Dr. Luke Robinson and Dr.

Ian Brookes – W51101

Analyse any one film or group

of films in relation to its social
and ideological context.
Support your answer with
reference to at least two
primary sources.
American Propaganda in Second World War Animation: Disney Recruits

Student ID Number: 2115028

2-12-2013
Student ID Number: 2115028 Film History 1: W51101 2/12/2013

American Propaganda in Second World War Animation: Disney Recruits

‘By 1943 the United States was deeply embroiled in the Second World War and the Walt
Disney Studio was nearly entirely occupied with producing films for the war effort.’ (Roe
2011, p.15)

Although Disney was making animated defense films with an instructional meaning for the
Canadian government, it wasn’t until the attack on Pearl Harbor (McEvoy 1942; Grainge, Jancovich
and Monteith 2012) that Walt began to employ his popular friends such as Mickey Mouse and
Donald Duck (McEvoy 1942). Hollywood was constantly producing propagandist motion-pictures
during the Second World War with the intention of supporting the Allies in their fight against the Axis
Powers and protect the American ideology of freedom (Grainge, Jancovich and Monteith 2012).
Disney, a man who is proud of his country, wants to protect it and instead of joining the army, he did
what he was best at: producing (McEvoy 1942). He was asked by the U.S. Navy to produce ‘films for
training Navy personnel on airplane and warship identification’ (McEvoy 1942, p.H8). Since the first
animated cartoon with sound ‘Steamboat Willie’ saw the light in 1929 (McEvoy 1942), Disney has
made enormous successes with his animated friends, especially Mickey Mouse (Robbins 1935). As
seen in Robbins’ article in the New York Times of 1935, Disney had established an international
audience of eighty-million per week which included audiences in Japan (Miki Kuchi), Germany
(Michael Maus) and Italy (Michele Jopolino), who would later on form the Axis Powers. This audience
would not only see the animated pictures, but would – with zealous capitalism – buy any item
depicting their beloved friend:

‘Shoppers carry Mickey Mouse satchels and briefcases bursting with Mickey Mouse soap,
candy, playing-cards, bridge favours, hairbrushes, chinaware, alarm clocks and hot-water
bottles, wrapped in Mickey Mouse paper, tied with Mickey Mouse ribbon and paid for out of
Mickey Mouse purses with savings boarded in Mickey Mouse banks.’ (Robbins 1935, pSM8).

During the thirties, Disney’s biggest accomplishment proliferated in Germany, resulting in a

nation of Mickey lovers, including Joseph Goebbels and Adolf Hitler: ‘”Ich schenke dem Führer
achtzehn Micky-Maus-Filme zu Weinachten. Er freut sich sehr darüber. Ist ganz glücklich über diesen
Schatz.” – Joseph Goebbels’ diary, Wednesday December 20, 1937’ (Joseph Goebbels’ diary 1937,
cited in Van Der Heyden 2013, p.7). As Grainge, Jancovich and Monteith (2012) note, Goebbels
wanted a national German cinema – without import – to express Nazism but was held back by his
love of film aesthetics.
Student ID Number: 2115028 Film History 1: W51101 2/12/2013

Mickey Mouse will retain his popularity and Walt will take advantage of his creation to put
him to use in America’s ideological war. Next to this popularity, another reason for using the well-
known cartoon animals was capitalism: after the Great Depression, even Walt Disney Studios had its
difficulties and since the studio ‘was paid for its government work’ (Shull, and Wilt 2004, p. 60),
making propagandist shorts was an easy choice. Another advantage of recruiting his popular and
diverse characters on screen was their needless introduction (Van der Heyden 2013). Van der
Heyden (2013) argues that the character’s distinctive values could represent certain layers of society
addressing people directly and as such, Donald was the most important because he represented
most of America’s contemporary society: as a labourer of the middle class, paying his taxes and
suffering from the Great Depression, he was the ideal character people could sympathise with.
Donald had a great influence on the contemporary morals thanks to his amazing will power and lust
to survive even in difficult situations, which made him a useful character in propagandist shorts (Van
der Heyden 2013). ‘Propaganda is “the methodical spreading of ideas in the promotion of some
cause, group or nation”’ (Schull and Wilt 2004, p.13). In analysing propaganda – such as this
animated cartoon ‘Der Fuehrer’s Face’ by Walt Disney (CartoonFanClub 2013) – ten aspects,
introduced in ‘Propaganda & Persuasion’ by Jowett and O’Donnell (2012), should be looked at.
However, in dealing with this cartoon, only some of these aspects involving ideology and goal,
context, author, organisation, target audience, techniques and special effects will be dealt with.

