Film 122N: the war years

Russian Rhapsody

a Merrie Melodies cartoon from 1944 - about the gremlins attacking Hitler's plane in WWII - these gremlins are the caricatures of Wanrer's animators

the thrifty pig

a redesigned short of The Three Little Pigs featuring the Big Bad wolf as a Nazi and advertising bonds - Canada was already at war at this point, so having the film support selling bonds was important - not subtle for war efforts

lake titicaca

a scene from "3 Caballeros" - features Donald Duck and a llama - still drawing by Mary Blair from their trip were used in this

the new spirit

a war-effort film made by Disney to encourage people to pay their income tax - because Donald talks funny, they had a character talk to him since he was not a goo narrator

bugs bunny nips the nips

about Bugs Bunny fighting with the Japanese on an island using bombs - has racial stereotyping

3 cabs title song

animation reflects the changing tones of cartoons at this time: 1) story is funnier and faster 2) humor is becoming more aggressive - The director of this sequence complained that the work doesn't make much sense but Walt liked it - Wildly animated

How would the enemy be characterized?

animators would design them as individuals when referring to the Nazis. They would draw them with instinct features to resemble Hitler or Mussolini - when caricaturing the Japanese, they would focus on the race (make them all yellow, with squinty eye) - it was racist, but reflected what was going on at the time

Fleischer's training films

became crucial for truing men and women for duty

Motion Picture Unit

created by some of the top animators from Disney, MGM, Warner Bros, and Fletcher to make training films - under Rudy Ising's control - based in Culver City - produced more footage than any of the other Hollywood studios - many of these films were narrated by Ronald Reagan - one thing we do know about this: it brought together the artists who made the UPA studio, which completely redesigned the look of animation

Warner Bros. during WWII

created propaganda films with Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig - film: 1) Any Bonds Today in 1941 2) Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips

Disney's biggest contribution to the war efforts

creating training films - by 1944, the US Nacy had 1,000 training films and some were in animation - the service people learned faster and enjoyed it more when they included animation - the animation included maps to make it more elaborate

George Pal

director who came to Hollywood during WWII - made stop motion animation films, which was unusual in the US at the time - films supported WWII themes - film: Tulips shall grow

films created during WWII

during this time, Disney continued to create and produce films: 1) Bambi in 1942 2) Victory through Air Power in 1943 3) The Three Cabarellos in 1943 4) and a full line of shorts

Disney training films

made it more tangible to understand - reused effets form other films (ex: rain was used from effects in Bambi) - one film was made in technicolor in 1943 to illustrate how pilots carry out actions during flight - using animation to distinguish between different plane parts made it easier for pilots to learn about their planes

Mary Blair

one of Walt's artists who went to Latin America - started our making scenes with watercolors. However, the colors and sights that she saw in Latin America led her to develop her own style with strong shapes and bold colors - this led her to become one of Walt's favorite artists - her work is used today for inspiration - a rare example of a women who has such an important role in animation

the three caballeros

opened in 1943 after Walt went to Latin America - features Donald Duck going on different adventures through Latin America - used to teach Americans during WWII - had enthusiastic responses (especially in Latin America) - other countries complained about being excluded - scenes: 1) Lake Titicaca 2) title song

1943

people had to start paying income tac for the first time. So, Walt created a cartoon to show Americans how paying taxes will help win the way - used Donald Duck as the star character for this - after seeing the films, by a high percentage, people were more willing to pay taxes - film: "The New Spirit"

der fuher's face

propaganda film created by Disney in 1943 - the best Donald Duck short - animators from "Pink Elephants Parade" animated the scene when Donald goes crazy

coal black

short film by Warner Bros. that has racial humor - spoof of Snow White as told by African Americans in present day

any bonds today

short propaganda film by Warner Bros. - features Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig - had the widest distribution of any Warner Bros short - supported Americans buying bonds: "Buy a star of freedom today"

John Grierson

the commissioner of film in Canada - was impressed with Walt's educational films that he bought the Canadian rights to them

victory through air power

the entertainment propaganda line gets even thinner in this film - the original book was by de Seversky, which Walt read and was convinced by his arguments to build long-range bombers - by the time the film came out, long-range bombs were already part of the US strategy - ** the last animation Bill Tylta worked on was at the end of this film - very different film from what we are accustomed to seeing by Disney

What did background animators do during the war?

they were secretly creating 3D maps of Japanese cities and creating short films of the maps to show pilots where the bombs were supposed to be dropped - the artists behind this could not talk about it or else they would disappear

racial stereotyping

was not one sided - it was also seen in Japanese anime. The first Japanese anime film came out in 1945 about Japanese troops fight against white troops - WWII was the era of this in animation - Warner Bros created caricatures with racial humor in "Coal Black and the Seven Dwarves"

gripes

written by Dr. Seuess - about Private Snaffoo - racier than usual

educational films for Latin America

- Disney made about 2 dozen of these for the Latin American audiences: 1) "Cleanliness Brings Help" taught them how to not get sick by being clean 2) "The Winged Scourge: taught them how to fight against mosquitos to avoid getting Malaria

Disney in Latin America

- During the strike, Rockefeller wanted Walt to do a goodwill tour in South America because the Disney characters were extremely popular - Walt was convinced to go from getting paid expenses for 5 short films - he went with his wife and 15 other artists - one of these artists was Mary Blair - this trip led Walt and his artists to create "The Three Caballeros" in 1943 - after the success of "The three caballeros", Walt did enough research to make one more feature about Latin America, but there was no reason because the war was ending - so, they went on to other projects

Disney propaganda

1) Walt made his firs educational film in 1941 that was aimed at the engineers and works explaining how to build a plane - John Grierson was impressed with is and bought the Cnadian rights to it to commission training films from Walt - led to "The Thrifty Pig"' 2) the line between entertainment and propaganda became very thin during the war: - Der Furher's Face - Victory through air power - The New Spirit

What happened during Pearl Harbor?

1) hours after the attack, the US army took over Disney studio sound stages to store ammunition and the soldier 2) about 1/3 of the staff joined the army 3) The Disney Studio was located in a place where they could defend some industries

What happened to Hollywood during WWII?

As US enters, the Hollywood animators dedicated themselves to the war efforts as much as live-action counterparts displayed: 1) Disney artists painted murals or cartoons for service people 2) the animated characters dealt with war-time shortages, but they were also animated to have war efforts as well: a) Andy Panda planted a victory garden b) Donald Duck joined the army c) Bugs became a marine

How many films did Disney create during the war?

Before the war, they had made about 204,000 features a year - but, the volume of work was staggering: they produced 6 times the usual because most films were use for military training

Disney logos

Disney created about 1200 of these for service units and civilian organizations - if a civilian organization needed to advertise something, they would ask Walt to make a Mickey poster for them - DOnald duck was very popular in the military for his temper

Which Disney character was popular in the military?

Donald Duck because of his temper

gremlins

During the Battle of Britain, when the air force had technical problems, they - Roald Dahl wrote stories about them and Disney wanted to make features about them - However, Disney was asked to not use their name in the title of the feature - The film was never finished because they couldn't figure out what they looked like

Private Snaffoo

In addition to entertainment cartons and training films, Warner bros. and MGM made a series of cartoons that would star this character - his films were intended for a GI audience because they are racier than mainstream cartoon - these were hard to get made into PG - most of these were written by Dr. Seuss - film: Gripes

Blitz Wolf

WWII film short by MGM and animated by Tex Avery - the first film by Tex Avery at MGM - spoof on the Three Little Pigs with WWII themes - funniest animation of WWII