Toons Against The Third Reich

During World War II, Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse weren’t just about entertainment. Film studios used animated characters to spread propaganda and educate Americans about their enemies. And the animators themselves were employed to make insignia for military units and equipment.
Cartoon films in those years were very consciously aimed at more than just children. Two-thirds of Americans went to the movies every week — and they loved the Disney characters. Before long, Goofy was making propaganda, too. In another movie, Mickey and Minnie explained that even used cooking oil could be vital for victory. And Donald stepped in again and again, even destroying an entire fleet of Japanese planes alone in “Commando Duck” — though it was really more by accident.

“Heil Hitler!” shouts Donald Duck as he raises his right arm in the Nazi salute. On the other arm, he’s wearing a swastika armband — just like everyone else in Hitler’s “Nutzi Land,” where the “Nutzis” have pruned even the trees into swastika shapes and swastika clouds drift across the sky. It’s a land where there’s barely anything left to eat, yet even the rooster greets the day with a hearty crow of “Heil Hitler!”

There, Donald toils away screwing war munitions together on a factory assembly line with soldiers looking on. He has to shout “Heil Hitler!” in time with his work, and his hands whirl faster and faster until he goes insane.
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Then the duck wakes up from his dream and discovers that he is actually lying in a soft bed and wearing pajamas patterned off the American flag. “Oh boy, am I glad to be a citizen of the United States of America!” he cries. The movie ends with a tomato landing on Hitler’s face.
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This was a cartoon film made in the service of the US government. “Der Fuehrer’s Face” hit the theaters in 1943 and won the Oscar for best animated short film the same year.
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It was far from the only propaganda piece that Walt Disney’s studios released. In addition to Donald, Mickey Mouse, Bambi and even Pluto became standard elements in the American war machine.
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Representatives of the US military paid a call on Disney already in December 1941, right around the time that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
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The Army wanted to transform part of the studios into defensive fortifications that would be used to help protect a nearby airplane factory against air raids. And then there was the Navy, which commissioned animated films used to train its sailors.

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More contracts followed. In May 1942, the world’s most famous duck reported for duty in “Donald Gets Drafted.” In a cartoon called “The Spirit of ’43,” Donald showed Americans why it was important to save money — so that they could pay their taxes fully and on time.
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Their contributions were urgently needed for the war because “taxes will keep democracy on the march” and “every dollar you spend for something you don’t need is a dollar spent to help the Axis.”
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Disney’s studios churned out more than 62,000 meters (200,000 feet) of film in 1942 and 1943, five times more than it ever did in times of peace. And Walt Disney wasn’t just active in animated films. The duck family advocated for war bonds in comic strips, too, as did Mickey in the comic book “Mickey Mouse on the Home Front.” All of Disney’s characters had now been mobilized, and even Bambi fought the Axis powers in Disney’s “Volunteer Army.”
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