User Reviews

. . . the showing of this animated short. One of the main reasons, of course, that this brief cartoon is so controversial is that then and now it has made many German-American school kids uncomfortable, particularly those of recent immigrant parents or grand parents speaking the Prussian tongue in the family home. Sharp-eyed youth of Italian or Japanese Heritage will find FACE an equal opportunity offender, as their own cultures also are besmirched here. So if you're a teacher or other classroom honcho in the education racket, do not even consider showing this film in a so-called Red State, a classification including ALL of those Down South. You probably do NOT want to have a felony conviction on your record. More than likely this would prevent you from being able to vote!

Before the era of Political Correctness, Disney made some good animation. 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. NOT TRUE! Sure, he does work for them, but against his will. 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.

Despite this cartoon being about WWII, it is still a great cartoon here in the 21st century. 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 film becomes much sillier and weirder, as Donald goes faster and faster until he becomes mentally unhinged! This is absolutely hilarious. The cartoon ends with Donald awakening to find it's all a bad dream. he's back in the good old USA and life is good.

Inventive, cute and a lot more fun than other Disney shorts, this is the absolute height of Disney's creative talents. 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. This multi-disk set is terrific--not just for this cartoon, but for all of them. Buy it now, as it's only scheduled to be on sale for a limited time AND volume one is already sold out everywhere. My only reservation is that Disney is so concerned about political correctness that there's a very long prologue by Leonard Maltin that you are forced to first watch--you cannot skip it. And, if you go back to see other "banned" films, it makes you watch the Maltin segment again! Annoying, but a small price to pay to see these wonderful films.

Nowadays this would have never been made because of cancel culture and all of that stuff but to think that it basically looks at funny side of the Nazis and win the academy award for best animated feature is amazing and as it should it is hilarious especially the parts whenever Donald sees a picture of Adolf Hitler he has to Hail to it extremely funny and worth a watch.

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. I know, Disney welcomed German filmmaker and Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl to Hollywood to promote her documentary film 1938's Olympia, but it's been say that Disney disavowed her political view, claiming that he only champion, her filmmaking styles, when he did invite her. In my opinion, Walt Disney wasn't a racist or had anti-Semitism beliefs, publicly or privately. Yes, he might had made disparaging remarks about blacks or asserted white superiority, but like other white Americans of his generation, he was racially and religionist insensitive. It shows in his early cartoons that he was very insensitive, with ethnic stereotypes. A good example is 1933's Three Little Pigs in which the Big Bad Wolf comes to the door dressed as a Jewish peddler and 1929's The Opry House in which Mickey Mouse is dressed and dances as a Hasidic Jew. Still, none of them, were really that offensive. Even so, Der Fuhrer's face didn't have any Jewish stereotypes to speak off. Nor does it portray, any of the Nazis crime against the Jews. While, most Americans have heard about 1939's Kristallnacht riots against Jewish businesses. A lot of them, like Disney couldn't figure out, how bad the cruelties against the Jews, was, until, much, much later. It wasn't until after the movie release, that word, started to leak out, about Nazis concentration camps. Still, it wasn't until, the camps were liberation, that Americans and European were truly expose to the sights, sounds, and stenches of horrible beyond belief. It was cruelties so enormous as to be incomprehensible to the normal mind. This movie had no mention of the anti-Semitism views of the Nazis. So, for some critics to call it, anti-Semitism, is an understatement. Instead, the movie tackles another thing that Nazis love to do and that's being a police-state style of government. It mocks how Nazi Germany supposedly how it treats its civilians by over-working them and feeding them, poorly. It's true, that the average German, worked 43 hours a week in 1933, and by 1939 this increased to 47 hours a week, but it's not 48 hours, a day, like the cartoon is saying. Surprising, even the United States in 1943, most standard for full-time work in many industries was a 40- or 48-hour week. It was really no-differs. The same with food. During the middle of WW2, most of the German people were still, eating well. It wasn't until 1944, that things went really sour for them and most went hungry. One thing that the movie got right was badly manage, the Nazi's Strength through Joy program was. It kinda collapsed on itself by 1939 and by 1943, many German were not able to take that much of vacations, but it's also worth noting, that Americans at the time, had no such government vacation program and many pro-Union benefits was downsized. In many ways, working in United States during WW2 was just as tough, as working in Nazis Germany. The main different was Americans workers have more freedom to spend their money than the Germans. 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. You don't see, much insulting German stereotypes, just the insane Nazi culture. The cartoon is more offensive with the incredibly racist caricature of the then-Japanese Emperor, Hirohito. This was standard in wartime cartoons, of course, and Warner Brothers was doing far nastier stuff at the time with both countries. I really surprise, how tame, it was, as a propaganda video. It could had, went, much worst. Anyways, the animation is pretty good. I love the song, "Der Fuehrer's Face". It was pretty catchy. Spike Jones & Oliver Wallace did a good job. 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. Disney kept the film out of general circulation after its original release. Its first home video release came in 2004 with the release of the third wave of the Walt Disney Treasures DVD sets. In an attempt to nip misunderstandings, The Disney Wartime Cartoon DVD features non-skippable, non-fast-forwardable commentaries by Jewish film critic, Leonard Maltin, who explains the satirical nature of the cartoon. The BBC did banned the song for a while, because oddly they considered raspberry blowing obscene. The solution was replace it, with kazoo sounds. The song did help influences importation scenes from 1953's Stalag 17 & 2002's Hart's War. The movie continue to influence, many animators as well. A lot of them, went on, to do, many political cartoons. Overall: This film directed by Jack Kinney and written by Joe Grant and Dick Huemer was pretty good. So go see it, and don't forget to throw a tomato at Hitler's face or maybe you shouldn't do that to your TV. Just check it out.

