Permanent Wave (1929) 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.

'Permanent Wave' is a significant improvement over the previous Walter Lantz cartoons, which really are only for historical interest and agreed much better than many of his later Oswald cartoons. It is a much better representation of Oswald, who is closer to his personality in the Disney and Winkler era cartoons, and doesn't fare badly by Lantz standards either.

Sure the story is flimsy (then again you'd expect that in an Oswald cartoon by now) and very predictable. While the gags hit more than they miss thankfully, a couple have less than crisp timing and not so inventive.

On the other hand, the animation is good. Transitions smoother and there are some very nice details and fluidity. Synchronisation is much better, not sloppy (though with the odd sloppy moments) and the sound more resonant.

The gags are mostly inventively done and actually fun, while Oswald is endearing. The music is energetic too.

Overall, decent Lantz Oswald cartoon and one of his better ones. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was a character created and animated by Walt Disney and his employee, Ub Iwerks. However, in a very shortsighted move, Universal Studios took control of the character from Disney and gave control to Walter Lantz...all in a bid to save money. However, the Lantz era Oswald cartoons were amazingly bland and although they looked better, the weird and chaotic nature of the character was gone...and Oswald eventually disappeared from films. The Disney aspect was heightened by the deliberate use of a villain who is practically the spitting image of Pete from "Steamboat Willie"!!

This film mostly consists of Obwald getting knocked about by the Pete-like villain...all because the villain wants some female character all for himself. But being a hero, Oswald eventually comes to the rescue and prevents the girl from being deflowered by the Pete- wannabe.

This is a well made cartoon with some nice graphics. And, if you didn't know his pedigree you would enjoy it more. It's nearly as good as the Disney versions and thankfully not godawful like the later cutesy version Lantz made in the 1930s...uggh!!!