Victory Through Air Power
Most of the second disc concerns the feature Victory Through Air Power (1943). The complete film is shown along with a theatrical trailer for it, silent footage of a very tired looking Walt on the film’s live-action set, and still images of art used to make the production. The disc also features three interviews (Grant, Hench and Roy Disney) and a sample of the studio’s animation for training films.

Victory Through Air Power was a project unlike anything else Walt had ever done. He was committing a tremendous amount of money and studio labor toward a feature that he hoped would convince our nation to build the greatest air force in the world. Major Alexander P. de Seversky, an aviation pioneer, based it on the book Victory Through Air Power. The book and film champion the idea that what we need to win the war will be better long-range bombers. By flying over the enemy in Germany and the Pacific we can attack the heart of their war production industry. Bombing them from the air will save American lives and shorten the war. (And it did.)

Unlike other Disney films that can be shown year after year, Walt must have realized from the start that this feature would have a short-lived exhibition history. Bossert says the film hadn’t paid for itself when it was sent to the vaults to gather dust. After reading the records in the studio’s archive and after talking with people connected with the production, Bossert concludes, “Walt felt it was his greatest contribution to the war effort. He believed in it.”

Victory Through Air Power was made when the aviation industry was less than 40 years old. Not every general in the Pentagon felt that bombing our enemies from the air was the answer to winning the conflict. Some saw airplanes as just another weapon and they saw no need for a U.S. Air Force separate from the other branches of the service.

Bossert says that Churchill, while attending a conference in Quebec with Franklin D. Roosevelt, found out our president hadn’t seen the film. He insisted Roosevelt see it at once. A special screening was set up and after that screening Roosevelt’s commitment to air power increased. Yes, Victory Through Air Power is a remarkable and convincing work of propaganda.

Walt Disney committed time and money to making Victory Through Air Power. He believed that long-range bombers would shorten the war.

The film begins with a comedic history of aviation. Next we meet Major Seversky who tells us how Hitler, using a fast moving army, his air force and the element of surprise, had conquered much of Europe. He then explains why we need great long-range bombers, “scientific bombing” and the use of rocket bombs and other weapon systems to end the war as quickly as possible. Dramatic animated sequences illustrate his ideas.

Disney hired H.C. Potter to direct his friend Sasha (Seversky) in the live-action sequences. To avoid making the live segments seem like a straight forward lecture, Potter had Seversky hold and touch things and move from one part of the set to another without the audience noticing he had a limp (the major had a wooden leg). He also moves the camera in and out for dramatic emphasis and varies the camera angles.

Other credits go to David Hand who supervised a team of 15 animators that included Ward Kimball, John Lounsbery, Hugh Fraser, George Rowley, John Sibley, Norm Tate, Vladimir Tytla and Bill Justice. The solid narration was delivered by Art Baker, who later was host of the TV show You Asked For It.

RKO, Disney’s distributor, declined handling the 65-minute film. Instead, United Artists distributed it. The film received mixed reviews with some critics applauding Disney’s accomplishments at propaganda and others finding the hard sell offensive. Looking at it as a historical document, I think it is a remarkable hard-hitting masterpiece with exceptional production values. Like it or not we live in a world full of propaganda and this film is an exceptional example that should be honored for its contribution to shortening the war.

A Conversation with Dave Bossert
Bossert says he first proposed that the studio release the WWII films about 10 years ago. He drew up a proposal and dusted it off every couple of years, but nobody was committed to doing it. Right after 9/11, he talked with Tom Schumacher (then head of Disney Feature Animation) about the project and he responded by taking the proposal to Roy Disney (then Disney vice chairman) and Dick Cook (Disney Studio chief). Bossert screened a selection of the films for them and they all agreed they were of historical importance to the company and our nation and that they should be made available to the public. Bossert assumes the earlier rejections of the project were from people not familiar with the films. He says they probably thought they were full of insensitive moments and would prove to be an embarrassment to the company.

Creating the DVD was a labor of love for him. He had to go through a lot of red tape to produce the project and more red tape to arrange a public screening of 35mm prints at the Academy last year and another in May of this year for ASIFA-Hollywood members and the public.

When the DVD set was scheduled to go on sale last December, advanced sales were 225,000 sets (production of the sets was postponed by Technicolor as they had more work than they could handle at their duplication plants). There will only be 250,000 sets made of this Disney Treasures Collection, so he hopes some or all of the material will be released in the future in a different series.