Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (also known as Oswald the Rabbit or Oswald Rabbit) is an anthropomorphic rabbit and animated cartoon character created by Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney for films distributed by Universal Pictures in the 1920s and 1930s. The majority rights to the character are currently held by The Walt Disney Company, with exceptions of Winkler and Walter Lantz cartoons that starred Oswald, which are owned by Universal. Oswald is the main protagonist of the cartoon series.

Creation Under Disney

In 1927, due to cost and technical restrictions, Disney and his chief animator Ub Iwerks decided to end their work on the Alice Comedies series in search of new creative opportunities. Coincidentally, Universal Studios wanted to get into the cartoon business and needed a cartoon character of their own. So Disney's distributor Charles Mintz told Disney and Iwerks to create a new character they could sell to Universal. Wanting to make cartoons with an all animated look, Disney signed a contract with Universal Studios leading to the creation of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and Universals first cartoon series.

The first Oswald cartoon, Poor Papa, was rejected by the Universal studio heads due to poor production quality and the sloppiness and age of Oswald. Disney, together with Iwerks, decided to create a second cartoon titled Trolley Troubles featuring a much younger, neater Oswald. The short officially launched the series and proved to be Disney's greatest success yet. Poor Papa was finally released a year later. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit became Disney's first major hit in 1927, rivaling other popular cartoon characters like Felix the Cat and Koko the Clown.

In the spring of 1928, Disney traveled to New York City in hopes of negotiating a more profitable contract with his producer Charles Mintz. But as economic problems were apparent at the time, Mintz figured Disney should settle for a 20% cut, although large turnarounds were promised if the studio's finances show considerable growth. While his fellow animators remained at Mintz's studio, Disney decided to quit his job and therefore leave there the character he created. But on his long train ride home, came up with an idea to create another character. He and Iwerks would go on to develop a new cartoon in secret of the public which later be known as Plane Crazy, the first Mickey Mouse Cartoon.