Channel Frederator Blog

During World War II, with Europe under the threat of Hitler’s Germany, much of the European theatrical market was cut off. One way the US studios made up for that loss of revenue was to create films for the US government, which hoped that using the popularity of American cartoons would gain support for the US and their wartime causes.Bugs Bunny, Donald Duck, and many other cartoon stars of the day did their part.

While much of the material seems politically incorrect by today’s standards, at the time it was one of the best ways to visually distinguish between the US an its enemies. Physical and cultural differences were focused on and exaggerated to the point of extreme characture.

Not every wartime film was so literal in its story or imagery. A few films managed to get across complex ideas by using metaphors of classic stories to represent what they were seeing [Read more…]