Donald Duck won a much-deserved Oscar for his performance in Der Feuhrer’s Face (1943) as an overworked Nazi worker going crazy. The only other sequence in Disney films as wild and free as this depiction of Donald’s going bezerk is the “Pink Elephants on Parade” section in Dumbo. Der Feuhrer’s Face is full of other memorable images that ridicule Nazi Germany. Donald’s breakfast is a powerful hint at the deplorable conditions in Germany for some people. By using outrageous humor to get the point across you are likely to remember the situation for many years.

Another important element of this film is the music. Grant says on the DVD that the song was written for the film. By the time the film was released a version of the song by Spike Jones and his City Slickers had become a hit on the pop music charts.

When I met Grant in 1993 he pointed out that the lyrics in the film were censored, but they were clearly heard on the radio. Instead of our hearing, “it will blow him straight to hell,” we see Donald about to collide with a large shell casing so the offensive word is replaced with a “bong” as Donald bounces off the giant metal shell.

Grant also talked about the film having a “razzberry” sound at the end when somebody tosses a tomato at the face of Hitler. The censors demanded that it be removed, but the studio argued it was appropriate considering we were at war with Germany. The Hayes office reluctantly allowed them to use the sound. Grant adds that the sound could never have gotten past the censors if the film had been made during a time of peace. Ironically, when you hear the soundtrack the noise in question is a somewhat vague sounding noise rather than an obviously rude one. I suspect the Hayes office may have asked for the cut after reading a description of the soundtrack in the script rather than their asking for the cut after seeing the completed film.

Donald’s Decision portrays the duck’s dilemma over whether to invest his money in the war.

An even more remarkable work is Education for Death (1943). It is a chilling depiction of how Germany’s schools were brainwashing children into believing Hitler’s propaganda. It shows a child being educated to be a good Nazi soldier and it suggests he is being educated to die for Germany. The film touches on several gruesome realities including that chronically sick people in German may vanish without a trace and that the state publicly humiliates people who do not conform to their way of thinking. The film shows Hans growing up to be a goose-stepping soldier wearing blinders over his eyes (similar to blinders worn by horses).

The final shot of the film shows a large number of German soldiers in parade formation and then as the narrator tells us Han’s education for death is now complete we see the field of soldiers dissolving into a field covered with grave markers. Education for Death must have been a somber and very sobering film experience for a public going out to the movies expecting to see an entertaining evening of films.

Two other films from deep within the vault also contain surprising footage. Disney’s Chicken Little (1943) contains an unexpected grim ending. Before the film is shown on the DVD, Leonard Maltin warns parents to screen the film without their kids present. They may decide not to show it to them. The film is a retelling of the familiar “sky is falling” story with a disturbing WWII twist to it.

All Together brings the Disney stars out for the war cause.

Reason and Emotion (1943, nominated for an Oscar) is the final work in this section. The first half is a humorous discourse on how we are both rational and emotional creatures. That part of the film has been shown on TV, but for obvious reasons the rest of the film remained in Disney’s vault until now. After the humorous examples of how we are controlled by both common sense and our emotions, the film shows how Hitler has gained control of people through fear, hatred, false pride in phony racial theories and other manipulative techniques.