In 1927, because of cost and technical restrictions, Disney and his chief animator Ub Iwerks decided to end their work on the Alice Comedies And Julius the Cat. Around the same time, Charles Mintz got word that Universal Pictures wanted to get into the cartoon business, so he told Disney to create a new character he could sell to Universal. After Oswald was created, Winkler signed a contract with Universal on March 4, 1927 that would guarantee 27 "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit" cartoons. Work on both the character and series began soon after Disney moved his studio to Hyperion Avenue.