Review of Der Fuehrer's Face

It's a common opinion that all kinds of propaganda movies should be banned altogether and not made accessible to the public. This 8-minute Donald Duck short film is the perfect example of why that would be a huge mistake. These kind of films are often a great way to understand historical context from times long gone and are also a fascinating watch in order to witness how they tried to and often succeeded to manipulate the people. "Der Fuehrer's Face" is possibly the most famous political cartoon from World War II. The only other one that may reach the same status is MGM's Blitz Wolf from the same year. "Der Fuehrer's Face" BTW. also won the Oscar over that one in a year where it was the only Disney entry in the animated short category, a rather unusual occurrence as Disney occasionally took 4 of the 5 spots with their films.

In any case, the film is packed with a few subtle and very many not-so-subtle Nazi symbolisms and metaphors, like the windmill or Donald's house. But also the Italians and Japanese get their fair share of shade. The story can be summarized pretty quickly. Donald wakes up as a proud Nazi, but his lack of great living conditions, especially food, and hard work make him quickly turn insane as he has knives put to his neck and is constantly treated with noisy propaganda. The end is as patriotic as it gets and it's easy to see why people liked it that much in times like these. An important historical document.