Cartoon Wars 1.05

When Cartoons Went to War - Part 2: Propaganda and Instructional Films

The cartoons from which clips are shown in this episode focus on the importance of air power, buying war bonds, vaccinations, how to shoot a machine gun, and what life is like in Nazi Germany.

These are the cartoons that are part of this episode.

Propaganda Films

• Victory Through Air Power
• Which Way This Time
• Defense Against Invasion
• Food Will Win the War

Instructional Films

• Stop That Tank
• Hitler's Children
• Bugs Bunny Bomb Rally

Thoughts

The extensive use of cartoons in this era makes me wonder about their impact on the perceptions of the medium.

Cartoon Wars 1.04

When Cartoons Went to War - Part 1: America Needed a Laugh

Cartoons exposed US audiences to the reality of War in Europe and Eastern Asia before the US got into the war. Cartoons started to include mentions of war as early as 1937. Some cartoons showed characters like Daffy Duck going to war. Others showed characters like Donald Duck encouraging people to buy war bonds. Many cartoons that weren't about war included little nods to the fact that war was going on elsewhere.

Cartoons shown in this episode include 

• Superman: Eleventh Hour
• Seven Wise Dwarfs
• Donald's Decision
• Scrap Happy Daffy
• Fifth Column Mouse
• Daffy the Commando
• Blitz Wolf
• Spinach for Britain (Popeye)
• Private Snafu series (Warner Bros) - voices by Mel Blanc; made to be shown to soldiers
• Mr. Hook series (Warner Bros) - voices by Mel Blanc; made for the for the US Navy
• Superman: Japoteurs

Cartoon Wars 1.03

Superman Inspired Anime

Two techniques used by Fleischer Studios were rotoscoping and animating over films of live actors. These techniques were first seen by lots of people in Gulliver's Travels. They also used these techniques in the Superman cartoons. 

The first Fleischer Superman cartoon was originally supposed to be a movie. It was so successful as a short that the studio was commissioned to do 8 more.

Mr. Bug Goes to Town was the 2nd full length movie for the Fleischer Studio but it was too expensive and it was released on Dec 7, 1941. Fleischer studios went out of business. Dave and Max Fleischer stopped working together.

Max went on to work for Jam Handy Studios where he worked on cartoons like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Dave struck a deal with Paramount which led to the founding of Famous Studios. Famous Studios finished up the run Superman cartoons in 1943. Some of the Superman cartoons made by Famous Sudios included racist caricatures of Africans and Japanese people.

There are clips of most of the Superman cartoons made by Fleischer and Famous Studios.

Cartoon Wars 1.02

Betty Boop vs Censorship

Betty Boop debuted in 1930. Her cartoons were kept in black-and-white even after most other cartoons were in color. This episode examines a number of examples of what Betty Boop was like before and after 1933 when enforcement of the Hayes code was taken more seriously.

There were more than 100 Betty Boop cartoons made. There are clips from a number of her cartoons shown in this episode including:

• Betty in Wonderland
• Betty Boop in Cinderella - unusual because it is in color
• Ha Ha Ha
• Be Human
• House Cleaning Blues
• Indoor Outing

Cartoon Wars 1.01

When the Theater Was Entertainment

This episode starts with the earliest days of animation. It gives a brief idea of some of the ways that cartoons evolved in the early 20th century. There were color cartoons long before there were color movies. There were sound cartoons a few years before there sound films. The second half of the episode focuses mostly on the two big cartoon studios of the 1930s: Fleischer and Disney. Fleischer was the home of Betty Boop and Popeye and later the first Superman cartoons. There are lots of samples of early work by Disney, Fleischer, and some of the smaller cartoon studios.

Fleischer Studios went out of business during World War 2. Disney survived by branching out and doing more than just cartoons for movie theaters. They also created a lot of instructional movies and war propaganda for the US Government.

The host of this 12-part series is Dr. Thomas R. Reich.