As any propagandist short, it is made to convince. This ‘Victory Short’ (Doherty 1993) wanted
to convince its audience of the American political agenda which is loving freedom and hating the
totalitarian and destructive regimes: ‘The enemy was fascism. The enemy was not the Axis leadership
nor all of the Axis-led peoples but fascist supporters anywhere, at home as well as abroad.’ (Grainger,
Jancovich and Monteith 2012, p.267). These shorts proliferated since 1941, when the Japanese army
bombed Pearl Harbor and got America involved in the Second World War (McEvoy 1942; Grainger,
Jancovich and Monteith 2012). The war front was located on the European Continent so America
found itself far away from the actual war terrors. As such it was every American’s duty to help the
real heroes on the continent by pitching in; every aspect of everyday life was to be put to good use in
order to win the war (Van Der Heyden 2013). This context ensured the safe producing of anti-Nazism
propaganda shorts – something which was impossible in occupied nations. The organisation Walt
Disney Studios, which is behind this animated short film is stimulated by the capitalist reason of
money, since they are being paid for their propaganda work (Shull and Wilt 2004; Roe 2011). As
Grainger, Jancovich and Monteith (2012) have put it, the enemy is the adversaries of democracy
everywhere. The technique which ‘made American propagandist cartoons most effective was their
use of wit and humour, however serious the subject may be’ (Schull and Wilt 2004, p.14). Another
Student ID Number: 2115028 Film History 1: W51101 2/12/2013

technique was the cartoon’s focus on Germany: ‘Unusual for a propaganda short to concentrate
almost entirely on the internal affairs of an enemy nation’ (Shull and Wilt 2004, p.60).

The cartoon, supposedly to be named ‘Donald Duck in NutziLand’, opens with the famous
song ‘der Fuehrer’s Face’ which gave its name to the short film (Van Der Heyden 2013). A band of
German, Italian and Japanese soldiers march their way through a landscape made up of Swastika
trees and fences to Donald’s home. America’s most famous Duck salutes Hitler in his sleep (figure 1a)
as the band is singing ‘Heil, Heil’. The bird in the clock (figure 1b) salutes Hitler after which Donald is
pricked out of bed with a bayonet and once again has to salute the portraits of Hitler, Hirohito and
Mussolini (figure 1c). He gets to read Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’1 (figure 1d) and a second later the band
marches through his house sweeping up Donald on their way out.

Figure 1 Fillm stills : Hitler’s influence in Der Fuehrer’s Face (1942)2

The second scene, introduced by a German voice saying: ‘The Glorious privilege is yours to be
a Nutzi, to work forty-eight hours a day for the Fuehrer.’ (CartoonFanClub, 2013: 3min 27), starts
with a menacing image of the factory (figure 2a) where Donald is lead inside under threat to make
ammunition. From then on he has to work extremely hard and every time a portrait of Hitler occurs,
Donald has to salute it. Eventually he gets paid vacation which turns out to be a beautiful image of
the Alps and a workout to keep the body fit. Donald eventually becomes insane (figure 2b) and yells
out ‘I can’t stand it, I’m going nuts!’ (CartoonFanClub, 2013: 6min 19). In the next scene we get a
surrealist dream world which ends with Donald ‘falling’ into his own bed where he is in a restless
sleep. He wakes up in an American themed bedroom (figure 2c) saying ‘am I glad to be a citizen of
the United States of America’ (CartoonFanClub, 2013: 7min 30). The short film ends with a tomato
thrown in Hitler’s face. (figure 2d)

1
Anon (2013). ‘Mein Kampf’. Encyclopædia Britannica [Online]. Available:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/373362/Mein-Kampf [accessed 27 November, 2013]
2
From left to right: Figure 1a (1:37), 1b (1:45), 1c (1:57), 1d (3:05) in CartoonFanClub (2013). ‘Walt Disney
Cartoons Donald Duck – Der Fuehrer’s Face’. YouTube [Online]. Available:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=os9SrKSj7Lc [accessed: 23 Novembre 2013]
Student ID Number: 2115028 Film History 1: W51101 2/12/2013

