Toon Zone Special "May Star Of The Month" Edition...The Wartime Cartoons

[Nelson]

This is the second part of a double header of Toon Zone's May "Star Of The Month" and in honor of Memorial Day and Cartoon Network's Jerry Beck's special TOONHEADS:THE WARTIME CARTOONS we will salute the cartoon superstars that did their part during both world wars.....

THE WARTIME CARTOONS

We'll take a look on how the animated cartoon made a major impact during WW1 and WW2 and boasted Amercian morales and their sprits.During this week long look at war cartoons, I will provide on what I would conisder are the greatest war cartoons ever made.This special look at the war cartoons will be put into their proper historical context.

At the turn of the 20th century when cartoons was making a impact among moviegoers, animators always came up with new and creative ideas for their characters and one good storyline was war cartoons.When the first world war broke out between Germany and France, America got involved in their first world war and here back at home, cartoon studios and the animators would tackle the war issue in a humorous and serious look during the early years of animation. By 1915 once the war got started over in Europe, one New York City based cartoon studio, The Bray Studios made some of the first cartoons to be focused on WW1.One character, that went to bat for our country was a comic strip character that was brought to the screen, by the name of, "Happy Hooligan".In one HH 1916 cartoon(Title Unknown) short, Hooligan gets shot out of a German cannon and gets sent over the enemy line and right back into his own troops , as Hooligan is an American spy as he tells the commander "Complete Goiman Plans" and go on to defeat the Germans.

By the end of the 1910s, lengendary animation pioneer, Windsor Mckay (creator of Gertie The Dinosaur) made a cartoon short in 1918 and it was based on a real life disaster that happen in 1915 that many lives were lost.The Lusitania was Titanic's sister ship and three years after the Titanic went down, her sister would suffer a similar fate in 1915.Over in European waters, German U sub launched a torpedo at the large ship and sunk the ship under two hours killing almost all of the passengers.Then in 1918, McKay made a cartoon short based on the tradegy and animated what was one of the best animated cartoons from the silent film era.The cartoon was titled, "The Sinking of The Lusitania" (1918) and it's clearly McKay's best cartoon he ever made.This cartoon is a masterpiece in it's own right, with the animtion almost life like as you can see why and how the great ship went down to to the Germans.

After WW1 ended, and then came in the "roaring twenties", cartoon studios would still continue to use storylines for their cartoons around the first world war.A perfect example would be the 1927 Walt Disney cartoon short and it would star one of the biggest cartoon stars of the day, "Oswald The Lucky Rabbit" in the WW1 one reeler, "Great Guns" (1927)
and was released by Universal.In the cartoon, when world war begins, a newspaper boy shouts outs "WAR DECLARED" and Oswald decides to inlist without the approval of his Girlfriend "Fannie".During the warm all Oswald can do is to sulk and sigh while looking at a picture of his Girlfriend, a mouse flying in a plane, drops a huge missle that lands into Oswald's girlfriends picture, which an irate Oswald declares war on the mouse and takes off in a plane.Oswald catches up to the little rodent, both them and the planes get into a fist fight while Oswald and the Mouse step outside(in mid-air) to beat each other to a into a living pulp.Once one the ground, Oswald knocks the rodent's head right off of his body while a German Solider comes to capture our American hero by firing off a cannon at the rabbit.

Oswald keep ducking on cannon ball after the next and when Oswald uses an elephant as a cannon by putting pepper and cannon balls blasting the enemy, while the German General gets two whacks first knocking a cannon ball right into the elephants mouth, causing him to explode with only his remains being his legs as he runs off into the sunset and when Oswald keeps batting back the cannon balls, he get blown to little tiny pieces until his girlfriend arrives to save Oswald by putting him into a shaker, only to find out that it's her long lost love Oswald.By this Time, other silent stars was also being put into war sitiuations such as, "Koko The Clown", Felix The Cat" and "Mutt And Jeff", but there brewing in 1927 that would turn the movie world upside down.

