Post 7 - War Effort

In class today we watched a film about the German animators during the changes in Germany in the 1930s and through the war years. We also watched a several animations from both Warner Brothers and Disney, which were funny and also interesting. The animations brought some seriousness into play also with the one "Education for Death", which showed the processes of "making" soldiers out of young German boys.

I personally found the animation clips interesting from a historical viewpoint because, for some reason, I find history interesting. The U.S. was gearing up for war and recruiting men and perhaps as a way to help future soldiers make the switch to military life, these animations preemptively answered questions that would have been asked. One could say it was an animated version of an instruction booklet.

The one Warner Brother clip we saw was serious in its intent, but had many funny moments throughout. It was trying to convey the need for secrets to be just that - secrets. You never might know who could be listening in on your phone calls - a Japanese spy might have stuffed himself into the phonebox! Also, the swastika was seen in many different ways: in the clouds, the windmill, and even in the moose antlers.

On a large scale though, these films probably conveyed the message faster than other ways and were effective enough to get the point across.

On a sidenote, awhile ago, I went down to D.C. to go to the Spy Museum for a class. In the section of the museum that was about the Second World War, they had a mini theater that ran clips of the war effort at home. They showed many animated clips like the ones we saw in class. In fact, I believe the one we saw, was one that was shown in the museum.