One of the most depressing aspects of being a cinephile is the fact that a great deal of early films — particularly films released before the 1940s — are considered lost. After all, with no home video market at the time there was little reason to preserve a film after it had been exhibited, so usually many films had been left on a shelf to rot. One of the most exciting aspects of being a cinephile, however, is the fact that at least once or twice a year some of these films that have been considered lost have been discovered gathering dust in an overseas film archive. Such is the case of Hungry Hoboes, a 1928 cartoon created by Walt Disney and fellow animator (and co-creator of Mickey Mouse) Ub Iwerks featuring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a pre-Mickey Mouse Disney creation, which Retuers reports has been found in Huntley Film Archives in England.
Oswald, for those unaware, is a very Mickey-ish rabbit which Disney and Iwerks created for Universal, but the duo lost control of the character when they parted ways with the studio to form Walt Disney Pictures. The Disney company finally regained control of Oswald in 2006, when NBC (which now owns Universal) traded assets with ABC (which is now owned by Disney). Curiously, that trade eventually came down to Disney swapping ABC’s contract with famed sportscaster Al Michaels for the rights to Oswald (of which Michaels remarked “I’m going to be a trivia answer someday”). Oswald recently returned to Disney media by playing a significant role in 2010’s Epic Mickey video game.
The short will go on auction in Los Angeles on December 14, but it seems Disney will likely be the company to bid the $30-40,000 that the cartoon is expected to grab (just that? I think I might be able to swing that). The archive is expected to use the money raised to help continue its preservation efforts, which is definitely a great cause all film fans could get behind.
The most exciting news? Robert Dewar, the commercial director of Huntley Film Archives, reports that “only about 40,000 of the archive’s 80,000 films” have been cataloged. What other “lost” films might be found within? Keep your fingers crossed!
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