Keskustelujen arkisto

Hey all??

As some of you may know, one of my hobbies outside my Gemstone work is researching Disney's silent period?? the precomics days, with Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

These days I'm attempting to chronicle information about the Oswald films' appearance outside of the United States in the 1920s. Thanks to the great German reference IM REICH DER MICKY MAUS, by Dre?ler and Storm, I have the relevant information for Germany. But who released them in Italy, Brazil, Britain, Mexico, Finland, France, Poland, Holland and so forth?

Nearly half of the Disney Oswald films are missing today, so knowing their history "abroad" would be useful in tracking down actual prints of the others.

But there's a difficulty: it would help to know what the individual cartoons were named in various foreign languages, as well as what Oswald himself was called. In many countries, Oswald had one name in the old days and another name now. For example, in Germany, he is referred to today as "Oswald, der lustige Hase" (Oswald, the funny hare). But I don't want to know what he's called now; in 1928, his name was "Oswald, der verrückte Karnickel" (Oswald, the crazy rabbit). In some countries, his original name may not even have been Oswald.

I suspect that many countries have local Disney history books that are their equivalent of IM REICH, and that these books might say something about the Oswald cartoons' local titles and release history. Might anyone be able to give me some pointers?

Thus far I only know a little??

Germany: Oswald der verrückte Karnickel [Oswald, the crazy rabbit], distr. Matador Filmverleih
Mexico (and perhaps other Spanish-speaking territories; as yet unverified): El conejo Blas [Blas the rabbit], distr. ?
Netherlands: Oswald, distr. ?
Norway: Kaninen Oswald [Oswald the rabbit], distr. ?

Feel free to contact me privately or in this thread. Anyone whose information I can make use of will be properly credited.

David Gerstein

I'd like to thank Gunnar Strøm and Are Myklebust, whose research has led us to the discovery of a previously missing Oswald cartoon!
Any more leads, guys?