Summer Travelling

Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi

A propaganda film during World War II about a boy who grows up to become a Nazi soldier.

5.7

Victory Through Air Power

Based on the book by Major Alexander de Seversky's about his theories of the practical uses of long range strategic bombing. Using a combination of animation humorously telling about the development of air warfare, the film shows de Seversky illustrating his ideas of how air power could win World War II for the Allies.

6.9

Der Fuehrer's Face

A marching band of Germans, Italians, and Japanese march through the streets of swastika-motif Nutziland, serenading "Der Fuehrer's Face." Donald Duck, not living in the region by choice, struggles to make do with disgusting Nazi food rations and then with his day of toil at a Nazi artillery factory. After a nervous breakdown, Donald awakens to find that his experience was in fact a nightmare.

6.0

Home Defense

Donald is manning a listening post and falls asleep; he blows trumpet calls in his sleep and wakes his nephews. For their revenge, they send up a model airplane filled with gingerbread men with parachutes; Donald shoots it down, and cowers in fear when he sees the parachutes (and hears a simulated battle), until one lands on his beak. Donald kicks his nephews out until he mistakes a bee for an airplane, and calls them back to fight this menace.

Abu and the Poisoned Well

Ever seen a snake with a moustache? The Middle East was as much an ideological as a physical battleground in the Second World War. In the midst of the conflict Halas & Batchelor were commissioned by the British Government to make four cartoons featuring a young boy Abu and his mule. They were intended to demonstrate in simple visual terms that Britain was a stout friend and the Axis powers a pernicious evil.

4.5

1945

Momotaro, Sacred Sailors

The first Japanese feature-length animated film. It was directed by Mitsuyo Seo, who was ordered to make a propaganda film for the war by the Japanese Naval Ministry. Shochiku Moving Picture Laboratory shot the 74-minute film in 1944 and screened it on April 12, 1945. It is a sequel to Momotarō no Umiwashi, a 37-minute film released in 1943 by the same director. It is black and white. The whole movie also depicts the Japanese "liberation of Asia", as proclaimed by the Government at the time. Seo tried to give dreams to children, as well as to instill the hope for peace, with hidden movie's hints of dreams and hopes, under the appearance of war propaganda.

5.1

1941

7 Wise Dwarfs

7 Wise Dwarfs is an educational short animated film commissioned by the National Film Board of Canada as a short film for educating the Canadian public about war bonds during World War II. The short features the seven dwarfs from Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, four years after the characters made their screen debut.

4.2

All Together

The entire Disney menagerie appears in a parade urging the purchase of war bonds.

4.3

Defense Against Invasion

A doctor persuades a group of boys to be vaccinated by explaining how it will protect them against disease. Animated sequences depict the body metaphorically as a city, defended by the blood cells, which are stimulated by vaccination to amass arms and ammunition, in order to defend the city when it is invaded by germs.

6.2

Sky Trooper

Donald is stuck on KP at an air training base. Sergeant Pete gives him a huge pile of potatoes to peel first, then gives him some tests: close your eyes and touch fingers, pin the tail on the airplane. He finally gets sent aloft, only to discover it's a parachute jump. Eventually, both Donald and Pete end up falling with no chutes and a bomb.

5.7

The New Spirit

Animated documentary promoting timely filing and payment of Federal income taxes, demonstrated by Donald Duck's difficulties with his tax return.

4.9

The Spirit of '43

Donald Duck deals with income taxes and their benefit to the American war effort in this inspirational documentary short animated film.

5.1

1941

The Thrifty Pig

The Three Little Pigs sell Canadian war bonds.

6.3

The Vanishing Private

Private Duck is a camouflage painter. He paints a giant cannon with some very gaudy colors, until Sergeant Pete explains that the point is to make it so the cannon can't be seen. Donald finds a bucket of experimental invisible paint and makes the cannon disappear. Pete isn't happy with this, and knocks Donald into the paint, then chases him, until he runs into the general. As Pete tries to explain, Donald prods him with a cactus, then goes off to steal some pies. Eventually, Pete goes berserk and starts throwing grenades willy-nilly and gets in more trouble with the general.

Toybox Series, Episode 3: Picturebook of 1936

5.0

1934

Toybox Series, Episode 3: Picturebook of 1936

Peaceful citizens (one of whom resembles Felix the Cat) are dancing to music before their island is being invaded by a gigantic rodent that resembles Mickey Mouse. The islanders contact legendary folk-hero Momotaro from a giant book to battle Mickey.

6.5

1975

200

A psychedelic animated short celebrating America's bicentennial. The film " provides a short, impressionistic history of the U.S. through famous American symbols, including the Statue of Liberty; the Woodstock logo; the Liberty Bell; and Mt. Rushmore. The symbols are layered on top of each other, as can be seen from a bald eagle hatching from a red, white, and blue egg and flying past the American Gothic farmers, the U.S. Capitol building, the Golden Gate Bridge, Abraham Lincoln’s cabin, and an American bison. The film was directed by Vince Collins" (US National Archives).

5.3

1924

Soviet Toys

The first animated movie made in the Soviet Union, it portrays a bloated caricature of a Capitalist devouring a massive heap of food and drink.

3.6

2012

The Mystical Laws

In 202X, Tathagata Killer, a mysterious military leader armed with extraterrestrial technology, stages a coup and becomes the new emperor of the world superpower of Asia. Sho Shishimaru, gifted with prophetic powers, may be the only one standing in the way of Killer’s take-over of the entire world. The future of humankind is at stake in this epic struggle, but in its midst, we learn about the mystical laws that rule the world around us.

6.5

1918

The Sinking of the Lusitania

Winsor McCay recreates the sinking of the ocean liner Lusitania by a German U-boat in this propaganda piece designed to stir up anti-German sentiment during World War I.

4.6

Cinema-Circus

Soviet propaganda cartoon from World War 2. Adolf Hitler, introduced by Charlie Chaplin's the Tramp, is ridiculed in three short skits.