Editing Universal Pictures (section)

===Oswald the Lucky Rabbit===
In early 1927, Universal had been negotiating deals with cartoon producers since they wanted to get back into producing them. On March 4, [[Charles Mintz]] signed a contract with Universal in the presence of its vice president, R. H. Cochrane. Mintz's company, Winkler Pictures, was to produce 26 "[[Oswald the Lucky Rabbit]]" cartoons for Universal.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/movingpicturewor85marm/page/n123|title=Universal Announces Release Of "Oscar, the Rabbit" Cartoons|publisher=[[Moving Picture World]]|date=March 12, 1927|access-date=August 23, 2019}}</ref> [[Walt Disney]] and [[Ub Iwerks]] created the character and the [[Walt Disney Animation Studios|Walt Disney Studio]] provided the animation for the cartoons under Winkler's supervision.

The films enjoyed a successful theatrical run, and Mintz would sign a contract with Universal ensuring three more years of Oswald cartoons.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/motionnew37moti#page/n579/|title=Universal Signs for 3 More Years of Oswald|publisher=[[Motion Picture News]]|date=February 18, 1928|access-date=August 23, 2019}}</ref> However, after Mintz had unsuccessfully demanded that Disney accept a lower fee for producing the films, Mintz took most of Walt's [[animators]] to work at his own studio. Disney and Iwerks would create [[Mickey Mouse]] in secret while they finished the remaining Oswald films they were contractually obligated to finish. Universal subsequently severed its link to Mintz and formed its own in-house animation studio to produce Oswald cartoons headed by [[Walter Lantz]], which would later result in the creation of [[Woody Woodpecker]] in 1940.

In February 2006, [[NBCUniversal]] sold all the Disney-animated Oswald cartoons, along with the rights to the character himself, to [[The Walt Disney Company]]. In return, Disney released [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] sportscaster [[Al Michaels]] from his contract so he could work on NBC's recently acquired [[NBC Sunday Night Football|Sunday night NFL football package]]. Universal retained ownership of the remaining Oswald cartoons.