Trolley Troubles

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.

'Trolley Troubles', actually the second Oswald cartoon (his debuting cartoon being the very rare 'Poor Papa'), is not great but still pretty good. The story is not much of one and has its absurd and rushed spots, and a couple of the gags are a little hokey.

Animation is not bad at all 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 add a lot rather than distract, actually improving the cartoon's impact and making things easier to understand.

Most of the gags work very well, never hilarious as such but they are well timed and amusing, with the final two minutes being close to riotous. Oswald is an endearing protagonist and the other characters are quite fun.

Overall, pretty good. 7/10 Bethany Cox

This is the very first of many Oswald films and like those of the first year of production, they were made by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks for Universal Pictures. Later, Universal showed their appreciation for the two for making Oswald a star by threatening to cut their salaries! As a result, the two walked...and soon created Mickey Mouse and the rest is history. Considering you probably have not heard about Oswald, you can see who won out in this battle!

The form I saw this cartoon in is not the original silent version. This one had a soundtrack and sound effects added later--after STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928) revolutionized the cartoon industry by being the first with a soundtrack and synchronized sound effects. Considering that the addition was done well, it served to improve the film considerably.

While I enjoyed this film, I have scored it much lower than Disney's first independent cartoons, PLANE CRAZY and STEAMBOAT WILLIE. That's because the animation quality of TROLLEY TROUBLES is much more rough (it's amazing what a year more practice would produce) and these later films just were funnier. As for Oswald, he was okay as a character but not exactly the equal to the mouse.

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.

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"! :-)

It took almost 80 years but at last Oswald The Lucky Rabbit is back where he belongs...at Disney. This new 2 DVD set is valuable on many levels. It's not only a missing piece of animation history but a look into the history of animation. Disc 2 contains the 1999 documentary THE HAND BEHIND THE MOUSE: THE UB IWERKS STORY which traces the beginnings of Walt Disney and his top animator/innovater from their early days in Kansas City through Walt's death in 1966 and Ub's in 1971. If you've ever wondered why Disney became so overprotective of its properties, it all started with Oswald while Walt was at Universal. Disney didn't own the rights to the character which was created in 1927 and in 1928 when he asked for a raise he was ordered to take a paycut. Walt and Ub quit in disgust and came up with a new character named Mickey Mouse and the rest as they say...is history. Never again would Walt not own any of his characters (or the rights to purchased ones like Winnie The Pooh).

There are 13 Oswald cartoons in this set (about half of those made) and they are an absolute delight to watch. Although the drawing style is crude, they are so chock full of crazy ideas and visuals that sometimes it takes your breath away. Unlike the early Mickey Mouse cartoons which suffer in comparison to what he later became, Oswald seems fresher than ever. In fact he's so old that he's new! Since these are silent cartoons (Oswald was originally based on Douglas Fairbanks Sr.), they require musical accompaniment and silent film specialist Robert Israel has come up with some rousing and colorful background scores that add to the fun. Attractively packaged and reasonably priced for what you get, OSWALD THE LUCKY RABBIT deserves a place in any animation fan's library and now is the time with the Holidays upon us...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.

POSTSCRIPT: If you want to see what happened to Oswald in the Sound Era, check out Universal's WOODY WOODPECKER AND FRIENDS DVD set. You see the animator who took over after Disney quit was a young fellow named Walter Lantz and he made Oswald cartoons until the early 1940s when another character supplanted him. "Guess who? Ha Ha Ha HA ha!"