Der Fuehrer's Face

[Shimmy Sally]

I have that song on my Spike Jones LP, the whole album is a kick. I'm going to start burning some of my ancient vinyl to CD possibly next week.
Have you seen the live action "music video" for that song? It was shown at the movie theatres after the news and war prop. It is available on a documentary DVD named "Hollywood At War" http://www.videocollectors.com also at your friendly neighborhood dollar store.
I wish theatres still just sold a ticket that allowed one to watch reel loops of news, cartoons and movies, coming in and leaving at ones convenience. But then that was pre-TV.

 

[Shimmy Sally]

But if an animator did a cartoon EXACTLY like the Disney one with the basic exception of Saddam Hussein and his cronies substituted and word play on his Hitleresque regime there would have been hell to pay by indignant PC people ranting about it.

Look what South Park does though.

 

["Doc" Devereux]

As many of you good folks know already, Disney Studios did much for the war effort, even to the point of helping design Squadron Patches with the likes of Goofey, Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck on them (maybe that's a thread all of it's own???, on how the studios got involved in the war effort).

But then Mickey did do a little duty on the other side. Here he is with Adolf Galland:

And a better shot of Galland's nose art:

 

[PADDY]

Galland and Mickey Mouse (a winning team)

Absolutely!! but then, Herr Galland did have quite a bit of good taste (me thinks) with his iconic cigar, rakish Luftwaffe cap, leather gloves with rolled up sleeves, adopting an old RAF Irvin jacket as winter wear over the English Channel and Disney inspired MM motif on the 109 (and possibly his later 1945 Me262 jet fighter..? correct me if I'm wrong please).

Interesting isn't it, when you have such an iconic emblem like MM, that it totally transcends cultures and nations and gets adopted by those who thinks 'it's cool.'

I've a real soft spot for Adolf Galland anyway. One of the old school Germans, where 'chivalry' 'honour' and 'decency' still meant something. Galland and Mickey, what a winning team!

 

[Story]

Bugs vs. the Japanese

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFWb-kGbxXA

Totally un-PC

 

[Twitch]

South Park is sooo non-mainstream though.

 

["Doc" Devereux]

Absolutely!! but then, Herr Galland did have quite a bit of good taste (me thinks) with his iconic cigar, rakish Luftwaffe cap, leather gloves with rolled up sleeves, adopting an old RAF Irvin jacket as winter wear over the English Channel and Disney inspired MM motif on the 109 (and possibly his later 1945 Me262 jet fighter..? correct me if I'm wrong please).

Interesting isn't it, when you have such an iconic emblem like MM, that it totally transcends cultures and nations and gets adopted by those who thinks 'it's cool.'

I've a real soft spot for Adolf Galland anyway. One of the old school Germans, where 'chivalry' 'honour' and 'decency' still meant something. Galland and Mickey, what a winning team!

Same here Paddy, and I agree with you on the style front too. When I read 'The First and the Last', I was struck by Galland's obvious character and have remained an admirer ever since.

Sorry to say that I can't find a confirming reference for Mickey's continued presence on Galland's 262, though: perhaps someone else out there can?

 

[Story]

South Park is sooo non-mainstream though.

Not if you're a 21st century grunt.
http://www.boingboing.net/2005/04/01/south_parkinfringing.html

 

[Clyde R.]

Agreed, Galland was a class act.

And a tough customer, too.

 

[Story]

Adolf (Daffy) Duck

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rop8syfB1QY

Enjoy.

 

[Story]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlw8hWEcGg8
popeye vs the nazis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3QVAp1LYsU
donald duck vs the nazis (evil hepster zootsuit spender vs. Scots tax-payer)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFUQ7AgvgJU
Commando Duck vs. the Japs
(subtitled in German, nice touch)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXGz3dVi-vk Education For Death : vacilates between chilling reflections of Nazi realities and ludicrous lampooning.

 

[Story]

"Where is Fatso Goering?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOG4zYy7lYE

Bugs vs. the Nazis, again

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1nGFid_Yw4
Hitler vs. Flying Gremlins

 

[Story]

Historians Resurrect ‘Cartoon Medicine’ for a New Generation
By AMANDA SCHAFFER
NYT
November 21, 2006

In a film produced by the Army during World War II, a cartoon mosquito named Malaria Mike prepares to dive bomb a soldier named Private Snafu. When Snafu bathes at sundown and climbs out of the water, Malaria Mike clutches a bottle labeled “Old Malaria 999 proof” and draws the poison out with a device attached to his nose.

