It's a common opinion that all kinds of propaganda movies should be banned altogether and not made accessible to the public. This 8-minute Donald Duck short film is the perfect example of why that would be a huge mistake.
Curiosity brought me to this Disney cartoon since of all the things you probably don't expect to see in them is a reference to Hitler in the title. Within a few seconds that list of "things you don't expect in a Disney cartoon" got a brand new #1 as I saw the sight of Donald Duck wearing the swastika and living in Nazi Germany!
Some people may be shocked or even shriek to find out Disney was once known for creating shorts that involved the Nazis and Nazi Germany during the World War II era. These shorts have gone on to live kind of an infamous life in terms of popularity amongst cinephiles and Disney-enthusiasts, but arguably the most known short of all these is Der Fuehrer's Face, focusing on Donald Duck, who resides in Communist Russia, working the unforgiving job of constructing artillery shells of all different sizes on an assembly line.
I have been a huge Disney fan for as long as I can remember, not only of their films and shows but also their silly symphonies. Der Fuehrer's Face is one of their best cartoons, and one of my favourite cartoons ever.
During the 1940's, Disney was putting out quite a few of war propaganda films. This Academy Award Winning Donald Duck short is an incredible piece of animation that id, genuinely, really good.
Basic propaganda, using an icon, Donald Duck, to demean Adolph Hitler. In this one, our Disney duck finds himself part of the Nazi military industrial complex.
In hindsight, the whole idea of Donald Duck (voiced by Clarence Nash) being in Nazi Germany, working in a war munitions factory is uncomfortable, because of the dark and trouble history of WW2, even if it's in a nightmare settling. Still, this animation War propaganda short film by Walt Disney Productions and released in 1943 by RKO Radio Picture is laugh out loud funny.
Rather than addressing the unique depravity and institutionalised violence of Uncle Sam's latest arch-foe this strident Disney propaganda short simply declares that Hitler's subjects work 48 hour days for peanuts with very little time off and even less thanks in dead-end jobs on eternal production lines.How unlike the Land of the Free, where only half of America's workers currently take their full annual leave entitlement, which is not rolled over.
Der Fueher's Face is a masterpiece of a cartoon and It's my favorite cartoon from Donald Duck. It shows how crazy the Nazi invasion was by showing what happens to a duck in that situation.
