World War II and American animation
On December 8, 1941, the United States Army began working with Walt Disney at his studio, stationing Military personnel there for the duration of the war.
[3] Other films that encouraged buying war bonds included Foney Fables, Donald’s Decision,[4] The Thrifty Pig,[5] 7 Wise Dwarfs[6] and All Together.
The cartoon asks citizens to donate to the war effort by listing items which can be given to scrap yards around the country.
[10] Pluto and Minnie Mouse contributed to the war effort by encouraging civilians to recycle their cooking grease so it could be used for making explosives in Out of the Frying Pan Into the Firing Line.
In the New Spirit, Donald Duck listens attentively to the radio as it tells him about the importance of paying his income taxes.
[13] The Disney team was also commissioned by the government’s agricultural division to make a short film about food in America.
The film highlighted the importance of the American farmer and alleviated fears about food supplies by giving detailed numbers on America's considerable agricultural production.
The appropriately titled film Booby Traps[27] uses Private Snafu to show the dangers and the caution needed to be taken in the case of such malicious devices.
The United States Auto Workers commissioned Warner Brothers to produce Hell-Bent for Election, which supported Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidential bid.
Fifth Column Mouse is a cartoon that through childlike humor and political undertones depicted a possible outcome of World War II.
The phrase, 'lights out,' was a popular saying during the war, especially in major cities to encourage people to turn off their lights to hinder targeting by potential enemy bombers.
The mice are then shown marching in step with hardy, confident grins on their faces with “We Did it Before and We Can Do it Again” by Robert Merrill playing in the background.
Amidst the construction of a secret weapon, a poster of a mouse with a rifle is shown with the bold words “For Victory: Buy Bonds and Stamps.” The mice have built a mechanical dog that chases the cat out of the house.
It is, therefore, important to single out a handful of enemy leaders and load them down with the whole Decalogue of sins.”[32] In World War I, the Kaiser drew much hate rhetoric and comic relief from the Allies.
The short film starts out with Wallace's song playing in the background while a comical band of Nazi "super-duper supermen" perform.
Disney pokes fun of Hitler's Germany by depicting Donald eating breakfast by only spraying the scent of bacon and eggs onto his breath and dipping a single coffee bean into his cup of water.
Disney and the Army knew this and wanted to depict the Germans living in a land that was hollow of all the wonderful promises that Hitler made.
Producers of the cartoon also wished to show that the working conditions of the factories were not as glorious as Hitler was making them sound in his speeches.
The film shows how a young boy in Nazi Germany is indoctrinated and brain washed at an early age and learns to follow and not think outside of what the government tells him.
On a more serious note, the cartoon next shows the child and his schoolmates in a class giving the infamous Heil Hitler salute repeatedly.
Reason and Emotion (Walt Disney Academy Awards)[34] is another film that attempts to help Americans at home understand how Germany became entranced under the influence of Hitler and Goebbels and how they themselves can resist such propaganda.
[35] The cartoon begins with a barnyard scene which introduces the main characters: “Cocky Locky” is depicted as the leader of, “Henny Lenny” is the gossip queen, “Turkey Lurkey” is shown as the educated elite, and “Chicken Little", the dunce.
Cocky Locky steps onto the scene to calm the situation explaining that Chicken Little was not hit on the head by a piece of the sky.
When the animals begin to fear for their lives and ask to know what to do, Chicken Little, who is a puppet of the fox, tells them to run to the cave.
When they all run inside the fox ties a napkin around his neck and announces, “dinner is served.” The film quite unashamedly got across the message the dangers of creating panic and not using logic and reason in a time of crisis.
The book Foxy read early in the film was originally intended to be Mein Kampf, however the producers thought that this might come across as too strong to the audience.
[37] Walt Disney himself was impressed by a 1942 book entitled Victory Through Air Power written by Alexander P. de Seversky.
This Russian-born, naturalized citizen, who had founded his own aircraft company was convinced that the only way to win the war was the use of a long range strategic bomber force.
Disney thought it his patriotic duty to spread the word of this new strategic plan involving tactical long-range bombing.
