A look back at the Wartime Era of Disney, discussing the financial hardships and strikes at the Walt Disney Company in the 40s, how America’s involvement in World War II led to the studio taking on the creation of propaganda for the United States, and the 6 movies known as “package films” that made up the era. But why has the strange and turbulent time at Disney mostly been forgotten?
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“The Outliers” by Droid Bishop
“Moonlight Serenade” by Glenn Miller
“Tezetta”
“Landline”
Sources:
https://dengler.home.blog/the-wartime-era/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NB1QqrSrGZQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ei7mpUJS1_I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWIk8eg2CnU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMSTKqZgN2s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwgwN-56m9I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXpWHga7osE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY4qpZHgtsQ
https://archive.org/details/a-few-quick-facts/Air+Navy+China+Safety+(1944).mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7vb89c6pQY
https://www.waltdisney.org/blog/walt-disney-and-el-grupo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXpWHga7osE
https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_animated_shorts_by_Disney_(1920s-1960s)
https://libcom.org/article/disney-cartoonists-strike-1941-sam-lowry
https://time.com/4326360/walt-disney-world-war-ii-excerpt/
https://time.com/4326360/walt-disney-world-war-ii-excerpt/
source
A fascinating period to examine so good stuff here!
Brother this channel is a gem.
Yeah just reading about this stuff makes me feel genuinely sorry for Disney during this time. Both the person and the studio.
At least they endured and we got the Three Caballeros out of it.
Taxation is theft
It’s funny how much people overlook this particular era of Disney Animation. I think it’s easy to blame Walt’s death for the infamous “Dark Age” but really the War Era really shaped the future of the company even to this day. It’s one of those “What if” scenarios:
Had WWII not happened:
Would Pinocchio, Fantasia and Bambi had become big hits as a result of the European markets being open?
Would the package films had even existed as the studio would’ve still had money?
Would we see Fantasia be the yearly project as intended?
Would we get films like Sleeping Beauty, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan in the 40s instead?
The only thing that would’ve happened regardless is the Animator’s Strike (as it should) but again it’s amazing to think how WWII changed so much of Disney animation, as Walt after this period would set his sights on live action movies, TV and Disneyland. The package films overall aren’t bad (Fun & Fancy Free in particular was one I’d constantly watch on VHS) but they were clearly films made by the circumstances of their situation whether just Fantasia lite cartoons or pure propaganda. Incabod and Mr. Toad rules though.
Great video as always Matt. Would love to see more Disney era videos.
The empty headed comment in this video about Disney going woke was lame.
Disney 2024 is FULL of woke propaganda.
BRASIL KRLEOOOOOOO VAMOOOOO
What you said about Disney comics in Europe is really interesting, but i think it can easily be explained. You see, the writing style of both Carl Barks and Floyd Gottfredson (the comic book writers that defined Donald And Mickey respectively) are similar to the writing style of the most popular european comic book series. Examples of popular European Comic Authors are: Herge, Franquin, Peyo, Morris, Tibet, René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo, Raoul Cauvin, Francisco Ibañez, Jose Escobar Saliente, Hugo Pratt, Alfredo Castelli, Gian Luigi Bonelli, Giancarlo Berardi, Martin Lodewijk and Piet Wijn. I'm a big fan of european comics and i recommend reading some of the authors mentioned to understand the popularity of Mickey and Donald. I mainly recommend Herge and Franquin.
in all fairness "taxes to bury the axis" goes fucking hard
This was a very interesting era for Walt Disney and his company. Seeing both the good and the bad during the war era. It shows lost forgotten classics and darkest moments in Walt Disney’s era. A legacy that will never be truly forgotten no matter what.
Well only 5 of the package films are in Disney +, also during the same time as Disney, you got Warner Brothers doing shorts for the US military with Doctor Suess wrote them, too.
Woah, cool video, dude! That answered a lot of questions I had, told me answers to questions I didn’t think to ask, and it had a really cool soundtrack. Plus, you’ve got a great voice. I’m gonna watch more of your videos after this, you’re running a great channel.
I grew up watching some of these as a kid, we might still have some on vhs. Had no idea they were war propaganda lmao
It’s time for Disney to end, as they’ve been “woke” for some time now to be enjoyed anymore.
Calling Disney woke isn't "empty-headed". It's stating a fact. They are dedicated to wokeness in both their products and company culture, including illegal hiring practices.
Do Looney Tunes next!
I had no idea about Disney's involvement in WW2
I will never ever stop being stunned by the sight of Donald Duck throwing his hand in the air and yelling heil hitler, it’s never going to stop being weird to see
México is North American, not Central nor South… I know, right!
this Disney era is one of the many many examples/proofs of why that reactionary cry "now everything has an agenda!" is absolutely ridiculous and ignorant. media has always had an agenda media always talks about what's relevant for any specific era. popular media, like comics or movies, don't suddenly lose their inherent political messages just because you tolerate it more when it's patriotic and nationalistic instead of progressive. the "evil agenda" is still there, you just don't want to see it.
Your videos are overall great and this is no exception, but I do have to point a correction, because it's something Disney themselves do wrong yet used to do right originally.
