Wartime Cartoon: Difference between revisions
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{{examples}}
== Straight examples ==
=== Disney ===
* Possibly the ultimate classic example would be [[Classic Disney Shorts|Disney]]'s ''[[Der Fuehrer's Face|Donald Duck in Nutzi Land]]'', in which Donald dreams he's a factory worker in a surreal, nightmarish version of Nazi Germany. This cartoon was the source of the song "Der Fuehrer's Face" (which the short was later renamed after), famously recorded by Spike Jones and his City Slickers:
{{quote|"Vhen der Fuehrer says, 'Ve ist der master race', / Ve heil! (''raspberry'') Heil! (''raspberry'') / Right in der Fuehrer's face!..."}}
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=== Famous Studios ===
* Similarly, [[Famous Studios]] did four war-themed [[Superman Theatrical Cartoons|Superman shorts]] — the rather racist "Japoteurs" (rarely included in compilations), the somewhat less offensive "The Eleventh Hour", and two where Superman battled the Nazis.
** Bizarrely, it was one of the Nazi battles that featured the most dehumanizing racial caricatures in any of these shorts, the target here of course being...blacks. In "Jungle Drums", a couple of Nazis have tricked the superstitious natives of [[Darkest Africa]] into doing their bidding. In their capacity as gods/high priests/whatever, the Nazis wear Klan-like outfits, presumably to emphasize their bad-guy racism. The effect is rather spoiled by the fact that the "natives" are portrayed as positively demonic, inhuman forces of mindless menace, obviously played more for fear/loathing than the ostensible "villains", a couple of insipidly mean-spirited Germans.
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=== Tex Avery ===
* At MGM, [[Tex Avery]] made a cartoon called ''[[Blitz Wolf]]'' involving the three little pigs as soldiers and the big bad wolf as Hitler. The same man played the "smart little pig" both here and in Disney's "Three Little Pigs" short.
** Of especially hilarious note is the disclaimer given at the beginning, which states that the wolf's depiction is non-fictitious and purely intentional...while the tires depicted in it are, in fact, completely bogus.
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=== Tom & Jerry ===
* "The Yankee Doodle Mouse" was the closest ''[[Tom and Jerry]]'' ever came to having a World War II-themed short. In it, Tom and Jerry fight a war-style battle in a basement with plenty of WWII references.
* In "The Lonesome Mouse", we see Jerry paint a Hitler mustache and comb-over on a picture of Tom and then spit at it.
=== MGM Oneshots ===
* Two of the [[MGM Oneshot Cartoons]] are explicit wartime cartoons: "War Dogs" and "The Stork's Holiday". "Innertube Antics" plot is also a nod to the strict rationing of rubber during the war years.
* [[Barney Bear]] had at least two wartime shorts; "The Rookie Bear", where he is drafted into the army, and "Barney Bear's Victory Garden" which has Barney prepare a victory garden. One gag had him get the soil ready by making a huge portrait of Hitler so that it gets bombed by passing B-19s. Another scene depicts Mussolini as an eggplant.
=== Warner Brothers ===
Lots of [[Looney Tunes]] cartoons from that era had subtle jokes in them reflecting home-front conditions, even ones that don't overtly address the war. Gas rationing "A" cards were common, as were jokes about scrap metal collections, victory gardens, civil defense drills (someone yelling "Put out that light!"), and general shortages of rubber, butter and meat. Some of the gags ever persisted well after the end of WWII itself.
* In one Elmer Fudd cartoon, a tiny flea carries with him a set of ration stamps, and diligently tears them off before biting into Elmer's pet dog. Said flea also takes refuge in a "Hair Raid Shelter".
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=== Walter Lantz ===
* Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B
* 21$ A Day (Once A Month)
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=== Columbia Cartoons ===
* Screen Gems made several wartime shorts, most notably "Song of Victory", which features an allegory of how [[World War 2]] started.
=== Others ===
* ''Momotarou's Divine Sea Warriors'' is a '''Japanese''' animated film from the war period, featuring cute characters based on Japanese mythology invading East Asia and killing Allies — proving that both sides played this game.
* Though (allegedly) not cartoons, several ''[[Three Stooges]]'' shorts had wartime themes, the most cringe-worthy of which (''The Yolk's on Me'') used actual Japanese-American internees bused from a "relocation center" (aka internment camp) to play the "bad guys". Though rarely seen today, it was still in the TV rotation as late as the early 1970s.
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▲=== Modern-day homages and parodies: ===
* [[The Simpsons|Itchy & Scratchy]] did a wartime cartoon where they [[Enemy Mine|team up]] (briefly) to kill Hitler. After chopping Hitler's head off, Itchy does the same to Scratchy.
* An "X-Presidents" cartoon on ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' parodied these, as the titular former president superheroes tried to get [[SpongeBob SquarePants]] to make a cartoon supporting the war in Iraq. Spongebob wasn't interested, and things turned ugly.
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* A chilling moment from the movie ''[[The Rocketeer (film)|The Rocketeer]]'' had Howard Hughes show Cliff Secord a Nazi propaganda cartoon showing squadrons of [[Stupid Jetpack Hitler|jetpack-wearing Nazis]] as the vanguard of an invasion force against America. Especially chilling considering that the movie was a Disney Studios production!
* [[Casey and Andy]] has [http://galactanet.com/comic/view.php?strip=532 this].
* North Korean animation [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujtp-70zQME follows this Trope], only in the modern day and the enemy is the United States. Propaganda surely knows no country.
* The Armenian-made ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_zSwwofx4E Kill Dim]'' cartoons are a modern example pertaining to the Nagorno-Karabakh War (caution: they're likely to offend you if you're from Azerbaijan).
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