Disney chose Donald over other prominent members of its cast due to his characterization of the average American man. Micky was too happy and optimistic to represent the average person, but Donald’s “irascible” tendency resonated better with the average American wanting to participate in the war effort. Furthermore, many of the studio’s developers still didn’t feel comfortable incorporating the figurehead that was Mickey into Nazism and other more tarnishing subjects.
Der Fuehrer's Face starred Donald as a German munitions factory worker and depicted his grueling day to day life over having impossible workloads while being closely monitored under the eye of supervisors, making sure that he was not disobedient of Nazi ideals. The film was initially titled “Donald Duck in Nutzi Land” and was created to help sell war bonds in the US. The film went on to win 15 Academy Awards as well as the Oscar for “Best Animated Film”. Surprisingly, Disney prevented the circulation of the film after the initial airing. This was due to the fact that Donald was portrayed as a Nazi in the film, leading many in the company to feel uncomfortable over the future of a permanently Nazi Donald Duck.
During the war, financial policies such as the Revenue Act of 1942 were enacted, raising individual tax rates of all classes. Many Americans were immediately disgruntled by the fact, leading to the creation of another prominent cartoon, “The Spirit of ‘43”. The film depicts Donald in the same dilemma as many Americans during the time, whether to save money for taxes or to spend it. Ultimately Donald realizes the value in saving and helping the government through income taxation, relaying the message to many Americans during WWII.
http://www.openculture.com/2012/12/donald_ducks_bad_nazi_dream_and_others_disney_propaganda_cartoons.html
Clip from Der Fuehrer's Face: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzH1iaKVsBM
Spirit of ‘43: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNMrMFuk-bo
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/11834429/How-Donald-Duck-helped-win-Second-World-War-and-beat-Mickey-to-the-job.html
https://www.nytimes.com/1943/02/04/archives/the-spirit-of-43.html
I really enjoyed this post. I grew up watching these older cartoons of Daffy Duck, Mickey Mouse, Looney Tunes, Rocky and Bullwinkle, etc because they were the episodes my grandparents had. When I go back to rewatch older episodes of these cartoons, I notice propaganda that totally went over my head when I was younger. For example, in an episode of Rocky and Bullwinkle that aired in the late 50's, there is a lot of anti communist propaganda. The antagonists throughout the show, Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale come from a made up place called Pottsylvania that is satirically based on Soviet Union era Russia and Germany. They both sport mock Russian accents and when the protagonists of the show go to Pottsylvania, there are a lot of satirical parallels to the Cold War era Eastern Germany. The nation is built on espionage and the country is populated by government spies. This mock nation was considered offensive by the Soviet Union, so the show was banned by the Soviet government.
ReplyDeleteI also had a similar experience to you Vittoria! My brother and I grew up watching looney tunes as well as other older shows like Gilligan's Island and Hogan's hero. Even though the messages seemed to fly over our heads as children, I'm sure the underlying message resonated with older viewer; I bet overtime, the repetition of the propaganda would influence a child's perception as well. A common trend I saw in the cartoons was a caricature of the Nazis and the Japanese and the depiction of them as stupid or inhuman.
DeleteHowever, there was often a difference in how Nazis and Japanese were represented in the media. Japanese propaganda, like the film Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, often had a racist undertone, whereas Nazi propaganda isolated the Nazis from the German people, almost making them seem as victims. Regardless of how people were depicted, propaganda was an extremely effective method in swaying the public opinion and garnering support for the war effort.
Sources:
https://the-artifice.com/world-war-ii-weapon-propaganda-film/
https://collections.libraries.indiana.edu/IULMIA/exhibits/show/world-war-ii-propaganda-films
http://blogs.ischool.berkeley.edu/i103su09/structure-projects-assignments/research-project/projects-and-presentations/film-as-propaganda-in-america-during-wwii/