José Carioca, is brazillian, not from a spanish-speaking country. So it's "José", with a J sound, like "Joe", not "Hosé". Too late to correct it here, but hoping more people understand this at least, since again, Disney themselves have ironically lost track of this and kinda just treat "latino" as all the same.
god, your animation history videos are like crack to me. put this shit in my veins mr Draper
Yes. Yes it was commies. Look up Herb Sorrell.
I love The Three Caballeros, and watching it with the Spanish dub just feels so right
Absolutely adore when you cover Disney stuff
12:57 Does this mean Walt Disney was indirectly responsible for the bombing of Dresden?
Thank you, Matt!
You should do well to delete the incels and trumpists commenting here
Disney this days is so cowardly. They'd never stand up to china or Russia like they dis to the nzis in the 40s
Someday, I'm pretty sure this will become revived for good when, to quote Sherlock Holmes' "His Last Bow", the east wind has started blowing across the world once more.
And who knows, it might end up making surprisingly good fiction in return; would be schway to see, hmm, a Gravity Falls/Amphibia/The Owl House sequel saga where the main characters do their best in helping out a similar Allied war effort against a loathsome threat akin to the Ruskies, the ChiComs, the NoKors, the Iranians, and even enemies from within like the Ku Klux Klan… the best thing one must hope is that the Allies SHALL win the war once more, so to prove that God is truly in His Heaven and all is surprisingly RIGHT with the world… at least, if we want to keep things in Matt Stover's Revenge of the Sith poetry.
I, like many of a certain age, grew up with VHS copies of Disney movies and media, ripped straight from the Disney Channel. On some of those tapes, I had Three Caballeros, Pecos Bill, Johnny Appleseed and Paul Bunyan. I really enjoyed all of these, least of course Appleseed. Being a white person with absolutely no one not the same around me, I liked Caballeros. I totally see how there were stereotypes employed, but being a child I just saw a culture that was different, and way more interesting, than my own. The songs definitely stuck with me along with some cool animation that was so different than other Disney media.
Fun-Fact: Disney did actually release a lot of their WW2 shorts (Der Feurher's Face, Education for Death etc.) in 2004 as part of their Walt Disney Treasures series of DVDs… sadly their long out of print and STUPIDLY EXPENSIVE online. I really wish Disney would re-do those sets for Blu-Ray and Disney Plus, but that's probably never going to happen.
The Disney Channel played all of the package films quite a bit during the late 80's and early 90's. I remember watching them all and loving them. They were new to me and I had no idea what the back story was on their creation. Thanks for making this video!
Pinocchio and Fantasia are both box office flops upon their releases
I think a lot of the package film shorts are important to remember, if just for a reference standpoint. I remember watching things like House of Mouse and a few times characters or references to the shorts popped up. Same thing with the Davey Crockett show
'Education For Death' also contains two blink-and-you-miss-them references to the Holocaust – first, during the opening when the hero's parents are shown a list of 'Verboten' names the list is almost completely Old Testament – i.e. Jewish names.
Second, during the book-burning scene, there's a brief shot of Mendelssohn sheet music being burned, a reference to the great German-Jewish composer who the Nazis banned from radio and performance. And then there's the much more direct reference to the Nazis' murdering of disabled children – "She knows the unfit are taken away by the State, and never heard of again."
I believe your completely wrong
3:52 Not to mention giving us some of the greatest strike picket signs in history.
was one the Disney treasures DVD set On the Front Lines which collected the full length parts of the cartoons used in this video but good luck finding a copy as likely out of print
Another fascinating retrospective. Propaganda really has become a word that has become derivative, but your words about how much messaging changes through the generations, with the WW2 shorts being a prime example, have become lost. Having said that the craftsmanship on display is astounding; the tax form pen seems so simple, yet it works and astounds. It really is a Shame that plates of past greats would become tenplates for a few of the supposedly new and original Disney films in the 60s and 70s.
Lots of these war and post war era cartoons were played on The Disney Channel back when it was a premium channel in the 80s.
6:35 I've seen Los Tres Caballeros dozens of times, but Id never heard of Saludos Amigos literally until today.
17:28 The whale singing Figaro is a bop. I don't remember it being a death hallucination. I wonder if it was edited to remove that.
19:23 Little Toot was my most favorite cartoon (and book), a memory you just unlocked ❤. The book had beautiful paintings.
The brain rot Ohio beta criticism of Disney is that they're "woke". The based, gigachad criticism of Disney is they're a massive greedy corporation and don't care about social issues, moral values or artistic integrity. We are already living in the mega-corp cyberpunk dystopia.
5:55 why is Brazil spelled like that?
12:01 now that’s a loaf of bread
You could make one sandwich with that much bread
At least compared to its contemporaries, I would say that Disney War shorts are really forgettable outside of the Donald shorts (which I find funny he served in the army instead of the navy) compared to what Warner Bros. Termite Terrace shorts did in the same time frame. As far as the feature lenght films are concerned, I would argue that Ichabod and Mr. Toad is the only notable one from the period since at least the two shorts have a strong enough narrative to stand out.
Walt Disney was a american patriot