The Prison Panic (1930) Online

Despite Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and his cartoons being popular and well received at the time, they have been vastly overshadowed over time by succeeding animation characters. It is a shame as, while not cartoon masterpieces, they are fascinating for anybody wanting to see what very old animation looked like.

'Prison Panic' is one of the best Walter Lantz Oswald cartoons, and one of the few very good ones. There were some decent ones from this period, if not to the same level of the best of the Disney and Winkler periods, but just as many were disappointing too. 'Prison Panic' is as good as early Lantz gets, and it is a good representation of Oswald too.

The thin and somewhat predictable story and the occasional less than smooth transition in the animation are the sole drawbacks to an otherwise very good cartoon, something one doesn't usually say about a Lantz Oswald cartoon.

Synchronisation is good as is the sound. Much of the animation is pretty good and often impressive, especially in the facial expressions and remarkably natural way characters move.

All the gags work and are never less than very amusing, while the music has a lot of energy and Oswald is endearing, again in a setting that plays to his strengths as a character.

In summary, very good. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit is a cop on the beat who captures an escaped prisoner in this excellent Walter Lantz cartoon.

Oswald does not enter the picture until more than halfway through this short, but when he does, it's to good effect. Lantz' team plays a lot of surprising gags involving the 'rubber tube' animation of the period, pushing the idea to extremes, as prison bars are used as harp strings. Also, pay attention to the excellent score, which sometimes drives the story -- as in the opening scenes while we watch the rat try to escape to the strains of 'If I Had the Wings of an Angel' -- and sometimes underlines the action.

This is as good as cartoons got during this period and it's still excellent today.