When Warner Bros. released the first sound film, "The Jazz Singer" in Oct. 1927, it meant that the silent film era was pronounced dead two years later as "Talking" pictures was all the rage by 1929.Once sound arrived, animators could create better stories, better animation, in fact cartoons were saved by sound in the late 20s.When the 30s began, all of the cartoon studios kept using a famliar storyline, WW1 as it was used in many of the early sound cartoons.During this time, animators would even animate graphic violent scenes in cartoons, a perfect example would might be the title of the 1930 Terrytoon short. "Hungarian Goulash" in which war breaks out as war mice vetrans get their heads blown off with blood spirtting all over the place, as with the 1931 Bosko cartoon, "Bosko The Doughboy", in once scene when one of Bosko's friend is trying to cheer him up, he gets blown pieces by a machine gun.This cartoon is wonderfuly animated by Hugh Harmon & Rudolph Ising in where a bunch of loud cannons firing off up close to the screen giving it a 3-D effect to it.

At this time, other studios were making WW1 cartoons either for laughs or drama and by the mid-30s, almost all of the cartoon studios were going for other types of stories, Warners continued making another WW1 cartoon, this time featuring "Beans And Porky" in the 1936 Looney Tunes short, "Boom Boom" which this cartoon delt also with the war.

It seemed that the animators wanted to use other concepts for their cartoons instead of making war themed shorts and opted for slapstick or simply quite put it, musicals in their animated product in the late 30s.But by 1939, Germany invaded Poland, as America wanted to stay out of the mess that was going on over in Europe until a disaster happend to our shores in 1941.

Tomorrow...
Cartoon Superstars go to war in the 1940s

So just keep checking right here up unitl next monday on Memorial Day and tomorrow, I'll unvail my 15 GREATEST WAR CARTOONS, EVER MADE, as a special doubleheader of the Toon Zone, May "Star Of The Month" continues all this week and don't forget that the star of month, Pink Panther continues until the end of next week, so check it out Toon Heads!

[Nelson]

Here is the line-up for this week of wartime cartoons segments.

Tuesday 5/21/02
The history of the WW2 cartoons and my top 15 picks of the greatest War cartoons ever made...

Wednesday 5/22/02
Private Snafu

Thursday 5/23/02
Disney And Warners, Who made the better war cartoons?

Friday 5/24/02
Reflect on your favortie wartime cartoons

Saturday 5/25/02
WW2 Toon debate, will these cartoons be shown ever again on a regular basics?

Sunday 5/26/02
Story of Racist WW2 cartoons

Monday 5/27/02
A Memorial Day Salute

That's the line -up!!!!

GOD BLESS AMERICA!

[Nelson]

Our "star of the month" for May, salute to wartime cartoons continues tonight with the coming of the second world world war and how animators used their characters to boast American moral support in the early forties.

When Pearl Harbor was attacked on Dec 7th 1941 by the Japanese, America entered it's second world war against the Japanese and Germans right after the attacks.Many Americans did they're part by their showing support for the troops during this peroid.Back in Hollywood, the major studios focused their attention on the war effort by having their stars go on promotions all across the country urging Americans to buy bonds and ration books.The studios would to take a look at WW2 by producing feature length films centering around the war.The major cartoon studios on the other hand, did their part by bringing the cartoon characters into the war effort and making them bigger stars than they already were the movie going public during that time.The first few WW2 cartoons would take a look at basic training with such films as, "War Dogs" which takes a funny look a military dogs in training, and another example would be Warner's, "The Draft Horse" in this cartoon, a horse want's to serve his country and goes through one tuff test after another until he's re-jected by the army, but makes good in the end of the picture.

But perhaps some of the best produced and funniest WW2 training cartoons were the ones made in New Rochelle, New York, from the Paul Terry Terrytoon studios.The famous comedy team of Gandy Goose & Sourpuss who made many training cartoons during the war era and made such wonderful one reelers such as, "Lights Out", "One Man Navy", "Somewhere In Egypt" and the "cult" classic, "Sham Battle Shenanigans".The other cartoon studios got into the act as well, Warner's used their biggest stars, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and Elmer Fudd.Columbia Pictures had The Fox And Crow and while at Disney, Donald Duck who happend to be Disney's biggest star at that studio and Parmount/Famous Studios had their trust in Superman and the spinach eatin sailor, Popeye all did their parts along with a MGM roster with, Wolfie, and [B]Tom And Jerry.

