World War II and American animation

War bonds perhaps received the most advertising and press. Animated cartoons allowed the government to spread their message in a much more entertaining manner. Bugs Bunny Bond Rally is a classic cartoon depicting Bugs Bunny singing and dancing about war bonds. The film was given to Henry Morgenthau of the U.S. Treasury Department on Monday, December 15, 1941.^[2] It was during such World War II films that Bugs achieved his popularity and made him a national mascot.^[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^[7]. In these short films, either subtly or directly, the characters are portrayed doing their part by spending less and using their savings to buy war savings certificates and investing in victory.

 

Donating scrap metal was another means by which Americans could help support the war effort. Scrap Happy Daffy was a short film that encouraged such patriotic acts. Daffy defends his scrap yard against a metal-eating Nazi goat sent by an irate Hitler. The cartoon asks citizens to donate to the war effort by listing items which can be given to scrap yards around the country. The cartoon also educates citizens about Hitler’s spies and spoilers who try to hinder such war efforts.^[8] Other films pleading for scrap metal include Ding Dong Daddy^[9] and Foney Fables^[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.^[11]

 

The government also used animation studios like Walt Disney to encourage people to pay their taxes and to do so promptly. In the New Spirit, Donald Duck listens attentively to the radio as it tells him about the importance of paying his income taxes. It even goes into detail about how to fill out a new tax form for households that make less than $3,000.00.^[12] In Spirit of ’43 Donald is caught in a conundrum to either spend his money for the Axis or save his money so he can pay his taxes and support the war effort. In both these films, paying taxes is described as a right and a privilege and should be done gladly and proudly for the war effort. "Taxes run the factories which make the war supplies" according to the narrator in the cartoon. Interestingly enough though, Spirit of ’43 blames Hitler and Hirohito for the high 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 was an encouraging one because it highlighted the importance of the American farmer. It also alleviated fears by giving detailed numbers on the amount of food produced by America alone. Americans could rest assured knowing how much food was available to them. The films created to support this effort included Food Will Win the War^[14] and The Grain that Built a Hemisphere^[15]. Some people were afraid of shortages though and would hoard food. Characters in Foney Fables^[16] ridiculed characters, even an old lady, who stockpiled food. Victory Gardens were portrayed positively in A Tale of Two Kitties,^[17] to encourage civilians to grow their own food, so there would be food for troops.

Animation began another revolutionary role in the 1940s that included training purposes. For civilian engineers Walt Disney did a film for Lockheed Martin on the Four Methods of Flush Riveting.^[18] The Army Air Force, Navy, and Bureau of Aeronautics also commissioned and supervised films. Animations were written to train pilots and ground crewman about The Occluded Fronts,^[19] Thunderstorms,^[20] and The Warm Front^[21]. Some films that Disney worked on were secretive. “RESTRICTED” is the first word that is shown to the beginning of a film that discusses the type of glue used for wooden aircraft for the film, Aircraft Wood Repair^[22] . Other films made to help train pilots included Theory of the C-1 AUTOPILOT: Part One Basic Principles^[23]. This film taught pilots how to use the revolutionary autopilot features on new airplanes. Wings Engines Fuselage Tail was a short film that taught servicemen how to best identify aircraft quickly^[24]. The Navy did a similar film called The 3-Point System^[25] which trained Naval servicemen how to identifying U.S. Cruisers. Rules of the Nautical Road^[26] was a Naval training film that, through animation, recreated a historical catastrophe. The film was directed at Naval officers and encouraged them to study nautical rules and training principles.

 

The most elaborate training film though was a film commissioned by the Canadian Directorate of Military Training to Walt Disney called, Stop That Tank!^[27] This 21-minute cartoon was a training film for Canadian infantrymen who were receiving a new anti-tank rifle. The movie begins by briefly describing the weapon, “The Anti-Tank Rifle (Boys MK-1) is small and highly portable. It can easily be camouflaged and concealed on almost any type of terrain. “When used as a weapons of surprise, it is highly effective against armored fighting vehicles.” The first few minutes of the film is a cartoon with Hitler and his tanks being defeated by men using the new rifle. The film then becomes a more serious film showing how the weapon is to be used and cleaned.

