Der Fuehrer's Face
Der Fuehrer's Face is a 1942 animated cartoon by Walt Disney Studios starring Donald Duck, as well as a song from that short. Both mock Adolf Hitler.
It was directed by Jack Kinney and released on January 1, 1943 as an anti-Nazi propaganda piece for the American war effort. It won the 1943 Academy Award for Animated Short Film and was voted #22 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field.
Plot
A brass band (including Tojo on sousaphone and Mussolini on bass drum) marches through a small German town (where everything, including the clouds and trees, is decorated with the Nazi swastika), singing the virtues of the Nazi doctrine. Passing Donald's house, they poke him out of bed with a bayonet to get ready for work. Because of wartime rationing, his breakfast consists of stale bread (hard enough that it requires a saw to cut), coffee brewed from a single hoarded coffee bean, and a spray that tastes like bacon and eggs, and his uniform (with hat) is made completely out of paper; it also appears that he is hiding his food from the Nazi marching band as well. The band shoves a copy of Mein Kampf in front of him for a moment of reading, then marches into his house and escorts him to a factory.
Upon arriving at the factory (at bayonet-point), Donald starts his 48-hour daily shift screwing caps onto artillery shells in an assembly line. Mixed in with the shells are portraits of the Fuehrer, so he must interrupt his work to do a Hitler salute every time a portrait appears. The pace of the assembly line intensifies, and Donald finds it increasingly hard to complete all the tasks. At the same time, he is bombarded with propaganda messages about the superiority of the Aryan race and the glory of working for The Führer.
After a "paid vacation" that consists of exercising for a few seconds in front of a painted backdrop of the Alps, Donald is ordered to work overtime. He has a nervous breakdown with hallucinations of artillery shells everywhere. When the hallucinations clear, he finds himself in his bed—in the United States—and realizes the whole experience was a nightmare. The short ends with Donald embracing a miniature Statue of Liberty, thankful for his American citizenship.
History
Before the film's release, the popular band Spike Jones and His City Slickers, noted for their parodies of hot songs of the time, released a version of Oliver Wallace's theme song, "Der Fuehrer's Face" (also known informally as "The Nazi Song"). Unlike the version in the cartoon, some Spike Jones versions contain the rude sound effect of rubber razzers (aka the Bronx Cheer) with each "HEIL!" to show contempt for Hitler. The underlying implication of passing gas in Hitler's face, a very vulgar theme for that time period, illustrates how normal censorship of the public media tends to be relaxed when the subject is an enemy. Jones recorded two versions of the song at the request of RCA Victor Records which released the song on the Bluebird label - one with a trombone note after each "HEIL!" and the other with a razzer called a 'birdaphone'. The birdaphone version was the one released. The success of Jones' record prompted Disney to change the short's title, originally Donald Duck In Nutzi Land, to match the song.
Due to the propagandistic nature of the short, and the depiction of Donald Duck as a Nazi, Disney has kept it out of general circulation since its original release. Der Fuehrer's Face finally received an official U.S. video release in 2004, when it was included in the Walt Disney Treasures limited edition DVD set Walt Disney: On the Front Lines. It also appeared on another Walt Disney Treasures set: The Chronological Donald Volume Two, released in December 2005.
Other versions
- Harry Turtledove adapted the song in one of his Colonization novels, in tune with the novels' theme. See the page on the Race for the lyrics.
- Spike sings a short version of the song in the comic book Spike vs. Dracula #3.
- In one M*A*S*H episode, Hawkeye Pierce goes insane from lack of sleep and sings part of the song to Radar. This is the Spike Jones version, with the raspberries included.
- In the movie Hart's War, a group of American POWs are seen playing the song and dancing to it in elaborate costumes.
- Herman Wouk built a scene around the song in his novel War and Remembrance.
See also
External links
- Der Fuehrer's Face at IMDb
- Disney Archives: Donald Duck Character History
- Der Fuehrer's Face at The Encyclopedia of Disney Animated Shorts
- Walt Disney Home Video: Walt Disney: On the Front Lines
- Banned Cartoons, including Fuehrer
Further reading
Young, Jordan R. (2005). Spike Jones Off the Record: The Man Who Murdered Music. Albany: BearManor Media ISBN 1-59393-012-7 3rd edition.