Oswald outside the United States (slightly OT)

[David Gerstein]

Hey all—

As some of you may know, one of my hobbies outside my Gemstone work  
is researching Disney's silent period— the precomics days, with  
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

These days I'm attempting to chronicle information about the Oswald  
films' appearance outside of the United States in the 1920s. Thanks  
to the great German reference IM REICH DER MICKY MAUS, by Dreßler and  
Storm, I have the relevant information for Germany. But who released  
them in Italy, Brazil, Britain, Mexico, Finland, France, Poland,  
Holland and so forth?
Nearly half of the Disney Oswald films are missing today, so knowing  
their history "abroad" would be useful in tracking down actual prints  
of the others.
But there's a difficulty: it would help to know what the individual  
cartoons were named in various foreign languages, as well as what  
Oswald himself was called. In many countries, Oswald had one name in  
the old days and another name now. For example, in Germany, he is  
referred to today as "Oswald, der lustige Hase" (Oswald, the funny  
hare). But I don't want to know what he's called now; in 1928, his  
name was "Oswald, der verrückte Karnickel" (Oswald, the crazy  
rabbit). In some countries, his original name may not even have been  
Oswald.

I suspect that many countries have local Disney history books that  
are their equivalent of IM REICH, and that these books might say  
something about the Oswald cartoons' local titles and release  
history. Might anyone be able to give me some pointers?
Thus far I only know a little—

Germany: Oswald der verrückte Karnickel, distr. Matador Filmverleih
Netherlands: Oswald, distr. ?

Feel free to contact me privately. Anyone whose information I can  
make use of in my research will be properly credited, natch!

David Gerstein