For the past several years, the Disney Rarities has been a treat among Disneyphiles at the Newport Beach Film Festival. This year, was no short of amazing as Disney great Dave Bossert and producer extraordinaire Don Hahn came together to talk all things Disney.
The Delightful Duo outdid themselves this year with not only behind the scenes footage of the new live action Beauty and the Beast (which Hahn was an executive producer one) but also showed rare clips of the making of Disneyland, the instant classic Paperman and a cute number sung by the original Mickey Mouse Club for Walt Disney himself.
However, the big stand out surprise was the lost cartoon made by Walt Disney that revolved around Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Most all Disneyphiles know that there are 26 Oswald cartoons that were collected on DVD, however, our heroes found the lost 27th cartoon called, High Up.
“There had been rumors flowing around for years that this cartoon existed but nobody had it. We found the final one that Walt (Disney) worked on and we have it for you tonight,” said Bossert as he presented the cartoon to a theater of only 200 people, the first audience to see it in roughly 90 years.
Originally, the cartoon ran roughly 6 minutes in length without a musical accompaniment to which, luckily, Hahn was able to add a ragtime score befitting of the era.
In the cartoon Oswald and his wife, Ortensia the anthropomorphic cat go to the circus. While Ortensia is impressed by the high wire act, Oswald in an attempt to prove how macho he is, climbs the wire to perform, which upsets the ring master, from which, high-jinx pursue.
“Who knows what would have happened if Universal kept producing the Oswald cartoons. Walt (Disney) could have just spent his careering doing work for hire and that park (Disneyland) right up the road could still be farmland,” said Hahn.
The Delightful Duo will be apart of the D23 Expo in Anaheim, CA from July 14-16, 2017.