 

The regular G.I. was also a target of animation and many films directed toward him explicitely instructed him on how to behave. Those in the Army and Marine Corps were familiar with the names Private Snuffy and Lance Corporal Schmuckatelli. These are fictional names given in safety briefs of soldiers or Marines used to tell real servicemen what not to do. One film titled Snafuperman^[28] depicts a G.I., Private Snafu, who distains studying and reading. He is given special powers but uses them to the almost detriment of the United States because he did not study and know the difference between his own side and the enemy. At the conclusion of the film, he recognizes the need for learning and reading. The appropriately titled film Booby Traps^[29] uses Private Snafu to show the dangers and the caution needed to be taken in the case of such malicious devices. Spies once again portrays Private Snafu acting counter to what he has been told.^[30] The intoxicated G.I. gives secrets to a beautiful woman who is really a Nazi spy. Through the information he gives her, the Germans are able to bomb the ship Private Snafu is traveling on, sending him to hell.

It was not long before animation was used in political campaigning. In Hell-Bent for Election^[31] the United States Auto Workers made a film for the presidential election in support of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The film was “so pertinent and even Socialist in nature, that theaters never showed this piece”^[32] though it was shown to its own members at meetings and rallies. The film was directed by Chuck Jones who worked at Warner Brothers, but the corporation certainly did not support or contribute to the film in any way.

Some films were more potent with propagandistic symbolism than others. Fifth Column Mouse is a cartoon that through childlike humor and political undertones could tell the story of World War II. The film begins with a bunch of mice playing and singing a song about how they never worry. One mouse notices a cat looking in through a window, but is calmed when another mouse tells him that the cat cannot get inside. The cat however, bursts in through the front door alerting a mouse that wears a WWII style air raid warden helmet and screams, “Lights Out” promptly turns off the main light. The term, 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 same mouse who said the cat could not get inside, ends up getting caught by the cat. The cat tells him that he will not kill him, but will give him cheese if the mouse does what the cat tells him to do. During the dialogue between the two, the cat smiles with an undeniable Tojo bucktooth grin and even talks with a Japanese accent. In the end the cat, screams “Now get going!” and the mouse jumps to attention and gives the infamous Nazi salute. The scene cuts to the dumb mouse, now an agent of influence, telling the other mice that the cat is here to “save us and not to enslave us” and “don’t be naughty mice, but appease him” so “hurry and sign a truce”. This message of appeasement and signing a truce would have been all too familiar to the adults in the theaters who were probably with their children. The next clip is of the cat lounging on pillows with multiple mice tending to his every need. However, when the cat reveals that he wants to eat a mouse they all scatter. Inside their hole, a new mouse is encouraging the others to be strong and fight the cat. 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. Before he leaves though a mouse skins the cat with an electric razor, but leaves three short dots and a long streak of fur on his back. In Morse code, the letter "V" is produced through dot-dot-dot-dash. As depicted in many pictures but made popular by Winston Churchill, the “V” for victory sign was a popular symbol of encouragement for the Allies. The cartoon ends with the mice singing, “We did it before, we did it AGAIN!”^[33]

 

Der Fuehrer's Face^[34] is one of the most popular propaganda cartoons produced by Walt Disney. In Harold D. Lasswell’s Propaganda Technique in World War I, he states “It is always difficult for many simple minds inside a nation to attach personal traits to so dispersed an entity as a whole nation. They need to hate some individual on whom to pin their hate. It is, therefore, important to single out a handful of enemy leaders and load them down with the whole Decalogue of sins.”^[35] In World War I, the Kaiser drew much hate rhetoric and comic relief from the Allies. In World War II Adolf Hitler drew similar negative attention. This film helped relieve aggression toward the icon that many saw as causing so much violence and destruction. The cartoon was originally titled Donald Duck in Nuzi Land, but the title was changed when a song produced by Olliver Wallace became a sensational hit, titled Der Fuerher’s Face. In the end the film makes Americans be thankful for the freedoms and liberties they posses.

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. Hitler had promised the Germans great wealth and vast stores of food. 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. Donald is worked continuously with very little compensation and time off. Though it seems Donald goes crazy he soon wakes up from his nightmare and is forever thankful for being a citizen of the United States of America.

Education for Death^[36] was a very serious film that Disney produced. This cartoon was based on a best selling book Education for Death written by Gregor Ziemer . 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. This short is both educational but also provides comedic relief by mocking Hitler. The film is both shocking in its content and despairing in its ending.

