forerunner 復習

87年も行方が分からなくなっていたミッキーマウスの先駆けと見られる「オズワルト」が主人公の短編アニメが、英国映画協会で発見されました。

A Disney film starring the company's first ever animated character has been rediscovered after laying hidden for almost 90 years.

The long-lost film, Sleigh Bells, was made in 1928 and features the first ever Disney character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a long-eared forerunner to Mickey Mouse.
The exciting discovery was made by a researcher browsing the online database of the British Film Institute's archive.
Walt Disney Animation Studios used the rediscovered print - thought to be the sole survivor from the 87-year-old film - to make a new master print and digital copies of Sleigh Bells.
A fully restored version of the six-minute animation will be shown next month in London as part of a Christmas programme including other Disney shorts from the 1930s to the present day.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/disneys-oswald-the-lucky-rabbit-film-lost-for-87-years-is-rediscovered-in-the-bfi-national-archive-a3107141.html

今回取り上げるのは、“forerunner”という表現です。LDOCEで調べてみると、“someone or something that existed before something similar that developed or came later”という定義が見つかりました。さらに『ジーニアス英和辞典G4 大修館書店』で確認してみると、「前身、先駆者、先祖」といった意味が載っていました。

12月には今回発見されたアニメを修復した映像が、ロンドンで公開されることが決定しています。(ninetails)