Donald Duck, The Spirit of 43

January 22nd, 2009 · 2 comments or link to (permalink)

A piece of US propaganda that argues against consumerism. In the spirit of 43, Donald Duck is caught between good and evil. The good is represented by a frugal Scot with a ‘Lassie Come Home’ accent and the evil is represented by a zoot-suited, big spender.

After the end of the War, in overshoot reaction to Communism, this view of good and evil was perhaps reversed, to the extent that consumerism was seen a part of the ‘non-negotiable’ American way of life, and with the consequences that are now apparent.

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What Hitler Wants – Soviet WWII Cartoon

January 22nd, 2009 · 2 comments or link to (permalink)

In this cartoon, what Hitler wants is to help the Capitalists, apparently.

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Der Störenfried ( 1940 )

January 22nd, 2009 · 2 comments or link to (permalink)

This cartoon is a piece of Nazi propaganda, which can be compared with the previous US ones. It has the same adult material wrapped up in a cozy children’s view of the world.

Two things of note here: in my opinion it is really not of the same graphic standard as US cartoons of the same era, which is interesting since much of what the Nazis produced was very sophisticated, graphically; secondly, I’m posting this from France where this video was blocked by Youtube (France has active censorship laws against Nazi material) and I had to access through a US proxy. An example of why application of censorship laws can be ridiculous, since the whole point of this German film was to learn from the mistakes of the past rather than approve of them.

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Coal Black And De Sebben Dwarfs

January 22nd, 2009 · 2 comments or link to (permalink)

This week on Smashing Telly, I’ll be focusing on historically interesting cartoons. This one is a black take on Snow White, which on the face of it is an outrageous piece of racist stereotyping. The setting and colors used are the deep reds of a cartoon bordello hell, versus the pastel blues of Snow White and her angel choir backing singers. On the other hand, Coal Black’s world is positively swingin’, and perhaps just goes to show how clawingly saccharin ‘white’ culture really was.

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Walt Disney’s: Education For Death

January 22nd, 2009 · 1 comment or link to (permalink)

Disney’s adaptation of Education for Death, the making of a Nazi, is a fascinating piece of wartime propaganda. Convincing enough and expertly made, although a few years years later Disney hired a senior Nazi as one of their presenters.

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