Mechanical Man (Oswald the Lucky Rabbit)

Last updated

Mechanical Man
Mechanical Man First Scene.jpg
Oswald and Kitty playing the piano.
Directed by Walter Lantz
Bill Nolan
Story byWalter Lantz
Bill Nolan
Produced byWalter Lantz
Starring Tex Avery
Walter Lantz [1]
Music byJames Dietrich
Animation byManuel Moreno
Lester Kline
Ray Abrams
Tex Avery
Vet Anderson
Color processBlack and white
Production
company
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date
  • February 15, 1932 (1932-02-15)
Running time
6:13
LanguageEnglish

Mechanical Man is a 1932 cartoon short by Walter Lantz that features Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. [2] It is the 54th Oswald short by Lantz and the 107th in the entire series.

Contents

Plot

The cartoon begins inside a house. In it, Oswald and his girlfriend Kitty are playing a piano together. On their instrument are a dancing candle stand and two mice playing the accordion.

At a laboratory only a few miles away, a mad scientist completes construction of a robot and activates it. To his surprise, the robot begins to swing punches at him. The mad scientist, however, is able to evade the attacks and stops the humanoid machine with a punch of his own. He soon learns that his creation needs one more thing: a heart.

Back in Oswald's place, the two friends decide to play hide-and-seek. Oswald is "it" and Kitty is the one to hide. While the rabbit counts, his playmate looks for a hiding place. Without warning, Kitty gets captured through an opened window by the mad scientist who then leaves a sack inside before fleeing. Convinced that she is hiding in the bag, Oswald approaches and opens it. To his amusement, what comes out is a marching flute player. As the rabbit goes to find his friend, he notices a strand of thread on the window sill which he follows. The thread is in fact the trousers of the mad scientist who later appears in spotted shorts.

At the laboratory, the mad scientist has Kitty wedged in a vise and attempts to perform surgery on her, by taking out her heart and placing it in the robot. Before he can start, the nefarious inventor sees through his surveillance device that someone has arrived at his facility.

Oswald reaches the entrance to the laboratory after following the whole thread. Upon knocking on the door, a trap activates, causing him to fall into a chute, leading towards the basement. In an attempt to slaughter Oswald, the mad scientist waits for the little rabbit's arrival at other end of the shoot, preparing to swing an axe. The mad scientist swings but misses. From there, the chase begins.

Oswald runs through several corridors of the laboratory. While approaching an intersection, he sees something white popping in and out of the left corner. To defend himself, Oswald picks up a nearby urn. There is indeed a skeleton innocently sitting on a rocking chair by the left corner, but the mad scientist, who was coming from the corridor in that direction, pulls it away, and walks into the intersection. Upon seeing what has entered his hallway, Oswald tosses the urn. The mad scientist is struck right in the head and is knocked cold. Oswald finds a rope and ties one end of it around his pursuer's leg, with the other end around a lion's tail. The lion runs in place, hanging the mad scientist above the floor.

Oswald, at last, finds the chamber where Kitty was held. He loosens the vise and frees her. Later, a goat comes along and pulls a mechanical part out of his mouth and drops it. Oswald and Kitty both laugh about it.

The copyright for Mechanical Man expired in 1960 and it is in the public domain. [3] A number of Oswald shorts and other cartoons produced by Walter Lantz Production also ended up in similar status. [4]

Differences in the VHS version

Walter Lantz and Universal released the cartoon on a VHS video tape on public known as the Guild/Firelight reissue print (VHS; Video Yesteryear), which had better quality and better audio, but still had the re-used title. However, many scenes were cut, like the scene where Pete says "This thing needs a human heart, I'll get one"; the scene where Pete tells a skunk to "get busy"; and the final scene cut shows Pete taking the heart out of Kitty's mouth, but the heart later gets back in. Even though it was released on VHS, it was never released on DVD at all, or its first re-used version print or even the original version of the print at all. The channel Walter's Lance showed these censored scenes in good quality, formerly the only copy without the censors was also a reissue of Guild/ Firelight, only with the screen as too blurry.

Adaptations

Other animators created their own versions of this story. The characters that starred in those versions include Mickey Mouse, Bosko, Scrappy, and Flip the Frog.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Lantz Productions</span> American animation studio

Walter Lantz Productions was an American animation studio. It was in operation from 1928 to 1972 and was the principal supplier of animation for Universal Pictures.

