The Success Of Walt Mintz In 'Poor Papa'

After the Alice series ran its course, Walt needed something new. An idea for a new character came about of Charles Mintz, “To keep things fresh” he wanted a rabbit. Walt and Ub brought the rabbit to life, “Oswald the Lucky Rabbit”. Oswald was a courageous and mischievous character to later be reminiscent of a certain famous mouse. The short “Poor Papa” was forced out to show to Mintz “Walt surely recognized what a tremendous opportunity was being afforded him–making a major cartoon series for a major distributor–and how much a success would advance his career,” Disney biographer Neal Gabler said. The problem was that no one was happy with the product Mintz did not like the look of the character and Universal did not like the lack of story. Walt agreed the character needed

He wanted a hero you could root for. “One of the things that Walt brought was to have the characters have real personalities that the audience could identify with,” Walt’s nephew, Roy E. Disney, said many years later. The first Oswald short “Trolley Troubles” to be released was in theaters September 5, 1927. It was a hit with audiences everywhere. You could see the personality in the character it was greatly animated by Ub as you saw the rabbit deal with all sorts of problems. It was critically acclaimed and destined for stardom. It was the first Disney character to generate merchandise. The production keeps getting bigger and bigger needing more artist with the higher quality Walt wanted. Very quickly it was one the most popular cartoons of the 1920’s. It needed a higher budget to meet Walts standards. By early 1928, backdoor deals were already being fortified between Mintz and several of Walt’s animators to start a new studio and begin producing Oswald shorts independently of Disney (Iwerks refused to go behind Walt's back). Walt couldn't and didn't believe it. On February 2, 1928, Mintz signed a new three-year agreement with Universal to provide Oswald shorts without