Trolley Troubles

Oswald Rabbit is a trolley car conductor. He packs it with passengers. A cow on the tracks is blocking him. After clearing the cow, he gets hit next by a goat. Oswald uses the goat to push the trolley up a hill, but it's the coming down that is the problem.

This early Walt Disney short is fine. I like Oswald. The rabbit's foot is probably the best gag in the whole thing. This is my first Oswald cartoon. My initial impression is that he's not quite Bugs Bunny, but he's pretty good as a character of his own. He just needs more unexpected humor like the rabbit's foot. Mostly, this is pretty straight forward.

Just watched this early pre-Mickey Mouse Walt Disney cartoon on YouTube. It starred Oswald the Lucky Rabbit who looks like Mickey with rabbit ears. Trolley Troubles has many amazing and funny silent cartoon gags involving the trolley, the tracks, a cow, a goat, and a crowd of passengers (all resembling Oswald). And there's a Felix-the-Cat-like gag involving the rabbit's tail. Quite amusing and well recommended for anyone interested in anything involving Walt Disney, silent cartoons, and movie history in general. Oswald's resemblance to Mickey is probably because the person who helped create both characters was one Ub Iwerks. I can hardly wait for the upcoming DVD collection of Disney Oswald shorts later this year as well as a Walter Lantz series that has some later Oswalds.

Disney was still pretty far back in the pack of cartoon producers at this stage of the game, when Felix the Cat and Koko the Clown were still way ahead in the lead. Nor was Disney backwards about borrowing gags: this cartoon opens with Oswald polishing his trolley, which he then places on his rump as a fluffy bunny's tail: a typical Felix trick.

Despite this and some cheating in production -- the last sequence is a repeating series as the trolley goes into a number of black tunnels -- to hold down costs, there are also clear signs that Disney is still ambitious, particularly a well-composed shot from a low Point of View.

The basic situation and many of the gags are borrowed from Fontaine Fox' popular TOONERVILLE TROLLEY strip. It's not an awful variation, it's not a great one.

One of the first Oswald the Rabbit cartoons, written and directed by Walt Disney, has four minutes of gags involving Oswald trying to get his trolley going on the tracks only to his some obstacles - he has to give a cow a stern paying-his-mind to that won't get off the tracks - and then the last two minutes are sheer mayhem in the most enjoyable way from the era of 1920's cartoons.

There's little moments that stick out as being especially funny and cool, like when the train is going on its manic spring through its tunnels and then when Oswald takes off one of his legs to kiss himself goodbye, literally. The general pace of this is what keeps it entertaining, that there's something about to come every mother second. The gags are so fast that you may need to watch it a second time to catch the few good ones that you might have missed. It's mostly those final two minutes though that seals the deal for this being a fun sit as opposed to just an important but slight one. Already here Disney is primed for when he has to go forward with his own Mickey Mouse shorts.

I feel embarrassed with myself. All this time I've been watching below-average 1960's Looney Tunes episodes when I could have been watching Oswald the Lucky Rabbit!! This episode is more high quality than stuff I see on television nowadays (except for the fact it does not have colour)! I really enjoyed watching this, it may have been slapsticky but it was very sweet and despite some of Oswald's annoying behaviour I thought he was a good character (and those baby rabbits were SO cute!!). It is also an impressive episode considering it was made so long ago (1927 was a very early date to be making cartoons). What is also impressive is that 82 years later there are many aspects of the cartoon that can still appeal to millions of people today. If there was anything that I did not like about the cartoon it was the treatment of those poor young bunnies (You will see when you watch the episode.).

I watched a version on youtube with music composed by Robert Israel and the music managed to fit surprisingly well with the episode. The original music for the episode was made in 1931, when the once silent cartoon was re-released with sound. Even watching it in silent, the viewer can understand absolutely everything that is going on.

I recommend this episode to people who thrive on early cartoons, to people who like Mickey Mouse (for Oswald is very similar in character to the famous rodent) and to people who like watching historical cartoons (it is historical because it was so well made for the time). Enjoy "Trolley Troubles"! :-)