Der Fuehrer's Face

Plot synopsis:
A German oom-pah band—composed of Axis leaders Joseph Goebbels on trombone, Heinrich Himmler on snare drum, Hideki Tōjō on sousaphone, Hermann Göring on piccolo and Benito Mussolini on bass drum—marches noisily at four o'clock in the morning through a small town where everything is shaped like swastika, singing the virtues of the Nazi doctrine. Passing by Donald Duck's house (the features of which depict Adolf Hitler), they poke him out of bed with a bayonet to get ready for work. Here Donald then faces and "Heils" the portraits of the Führer (Adolf Hitler), the Emperor (Hirohito), and Il Duce (Mussolini), respectively.
Because of wartime rationing, his breakfast consists of a piece of wooden bread, coffee brewed from a single hoarded coffee bean, and an aromatic spray that smells like bacon and eggs. 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 with Donald now carrying the bass drum and Göring kicking him.
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 Führer, so he must perform the Hitler salute every time a portrait appears, all the while screwing the caps onto shells, much to Donald's disgust. Each new batch of shells is of a different size, ranging from minute shells to massive shells, as large as Donald if not larger. The pace of the assembly line intensifies (as in the Charlie Chaplin comedy Modern Times), 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 making swastika shapes with his body for a few seconds in front of a painted backdrop of the Alps as exercise, Donald is ordered to work overtime. He has a nervous breakdown with hallucinations of artillery shells everywhere, some of which are snakes and birds, some sing and are the same shape of the marching band from the start, music and all (some of the animation from this sequence is recycled from the "Pink Elephants on Parade" sequence from Dumbo).
When the hallucinations clear, he finds himself in his bed, and realizes that the whole experience was a nightmare, but he sees the shadow of a figure holding its right hand up in the form of a Nazi salute. He begins to do so himself until he realizes that it is the shadow of a miniature Statue of Liberty, holding her torch high in her right hand. Remembering he is in the United States, he embraces the statue, grateful of his United States citizenship.
The short ends with a caricature of Hitler's angry face, and a tomato is thrown at Hitler's face and forms the words The End.

Tags: psychedelic, comic

Review:
I wonder what they would think if they had to market Der Fuehrer's Face with Donald Duck wearing a Nazi uniform and, at one point, resembling Hitler.
However, the image alone of Donald in `Nutzi Land' is somewhat shocking.Nevertheless, Der Fuehrer's Face exhibits some of the greatest gags I've seen in any cartoon.
And poor Donald is forced to work in an ammunition factory where he has to salute Hitler every time he sees his picture, which is about after every other ammunition shell.
It's just so surprising to seeing Hitler and the Nazis being made fun of in this way, in a cartoon no less, you can't help but laugh.Finally Donald wakes up in his red, white, and blue pajamas and is relieved to see his Statue of Liberty souvenir and realizing he's always lived in the `good, old United States of America.'  This cartoon is really quite a sight to see.
In this marvelously surreal and funny short, Donald Duck is a subject of Nazi Germany, forced to make munitions for the Reich.
As he kisses it he proclaims, wearing his star-spangled jammies, "Am I glad to be a citizen of the United States of America." This cartoon, perhaps the most savagely satirical Disney ever made, was a sensation in its day, winning the Oscar and spawning a hit song.
Many will find it disquieting to see a beloved American icon wearing a brownshirt uniform with swastika armband, hailing pictures of Hitler, and goose stepping to work; but then, Donald doesn't seem too thrilled about it, either.
(Bear in mind that at the time of this cartoon the true extent of Hitler's inhumanity was unknown to the Allied countries.) As Mel Brooks has noted, the best way to deal with monsters like Hitler is to laugh at them.
Then I saw it, and realized how clever those guys at Disney are.I won't really give anything away (it's about Donald Duck working for the Nazis, and in true Disney style, comes to a cute ending), but you should just see it yourself.
About finding it, you can download it off a few internet joke sites (someone of an IMDb thread for this movie posted a link from steak and cheese DOT COM), and it was recently released as part of a Disney box set of War-time shorts commemorating the WWII era.
It's also available in a lot of college libraries, in a 16mm print.My rating: 10/10 (a pretty good cartoon poking fun at the WWII political state)..
