"Grandpa, what is a man?"

[Edward]

Does anyone remember an old animated cartoon, I think it would have been made in the forties, that fits this description:

A mouse grandpa on Christmas Eve, with mouse grandma and little kid mice, sings Christmas carols to them, and gets to "Peace on Earth, Goodwill to All Men." Kids ask what a man is.... he goes into a description which is actually of a man in full battledress, gas mask and all... talks about how the men fought each other over increasingly trivial things (there's at one point a war between meat eaters and vegitarians), and gives the story of how the last man died (two of them only left, they shoot each other, i think). The animals find an old book in what is shown to be a bombed out church (obviously it's a bible), and decide that things like "thou shalt not kill" are good ideas, and they build their society around it. Their little houses are all built with soldiers' helmets for rooftops.

I think it was mice - maybe they were squirrels?

Used to be on ever Christmas as some ponit - typically about 23rd December, 2.30 in the afternoon. I've not seen it for years. Only about five minutes long - I'd love to know what it was to see if i could track down a copy on DVD.

 

[Doctor Strange]

You're thinking of the 1939 M-G-M cartoon "Peace On Earth" directed by Hugh Harmon. It's a beloved masterpiece (I've had a gorgeous 16mm print for many years.) The main characters are squirrels. It's actually longer than 5 minutes, closer to 9 minutes, and plays out rather slowly compared to the frenetic animation of a few years later (it's more Disney style than Warners style). It features wonderfully rotoscoped battle footage and is very dramatically staged, making an odd contrast to the mega-cute furry animals!

Also note that the film was later remade shot-for-shot in widescreen in 1955, by the Hanna-Barbera team, then near the end of their tenure at M-G-M. (They had worked on the original when they were still animators under the Harmon and Ising directing regime.) The remake was titled "Goodwill To Men".

 

[LizzieMaine]

It was "Peace On Earth," an MGM cartoon short directed by Hugh Harman, and released in 1939. Nominated for an Oscar in the Best Animated Short Subject category, but didn't win -- and Harman also claimed it had been nominated for special recognition by the Nobel Peace Prize commttee.

Lofty stuff for someone whose prior claim to fame was the creation of Bosko.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Lizzie, I see we're on the same page yet again!

 

[Fletch]

May I say that I was very pleasantly surprised by the topic of this thread. The header led me to expect some glurge about traditional gender roles.

I imagine the 1939 cartoon had to go into the vault for quite a few years...

 

[Jack Scorpion]

A dirty little pile of secrets!

 

[flat-top]

Christmas in July....I love it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8OYvHPpGDY

 

[Edward]

Guys, thanks, all of you! I've been trying to find out at least the identity of it - I'm still hoping to find a DVD copy - for years, but I could find so few other folks that even remembered having seen it.... I knew somebody on here would know it!

Fletch -> lol .... Yeah, it did occur to me that the prevailing anti-war theme must have been an unusual stance back in those days!

Flat-top: that's great, I'll watch later on (would do now, but I'm in the office, and that one always made me all teary).... wish I knew how to save from you tube, long enough til I can find a legit release anyhow!

Thanks again, all.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Re the antiwar theme not being popular or being unusual, I think you're off base. In 1939, most of the USA was looking at the emerging troubles in Europe as something distant that had no direct bearing on America. There was very strong isolationist feeling, and very little public sentiment as yet that the USA should get involved. It was still two years until Pearl Harbor.

In fact, the antiwar theme of Peace On Earth was popular, which was one of the reasons that the film snagged that Oscar, which I believe had so far been won exclusively by Disney since the category's inception...