1: The song “Der Fuehrer’s Face” was written by Oliver Wallace specifically for the short. It was performed by Spike Jones after the short had become popular.
2: Disney had cut down on the amount of shorts that they put out on video, but surprisingly, when they do release them they are generally uncut. The cut versions are mostly the ones shown on television. (A notable exception in the recent release of “Melody Time.”) I’m discounting the releases like “DTV” or the “Sing-a-Long” series. They only one technically still in print is “The Spirit of Mickey” but there are still copies of the latest “Cartoon Classics” series still floating around in stores and online if you look around (including one which has the afore-mentioned “Clock Cleaners.”)
3: “Der Fuehrer’s Face,” although never having been released by Disney, can be had. Trust me. It’s all in who you know.
Hmmm…I wish I could remember the name of it, but I do recall seeing what could only have been a WWII-era propaganda cartoon starring Donald Duck back when I used to babysit the kids up the street (about 10 years ago now, I think). At the beginning, IIRC, Donald is complaining about having to pay his taxes. The omnipresent, deep-voiced narrator then shows the whiny duck all of the wonderful things (munitions, tanks, etc.) that his tax dollars buy for America. The catch phrase, bellowed out in the narrator’s stentorian tones, was, “Taxes…to bury the Axis!”
The only reason that I still remember it was that it seemed to be on an otherwise innocuous cartoon collection, and I realized that I probably found it a lot more interesting than the little folks did. Damned if I can remember what the collection was called, though, and I no longer see the family.
It’s called “The Spirit of '43.” I have it on one of those cheap little kids tapes, IIRC made under the name of “Kids Klassics.” terrible video reproduction though.