Effective and Caustic Propaganda in Times of War. In World War II, a marching band playing "Der Fuehrer's Face" passes by Donald Duck's house.
Donald Duck has a nervous breakdown with the stressed situation but when he awakes, he finds that he had a nightmare and he actually lives in United States of America.The historical cartoon "Der Fuehrer's Face" is an effective and caustic propaganda in times of war.
Despite being dated in 2009, the despair of Donald Duck is still a hilarious fun against the Nazism and tyranny of Hitler.
To help communicate the evils of Nazism to children, the Walt Disney cartoon 'Der Fuhrer's Face (1942)' tosses Donald Duck (voiced by Clarence Nash) amid Hitler's militaristic regime, where he slaves away for "48 hours a day" in a munitions factory, continually bombarded with the swastika symbol and the phrase "heil Hitler!" At the end of the cartoon, after a surreal montage of Nazi (or "Nutzi," as the film says) oppression, Donald wakes up in America, thankfully sighing "am I glad to be a citizen of the United States of America."Despite winning an Oscar in 1943 for Best Short Subject Cartoon, 'Der Fuehrer's Face' was rarely seen following the end of the war.
Also featured is Oliver Wallace's song "Der Fuehrer's Face," which was covered by Spike Jones and His City Slickers with great success.
Indeed, the name of this cartoon was changed from "Donald Duck in Nutzi Land" to capitalise on the song's popularity..
Donald Duck is a worker (well, slave really) in Nutzi land, which basically is nazi Germany.
Throughout the film a really catchy song is playing that is making fun of Hitler.In the end it turns to be all a dream and Donald is waking up in the USA.
Due to it having Nazis and the over use of the quote "Heil Hitler".Donald finds himself a Nazi in a Nazi-Land where everything is a Neo Swiss Symbol from telephone posts to trees.Donald gets a wake up call by a marching band of Nazis.Donald then gets drag all the way to a Bomb Shell factory where he has to screw in every single War Head that comes out of the factory.Not only that but he also has to say Heil Hitler when he's told to or when he sees a picture of Hitler.This whole thing drives him mad.
It's also one of the few Disney shorts that poke fun into the Nazis more than the other ones.So if you like Donald Duck and WW2 theme cartoons then you'll surely like this one.You're able to see it on the "Disney Treasures Front Line" Box Set..
Curiosity brought me to this Disney cartoon since of all the things you probably don't expect to see in them is a reference to Hitler in the title.
Within a few seconds that list of "things you don't expect in a Disney cartoon" got a brand new #1 as I saw the sight of Donald Duck wearing the swastika and living in Nazi Germany!
Yes this film is a piece of propaganda based around a Mel Brooks-esque song which spoofs the Nazi party anthem.
The plot sees Donald living in Germany, working in an ammunition factory and struggling with the demands from his bosses, the limited rations and other conditions.Watching this film years later is an odd experience because it is a very basic and crude affair if you watch it today; it blasts stereotypes and uses nationalistic and racist caricatures in its animations while all the time the visual humor is very much limited to "look at these suckers" style humor (which is reconfirmed at the end).
I can understand why Disney kept it out of circulation for so long, since it could have damaged Donald as a character to be seen dressed as a Nazi (albeit to make a point).The thing that surprised me the most is reading that it won the Academy Award that year for best animated short – I am now really curious as to what the other nominees were because I struggle with the idea that this was the best the year had to offer.
Der Fuehrer's Face is one of their best cartoons, and one of my favourite cartoons ever.The animation is excellent, with great colours and wonderful dark nightmarish images, and the music is also excellent.
Der Fuehrer's Face has a great story too that is relevant and never preachy, I was surprised at how much was fitted in such a short running time, and once again Disney nailed it, and the characters are great fun without falling into caricature.
This is a war-themed Donald Duck cartoon that has the character having a nightmare of him serving under the Nazi regime in Germany.Not a whole lot of laughs in this one, and much of the dialog has people uttering Hitler's name.
Basic propaganda, using an icon, Donald Duck, to demean Adolph Hitler.
This Academy Award Winning Donald Duck short is an incredible piece of animation that id, genuinely, really good.It mocks the Nazi party, by showing Donald Duck struggling to fit in and work for the Nazi with their low food source and the hours and hours of hard work they enforce upon others.
