Der Furher's Face: Classic Cartoon or Shameless Propaganda?

One of the most controversial cartoons I have ever heard of is "Der Furher's Face" (originally titled Donald Duck in Nutzi Land). It's pretty much Donald Duck as a Nazi. AND WAS CREATED BY DISNEY.

Some back story: in 1944, WWII was happening (duh), resulting in massive streams of propaganda from both sides. Disney Animation Studios, along with several other, was either asked by the government or felt obligated to make cartoons to support the war, usually supporting war bonds or making the Nazi party look like a complete monster, but most were just cartoons with messages live-action could have expressed easily.

While Disney made a few of those, one cartoon, called "Der Fuehrer's Face", was pretty different because it featured one of their flagship characters: Donald Duck. And instead of making him a Allied solider, they made him a NAZI. A reluctant Nazi, who lives a starved, overworked lifestyle, but a NAZI. They didn't make him seem like a horrible person either. They just made him look miserable.

PLOT SYNOPSIS: The cartoon starts off with a bunch of Axis leaders playing a song called "Der Fuehrer's Face" (which became very popular and the short was soon renamed to this). Their depictions are crude (and somewhat racist). Note that most of the backrounds and elements either incorporate a swastika or a picture of Hitler. They then wake up Donald (the nazi), who proceeds to eat a crude breakfast. He then joins the band and goes to his 48-hour daily shift of making ammunition in a factory. He's constantly heiling to pictures of Hitler during this too. He then enters a disney acid sequence and then wakes up in America, where {{it was all a dream.}}

The short was very popular at the time (in America, at least) and won an academy award for best animated short film. Disney, however, has refrained from noticing the shorts and is only in a handful of collections.

I didn't put this in the Western Animation fourm because I wanted to focus on the controversy of the short, not the short itself. Is it a classic cartoon or shameless propaganda? What do you think?

Here's the video. Be sure to see it before posting!

edited 24th Jun '12 11:59:22 AM by every108minutes

It's both.

There's no doubt that it's a very well made classic that had a major impact on American pop culture in its day. It is, also, an obvious bit of propaganda but it is significant as a reflection of the world it was made in. They are socially, historically and culturally significant and something to be judged objectivley with that mind. For that reason, I've never agreed with Disney (and other companies) trying to pretend these less-than-PC works never happened.

I don't see what the big deal is, it's indeed both as Bat Pencil mentioned. But is there really a type of propaganda that someone out there wouldn't call shameless?

It's a cartoon trying to show a dramatized look at life under Hitler in Germany, and how horrible it was. I don't really see a problem with that, since we all know what the deeds of Nazi Germany were, both to other people and their own.

Anyone who thinks it's racist or insensitive is very misguided in thinking that somehow Nazi Germany is worth history being kind to.

I don't think people are saying we should be sensititve towards them, I think it's more to do with mixing Donald Duck with Those Wacky Nazis.

But it was made in a time when Nazis were more the kind of villains that Superman and Captain America would beat up. They were jerks who liked war For the Evulz. They weren't yet the genocide-crazed Complete Monsters they are now.

That's the kind of understanding of context, and Values Dissonance, that has been lost when it comes to many of these older works. I can understand why they wouldn't get broadcast on Cartoon Network but there's no reason for Disney, and other companies, to give them the Old Shame treatment. At least not to this degree. It happened, it was reality, so deal with it.

edited 24th Jun '12 12:29:23 PM by TheBatPencil

I still think they are kind of funny, just not seeing any point to looking at them as something shameful or needing an excuse for those cartoons to be what they are.

Yes, we made fun of genocidal evil murdering bastards. Nothing wrong with that in the slightest.

I think they're honestly and genuinely hilarious, to be honest, diabetes-enducing patriotism and unfortunate racism notwithstanding.

edited 24th Jun '12 12:35:53 PM by pagad

Walt Disney was one of Adolf Hitler's favourite people. The feelings, despite what Disney propaganda would have you believe, were mutual. If Hitler had had won the war, Disney would have been either number one or number two at the Ministry of Propaganda, despite him issuing cartoons taking the piss out of the Fuehrer's moustache. That would have been explained away as doing something that the previous American administration would have forced him to do. It was business.

I want to nitpick on Duck being called a nazi. He is in my opninion more of the non-nazi German that got fucked over by Hitlers regime, as Barkey mentioned before. It's also pretty cleared he is forced to do the things you mentioned.

This an obvious piece of propaganda, showing how Donald Duck is pressured into endless work, constant worship of Hitler's image and how he has a piss poor quality of life in Nazi Germany. Then it concludes with showing how different things are in Eagleland. Since it contains racist depictions of japanese people, and despite being against the Nazis it is still war propaganda, it is understandable that Disney may treat it as an Old Shame.

edited 24th Jun '12 3:47:37 PM by Anfauglith

It's still a fascinating piece of history, though. It's both a classic cartoon and classic wartime propaganda, the kind that, mind you, Disney wasn't alone in producing. Everyone from Warner Brothers to Dr. Seuss was involved in this kind of propaganda.

I don't see why propaganda is automatically negative. It might exaggerate like a motherfucker, but I don't think I really saw them lie per se in Der Fuhrers Face, though I could be wrong since it's been a while since I've watched it.

WWII wasn't one of those wars like what's going on in the middle east, where it's really ambiguous as to what's going on and who is the complete bad guy. WWII was pretty clear cut. Hitler was a powermad asshole who was slowly annexing more and more territory and nobody was doing anything about it because of appeasement, and then he started invading major western european powers and such. Hitler was wrong, his opposition was right to oppose him, and even without propaganda that's pretty much fact.

Not that the japanese were much better. Bio warfare tests and a botched shitty attempt at Imperialism in the extreme.

edited 24th Jun '12 4:50:57 PM by Barkey

For once I agree with Barkey.