Figure 2 Film stills in Der Fuehrer’s Face 19423

From the start, Disney used the new technique of sound in his cartoons, from the first
‘Steamboat Willie’ starring Mickey Mouse, to ‘Der Fuehrer’s Face’ starring Donald Duck (McEvoy
1942). In the latter, Walt made use of Oliver Wallace’s song ‘Der Fuehrer’s Face’ which was
extremely popular in America (Van Der Heyden 2013). Therefore Walt, before the release of ‘Donald
Duck in Nutziland’ on January the first 1943, changed the title to ‘Der Fuehrer’s Face’ (Jones, 2006,
cited in Van Der Heyden 2013, p.110). Van Der Heyden (2013) argues that several ironic sentences
make fun of the totalitarian regime and the naïve obedience of the Axis Powers towards Hitler. She
states a striking example of foolish obedience in line 9 where the caricature of Hirohito – not an ideal
Aryan4 supermen because of his Japanese origins – sings ‘Aryan pure are supermen!’ (Grainger,
Jancovich and Monteith 2012; CartoonFanClub, 2013: 1min 03). Other examples of this foolish
obedience can be found in line 12 which exemplifies the totalitarian regime in which the Axis Powers
are stuck ‘We would leave it if we could’(CartoonFanClub 2013: 1min 14) or in line 15 where the
ridiculing of the German accent changes Hitler’s order into a ‘dis-order’ – because of the bad
pronunciation of ‘this’ (CartoonFanClub 2013: 1min 30).

‘When der Fuehrer says: “We is the master race”,

we Heil! Heil! right in der Fuehrer’s face.
Not to love der Fuehrer is a great disgrace,
so we ‘Heil! Heil!’ right in der Fuehrer's face.
When Herr Goebbels says: “We own the world and space”, 5
we Heil! Heil! right in Herr Goebbels' face.
When Herr Göring says: “They'll never bomb this place”,
we Heil! Heil! right in Herr Göring's face.

3
From left to right: Figure 2a (3:25), 1b (6:22), 1c (7:28), 1d (7:45) in CartoonFanClub (2013). ’Walt Disney
Cartoons Donald Duck – Der Fuehrer’s Face’ YouTube [Online]. Available:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=os9SrKSj7Lc [accessed: 23 November 2013]
4
Anon (2013). ’Aryan’. Encyclopædia Britannica [Online]. Available :
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/37468/Aryan [Accessed 27 November 2013]
Student ID Number: 2115028 Film History 1: W51101 2/12/2013

Is we not the supermen? Aryan pure are supermen!

Ja, we is the supermen (super-duper supermen)! 10
Is this Nutsy land so good? Would you leave it if you could?
Ja, this Nutsy land is good! We would leave it if we could!
We bring the world new order. Heil Hitler's world to order.
Everyone of foreign race will love der Fuehrer's face
when we bring to the world this order [disorder].’ (CartoonFanClub 2013: 0min 24) 15

When der Fuehrer says: “we never will be slaves!”

We heil! Heil! But still we work like slaves
When der Fuehrer brags, and lies, and rants and raves
We heil! Heil! And work into our graves. (CartoonFanClub 2013: 3min 34)

When der Fuehrer yells: “I gotta have more shells!’ 20

We heil! Heil! And for him we make more shells
If un little shell, should blow him right to hell,
We heil! Heil! And wouldn’t that be swell? (CartoonFanClub 2013: 4min 24) 5

America, having difficulty with propaganda due to their emphasis on democracy (Grainger,
Jancovich and Monteith 2012), is in the penultimate scene depicted as having several liberal images
which are supposed to evoke a positive reaction with its spectators (CartoonFanClub 2013; Van Der
Heyden 2013). People were supposed to sympathise with Donald Duck and in the end the audience
would feel relieved as they saw their favourite cartoon character safely near its liberal and American
relics (Van Der Heyden 2013). This clear political agenda, loving freedom and hating totalitarian
regimes, would eventually instigate and nourish American’s enthusiasm and considerable war effort
(Van Der Heyden 2013).

‘The OWI6 was particularly concerned to create a sense of national unity […] and the United
States was represented as a diverse but unified country. In contrast, the Nazis were
specifically presented as stern and repressive authoritarians who lacked individuality and
required unquestioning conformity.’ (Grainger, Jancovich and Monteith 2012, p.256).

5
CartoonFanClub (2013). ‘Walt Disney Cartoons Donald Duck – Der Fuehrer’s Face’. YouTube [Online].
Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=os9SrKSj7Lc [accessed: 23 November 2013]
6
The Office of War Information, established on June 13, 1942 (Grainger, Joncovich and Montheith 2012)
Student ID Number: 2115028 Film History 1: W51101 2/12/2013

‘The stern and repressive authoritarians’ (Grainger, Jancovich and Monteith 2012, p.256) are
represented in the cartoon in several scenes where Donald is threatened out of bed, threatened to
‘Heil’ Hitler and threatened to do almost anything (CartoonFanClub 2013). The distinction between
‘Nutziland’ and America is clearly visible through the images applied (CartoonFanClub 2013). In
Nutziland there is an abundance of Swastika’s7 – on every piece of clothing, on the musical
instruments, on the clock, the trees – in contrast to the American symbols of Donald’s bedroom
which is filled with American flags, stars and stripes and the symbol of freedom : the Statue of
Liberty8.

