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At the time the film, which had been given the Japanese title “Mickey Manga Spide,” or Mickey cartoon speedy, cost ¥500 ($4.40 at current exchange rates).
It features a character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, who, in the two-minute consumer version owned by the researcher, is chased by a dog traffic cop while on a date. A longer version of five minutes was also produced.
Despite his profession, prior to reading the book Watanabe was unaware of how rare — and significant — the film was.
Suspecting that his copy may be one of the missing films, Watanabe worked with the Asahi Shimbun to contact Bossert and the Walt Disney Archives, which confirmed that the film was indeed one of the missing works.
“As I’ve been a Disney fan for many years, I’m happy that I was able to play a role (in the discovery),” Watanabe said.
“We’re absolutely delighted to learn that a copy of the lost film exists,” Becky Cline, director of Walt Disney Archives, told the newspaper.
A shorter clip of the film was also unearthed in the Toy Film Museum in Kyoto as a result of Bossert’s book, the Asahi Shimbun article reports.
November 18 marks the 90th anniversary of the premiere of “Steamboat Willie,” the first public appearance of arguably the most famous cartoon character in the world, and the mainstay of what would become one of the world’s largest entertainment companies.
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