Adolf Hitler was the most hated person in the entire world and animators would use gag images of him in cartoons such as a scarecrow in the Fox And Crow cartoon, "Slay It With Flowers", Warner's ,"Tin Pan Alley Cats", and in some cases, the animators would also draw their stars as Hitler, case in point, Bugs Bunny, "Her Meets Hare", Donald Duck, "Der Fuehrer's Face", Tom Cat, "The Lonesome Mouse".During throughout the war, the war themed shorts would feature outrageous stereotypes of the Japanese with big lips and big bucked teeth. and stupid Germans who would spit while speaking.These are how the animators would animate the bad guys from this point in the early forties. Some war cartoons at that time are down right classics including, MGM's"The Blitz Wolf", Paramount's,"Spinach For Britan" Disney's most powerful short, "Education For Death" Universal's, "$21 Dollars A day, Once A Month" and Warner's "The Ducktators".


Out of all the Hollywood features and shorts, it was the cartoons that made the biggest impact among moviegoers during this dark period of time and it was a way to epscape for the movie fans (for a while) the grim reality of a major world war when American lives was being lost overseas.Cartoons during this time, didn't just reflect on political humor but a dramatic side as well with a film like MGM's classic war short, "Peace On Earth" which is a powerful look at the horrors of war.By 1945, the war ended and America declared victory with the enemy being defeated and once again, America stood tall and proud.Today, these WW1 and WW2 vetrans will never be forgotten for their services for fighting and protecting their American soil.May God Bless you all!

And now, I'm proud to present what I would consider to be the 15 greatest War cartoons ever made, with a little insight behind them, so let get started shall we?The first five will be tonight and the ten top shorts will be tomorrow!

15."PEACE ON EARTH" (MGM)
This is a dramatic look at the horrors of war as told from animals about the destruction of man during war.The cartoon takes place on Christmas Eve as Grampa tells his grandkids the meaning of war.As shown as battles takes place and humans loosing their lives until there's nothing left living except animals.When the film goes back to the animals, they look at the bible and look at one certain comandment, "THOU SHALL NOT KILL".This is a brillant well animated short and where it relies on reality instead of laughs.

[B]14. "WAR DOGS" (MGM)
In this short, we look at a military for dogs during the war.One dog in praticular, is dreaming about attacking a Japanese solider and biting him in the rear end as the solider starts scraming in pain, as we see our hero laughing in his dream.Then we see the dog in class as the teacher show him several pictures to see how he reacts, one pic is a sexy female, for which the dog keeps going back and looking and then he sees a picture of Hitler and goes nuts.Towards the end of the film, the dog gets himself into a mess with tanks, bombs until her lands himself in the dog pound for the mess he's caused.Very cartoon short....

13. "YOU'RE A SAP, MR. JAP" (PARAMOUNT)
This classic Popeye short, has the spinach eatin sailor, going up against the Japanese who want's to have a so-called a peace treatie.Popeye falls for their evil plan, as everytime Popeye isn't looking, one of them will smack him until the sailor catches on, when one of the soliders tries putting a lobster but that plan backfires as the solider gets his hair cut off. Once Popeye eats his spinach he destroys not only the Japs, but the entire ship as well.One soldier decides to kill himself by eating bombs and drinking it down with gasoline, by saying "Roosing Face".Popeye then discovers this and get of the ship unitl the whole vessel explodes and goes down under sea, with Popeye victorious.

12."SCRAP HAPPY DAFFY"(WARNER BROS.)
One of the best Daffy Duck cartoons ever made, We see Daffy urging people to donate scrap metal for the scrap metal drive.When Hitler gets word of this, he sends a man eating nazi goat to devour all of the scrap metal.One of the best scenes is when Daffy tranforms himself into "Superman"(or duck) and beats the living daylights out of the Nazis until Daffy wakes up and realizes it was a dream until a german sub tells him, "Next Time You Dream, Leave us Out Of It".

