Nutty Notes: Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (Lantz, 1929) – Sample

This rare black-and-white archival footage presents a sample of "Nutty Notes," a lost Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon from December 9, 1929, produced by Walter Lantz for Universal Studios—nearly a century ago—offering a tantalizing glimpse into early animation history. The silent film follows Oswald, the mischievous black rabbit with expressive ears, as he takes a job at a music store, tasked by his bear boss to hoist a piano to his girlfriend’s apartment on a skyscraper’s top floor. After several failed attempts, Oswald tricks a goat into kicking the piano upward, but the kick sends it soaring with too much force, ripping the roof off the building. Upon descending, Oswald reunites with his girlfriend, and they share a happy kiss. Originally thought lost, only a few scenes from 16mm Italian prints are publicly available, and this surviving sample—likely a brief clip or promotional fragment, possibly 30–60 seconds long—captures key moments like Oswald’s piano-lifting struggle and the goat’s kick, all set against simple, whimsical backgrounds typical of the era. A haunting window into late 1920s animation’s golden age, this preserved snippet—voiced by Mickey Rooney, directed by Walter Lantz, and animated by Lantz and Bill Nolan—grips cartoon enthusiasts, animation historians, and nostalgic viewers, offering a rare, fleeting peek at a musical misadventure frozen in time.