The film begins with the narrator asking how Nazis are born and developed. The story takes the audience to the child’s academic beginning in kindergarten. Child stories are often adapted to meet the state's needs so, characters and plot lines are often changed. In the story, the wicked witch is known as democracy, while sleeping beauty is Germany and the knight that saves her is played by Hitler. The cartoon depicts this story in a rather short fashion but also depicts the two main characters (Hitler and Germany) ridiculously. On a more serious note, the cartoon next shows the child and his schoolmates in a class giving the infamous Heil Hitler salute repeatedly. However, the young boy becomes sick and the narrator informs the audience that unless the child becomes better again he will be taken away, being denounced unfit and will never be heard from again. However, he does recover and returns to school where he gives his daily pledge to fight, obey, and die for his Fueher. The boy answers a question incorrectly and is publicly humiliated. The lesson that the young boy learns later is that weakness is not to be tolerated and that the world belongs to the strong and brutal. The next few scenes show a book burning demonstration and other famous works being burned that are declared illegal by the state. Icons such as the Holy Bible are replaced with Mein Kampf and an image of the crucifix is replaced with a sword that has the Nazi swastika on it. Fast-forwarding a few years, the boy is older and is marching first as a teenage Hitler youth and then eventually as a soldier. The narrator ends the cartoon with the words, “His education is complete, his education for death” as a vast German army fades into a cemetery with crosses over thousands of graves.

Reason and Emotion(Walt Disney Academy Awards)^[37] is another film that tries to help Americans at home understand how Germany became entranced under the influence of Hitler and Goebles and how they themselves can resist such propaganda. The film depicts what damage can be done when individuals allow their reasoning and common sense skills to be overtaken by their emotions. The cartoon depicts a man internally struggling with his reason and emotion. More importantly, the narrator informs the audience that in the present time it is increasingly critical that people use their reasoning skills and not let their emotions run wild. As the narrator speaks images of newspapers with contradictory and emotionally charged, titles flash back and forth. The idea of the images is to show how headlines and news can create worry and chaos if responsible individuals allow themselves to believe everything they hear. The narrator cuts back in after reason and emotion are battling it out again inside the man’s head, explaining how Adolf Hitler preys upon those that let fear and emotion rule them. The cartoon cuts to an animated Hitler controlling Germans through fear, hate, sympathy, and pride. However, the film ends with reason and emotion being told that they must work together. Reason must firmly be in the drivers seat with emotion positively encouraging the mind to fight against all odds.

Chicken Little (1943 film)^[38] is a very serious and foreboding cartoon. It is similar to 5th Column Mouse in that its symbolism is undeniable and depicts how the Nazis tried to instill fear into their enemies. The cartoon begins with a barnyard scene where multiple characters are introduced. “Cocky Locky” is depicted as the leader of the chickens, “Henny Lenny” is the gossip queen of the bunch, “Turkey Lurkey” is shown as the educated elite, and the last character is “Chicken Little" who seems to be quite the dunce. The animals are all seen as happy because of a big strong fence protecting them. However, “Foxy Loxy” is trying to get in and decides to use a book entitled psychology to not just get one chicken, bet “get them all!” Though the book the fox is reading is entitled psychology on the outside, it was first originally supposed to be entitled Mein Kampf however, it was thought by the producers that this might come across as too strong to the audience.^[39] The book tells the fox that in order to influence the masses he should aim first at the least intelligent. The book also says that when to tell a lie, tell a big lie as opposed to a small lie. The fox then convinces Chicken Little (the least intelligence of the group) that the sky is falling (a big lie). Everyone seems to be excited and anxious and convinced by Chicken Little that the sky is falling. 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. The crowd is dispersed with Chicken Little left crying and feeling ashamed. The fox then realizes that he must “undermine the faith of the masses in their leaders” according to the psychology book. The fox then convinces Henny Lenny and her gossiping crowd that Foxy Loxy may be wrong and if he is that they will all be killed. The fox then convinces Turkey Lurkey and his educated elite that Cocky Locky is displaying “totalitarian tendencies and is trying to dictate to us.” The fox next reads, “By the use of flattery, insignificant people can be made to look at themselves as born leaders.” Chicken Little is convinced by the fox that everyone will listen to him now and should save all the other animals and tell them what to do. 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 times of crises.

Victory Through Air Power (film)^[40] was perhaps Walt Disney’s most ambitious wartime propaganda film. The film was made to send a message. Walt Disney himself was impressed by a book entitled Victory Through Air Power written by Alexander P. de Seversky. This Russian born, naturalized citizen was convinced that the only way to win the war was to focus on long-range bomber planes. Mr. Walt Disney thought it his patriotic duty to spread the word of this new strategic plan. The message delivered is about winning a war against enemies who were bent on world domination and to do so through a tactical long range bombing strategy. Winston Churchill viewed the film and convinced Franklin D. Roosevelt that he too should watch it. After Roosevelt watched the film, the United States began committing to long-range bomber airplanes and strategies. This was Disney’s original intent, to influence and change American strategic thinking at the decision maker's level.

• Walt Disney's World War II propaganda production
• Propaganda film
• American propaganda during World War II