https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Playlist
Today, the Walt Disney Company seems to be one of those entities which is “too big to fail” – but during the Second World War, it almost did it. Like the great artist-artist-artist-company that he was, Walt Disney himself had reinvested the benefits of the company in animated films ever more ambitious. This practice took an unhappy turn with FantasyWho can now be considered a classic even by those of us without interest for Disney films, but which did not bring the box office expected during its initial release in 1940. Pinocchiowho could not reach the public in Europe torn by war. The following year, Disney ended up on the verge of bankruptcy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgehqnjyytk
Then came the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, who led to the eight -month occupation of the American army of the Walt Disney studios. The idea was to protect a nearby lockheed factory, but Disney, which had already made surveys on the production of war films, took advantage of an opportunity to conclude an agreement that saved its business.
Walt Disney Studios has been contracted to make not only a variety of military use training films, but also a series of cartoons on the theme of war for public exhibition. It was a “total war”, after all, which required the mobilization of the public at home, and the mobilization of the public at home required domestic propaganda. Who better to stir up the American desire for victory on the axis than Disney's largest star at the time, Donald Duck?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwaf3dqxafq
In the most acclaimed of these caricatures, the Academy premium Der Fuehrer's face From 1943, Donald Duck was used in a Munition factory in Nutziland, a kind of axis superstate governed by Hirohito, Mussolini and especially Hitler. It's something else to hear the “Heil Hitler!” Sentence! In Donald Duck's voice, and throughout his day of humiliation and deprivation in Nutziland, he must say a lot. Just when it all put him in a fall towards madness, he wakes up in his room in the United States of America, the curtains of stars and stripes, statue of miniature freedom and everything. For Donald, the nightmare is over – but in real life, the Allied victory remained far from a safe thing.
You can look Der Fuehrer's face And seven other propaganda caricatures of the Second World War produced in Disney (with the Looney Tunes Short THE Duckde Warner Bros.) in the playlist above. Certainly, some of them contain elements considered coarse and even offensive here in the 21st century. But like all propaganda, they are all of great historical value, in the field of political history and the history of animation. Consider how they found their way in Europe and Russia, finding the public while war was raging; Also consider how Donald Duck and his compatriots were beloved by generations of German, Italian and Japanese children. After this total war, no one played a total victory than Disney.
Related content:
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Neuroscience and propaganda meet in the film of the Second World War of Disney Reason and emotion
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“Evil Mickey Mouse” invades Japan into a Japanese anime propaganda film from 1934
“The Ducktators”: Loony Tunes transforms animation into propaganda in wartime (1942)
Based in Seoul, Colin MArshall Written and broadcastTS on cities, language and culture. His projects include the substack newsletter Books on cities And the book The stateless city: a walk through Los Angeles from the 21st century. Follow it on the social network formerly known as Twitter in @ColinmArshall.