Inspiration behind iconic Mickey Mouse found in Japan

A precursor to Disney's iconic Mickey Mouse has been found in Japan.

A 1928 cartoon 'Neck n Neck', designed by Walt Disney featuring 'Oswald the Lucky Rabbit' has been found in Japan, reported the Hollywood Reporter.

The character of the rabbit is said to have been the inspiration behind Mickey Mouse, which is considered to be one of the funniest cartoon characters of all time.

The 16 mm cartoon 'Neck n Neck' was unearthed by anime historian Yasushi Watanabe. Watanabe, who bought this piece of history 70 years ago, did not realise its significance till date. The 84-year-old historian bought it from a toy wholesale dealer in Osaka.

He got to know of its significance after he read 'Oswald the Lucky Rabbit: The Search for the Lost Disney Cartoons' authored by David Bossert, an animator employed at Disney.

In an interview with a local daily, Watanabe was excited to get a copy of this as he had been a fan of Disney cartoons for many years.

Watanabe's copy is now being kept at the Kobe Planet Film Archive, which is one of Japan's largest private film collections. The archive houses 16,000 titles.

The character of Oswald was created by Walt Disney and his partner Ub Iwerks back in 1927. They also created a series of other cartoons that featured the same character. It became one of the primary reasons behind the success of Walt Disney Studio.

But in 1928, Disney lost control of Oswald following a contractual dispute with his producer Charles Mintz, since the latter used the character for shows produced in Universal Studios.

It is then that Walt decided to come up with the idea of Mickey Mouse.