OREANDA-NEWS  In Japan found one of the earliest works of Walt Disney – a two-minute cartoon about the rabbit Oswald, which was lost. He was found in Osaka Prefecture, according to the BBC.

It turned out, that cartoon Neck'n'neck (can be translate as "in equal position") about 70 years was stored have Japanese Yasushi Watanabe. He is now 84 years old, the Disney work he bought as a teenager and gave her 500 yen (a little less than 300 rubles at the current exchange rate).

Watanabe realized how valuable Neck'n'neck when he read the book by David Bossert of the "Lucky rabbit Oswald: In search of the lost Disney cartoons," published last year (Bossert for many years engaged in the production of animated films on the American Disney studios).

"Walt Disney archive" in the United States confirmed the newspaper the Asahi Shimbun authenticity of the picture. "We were very pleased to know that a copy of the lost film exists," said archive Director Becky Klein.

"I've been a Disney fan for many years, so I'm happy to be able to play a role in this," Watanabe said in a conversation with the newspaper.

Animators and Walt Disney came up with Oswald the rabbit in 1927. It was the First Disney animated character to create about 30 cartoons with Oswald. Rights to the rabbit sued Disney Studio Universal, after which Mickey Mouse was invented. The original cartoon Neck'n'neck lasts five minutes. For home cinema projectors, it was released on 16 mm film in abbreviated form-2 minutes. In the story of the cartoon police dog on a motorcycle chasing rabbit Oswald and his girlfriend, who are on a date in the car.

Having contacted Bossert, the collector found out that the film belonging to him is one of the seven lost fragments of the picture of the great animator about the rabbit Oswald.

Now the cartoon is in the Kobe Planet Film Archive film library in Hyogo Prefecture. November 18 will be 90 years since the first appearance of Mickey Mouse on the screens.