tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post5740898927044167077..comments2024-01-21T11:18:54.087-05:00Comments on Lost in the Movies: Walt Disney On the Front LinesJoel Bockohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11238338958380683893noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post-82749543549587241342008-12-17T15:32:00.000-05:002008-12-17T15:32:00.000-05:00The propagandistic element is interesting in these...The propagandistic element is interesting in these shorts. Sometimes it's more subtextual - in the Donald-in-training shorts there's even an villanious sergeant and hijinks are the point, but there's still a sense that this is the sort of situation a normal American male should be in - even a diminutive duck's giving it a go!<BR/><BR/>The more explicit propaganda, like Der Fuhrer's Face and even Education for Death, actually seems more toned-down than it could be, knowing what we know today. The extent of the Holocaust was not clear at the time, and the brutalities of Nazism are presented in broad tones as an assault on liberty and an over-regimentation of the human spirit (after all, Donald's experience in the German munitions camp could apply to the American war industry too, couldn't it?).<BR/><BR/>But yes, this effect they paint is still overbearing - and where I think it still succeeds is in painting the psychological impact of totalitarianism - something it does better than probably any live-action film at the time. Sometimes it seems like animation, with its freer form is actually more in touch with the spirit of any given zeitgeist than live action (especially back in the 30s and early 40s, when studio-bound filmmaking was so physically limited).Joel Bockohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11238338958380683893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post-24493651033979244472008-12-17T15:06:00.000-05:002008-12-17T15:06:00.000-05:00Great topic to address. I think you're absolutely ...Great topic to address. I think you're absolutely correct that the post-war period brought an unfortunate lull for Disney and his studio. The golden age of Disney animation was cut off by the war (<I>Bambi</I> being released in 1942), and it's interesting to wonder how the feature-length films would have continued if the war had never occurred; there's already so much of a sensory difference between those golden age films and the silver age, beginning with <I>Cinderella</I>.<BR/><BR/>How do you feel about the overall effectiveness of the propaganda? I know it's impossible to answer the question now through the lens of history, but I think really good propaganda can be felt even sixty years on – <I>Der Fuhrer's Face</I>, for example. I know the Disney Co. went to great lengths to keep it out of general circulation until recently because it's easy to look at it and just cringe at the notion of "Donald Duck is a Nazi!" (the YouTube video has something to that effect in its description). But I also think the short is surprisingly effective as pure propaganda, particularly in how it ridicules the characters of the Axis at the same time it presents a rather hellish view of totalitarianism. (I'm thinking the ominous red clouds surrounding the munitions factory.)T.S.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00945932279787919282noreply@blogger.com