There's even a line in which a Nazi announces that they're going to work for 48 hours a day (really clever line).It's genuinely really funny and clever, as well as being beautifully animated and extremely effective with it's anti-Nazi message.It's also a cartoon that I feel everyone should experience based on how purely weird and surreal it is seeing Donald Duck being a Nazi.
It may have won Academy Award for Best Animated Short Subject but this isn't something I would want to be associated with.Donald Duck has a dream he is living under a Nazi regime and his life is a joyless, oppressed existence.
This short was to be originally entitled "Donald Duck in Nutziland", but since the guy who sings the theme for it did such a good job, they changed the title.
In the short, Donald has a nightmare that he is being forced to make bombs in a Nazi ammunition factory and salute Hitler.
I read in a book called "The Art of Walt Disney" that at the end of the cartoon, Donald awakens and sees a shadow of a miniature Statue of Liberty on his window sill and says "Oh boy, am I proud to be an American citizen."  Then a caricature of Hitler appears on screen and a tomato is thrown at him spelling out "THE END."  I bet the people who saw this film when it was released thought that it was one of the most hilarious uses in making fun of Hitler.
A (literal) nightmare in which Donald Duck works in a Nazi munitions factory at breakneck speed while constantly saluting caricatures of Hitler, it is a cartoon that would make George Orwell proud.
Some people may be shocked or even shriek to find out Disney was once known for creating shorts that involved the Nazis and Nazi Germany during the World War II era.
These shorts have gone on to live kind of an infamous life in terms of popularity amongst cinephiles and Disney-enthusiasts, but arguably the most known short of all these is Der Fuehrer's Face, focusing on Donald Duck, who resides in Communist Russia, working the unforgiving job of constructing artillery shells of all different sizes on an assembly line.
It tells the story of Donald Duck, who has a nightmare he's living in a place overrun with "nutzis", (supposed to represent the nazi party).
He eats wooden bread, slaves away in Hitler's ammunition factory, a is rudely awakened by the film's catchy title number.Disney withheld the cartoon for many years because of it's subject matter, it's just another instance of people trying to erase history.
This Donald Duck short won the Academy Award in 1943 for Best Short Subject, Cartoon.
Donald had a dream he is working in a Nazi factory as some kind of slave.
The World War II shorts were no exception.I noticed some of the PC crowd mislabeled this short as being pro-Nazi, because it shows Donald Duck working for the Nazi.
And all is revealed to be a dream and Donald is thankful of living in America.I also like the very end part were Hitler gets a tomato thrown in his face.Get Disney's "On the Front Lines" collection for good historical WWII shorts..
That's because unlike some American propaganda cartoons of the era, this one is so funny and well-made that it still is a super-impressive film.The film begins in a surreal world where Spike Jones' song, Der Fuehrer's Face, is being blared everywhere by a group of bumbling Nazis.
In the middle of this awful world is poor Donald Duck--who is being forced at gunpoint to heil the Fuehrer and make munitions for the Axis at an alarming rate.
The cartoon ends with Donald awakening to find it's all a bad dream.
Plus, it's a wonderful history lesson!UPDATE--When I first wrote this review, it was practically impossible to find this cartoon, as "politically correct" types had buried all the cartoons at Disney and Warner Brothers because they might offend--even films that show evil Nazis (after all, children can never see ANYONE as evil or see a swastika).
Fortunately, the short WAS re-released with the recent Volume 2 of the Best of Donald from Disney.
Donald Duck In A Nazi Nightmare!.
*The SPOILERS' Face* The short begins with a Nazi band - with Hirohito, Mussolini (who wittily states 'We would leave if we could'), an enormous Nazi, a very tall and lanky Nazi and a very effeminate Nazi singing the title song, which basically makes fun of Hitler.Cut to Donald Duck, who lives in a minuscule house in this 'Nutziland' where EVERYTHING either is Swastika-shaped or refers to Hitler (including clouds and picket fences).
Also his house is decorated in the 'Hitler style' (the Hitler-cuckoo is a hoot!).After having gotten dressed in paper clothes and hat, Donald manages to eat a slice of bread so hard it requires a saw to cut, drink coffee made from one single bean and spray 'Aroma of Bacon and Eggs' down his throat, before the Nazi band makes him read the Mein Kampf - to 'improve his mind' - before coming to get him to work.Donald is a 'willing worker of Nutziland' who has to work 48 hours a day for the Fuehrer making shells, and having to salute Hitler's image at the same time.He gets a 'vacation mit pay' working out obsessively in front of an image of the Alps.