11."COAL BLACK AND DE SEBBEN DWARFS (WARNER BROS.)
A Bob Clampett masterpiece...A part of the "Censored 11", this cartoon features an all black cast and is set during the war era and is Clampett's take off of Disney's "Snow White".Coal Black has the title role of Snow White.The music is slammin with 1940s jazz musical score.A must see for cartoon fans....

Now tomorrow, as our week long salute to the second "star of the month" THE WARTIME CARTOONS continues here at Toon Zone, we'll take a look at the history of Private Snafu and the final top ten greatest war cartoons ever made.

Tomorrow:
Private Snafu and the conclusion of my 15 greatest wartime cartoons ever made.

[Pilmedium]

I never knew there were war-themed cartoons made during World War 1.

[Nelson]

Toon Zone's week long tribute to the second star of the month in May Memorial Day salute to "Wartime Cartoons" and tonight is one famous WW2 vetran, that every cartoon knows very well.

PRIVATE SNAFU

Seen today, the Private Snafu cartoons are looked as great animated war cartoons, for their humor and reality look at the second world war.

This history behind the snafu cartoons begin in 1942, when the U.S. Army Signal Corp. wanted to make a 3 to 4 minute cartoon short featuring a clumsy and dumb soldier who fought in WW2.Orignally The Disney Studios was going to be the original producers to make the films, even going so far as to have the first complete storyboard for the first Snafu cartoon.Enter Warner Bros cartoon producer, Leon Schlesinger stepped in and countered Disney in a biding war to make the series.Schlesinger was known for getting a upper hand on Walt, back in 1935, Leon raided the Disney studios for new talent after his old animators went to the other cartoon studios and such Disney artist was Jack King who directed cartoons at WB for a short period of time.The biding war came down to the amount roll of film that would be used for the making of the cartoon shorts, with Leon outbidding Walt, to make the series.

One production got started, a man by the name of Theodore Geisel otherwise known as "Dr. Seuss" to create the stroyline for the shorts in rhyme.The Warner Bros, cartoon staff made the series with musical composer, Carl Stallings and voice artist, Mel Blanc along with the rest of the cartoon staff.The first Snafu cartoon was titled, "Coming Snafu" released in 1942.The shorts(26 in all) was used as a part of "The Army Screen Magazine" and shown overseas to U.S. troops who was serving during that time.The first cartoon was all done in rhymes and it's a very funny cartoon as well.The true meaning for Snfau stood for
Sitiuation
Normal
All
Fouled
Up
One of the earliest Snafu was written by Giesel and directed by Chuck Jones and which happens to be one of my favorite Snafu cartoons.The short, "Spies" which has Snafu telling the audience he has a top kept secret in his brain with pad and belted lock, while the Germans and Japanese are on his tale, waiting for him to open his mouth.He stops into a bar and orders a drink and gets totally drunk, then you see the patted lock and chain melting and the zipper comes flying off his mouth then Snafu comes across a very sexy woman(who happens to be working for the Nazi's) and fall for her. Back at her place, he spilling the beans while she has a microphone inside her busty bra and Hitler hears all of this top secret .Snfau realizing he shout his mouth off and get his troops into hot water with the enemy and gets blown to hell with Satan as Hitler.

Over the course of the series other directors took over such as, Frank Tashlin and some shorts were produced by the UPA Studios.The storylines circled around such topics as "Rumors" in which Snafu mistakes an innocent comment and starts to spread rumors through the army base."Gas" takes a look at an antroponorplic gas cloud, while these shorts were made at Warner's Termite Terrace, the animators would sneak in a famous Looney Tune character, such as Bugs Bunny who makes a quick cameo in Gas.Other shorts including "Snafuperman" and featrued a second supporter, "The Technical Fairy" who would be Snafu's Fairy Godfather in several of the shorts during it's run.The Snafu cartoons are in no way made for adults as some of the characters would curse and use common adult themes.Such great Snfau shorts was, Gripes, Coming Snafu and many, many more,By 1945 there were more produced Snafu shorts being made with some never before released to the U.S. troops before the war ended.