*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. An Academy Award-winner classic not to miss!

The Fuehrer's Face: 9/10.

It's a common opinion that all kinds of propaganda movies should be banned altogether and not made accessible to the public. 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. The only other one that may reach the same status is MGM's Blitz Wolf from the same year. "Der Fuehrer's Face" BTW. also won the Oscar over that one in a year where it was the only Disney entry in the animated short category, a rather unusual occurrence as Disney occasionally took 4 of the 5 spots with their films.

In any case, the film is packed with a few subtle and very many not-so-subtle Nazi symbolisms and metaphors, like the windmill or Donald's house. But also the Italians and Japanese get their fair share of shade. The story can be summarized pretty quickly. 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. The end is as patriotic as it gets and it's easy to see why people liked it that much in times like these. An important historical document.

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 has a healthy breakfast of bread so stale that he has to use a saw to slice it, coffee (which is actually just one coffee bean dipped in water), and a few sprays of a perfume called Aroma de Bacon & Eggs. His meal is cut short though by a soldier shoving a copy of Hitler's best selling novel, Mein Kampf, in his face. 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. He then of course has to work overtime which eventually causes him to go crazy and see insane visions of shells walking on and hitting him and playing musical instruments while singing the title song super fast. After this insane sequence is over, Donald awakens in his bed wearing stars-and-stripes themed pajamas and realizes it was only a nightmare. He then proceeds to kiss is Miniature Statue of Liberty and proclaims `Oh boy! 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. I highly recommend this and any other Disney WW2 short that you can actually get a chance to see.

10/10

The comment contains spoilers. Be warned.

As we all know, back during the days of World War 2 media was used to promote the state and discredit the enemy. 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. After being rudely woken up by the band he a forces out a 'Heil Hitler'. After a breakfast consisting of a slice of stale bread, we (the audience) find that Donald does not enjoy life as a Nutzi.

Donald begins his job, screwing on the heads of shells. He is told be his superiors that they expect '48 hours a day' of work from their citizens. With only a few seconds of vacation and a compulsion to salute photos of Hitler under pain of death, it is not long before Donald starts to descend to madness. The Nutzi state is taking its toll. 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.