Not that it makes them better (it makes it worse IMO), but the scariest thing about Unit 731 was that our current knowledge of frostbites and their treatment is based on their experiments too.

Yeah I know, it's rather fucked up to think about.

As evil and depraved as it was, unlike the Nazis the results of Unit 731's experiments were actually useful science-wise, which is indeed rather messed up.

Oh, yeah, that cartoon. Yes, of course it's shameless propaganda. But that's not the problem. The problem is that it pokes fun at the Nazis and the war. Its tone is so incredibly cheerful and lighthearted! You'd have to wonder whether the creators of this cartoon had any idea what was going on in occupied Europe at the time.

And I have a hunch they didn't. This is connected to an older pet theory of mine, which essentially goes like this:

'The people who lived in Europe during World War Two experienced its horrors personally. The people who lived in the US - and weren't soldiers - did not experience this and instead were presented The Theme Park Version of the war through cheerful propaganda. Therefore, Americans were and are rather less inclined to treat the subject seriously than Europeans.'

Think about it. Were New York and Chicago bombed? Were the American Jews rounded up and murdered? Was the USA under the iron heel of a bloodthirsty military dictatorship for five years? Did American men have to do forced labour in German factories? Were there shortages of food and fuel because the Germans were stealing everything to feed into their war machine? And when the war ended, was there a massive Witch Hunt for anyone who was believed to have been one of Les Collaborateurs?

Well, all of these things happened to my country, and it was even worse in Poland and Russia (and let's not forget Germany itself). And while most of the people who actually experienced the war are either dead or senile by now, the war definitely remains in our "collective consciousness" as perhaps the worst thing ever to happen to our country. Which means most of us at least retain some vague feeling of 'the war was horrible, millions of people died in it, and we should treat the subject seriously and respectfully'.

A film like The Producers couldn't have been made in Europe (at least not mainland Europe; Britain is rather similar to the US in this, even though they did get bombed), definitely not in 1968. And take a band like Slayer, with "Angel of Death". The song about Joseph Mengele got them accusations of neo-Nazism - which they responded to by incorporating the "Imperial Eagle" of Nazi Germany into their logo. I doubt such a thing would have been done by a European band unless they were actual neo-Nazis. And then there's the humorous portrayal of "Illinois Nazis" in The Blues Brothers... I also have the idea that American posters on the Internet are quicker to invoke Godwin's Law and/or joke about the Nazis (see the "Hitler Reacts To..." meme) than their European colleagues, but that might just be selective perception.

Thoughts?

As some said, it's both. Sure, it's unabashedly (and not just somewhat) racist and shameless propaganda, but that doesn't suddenly erase it's merits. And at least it's understandable (even if unpleasant nowadays), considering the situation back then. And I haven't seen the cartoon itself, but from what I know, Donald isn't even a nazi in it. Just as not everyone who had to work under the nazis was one himself (which makes this a surprisingly accurate, if very exaggerated, representation).

Really, if Birth of a Nation can be considered a classic, then I don't see why Der Fuehrer's Face shouldn't.

That was certainly true, but I wonder if that's still the case. At least younger European generations are quite detached from the things that happened back then, since it's something that happened a relatively long time ago. I can imagine that there isn't that much difference between Americans and Europeans, concering the treatment of Hitler and the nazis, anymore.

edited 25th Jun '12 5:11:30 AM by Nyarly

Yeah, it's like I was saying before. When this cartoon was made, the Nazis were cartoon baddies that faced off with Superman, Captain America and Mickey Mouse. In American public consciousness they weren't yet the epitome of evil. You could throw Donald Duck at them and make it work, because they were just cartoonish supervillains who talked funny and our boys are sure gonna make quick work of those jerks!

Then the American public found out what they were actually up to.

edited 25th Jun '12 5:20:11 AM by TheBatPencil

It's a Wartime Cartoon. By definition, it's a classic cartoon and shameless propaganda.

Der Fuhrer's Face is one of my favourite short cartoons ever. It's just really well done, particuarly the animation. It's propaganda, yes, but it's awesome propaganda!

@ Midnight Rambler

They actually didn't know what was going on in Europe at the time the cartoon was made. The full extent of the Holocaust wasn't known until after the war ended. But regardless, humour is good for morale.

edited 25th Jun '12 9:50:37 AM by Talby

Not to mention, lets be faiur here. a lot of the nazi army was not genocidal monsters. Much of the army was average germans whos lives sucked just as much as anyone else under a regime ran by monsters.

[[quoteblock]]Oh, yeah, that cartoon. Yes, of course it's shameless propaganda. But that's not the problem. The problem is that it pokes fun at the Nazis and the war. Its tone is so incredibly cheerful and lighthearted! You'd have to wonder whether the creators of this cartoon had any idea what was going on in occupied Europe at the time. [[quoteblock]]

No reason you can't poke fun at the nazi's, hitler, or the war. It was a long time ago. Yes, it was horrible, but it's over. I don't know, my sense of humor isn't the best at stuff like this, my response to stressful or nasty things is to joke about them, not treat them with some sort of stupid off-limits reverence to keep it a taboo topic for years to come.

And WWII affected my family quite heavily. About half of my family tree died during the course of the war back then.

Serious subjects are the ones most in need of being poked at. They provide the most honest and impactful humor, and the humor helps you process it without causing yourself harm.

And humour can be used to make a serious point. The point of the cartoon is not "Haha, those Nazis are a bunch of silly idiots," it's that the Nazis are bad guys and need to be stopped. Just because you're making jokes about something doesn't mean you're trivialising it.

edited 25th Jun '12 9:54:29 AM by Talby

I'm a bit surprised nobody's brought up Charlie Chaplin here.