Seen today, the Snafu shorts have recieved "cult" status
by animation scholars, film historians and cartoon fans, as a matter of fact, Snfau made history when Cartoon Network presented A Snafu cartoon short during it's late night telecast of Toon Heads titled: "CARTOON NEWSREELS", so it was proud to Snafu well and still kicking after all these years.

And now, I continue my top 15 ":Greatest War Cartoons" EVER MADE and I said last night that I will have the rest of the 15 top shorts, but I decided to do the next five and for the finale the top 5 wartime cartoons ever made tomorrow night.So here's a recap of the the first 5 of the 15 cartoons in my countdown.
15.Peace On Earth (MGM)
14.War Dogs (MGM)
13.You're A Sap, Mr. Jap (Para/Famous Studios)
12.Scrap Happy Daffy (Warner Bros.)
11.Coal Black And De Sebben Dwarfs (Warner Bros.)


10.ALL OUT FOR "V" (TERRYTOONS/20TH CENTURY FOX)
If there is one WW2 cartoon that makes you proud to be an American, then this would have to be the one, In this Academy Award nominated cartoon, we see the forest animals preparing for the war defense.Such scenes includes, animals joing together when Japanese beatles are discovered in a lake with the animals bombing them unitl they surrender.Seeing goats start a scrap metal drive, a cat dragging a chicken to lay eggs and sop much more.If you haven't seen this cartoon, then you're missing one fine piece of animation.

9. THE DUCKTATORS (WARNER BROS.)
I simply love this cartoon, as we find Mr. & Mrs.Duck expecting their first new born and once the egg hatches, we see Hitler popping out of the egg by saying "Seig Hiel".When he gets older, Hitler starts to get an army started by getting a dumb fat goose(a take off of Mussolini) and out of the axis a buck toothed Japanese duck appears to join the fight along with Mussolini and Hitler.A peace loving Bird tries his best to stop the war and go for peace, but that all comes to an end when the soliders step on him, leaving the peacful bird ready to kick some butt and to be victorious by putting all three of their heads haning on the wall.A Norman McCabe classic...

8. EDUCATION FOR DEATH (DISNEY/RKO RADIO)
This classic Disney short takes a look at how Germany's youth was brianwashed by German forces.We see one little kid get taken away from his mother and to study and learn to become a killer for Hitler.The short has funny moments when Hitler almost gets crushed to death by an overweight viking girl.A very well made Disney masterpiece.

7. SEEIN, RED. WHITE AND BLUE (PARAMOUNT)
Popeye tries to inlist Bluto into the Navy but Bluto has no intention on going, by even faking being deathly sick and tries several ways of getting out of it.Once Bluto punches Popeye into a childs nursey school, the little babies are actually Japanese spies who are ready to take on Popeye, while Bluto laughs that he's gotten out of a jam.When Bluto finds out that the babies are Japanese soliders, he tries to save Popeye only to get a beating from the enemies.Popeye and Bluto join forces and both eat spinach and knocks out every single solider, even Popeye powerful punch knocks out leaders like Hiro****o who says, "IT SHOULD HAPPEN TO HITLER" then the lightning punch strikes Hitler as well.The ending has Bluto inlisting into the Navybut can't spell his own name.

5. THE COMMANDO DUCK (DISNEY/RKO RADIO)
Donald Duck was on of the biggest war stars during "Hollyood's Golden Age" during the second world war.In this censored Disney one reeler, Donald parachutes into enemy territory and has problems with his air raft.We find two Japanese soliders disguise as trees who keep bumping into each other and keeps apologizing to each other faster and faster and bowing down.When one solider aims and says "rike the Rone Stlanger" and fires at Donald as he nears a water falls and his inflatable raft suffers a hole while water and keeps getting bigger and bigger while Donald does his best not to let sharp objects hit the raft that is filled(big time) with water.Once when Donald looks likes he's ready to give to his country over the falls. The raft explodes and knocks out the Japanese army headquaters completly destroyed and Donald is the winner.Great American Cartoon.....

Tomorrow we'll take a look at the WW2 cartoons of Disney and Warners and the final countdown to the number one greatest wartime cartoon ever made.

