Live-action animated film match with a live kitten. In a variation from this and inspired to do so Walt Disney's first directorial efforts, years before Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was born in 1927 and Mickey Mouse in 1928, were the live-action animated "Alice Comedies" cartoons, in which a young live-action girl named Alice interacted with animated cartoon characters. Many previous films combining live action with stop-motion animation using back projection, such as Willis O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen films in the United States, and Aleksandr Ptushko, Karel Zeman and more recently Jan Švankmajer in Eastern Europe. The first feature film to do this was
The Clown (1931 film) The Clown (1931 film) The Clown is a 1931 short animated film by Universal Pictures, and one of many in the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit series. Oswald, as the title implies, is a circus clown who performs acts in the big top along with his partner the live female stuffed doll, aka Kitty. After doing some acts involving horses, Kitty is being asked by the ringmaster to sign some kind of contract. Oswald is suspicious of the ringmaster's plans, and tries to intervene, only to be whipped away by the ringmaster. While Oswald is performing his next act involving a