Sick Cylinders: Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (Winkler, 1929) – Silent

This rare black-and-white archival footage presents "Sick Cylinders," a classic silent Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon from February 15, 1929, produced by George Winkler’s Winkler Pictures for Universal Studios—nearly a century ago—offering a nostalgic laugh for early animation fans. The silent film follows Oswald, the mischievous black rabbit with expressive ears, as he drives his uncovered car through the countryside to pick up his girlfriend, Ortensia, a cat, for a date. When the car breaks down, Oswald steps out to fix it, only to be interrupted by a playful terrier fetching increasingly larger sticks, culminating in a huge log crushing the car’s front and flattening Oswald. Frustrated, he kicks the terrier away and repairs the car, but it capsizes in a dry pond, leaving Oswald and Ortensia on the ground. A bear (revealed as Peg-Leg Pete) in a luxurious car then stops, charming Ortensia into leaving with him, leaving Oswald frustrated and kicking his broken vehicle. A lively window into late 1920s animation’s golden age, this preserved gem—among the few surviving Winkler-era Oswald shorts, marking the first silent cartoon with a planned sound version—grips cartoon enthusiasts, animation historians, and nostalgic viewers, offering a timeless peek at a car trouble comedy frozen in time.