[Nelson]

Oh yes, there was many WW1 cartoons made during the silent film era and straight on through the sound era, before Monday, I'll try to add a special section list of silent WW1 cartoons.

[Nelson]

As the week long salute to the May "star of the month" of Wartime Cartoons continues this week, as the topic for tonight will be the Disney and Warner's war themed shorts and who had a bigger impact .

Disney made some excellent War cartoons during the early 40s, while at Warner Bros. the cartoon studio was making some excellent animated shorts as well.But besides the humorous cartoons, Disney would make dramatic cartoons as well.Case in point, as you view "Education For Death" the cartoon mixes comedy and powerful drama on the horrors of the German youth on how they are made to hate.Disney also made a WW2 feature length film titled, "Victory Through Air Power" (which I own on video) about the history of aircraft and how the early 20th century saw the airplane in the first few decades.From the Wright Brothers first famous flight, to the first world war and straight through WW2.Donald Duck surpassed Mickey Mouse by the 1940s and the studio qucikly inlisted Donald into the war.The WW2 Donald Duck cartoons are similar to those of the "Gandy Goose & Sourpuss" one reelers when it comes to training films.The first few shorts would be in training for Donald who's drill sargent would be "Peg Leg Pete" in several of the war cartoons and after of these training films then Donald would see action in such classic cartoons as, "The Commando Duck" and the Academy Award winning short for 1943, "Der Fuehrer's Face" in which we see Donald working for the Nazis.

Over at Warner's, that once the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, several months later, Warner Bros. was releasing cartoons with a very rough and humorous look at the war.The studio used their biggest star at the time, "Bugs Bunny" to do his efforts for his country and in one such promotional short, "Any Bonds Today" was to inform Americans to buy war bonds and starred Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig and Elmer Fudd in this classic cartoon short.In other films we'd see other famous LT characters doing their bit for the war effort, with Friz Feleng's classic Daffy Duck short, "Daffy The Commando" where Daffy takes on the Nazis and at the end of the picture when Daffy get blasted out of a cannon and lands right behind a brillantly animated rotoscoped verison of Hitler only to see Daffy smash a large mallot on Hitler's head.

Whe it comes right down to it, Warner's did make the better war cartoons but that's not to say that Disney didn't make great war cartoons as well. So let's hear from some of you cartoon fans and weight in on the issue.

[Nelson]

As Jerry Beck's Toonheads special, THE WARTIME CARTOONS this Sunday at 9pm(EST)draws nears, what would be your all time favorite war cartoons? Reflect on some very great toons.

Due to delays, I will post the final top 5 greatest wartime cartoons this sunday, so keep checking right here! And see what will be the number 1 wartime cartoon ever made.

[Argus Sventon]

Peace on Earth ranks on top of my list for a lot of reasons. It seemed a bit ahead of its time. Not only was it considered for an Academy Award but also a Nobel Prize. I wish they'd show Goodwill to Men on CN. I want to see the remake.

[Pietro]

This is really cool Nelson!

BTW, There were a few other WWI cartoons as well.
One ACTUALLY made during WWI was A.W.O.L. featuring a goof-up soldier, similar to WB's Private Snafu. He even ends up behind bars at the end like Snafu did in Coming! Snafu!

As you stated earlier, Nelson, some films through out the 30s had WWI themes. Two that you haven't mentioned are Walter Lantz's Not So Quiet (1930), another WWI themed Oswald. And the 1938 WB classic What Price Porky directed by Bob Clampett.

Also, here are my war cartoon picks,
Great Guns! (1927-Disney)
Not So Quiet (1930-Lantz)
Bosko the Doughboy (1931-WB)
What Price Porky? (1938-WB)
Any Bonds Today? (1942-WB)
Ace in the Hole (1942-Lantz)
The Ducktators (1942-WB)
Cholly Polly (1942-Columbia)
Slay It With Flowers (1943-Columbia)
Der Fuether's Face (1943-Disney)
Coal Black and De Sebben Dwarfs (1943)
Daffy the Commando (1943-WB)
Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips (1944-WB)
Russian Rhapsody (1944-WB)
Draftee Daffy (1945-WB)
Herr Meets Hare (1945-WB)
Gripes (Private Snafu)
Snafuperman (Private Snafu)
Fighting Tools (Private Snafu)
Spies (Private Snafu)
The Infantry Blues (Private Snafu)
Operation: Snafu (Private Snafu)
No Buddy Atoll (Private Snafu)

Keep up the good work! I can't wait to see more!