He rushes headlong at the soldier. But when Snafu leans down for his clothes, oblivious to danger, the mosquito sails past him in classic cartoon fashion and collides with a tree. The tree gasps and clutches itself, shakes and sweats with fever (the typical symptoms of malaria) and shrivels to the ground.

Later, when Snafu wakes up and leans out of his mosquito netting to kiss a picture of a sexy woman, Malaria Mike rushes in again, catching the soldier’s exposed buttocks high in the air. A bull’s-eye fills the screen.

“Private Snafu vs. Malaria Mike” was among the animated films presented on Oct. 25 and 26 at the Cartoon Medicine Show at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington.

The show featured animated public health films from the 1920s to the ’60s — some well known, others rarely screened in the last 40 or 50 years — from the collection of the National Library of Medicine. The films cover such topics as personal hygiene, malaria prevention, cancer detection, tuberculosis screening and the safe use of X-rays.

The National Library of Medicine is also creating a series of DVDs of historical medical films, the first of which is likely to be released next fall.

“From early on, animated films were viewed as a uniquely convincing way to persuade and educate people,” said Michael Sappol, a historian at the library. Animation could get a message across while also entertaining an audience.

A film like “Private Snafu vs. Malaria Mike,” he said, “takes a lot of pleasure in destruction, speed and sex, things we typically associate with 1940s Warner Brothers cartoons.”

In the film, Malaria Mike unveils a diagram of an American soldier’s body with parts of the back and buttocks labeled prime rib, filet mignon and tenderloin. Soon after, he lands on Snafu’s rear end and says, “Why, it’s Snafu — I never forget a face,” prodding the soldier’s uncovered flesh with his finger.

The film was produced in 1942 by the Armed Forces Motion Picture Unit, which included top-flight artists and animators. Frank Capra, who went on to direct “It’s a Wonderful Life,” headed the group. Ted Geisel, also known as Doctor Seuss, led the animation division. Mel Blanc, who did the voices for Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, did the voices of Malaria Mike and Private Snafu, as well.

The film was part of a series that used the character of Snafu to address topics like sexually transmitted diseases, mental health, censorship and black marketeering.

The series was probably shown to over a million troops, Dr. Sappol said. And it was only a small fraction of the government’s investment in filmmaking during World War II.

Donald Crafton, an animation historian at the University of Notre Dame, said that during the war, “the animation studios made the case to the government that they were an essential industry and that these propaganda and training films were crucial to the war effort.”

Many of the public health films made during that time drew a strong parallel between the physical body and the body politic, he said. The health of the individual was linked to the success of the war effort and to the advancement of democratic ideals.

But the films also frequently trafficked in racial and sexual stereotypes, reflecting social attitudes that were widespread at the time, he said. Japanese people, for instance, were often shown as caricatures with thick glasses and bad teeth or even portrayed as germ-carrying flies.

In a 1942 film titled “Use Your Head,” a marine in the South Pacific named Private McGillicuddy defecates in the woods instead of in a prescribed latrine. A fly with thick glasses and buck teeth spots the infraction and rings a triangle dinner bell, shouting “Come and get it” in a caricatured Japanese accent.

Soon flies swarm the area and then invade the marines’ food, cackling. Most of the unit ends up with dysentery. Over the radio, the marines hear a Japanese announcer declare that an “honorable Yankee” has aided the Japanese war effort, causing his buddies to get dysentery, which “make weak like a pussy cat.”

The film, which was produced by Hugh Harman Productions for the Navy, was part of a series called “Commandments for Health.”

Five episodes of the series are now held by the National Library of Medicine.

In the postwar period, professional organizations like the American Cancer Society, the National Tuberculosis Association and the American Dental Association produced a larger share of public health films, which were shown in schools, hospitals, churches and other settings.

The body was still seen as fragile and vulnerable, Dr. Crafton said. But it “was represented more as a site of attack from within,” he added.

In “The Traitor Within,” a 1947 film by the American Cancer Society, the interior of the body is depicted as an orderly series of factories, with cells represented as workers in overalls and white caps.

When a single cell goes bad, turning into a cancer cell — shown as a dark, four-legged abstraction that begins to multiply and spread — other cells are killed and the work of the factory is jeopardized.

If the cancer cells are not removed by surgery or destroyed before they spread throughout the body, “there is no hope for cure,” the narrator says.

