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
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit DVD of his original cartoons. In 2004 and 2005, shortly before the return of the character to Disney and still in Universal's hands, Oswald products became popular in Japan, and were primarily made available as prizes in UFO catchers and as official merchandise in Universal Studios Japan, where he was featured as part of the Woody Woodpecker cast of characters line-up. Typically manufactured by Taito and/or Medicom, these products included puppets, inflatable dolls, keyrings, and watches. They were generally based on a navy-blue version with yellow shorts of the original Disney/Iwerks character, and due to Disney's popularity in Japan, he