Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Mouse cartoon to be filmed was "Plane Crazy" in the summer of 1928, but it was produced as a silent and held back from release. The first Mickey Mouse film with a synchronized soundtrack, "Steamboat Willie", reached the screen that fall and became a major hit, eclipsing Oswald. "Plane Crazy" was later given its own synchronized soundtrack and released on March 17, 1929. Mintz, meanwhile, opened his own studio consisting primarily of former Disney employees, where he continued to produce Oswald cartoons, among them the first Oswald with sound, "Hen Fruit" (1929). While things were going in Mintz's favor, animators
Rabbit folklore as the trickster archetype, as he uses his cunning to outwit his enemies. The rabbit as trickster is a part of American popular culture, as Br'er Rabbit (from African-American folktales and, later, Disney animation) and Bugs Bunny (the cartoon character from Warner Bros.), for example. Anthropomorphized rabbits have appeared in film and literature, in "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (the White Rabbit and the March Hare characters), in "Watership Down" (including the film and television adaptations), in "Rabbit Hill" (by Robert Lawson), and in the "Peter Rabbit" stories (by Beatrix Potter). In the 1920s, "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit", was a