With everyone visiting Walt
Disney World this spring break, and I mean everyone (including myself, my extended family, and thousands of other families), we thought it would be nice to bring a little
Disney to the rest of y'all sitting at home. Since I'm out of the office, my colleague Felicia is our guest blogger. Enjoy! - Megan
From the desk of Felicia:
This
topic is one that is near and dear to me, since I spent the bulk of my graduate
school career studying and writing about this for my thesis. This post is designed to give you little bits
of information on what Disney was doing during WWII.
Walt Disney had several different
responsibilities over the course of the war.
One that we are probably most familiar was the use of Fifinella, a
female gremlin, as the official mascot of the WASP (Women Airforce Service
Pilots). Disney had developed this character
for Richard Dahl for use in his work The
Gremlins. Members of WASP asked if
this image could be used as their mascot and Disney agreed, changing the design
slightly to better be suited for WASP needs.
In 1939, Disney had begun
construction on his Burbank studios.
Completed in 1940, the original soundstage (known today as the Fantasia
Stage) was repurposed during the war as an area where army vehicle were
repaired.
Finally, we come to what I think
is one of the most interesting aspects of the Walt Disney Company during the
war – the development of propaganda and informational films. Like other Hollywood producers at the time,
Disney believed that film should have an integral role in molding the public
opinion of the war efforts. Unlike the
other producers, Disney moved from the battlefields and worked to create an
animated short that was more tangible to the public viewing the film.
Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck had
been well established personalities by 1941 and the public was able to connect
with their character. It was Donald, not
Mickey who was the star of the Disney Studio in 1930s and 1940s. The first film produced by Disney in the US
in WWII was The New Spirit. Secretary of Treasury
Henry Morgenthau, Jr. meet with Walt Disney on December 17, 1941 to discuss the
production of a short animation that would explain to the audience the
importance of paying taxes on time.
Donald was chosen to be the protagonist because Disney had just a few
short weeks to create this film – a process which generally took eight months
to a year! Released in January 1942,
this animated short would have been seen by millions of people in over 12,000
studios by the March 15th tax deadline. Donald would go on to star in twelve
additional films produced for the war effort.
Other films produced included
instructional films used by the military to teach specialized training, and in
military factories to instruct workers on skills such as the methods of flush
riveting (View here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyXEjn7f330). Additionally, Disney released four
“psychological” animations, such as the 1943 film Education for Death, which became one of the most popular Disney films produced
during this time period. Based on the
book by Gregor Ziemer, this film took more of a psychological look at the
development of a young German into a Nazi party member.
The Disney Company participated
in the war effort in a variety of ways, but one thing is certain, Walt Disney
made sure everything he produced was educational, informative, entertaining,
and promoted national unity in victory over the Axis powers.
All of the Disney Company’s WWII
productions can be found on YouTube or as part of the War Disney Treasures DVD
collection.
Suggested sources for this topic:
-
Learning from Mickey, Donald, and Walt: Essays on Disney’s Edutainment
Films, A. Bowdoin Van Riper. Jefferson, NC:
McFarland & Company, Inc. 2011.
-
Shale, Richard. Donald Duck Joins Up: The Walt Disney
Studio During World War II. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1982.
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