-Pietro:D

[Thad Komorowski]

Besides "Ace in the Hole", there were two other WWII-related Woody cartunes. "Ration Bored" and "Barber of Seville". There were also the Andy Panda cartunes "Andy Panda's Victory Garden" and "Meatless Tuesday".



Thad K

[Pietro]

There was also a few WWII Lantz one shots. Such as the Oscar Nominated, "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B."

-Pietro:D

[auto]

I remember that from last year, Those are really classic cartoons anyway.

[Nelson]

What would everyone consider to be some really racist WW2 cartoons? Join in the topic...

And later tonight, after a few days of delays, I will post the final 5 of my 15 greatest wartime cartoons after the Toonheads special.

[Nelson]

The week long salute to the May star of the month continues and now it's time for the final 5 of my 15 greatest wartime cartoons EVER MADE!Here's a quick recap of the first 10.

15.Peace On Earth (MGM)
14.War Dogs (MGM)
13.You're A Sap Mr.Jap (Paramount)
12.Scrap Happy Daffy (Warner Bros.)
11.Coal Black And De Sebben Dwarfs (Warner Bros.)
10.All Out For "V" (Terrytoons/20th Century Fox)
9.The Ducktators (Warner Bros.)
8.Education For Death (Disney/RKO Radio)
7.Seein Red, White And Blue (Paramount)
6.The Commando Duck (Disney/RKO Radio)

And now for the top 5....

5.BUGS BUNNY NIPS THE NIPS (WARNER BROS.)
When Bugs gets stranded on a deserted island that's actually a base for the Japanese army, Bugs goes to battle.Very funny scenes has Bugs tying a solider's plane to a tree and when the Japanese solider bails out once his plane is destroyed and here comes Bugs flying out of nowhere and holding a huge anvil by saying, "HERE'S SOME SCRAP IRON FOR JAPAN MOTTO" thus, taking out one solider.Bugs is then painting the Japanese Flag until he comes across a sumo wrestler and he get's the best of the dimwitted wrestler by knocking over the head with a mallot.Then Bugs sees fleets of the enemy ships coming and he puts on his thinking helmet, so Bugs disguises himself as the Good Rumor Man and passes out ice cream bars laced with grenades desposing every single solider.Once Bugs declares peace and quiet, an American vessel goes by and Bugs cries out to be recused until a sexy female rabbit catches his attention.One of Bug's finest war cartoons....

4.THE LAST ROUND UP (TERRYTOONS/20TH CENTURY FOX)
A newly discovered WW2 cartoon here at right here Toon Zone, as we see the famous cartoon team, "Gandy Goose And Sourpuss" go to battle with Hitler and Mussolini.The cartoon opens up with Gandy and Sourpuss doing target practice(with Gandy being the target) and when Gandy tells Sargent Sourpuss "It's A Dud Sir" and the missle blows the two of them straight into Germany where they see that Hitler is a proprietor of a castle on top of a mountain.Hitler(a pig) is giving one of his speeches(while turning bright red with anger) as Mussolini(a monkey) listens on goes crazy after his speech,as we see Hitler throw peanuts to Mussolini.Gandy and Sourpuss ruins his plans, as Hitler goes over a plan when Gandy sets the map on fire causing Mussolini to freak out.Then it's off to an elevator chase between the good guys and the bad guys and evrywhere Hitler and Mussolini runs, Gandy and Sourpuss are right there shooting the two of them with rounds of machine gun fire.Sourpuss grabs a barrel and bowls the two of them into a basement and setting a bomb causing the entire castle explode into the sky, as we see our two heroes victorious.One of the funniest parodies of Mussolini ever made in a cartoon.

