On the Frontlines includes the feature, Victory Through Air Power, and never before released training films.

Our country’s first educational war short, The New Spirit (1942), used some of the language of the Canadian films to encourage citizens to pay your taxes on time as a way to defeat our enemies. The sales pitch is further refined in the classic propaganda film The Spirit of ‘43 with Donald and his uncle. Both films were commissioned by the secretary of the treasury department, written by Disney writers and then sent to Washington DC for their corrections and approval.

Unlike the Canadian shorts, the tone of the films for our treasury department becomes quite serious as the narrator convinces us with hard-hitting rhetoric to pay your taxes on time so Uncle Sam can buy “guns, guns, all kinds of guns, to blast the aggressors from the sea.” I found it fascinating to hear similar phrases refined from one short to the next, culminating in the powerful message and visuals of The Spirit of ‘43. The next time you pay your taxes remember, “Taxes to bury the Axis, taxes to sink the Axis, taxes will keep Democracy on the march!”

This section of the DVD also contains several educational films that are much lighter in tone. Out of the Frying Pan and into the Firing Line? (1942) has Minnie and Pluto learning that used kitchen fats can be saved and recycled into explosives for the war effort. Pluto takes a container of used fat to the butcher who pays him for it with hot dogs. In Food Will Win the War (1942) we learn how important the farmer is to the war effort. The Three Little Pigs make an appearance in this work.

Propaganda for Latin America
In 1943, Disney began production on a series of films aimed at improving our ties with Latin America. Even before the U.S. became directly involved with WWII, our government was concerned that neutral countries south of our boarder might side or cooperate with the Axis. During the Disney strike of 1941, Walt was asked to go on a goodwill tour of South America. The tour was both a public relations move and a way to get Walt out of Hollywood so the strike could be settled (he was refusing to compromise during the negotiations). Now, in 1943, Nelson Rockefeller and the coordinator on inner-American affairs were calling upon Walt to again help improve our image in Latin America.

Although Walt’s goodwill films do not appear to be political propaganda, records indicate that they were produced for that purpose. In 1943, the studio made The Grain that Built a Hemisphere, The Winged Scourge and Defense Against Invasion. The first builds pride by telling how Indians cultivated corn and how corn has become a major agricultural product. The Winged Scourge has the Seven Dwarfs fighting the spread of malaria by draining pools of stagnant water, spraying areas with DDT and using other methods to rid the world of mosquitoes. The third film tells people unfamiliar with vaccinations that the process is nothing to fear and that they protect us from evil germs.

The Seven Wise Dwarfs advocates buying savings certificates to help the war effort.

In 1945, Disney produced Cleanliness Brings Health. It contrasts the habits of a “Clean Family” with the deplorable health habits of an unhappy “Careless Family.” It shows how to build an outhouse, tells why one shouldn’t go to the bathroom in the cornfield and tells other things a family can do to improve the quality of their lives.

The same year, they released What is Disease, a film that gives tips on how to protect oneself from germs. The following year they produced the last film in the series. Planning for Good Health teaches “Careless Charlie” the importance of the three food groups and explains why one shouldn’t just live on a diet of beans.

Shorts From the Vault
The most impressive shorts are saved for the section called “From the Vault.” Disney has distributed none of the four films in this section in recent decades, yet each is an exceptional work. It is with great pleasure that Bossert has been given the chance to share with us four of the studio’s finest accomplishments from the war years.