Some films featured at the Cartoon Medicine Show move inside the body to depict the accumulation of pus, the march of bacteria and the threats of dental decay, mental illness and crippling stomach pain, among others.

“Humor is not something you expect” with some of these topics, said David Cantor a historian at the national library. But, he added, “the use of animation helps to lighten the tone and can make the subject matter less grim.”

Generally, public health cartoons oscillated between two messages, Dr. Sappol said.

They tended to provoke anxiety about the body and its susceptibility to illness, he said.

But they also sought to reassure people that with proper vigilance — as well as the help of an expert doctor and new medical technology — dread disease could be averted.

“The films are trying to scare people, but also to manage their fears,” Dr. Cantor said, adding that public health messages must always grapple with this balancing act, even today.

In other words, he said, the message is “Be afraid — but not too afraid.”

 

[Gray Ghost]

Absolutely!! but then, Herr Galland did have quite a bit of good taste (me thinks) with his iconic cigar, rakish Luftwaffe cap, leather gloves with rolled up sleeves, adopting an old RAF Irvin jacket as winter wear over the English Channel and Disney inspired MM motif on the 109 (and possibly his later 1945 Me262 jet fighter..? correct me if I'm wrong please).

Interesting isn't it, when you have such an iconic emblem like MM, that it totally transcends cultures and nations and gets adopted by those who thinks 'it's cool.'

I've a real soft spot for Adolf Galland anyway. One of the old school Germans, where 'chivalry' 'honour' and 'decency' still meant something. Galland and Mickey, what a winning team!

I admire Galand myself. If Hitler had listened to him concerning the role of the 262, we may have had a different air war at the end. I understand and I may be wrong that Galand avocated using the 262 as a fighter against bombers, but Hitler wanted them used as jet bombers. I wish Galand was on our side.

Gray Ghost

 

[nightandthecity]

I can understand your admiration for Galland as an outstanding fighter pilot and tactician, but the fact remains he was a Nazi - a long term party member and a real conviction Nazi, not the opportunist kind. As one of the leaders of the Condor Legion in Spain he personally helped pioneer new techniques of aerial terror against civilians, from the carpet bombing of towns, to the strafing of refugee columns, to the development of a form of napalm.

When he first came over to Battle of Britain re-unions after the war many of the RAF blokes refused to speak to him, which was perhaps rude, but I think very understandable.

I do have a sort of connection with him though - I own an Irvin jacket that belonged to Pat Wells, an RAF pilot Galland shot down during the Battle of Britain! I just wish Pat had won that encounter.

 

[Gray Ghost]

I have never done a real study of him, but it bothers me that he was a NAZI. I was hoping he was just a good German Soldier and did not agree with the NAZI Regime but only flew and did his duty as a combat pilot and leader.

Gray Ghost

 

[Paden]

I have never done a real study of him, but it bothers me that he was a NAZI. I was hoping he was just a good German Soldier and did not agree with the NAZI Regime but only flew and did his duty as a combat pilot and leader.

Gray Ghost

where is the line between Nazi and not Nazi?
He was pilot, fighting for his land.
After the war, a lot of soldiers changed their view about the leaders of the 3rd reich and about the things they did.
I think, Galland was not more Nazi than Hartmann, Rall ect.

 

[GOK]

fftopic: (slightly) I think it's incredibly difficult for us today to understand the mindset of 1930s Germany. Just the same as we find it hard to understand the mindset of religious fanaticism of today or 500 years ago. We are of a completely different world.

It's easy to condemn someone for being a Nazi because we have the benefit of hindsight but had we all been patriotic Germans living during Hitler's time, would we have reacted any differently to the majority of the German people? I'm not convinced we would.

 

[OldSkoolFrat]

Had I been a lad in 1925 in Germany, my father and older brothers either killed or maimed so badly in WWI that they could not work, leaving me and my starving mother to slowly die as the price of one egg soared to DM 100K in the street market. And my sister thinks of turning to prostitution so we can eat.

If those weirdos in black and brown and the funny cross on their armbands gave me bread, soup and a sense of beloning and manhood allowing me the means to care for my grieving mother and/or incapacitated brothers and hungry sister, who knows what I might have done in their name by 1942?

 

[Viola]

I dunno. My sense of self and morality and life experience that leads to decisions is all tied up in Judaism, actually more religious than many German Jews of the time. (German Jews often thought Russian Jews superstitious and backwards)

I don't know what I'd be like in another life.

Viola