"Heil Hitler! Heil Hirohito! Heil
Mussolini!"
Donald Duck
Originally filmed as Donald Duck in Nutzi
Land. Directed by Jack Kinney, the "German" oom-pah song, written by Oliver
Wallace, is actually older than the short: Spike Jones had released a version
some time earlier; the song is, if you get down, to it, the inspiration of the
film, which then took the name of the song.
Of all the Donald Duck films ever made by
Disney, nine were nominated for an Academy Award. And of the nine, this one
here is the only one to have won one: on March 4, 1943, it won the Academy
Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 15th Academy Awards, even beating the
similarly minded animated piece of propaganda from George Pal, Tulips Shall Grow,
which unlike this Disney short the film was selected, in 1997, for preservation
in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being
"culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Yeah, unlike that short, this short was
pretty much kept for decades in the lowest back drawer of the dungeon far
beneath Sleeping Beauty's castle, ignored and mostly forgotten. (But not by us!
And a few others — in 1994, it was placed Number 22 in Jerry Beck's book The 50
Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals.) Nevertheless,
it is perhaps easy to understand why Disney preferred to ignore its existence
for so long: not only does everyone's favourite duck literally say "Sieg
Heil!" countless times, but there are some (by now) pretty embarrassing stereotypes
are to be seen. Enjoy
The Academy Award for Best Live Action
Short, by the way, went to Joseph M. Newman's Don't Talk, presented below as an
extra. Joseph M. Newman went on to direct one of everyone's favourite sci-fi horror
flicks of the 50s, This Island Earth (1955 / trailer).
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