Review of Der Fuehrer's Face

In hindsight, the whole idea of Donald Duck (voiced by Clarence Nash) being in Nazi Germany, working in a war munitions factory is uncomfortable, because of the dark and trouble history of WW2, even if it's in a nightmare settling. Still, this animation War propaganda short film by Walt Disney Productions and released in 1943 by RKO Radio Picture is laugh out loud funny. I think a lot of modern viewers, mistaken this film, as anti-Semitic, because there has been long rumored that Disney secretly supported the Nazis. I really doubt that, because this short film was obviously made to mock the Nazis, and support the United States in selling War Bonds. I know, Disney welcomed German filmmaker and Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl to Hollywood to promote her documentary film 1938's Olympia, but it's been say that Disney disavowed her political view, claiming that he only champion, her filmmaking styles, when he did invite her. In my opinion, Walt Disney wasn't a racist or had anti-Semitism beliefs, publicly or privately. Yes, he might had made disparaging remarks about blacks or asserted white superiority, but like other white Americans of his generation, he was racially and religionist insensitive. It shows in his early cartoons that he was very insensitive, with ethnic stereotypes. A good example is 1933's Three Little Pigs in which the Big Bad Wolf comes to the door dressed as a Jewish peddler and 1929's The Opry House in which Mickey Mouse is dressed and dances as a Hasidic Jew. Still, none of them, were really that offensive. Even so, Der Fuhrer's face didn't have any Jewish stereotypes to speak off. Nor does it portray, any of the Nazis crime against the Jews. While, most Americans have heard about 1939's Kristallnacht riots against Jewish businesses. A lot of them, like Disney couldn't figure out, how bad the cruelties against the Jews, was, until, much, much later. It wasn't until after the movie release, that word, started to leak out, about Nazis concentration camps. Still, it wasn't until, the camps were liberation, that Americans and European were truly expose to the sights, sounds, and stenches of horrible beyond belief. It was cruelties so enormous as to be incomprehensible to the normal mind. This movie had no mention of the anti-Semitism views of the Nazis. So, for some critics to call it, anti-Semitism, is an understatement. Instead, the movie tackles another thing that Nazis love to do and that's being a police-state style of government. It mocks how Nazi Germany supposedly how it treats its civilians by over-working them and feeding them, poorly. It's true, that the average German, worked 43 hours a week in 1933, and by 1939 this increased to 47 hours a week, but it's not 48 hours, a day, like the cartoon is saying. Surprising, even the United States in 1943, most standard for full-time work in many industries was a 40- or 48-hour week. It was really no-differs. The same with food. During the middle of WW2, most of the German people were still, eating well. It wasn't until 1944, that things went really sour for them and most went hungry. One thing that the movie got right was badly manage, the Nazi's Strength through Joy program was. It kinda collapsed on itself by 1939 and by 1943, many German were not able to take that much of vacations, but it's also worth noting, that Americans at the time, had no such government vacation program and many pro-Union benefits was downsized. In many ways, working in United States during WW2 was just as tough, as working in Nazis Germany. The main different was Americans workers have more freedom to spend their money than the Germans. Anyways, the movie does go over the top, a bit on portraying Germany as Nazi-land with everything was shape like a swastika, but it never goes on the attack on the German people. You don't see, much insulting German stereotypes, just the insane Nazi culture. The cartoon is more offensive with the incredibly racist caricature of the then-Japanese Emperor, Hirohito. This was standard in wartime cartoons, of course, and Warner Brothers was doing far nastier stuff at the time with both countries. I really surprise, how tame, it was, as a propaganda video. It could had, went, much worst. Anyways, the animation is pretty good. I love the song, "Der Fuehrer's Face". It was pretty catchy. Spike Jones & Oliver Wallace did a good job. Originally called "Donald Duck in Nutzi Land," it was retitled when the theme song became a hit. The film won the 1943 Academy Award for Animated Short Film, and was the only Donald Duck cartoon to win an Oscar. However, because of the propagandistic nature of the short, and the depiction of Donald Duck as a Nazi. Disney kept the film out of general circulation after its original release. Its first home video release came in 2004 with the release of the third wave of the Walt Disney Treasures DVD sets. In an attempt to nip misunderstandings, The Disney Wartime Cartoon DVD features non-skippable, non-fast-forwardable commentaries by Jewish film critic, Leonard Maltin, who explains the satirical nature of the cartoon. The BBC did banned the song for a while, because oddly they considered raspberry blowing obscene. The solution was replace it, with kazoo sounds. The song did help influences importation scenes from 1953's Stalag 17 & 2002's Hart's War. The movie continue to influence, many animators as well. A lot of them, went on, to do, many political cartoons. Overall: This film directed by Jack Kinney and written by Joe Grant and Dick Huemer was pretty good. So go see it, and don't forget to throw a tomato at Hitler's face or maybe you shouldn't do that to your TV. Just check it out.