The poor guy gets bombarded with Nazi propaganda, and ends up being 'chosen' by special degree of the Fuehrer to work overtime.Eventually, he goes insane and hallucinates various things, among whom switching places with the shells, the Nazi orchestra made of shells, and even himself as Hitler, being saluted by a shell, as the song 'The Fuehrer's Face' keeps on being played faster and faster, until...Donald wakes up from the Nazi nightmare and realizes he is safe in America.Awesome, awesome short where Disney openly makes fun of Hitler's insanity.
This short cartoon was pretty funny!
In hindsight, the whole idea of Donald Duck (voiced by Clarence Nash) being in Nazi Germany, working in a war munitions factory is uncomfortable, because of the dark and trouble history of WW2, even if it's in a nightmare settling.
Still, this animation War propaganda short film by Walt Disney Productions and released in 1943 by RKO Radio Picture is laugh out loud funny.
I think a lot of modern viewers, mistaken this film, as anti-Semitic, because there has been long rumored that Disney secretly supported the Nazis.
I really doubt that, because this short film was obviously made to mock the Nazis, and support the United States in selling War Bonds.
Anyways, the movie does go over the top, a bit on portraying Germany as Nazi-land with everything was shape like a swastika, but it never goes on the attack on the German people.
Originally called "Donald Duck in Nutzi Land," it was retitled when the theme song became a hit.
The film won the 1943 Academy Award for Animated Short Film, and was the only Donald Duck cartoon to win an Oscar.
However, because of the propagandistic nature of the short, and the depiction of Donald Duck as a Nazi.
This Disney short is an amazing piece of animation that any movie lover can enjoy and be moved by.
It features Donald Duck starring as a Nazi worker who is awakened by a band singing the cartoon's incredibly catchy theme song (along with an alarm clock, cuckoo clock, and rooster, all doing the Nazi Salute!) He starts his day by heiling pictures of Hitler, Hirohito, and Mussolini, which is quite shocking to hear from a Disney character.
He then is hauled off to work `48-hours-a-day for the Fuehrer' in a shell factory where he is forced to heil every picture of Hitler that follow the shells on the conveyer belt which moves so fast that it's almost impossible for him to keep up (He even stands on his head to salute a picture that was framed upside-down.) He does however get a paid vacation, `through the kindness of the Fuehrer', which consists of him exercising in front of a large picture of the Alps for thirty seconds.
I'm glad to be a citizen of the United States of America.I absolutely adore this cartoon and wish Disney would stop being so uptight and release it, along with their other WW2 shorts because they are really powerful and very important shorts that show us just what Americans thought back during the war.
This cartoon clearly was made for this purpose.It starts with a Nazi (Or Nutzi as they are called in this short) marching band singing how they 'Heil in Der Fuehrer's Face'.
Then we find Donald Duck, a citizen of the Nutzi state.
It is then we find it has been a dream all this time and that Donald is in fact a proud citizen of the USA.Clearly the message given in this animated short is that the Nazis are cruel to even their own.Overall is is an interesting piece of film and worth watching if you can find it..
One Mr. Donald Duck is chosen to be the laboratory guinea pig and is placed in Nazi Germany.
The song "Der Fuehrer's Face" was later recorded by Spike Jones and his City Slickers and was a big hit single for them.AT PICTURE'S END, all is once again well for Donald Duck.
This 8-minute Donald Duck short film is the perfect example of why that would be a huge mistake.
These kind of films are often a great way to understand historical context from times long gone and are also a fascinating watch in order to witness how they tried to and often succeeded to manipulate the people.
"Der Fuehrer's Face" is possibly the most famous political cartoon from World War II.
Donald wakes up as a proud Nazi, but his lack of great living conditions, especially food, and hard work make him quickly turn insane as he has knives put to his neck and is constantly treated with noisy propaganda.
Or it was just not appropriate for a child to watch something as horrible as that.Donald Duck, who is actually sleeping but having a horrible nightmare, making missiles of different shapes and sizes, which seem to be hard.