Bright Lights

"Bright Lights," featuring the legendary Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (Disney's silent-era precursor to Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse) is a truly delightful cartoon brimming over with clever and imaginative gags.

The cartoon captures your attention from the very first scene. A brilliantly animated neon sign advertising "Mlle. Zulu's Vodvil Show" (the Mademoiselle is clearly a spoof of the popular Black dancer Josephine Baker-although nothing in this 'toon is racially offensive) and we see an animal orchestra in the theater jazzing it up and the Mlle. putting down some serious moves on the stage. The humorous hare comes in and tries to figure out a way to meet the dancer of his dreams.

Some really howl-arious stuff. The Rabbit even "accidentally" squeezes the Mlle. Zulu's booty in one scene (pre-code humor abounds in these 'toons). In one gag presaging the Looney Tunes (some of whose originators worked on this series), a guard at the theater smacks Oswald and he breaks up into group of Little Oswalds. When a group of lions go after the beloved bunny, their mouths open up to cover the screen in black. This cartoon is filled with such inventive and thoughtful humor that may be taken for granted today, but was quite innovative for its era.

Ordinariily, I'm not fond of most silent animation, but Walt Disney tended to distinguish himself from his contemporaries even then. The Oswald cartoons have been the stuff of legend among cartoon fanatics who for years have only read about them in cartoon history books (my own father, who was born in 1922 and died in 1984, told me stories of seeing the Oswald cartoons as a child and the funny things he did with his ears). I'm glad to see they live up to the hype and I hope that more of the 12 (13 if you count "Sagebrush Sadie" which partially exists in pencil test form) lost Oswald cartoons may someday be found.

The principle plot is simple. Oswald needs to get into the theatre where Mlle. Zulu, the shimmy queen is performing. He, of course, does not the fifty cents he needs to get in. The whole effort involves his using every bit of his ingenuity to get by a guard who practically kills himself keeping the erstwhile rabbit out.

Despite Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and his cartoons being popular and well received at the time, they have been vastly overshadowed over time by succeeding Disney characters (like Mickey, Donald and Goofy) and those from Looney Tunes. It is a shame as, while not cartoon masterpieces, they are fascinating for anybody wanting to see what very old animation looked like and what Disney animation was like before Mickey arrived on the scene.

'Bright Lights' is one of Oswald's best, perhaps the best up to this point of the Oswald series and a staggering improvement over the previous cartoon 'All Wet' which was watchable but somewhat of a let down. The only real faults here are the very slight story and some rather hectic pacing at times.

The animation is good on the other hand, for a cartoon so old and techniques still in early days, it's crisp and fluid enough with some nice detail (sure there are some rough spots understandably especially with Disney animation becoming much more refined later). The added soundtrack and sound effects (the 1927-1928 Oswald cartoons being silent) add a lot rather than distract, actually improving the cartoon's impact and making things easier to understand.

Gags work very well, always ranging between very amusing and at times hilarious, like 'The Mechanical Cow' the craziness and wit is even more amped up from 'Oh Teacher' and particularly 'Trolley Troubles' and a lot of them are very imaginative. Easily some of the most inventive and funniest gags of the Oswald cartoons up to this point and perhaps overall too. Oswald is endearing and likable.

All in all, very good and one of Oswald's best. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Oswald is smitten with Mademoiselle Zulu, a Josephine Baker-type exotic dancer. He's so taken with her that he tries to sneak into the theater repeatedly, as he has no money and is desperate to see her. Eventually, a leopard and some lions escape and mayhem ensues.

There really isn't much more to the cartoon plot-wise, but the jokes are clever, Oswald very rubbery and flexible (as usual) and the cartoon never bores...even nearly 100 years later. Well worth seeing.

Just watched this Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon Walt Disney made for Universal on YouTube. The previous poster mentioned some of the pretty funny gags that happened in Bright Lights though there's a few others worth noting like when the guard pulled the rabbit ears, those ears suddenly come out of Oswald's body with his legs attached to them! And how about when the rabbit literally hides under some heavyset guy's shadow to get in, or when he locks himself in a boxed cage before finding out a cub tiger is in there as Oswald manages to escape by shrinking himself down to size! So on that note, I recommend Walt Disney's Bright Lights.