The entertainment picture proved to be the easiest way to inject a propagandist idea into
people’s minds (Grainger, Jancovich and Monteith 2012) and Walt saw his chance to shine : ‘Disney
seems to have been one of the few top executives to grasp the idea that cartoons could be used for
political as well as entertainment purposes’ (Schull and Wilt 2004, p.60). ‘His whole vast studio – with
Donald Duck and all – are working now for Uncle Sam’ (McEvoy 1942, p.H8). Although America’s
democratic politics do not coincide with the idea of propaganda (Grainger, Jancovich and Monteith
2012), McEvoy’s newspaper article in 1942 clearly states ‘He’s a propaganda genius’ (p.H8). The
American population would have been well aware of the subtle propaganda techniques but
Hollywood kept their steady level of entertainment present in their motion pictures (Grainger,
Jancovich and Monteith 2012). So although ’94 percent of Disney’s work was war-related’ (Doherty
1993, p6H8), Disney will keep entertaining in spite of its strong propagandist influence (Schull and
Wilt 2004).

‘Entertainment for its own sake is in abeyance at the Walt Disney studio. For the duration
Disney, his great stall of artists and all his characters, old and new, are lighting the war as
satirists and educators. The boys have designed some weapons with the moral hitting power
of 50-caliber machine guns. Of these, “Der Fuehrer’s Face” […], is likely to have the widest
effect on the public.’ (anon 1942, p. D1.)

7
Anon (2013) ‘swastika’. Encyclopædia Britannica [Online]. Available:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/576371/swastika [Accessed 24 November, 2013]
8
Anon (2013) ‘Statue of Liberty’. Encyclopædia Britannica [Online]. Available:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/339344/Statue-of-Liberty [Accessed 24 November 2013]
Student ID Number: 2115028 Film History 1: W51101 2/12/2013

Bibliography
Books

Anon (1942). ‘Disney’s artists go to war’. Los Angeles Times, Sunday December 6, p. D1.

Doherty, Thomas P. (1993). Projections of War: Hollywood, American culture, and World War II. New
York: Columbia University Press.

Grainge, Paul, Jancovich, Mark and Monteith, Sharon (Eds.) (2012). Film Histories: an introduction
and reader. Edinburgh: University Press Ltd.

Jowett, G.S. and O’Donnell, V. (2012). Propaganda and Persuasion. United States of America: Sage
Publications.

Lenburg, J. (2009). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoon. Third Edition. New York: Infobase
Publishing.

McEvoy, J P (1942). ‘WALT DISNEY GOES TO WAR’. The New York Times, July 5, p.H8.

Robbins, L.H. (1935). ‘Mickey mouse emerges as economist’. New York Times, Sunday March 10,
p.SM8.

Roe, B. H. (2011). ‘The Canadian Shorts: Establishing Disney’s Wartime Style.’ In B. Van Riper (ed.)
(2011), Learning from Mickey, Donald, and Walt: Essays on Disney’s Edutainment Films. Pp. 15-26.
Jefferson: McFarland.

Shull, Michael S. and Wilt, David E. (2004). Doing Their Bit: Wartime American Animated Short Films,
1939-1945. Jefferson: McFarland.

Van Der Heyden, C. (2013). ‘De Geanimeerde Oorlog: Propaganda in tekenfilms van Disney en Nazi-
Duitsland tijdens de tweede wereldoorlog’. MA Dissertation, Universiteit Gent.

Van Riper, A. Bowdoin (Ed.) (2011). Learning from Mickey, Donald and Walt: essays on Disney’s
edutainment films. Jefferson: McFarland
Student ID Number: 2115028 Film History 1: W51101 2/12/2013

Online Sources

Anon (2013) ‘swastika’. Encyclopædia Britannica [Online]. Available:

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/576371/swastika [Accessed 24 November, 2013]

Anon (2013) ‘Statue of Liberty’. Encyclopædia Britannica [Online]. Available:

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/339344/Statue-of-Liberty [Accessed 24 November
2013]

CartoonFanClub (2013). ‘Walt Disney Cartoons Donald Duck – Der Fuehrer’s Face’. YouTube [Online].
Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=os9SrKSj7Lc [accessed: 23 November 2013]

Anon (2013). ’Aryan’. Encyclopædia Britannica [Online]. Available :

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/37468/Aryan [Accessed 27 November 2013]

Anon (2013). ‘Mein Kampf’. Encyclopædia Britannica [Online]. Available:

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/373362/Mein-Kampf [accessed 27 November, 2013]