lucky Rabbit: The Search for the Lost Disney Cartoons.
Created by Disney and Ub Iwerks, 26 Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons were produced in 1927 and 1928 before a dispute saw the rights to the character ending up with Universal Studios, prompting Disney to create Mickey Mouse.
Eight of the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons were thought to have been lost, although Neck ‘n’ Neck is the second to be rediscovered in recent years after the BFI found a copy of Sleigh Bells in its National Archives in 2015.