<i>The Woody Woodpecker Show</i> 1957 American TV series or program

The Woody Woodpecker Show is an American television series mainly composed of the animated cartoon shorts of Woody Woodpecker and other Walter Lantz characters including Andy Panda, Chilly Willy, The Beary Family and Inspector Willoughby all released by Walter Lantz Productions. The series was revived and reformatted several times, but remained popular for nearly four decades and allowed the studio to continue making theatrical cartoons until 1972 when it shut down. It also kept the Walter Lantz/Universal "cartunes" made during the Golden Age of American animation a part of the American consciousness. The Woody Woodpecker Show was named the 88th best animated series by IGN.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andy Panda</span> Fictional character

Andy Panda is a cartoon character who starred in his own series of animated cartoon short subjects produced by Walter Lantz. These "cartunes" were released by Universal Pictures from 1939 to 1947, and United Artists from 1948 to 1949. The title character is an anthropomorphic cartoon character, a cute panda. Andy became the second star of the Walter Lantz cartoons after Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. He achieved considerable popularity until being eventually supplanted by Woody Woodpecker.

The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection is a three-disc DVD collection of theatrical cartoons produced by Walter Lantz Productions for Universal Pictures between 1930 and 1956. The set was released by Universal Studios Home Entertainment on July 24, 2007, and marks the first time a collection of cartoons starring Woody Woodpecker and the other Lantz characters have been widely available on home video.

The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection: Volume 2 is a three-disc DVD collection of theatrical cartoons starring Woody Woodpecker and the other Lantz characters, produced by Walter Lantz Productions for Universal Pictures between 1932 and 1965. The set was released by Universal Studios Home Entertainment on April 15, 2008. Included in the set are seventy-five cartoon shorts, including the next forty-five Woody Woodpecker cartoons, continuing the production order from Volume 1. The other thirty cartoons include five Andy Panda shorts, five Chilly Willy shorts, five Oswald the Lucky Rabbit shorts, five Musical Favorites, and ten Cartune Classics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elmer the Great Dane</span> Fictional character

Elmer the Great Dane is a Walter Lantz character in the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon series, who premiered in the 1935 short Elmer the Great Dane. The character's name is most likely a reference to Elmer, the Great, a 1933 film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pooch the Pup</span> 1930s cartoon dog

Pooch the Pup is a cartoon animal character, an anthropomorphic dog, appearing in Walter Lantz cartoons during the studio's black-and-white era. The character appeared in 13 shorts made in 1932 and 1933.

<i>Five and Dime</i> 1933 film

Five and Dime is a 1933 cartoon short by Walter Lantz Productions and stars Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. It is the 74th Oswald short produced by Lantz and the 125th overall.

<i>Africa</i> (1930 film) African American 1930 filmings

Africa is a 1930 Walter Lantz cartoon short featuring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

<i>Henpecked</i> 1930 film

Henpecked is a 1930 animated short produced by Walter Lantz that features Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

Lovesick is a 1937 cartoon produced by Walter Lantz Productions featuring the later, post-1935 white-furred version of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, together with his dog Doxie the dachshund.

<i>The Shriek</i> 1933 film

The Shriek is a 1933 animated short film produced by Walter Lantz Productions as part of the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit series. The cartoon's title is a parody of the 1921 Paramount film The Sheik.

Oil's Well is a 1929 short animated film starring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and produced by Walter Lantz Productions. It is the 2nd Lantz Oswald film and the 54th in the entire series.

<i>The Hunter</i> (1931 film) 1931 film

The Hunter is a 1931 short animated film by Walter Lantz Productions and stars Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. It is the 48th Oswald short of the Lantz era and the 100th in the entire series.

Puppet Show is a 1936 short film from Walter Lantz Productions and stars Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Unlike most shorts made by the studio, the film employs both animation and live-action.

<i>The Bandmaster</i> (1931 film) 1931 film

The Bandmaster is a 1931 short film by Walter Lantz Productions, starring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. As with a few films from the series, the cartoon is in the public domain. A similarly titled short, also produced by Lantz in 1947, is still under copyright however.

<i>The Winged Horse</i> 1932 film

The Winged Horse, also known by its reissue title of The Wing Horse, is a theatrical short cartoon by Walter Lantz Productions, featuring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. It is the 59th Oswald short produced by Lantz's studio and the 112th to feature the character.

Wild and Woolly is a 1932 American Western short animated film by Walter Lantz Productions. It stars Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

The Stone Age is a 1931 short animated film by Walter Lantz Productions and one of many featuring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

References

  1. Scott, Keith (2022). Cartoon Voices from the Golden Age, 1930-70. BearManor Media. p. 195. ISBN   979-8-88771-010-5.
  2. Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 115–116. ISBN   0-8160-3831-7.
  3. "The Walter Lantz Cartune Encyclopedia: 1932". The Walter Lantz Cartune Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on March 25, 2012. Retrieved June 8, 2011.
  4. "The Walter Lantz Cartune Encyclopedia: List of Shorts in the Public Domain". The Walter Lantz Cartune Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved June 8, 2011.