TAKE A PROPA-GANDER AT THESE FILMS!

A big thank you to all of you who took part in my Animation Night!

Last night's selection of cartoons came from the War Era. The propaganda films made during World War Two are fascinating to watch and educational to see the way the world use to be.

The stories told during these films really give a hint of the personal and political views that the various animation companies and media groups believed in at the time. They all shared a blatant hatred for Hitler, Nazis, Japanese and everyone else connected with the Axis.

But instead of educating the general public of what was going on in the world, many of the studios were recruited to make propaganda films. Many of which can be considered hate films. In particular, the short Education For Death (Disney) told the tale of a child being 'brainwashed' into being a Nazi. But it seems that creating these films was a form of brainwashing of the American public.

Because of the extreme racism portrayed in these cartoons many have been banned from television and theatre only to be shown in special programs that will explain the context of the times. Disney has released a full two-disc dvd set of all their wartime cartoons and a few other can be found on various dvd compilations, but many have not been seen by the general public for many years.

I managed to scrape up a few from these sets as well as the internet to make a fun evening.

I included samples from a few different studios that included characters such as Donald Duck, Superman, Popeye and Daffy Duck. Here is what we watched:

Spies (Warner Bros)
Russian Rhapsody (Warner Bros)
Scrap Happy Daffy (Warner Bros)
Spinach Fer Britain (Famous Studios)
Japoteurs (Fleischer Studios)
The Eleventh Hour (Fleischer Studios)
Blitz Wolf (MGM)
Thrifty Pig (Disney)
The Spirit of '43 (Disney)
Education for Death (Disney)
Der Fuehrer's Face (Disney)