"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.
