Disney: When the company did propaganda during World War II

Very conservative, Walt Disney publicly opposed America’s involvement in World War II in the early 1940s. But like many companies in the country, it didn’t take long to contribute to the war effort after the United States entered the war.

Thus, part of the Disney studio is monopolized by the government to turn it into an armory, or even a hospital, while Disney keeps the team responsible for making feature films under very difficult conditions. , such as Dumbo.

So Disney continues to produce, but this time his work is not just for the general public. In particular, he created propaganda films for the Americans, or tactical films for the training of the military, about the importance of aviation during the war, etc.

Among these propaganda works we find some gems such as The Face of Der Führer (1942), in which an obsessed Donald, enslaved in a weapons factory like Charlot in modern times, repeats “Heil Hitler”…

Here it is again:

Victory by air

It is still in this logic that his studios released in cinemas in July 1943 the feature propaganda film “Victory by Air Power”. It is an adaptation of the 1942 book, running for 1 hour and 10 minutes and produced for $788,000, combining live action and animation written by Russian-American Major of the US Air Force, Alexander P. by De Seversky.

A paper supporting the importance of aerial bombardment had quite a resonance: it was published on December 7, 1941, barely six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese Air Force, which led to war with the United States. States.

Previously, military commanders viewed the air force as tactically useful, that is, primarily in support of ground combatant efforts; when it could be used on a much larger scale.

An avid reader and impressed by the work, Walt Disney himself directed the construction of Victory by the Air, and the film was created in 14 months. Note, depending on the context. For the record, Disney’s film distributor at the time, RKO Radio Pictures, refused to release it in theaters.

After that, Walt Disney decided to apply to United Artists, who distributed many shorts from the big-ear company between 1932 and 1937. making it Disney’s first and only animated feature to be distributed by the studio. Cinema, except for RKO and Walt Disney. studios.

Here it is below. To be fair, the work should be in Technicolor… Disney Studios also sent a copy of the film to Franklin D. Roosevelt, the President of the United States, who is said to have been impressed.

Education for death

Here is perhaps one of the strangest cartoons produced by the firm at the time. Of course, one of the darkest too, because Education for death Leads to the recruitment of children in Hitler’s youth, with the fate of a little boy named Hans.

Released in American theaters on January 15, 1943, Europe had no access to it, being mostly occupied by German troops. A narrator is present, the voices are German, and Hitler’s voice-over was made from voice recordings in which his real voice was heard.

This is an adaptation of the book Education for Death: The Making of a Nazi Written by Gregor Zimmer. An American educator, he lived in Germany from 1928 to 1939. Reader’s Digest published a condensed version and asked Disney Studios to make a cartoon based on the book. A high-quality cartoon produced by renowned in-house animator Ward Kimball.

See below..

For added originality, this animated short is a live-action adaptation of Gregor Zimmer’s book. It would be Hitler’s Sons, released on January 6, 1943, and directed by master craftsman and Hollywood veteran Edward Dmytryk. The two RKO-distributed works will benefit from cross-promotion.