I am a big fan of animation, especially the early disney shorts. This is one of the most famous of the donald duck shorts, mainly because Donald wears a Nazi uniform, which does make it slightly surreal.
The short was made as part of Disney's partnership with the US government during WW2. It was a partnership of necessity as the Walt Disney studio almost fell to it's knees due to the financial flops of the now much loved Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi and Fantasia. Walt Disney had put all his heart and effort into Fantasia especially, so when this failed to produce a significant return on his investment he fell out of love with animation and you can see a shift in his priorities from making the best animated feature possible to keeping his business afloat. WW2 gave him an opportunity to make quick money by producing propaganda for the US government.
Der Fuehrer's Face is possibly the most famous film from this era, though it isn't the best Donald Duck Cartoon it certainly has an incredibly catchy song about Hitler, which I haven't been able to get out of my head for the past week.
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