3.RUSSIAN RHAPSODY (WARNER BROS.)
During a speech, Hitler rants about his planes going down in Russia, so he tells his men that one of the finest pilots will bomb Moscow, and one solider say" You Mein Fuhrer ?" and Hitler's response, "Eh Who Else".The German newspaper runs the front page article, "OUR ADOLF TO BOMB MOSCOW IN PERSON" and once aboard, we see little gremlins sabotaging Hitler's plane, one by one.A little termite saws off part by part of the wing while burping, another gremlin with with a tack for a hat and gets Hitler in his rear.Hitler then get a electric shocket shoved in his nose and gets electrocuted and becomes a skunk and a jackass, so when Hitler discovers it's gremlins he tries to attack them until a huge mask of Stalin and scares the living daylights out of Hitler causing him to fall from the gremlins sawing a circle around him and he tries to escape the falling plane only to see the plan land on him and kill him.The gremlins are singing at his grave when Hitler pops out and says "Gremlins are the craziest people".Truly A Bob Clampett masterpiece.

2.THE BLITZ WOLF (MGM)
One of Tex Avery's greatest cartoons he ever made during his entire career as he takes a satirizes Disney's "The Three Little Pigs" and mixes it with a war theme.The Three Little Pigs go to battle with Avery's "Wolfie" as Hitler with one comical take after another.One scene has a missel fight between both sides when one missel completley destroys Toyko, Hitler getting shot full of holes, some of the biggest cannons popping out of the third pig's brick house sending Hitler straight to Hell when Hittler asks the question, have I been blown to...Then the demons says "It's a possiblity".Awesome short!

And now for the number one GREATEST WAR CARTOON EVER MADE.......

1.DER FUEHRER'S FACE (DISNEY/RKO RADIO)
Simply the best war cartoon ever made hands down.....
In this classic cartoon, we see Donald Duck working for the Nazis at a bomb and missle factory, as Donald salutes images of Hitler throughout the entire cartoon while making missels.Then Donald starts to have a nervous breakdown as the cartoon takes a bizzare turn with snake like missels, Donald looking like Hitler until he wakes up only to be a bad nightmare for him.Touching scene has Donald hugging the Satute Of Liberty and saying he proud to an American Of The United States.This cartoon was also given the Academy Award of best short subject of 1943 and had the popular song of the day, from the same title.

Later today, I'll close out some thoughts on other war cartoons on this special Hoilday...

[Nelson]

As we salute our wartime vetrans and are heroes who are fighting and protecting us during this new war please remember that how the classic cartoons reminded us on how much of a great country we are and to never give up without a fight.These WW1 AND WW2 cartoons gave something to feel good about, beining an American and to take the minds of the war effort as an escape.Most of these cartoon can no longer be shown to due political correctness, but those who served and died for our country can't never be forgotten.

I deacate this week long wartime cartoons salute to all of the WW1 and WW2 war vetrans who fought for our honor and those who are currently protecting us overseas who are in our thought and prayers.I also decate this, to all of the victims of 9/11/01 who lost their lives and you'll "NEVER" be forgotten as all of you will live in our hearts forever.May God take care of all you...You're in a better place now...

And this one goes to the greatest man I ever loved and looked up to, My Grandfather, who served in WW1 and did active duty in WW2 for the navy.Grandpa, I truly love you and you were my biggest role model and I'll always have a special place in my heart just for you.

I would also like to especially thank my Toon Zone Brothers and Sisters for making this week long salute to wartime cartoons a success, as we learn how much these cartoons made an impact during the war effort.So today, pop in a video and watch some of the greatest wartime cartoons ever made as we honor thy American War Vetrans for whom fought for freedom and the American dream, we thank you and you'll never be forgotten!

May you rest in peace!

And a speical thanks to all my Toon Zone family for letting me such a week long look at the history of wartime cartoons..

GOD BLESS YOU ALL.....

Thanks!
Nelson aka MOE HARE

[Jon Cooke]

Hey Nelson,

Thanks for a great week-long "Wartime Cartoons" series! You had some great picks. :bosko:


-Jon

[Nelson]

Thanks Jon, it took me some a little while to choose what I think are the best wartime cartoons as sitting down and watch every single war short, but it was a lot of fun.

Glad you liked it!