Oswald Comes To DVD

This December’s Disney Treasures Tins are announced!

Walt Disney’s first big animated star, who predates even Mickey Mouse, is coming out of the vault for the first time on DVD, as part of the seventh installment of Walt Disney Treasures.

The release will feature rarely seen footage of “Oswald The Lucky Rabbit,” a Disney original.

Walt Disney created Oswald as his first successful cartoon character in the late 1920s, before he created Mickey Mouse. But Disney lost the rights to Oswald’s distributor — Universal Studios. That loss forced Disney to create a new character for a new series of cartoons, and animation historians note the striking similarities between Oswald and his successor, Mickey.

Disney reacquired Oswald early last year in what essentiallly was a trade that sent sportscaster Al Michaels from Disney-owned ABC to NBC.

The newest additions to the Walt Disney Treasures will also include Chronological Donald, Volume 3, with solo shorts of Donald Duck dating from 1947 to 1950, and the documentary Disneyland: Secrets, Stories and Magic.

They will be available December 11, in a limited supply.