Hitler and Disney

[jovan]

I found this particularly surreal, if true:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/23/whitler123.xml

Drawings of Disney’s Snow White dwarfs and Pinocchio have been attributed to none other than Adolph Hitler by the director of a Norwegian war museum.

William Hakvaag, the director of a war museum in northern Norway, said he found the drawings hidden in a painting signed “A. Hitler” that he bought at an auction in Germany.

He found coloured cartoons of the characters Bashful and Doc from the 1937 Disney film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which were signed A.H., and an unsigned sketch of Pinocchio as he appeared in the 1940 Disney film.

(…)

Mr Hakvaag, who said he had performed tests on the paintings which suggested that they dated from 1940, said: “I am 100 per cent sure that these are drawings by Hitler. If one wanted to make a forgery, one would never hide it in the back of a picture, where it might never be discovered.”

The initials on the sketches, and the signature on the painting, matched other copies of Hitler’s handwriting, he claimed.

“Hitler had a copy of Snow White,” he said. “He thought this was one of the best movies ever made.”

Somehow I can’t manage to imagine the fuhrer lovingly copying these characters. That’s somewhat… creepy.

[Terrifel]

No way. Even if Hitler had felt like drawing the Seven Dwarfs (and who hasn’t, really?), why would he sign them? I suppose there’s a wild chance he might have done something like that as a gift for a close associate’s child, but then why only sign his initials, instead of a full signature? And then hid them inside the frame of one of his paintings? This isn’t art history, it’s the setup to a weird pulp novel where the main character eventually learns that the Spear of Destiny is hidden inside Cinderella’s Castle.

Some goofball got ahold of some period-era drawings of Disney characters, and decided to add Hitler’s initials because they weren’t confident enough to forge the whole signature. I’m guessing the picture they were supposedly found in is a forgery too.

[Cisco]

@Terrifel

No way. Even if Hitler had felt like drawing the Seven Dwarfs (and who hasn’t, really?), why would he sign them?

Habit for an artist.

[Beware_of_Doug]

I’m guessing fake-up. There is not a lot you can do to generate legitimate publicity for “a war museum in northern Norway.”

[jovan]

@Beware of Doug

I’m guessing fake-up. There is not a lot you can do to generate legitimate publicity for “a war museum in northern Norway.”

Perhaps, but even if it’s fake, you have to admire someone with enough imagination to come up with the idea of Disney’s Seven Dwarfs, drawn by Adolph Hitler.

[jovan]

By the way, trying to find out a bit more about this, I found the following interesting page about German animation during the Nazi period:

The animated cartoon film in the Third Reich by Thomas Staedeli

A diary mark of Goebbels makes Hitler’s enthusiasm clear:
“I have given twelve Mickey-Mouse-movies as a present for the Führer at Christmas! He is being pleased about it. He is absolute happy about this treasure". (20.12.1937).

The impetus of the trickfilm began when Hitler asked himself one day why the German Reich shouldn’t be able to produces movies like Disney too.

Goebbels giving Hitler Mickey Mouse movies for Christmas just feels, so, so wrong…

[Tapioca_Dextrin]

Here’s a real Hitler painting and another one

Both are signed on the bottom right, not initialed on the bottom left. The writing looks totally different.

According to IMDB, Snow White was never released in Nazi Germany .

Mr Hakvaag, who said he had performed tests on the paintings which suggested that they dated from 1940

There’s a test that can date paintings to a single year? This test is available to tiny museums in Northern Norway?

Finally, there’s always the Straightdope on whether Disney was secretly a pinko commie nazi.

[Siam_Sam]

Donald Duck throwing one of his temper tantrums would probably go over well in German.

[flodnak]

@Tapioca Dextrin

According to IMDB, Snow White was never released in Nazi Germany

Now, see, that’s the only part of the story that doesn’t strike me as odd. As the first film of its kind, Snow White would have generated a lot of attention among movie lovers even in countries that didn’t get to see it. The fact that it hadn’t gone on general distribution in Germany doesn’t mean that the guys at the top wouldn’t have heard of it, and possibly had a print brought in from a neighboring country. I doubt many foreign movies have ever been released in North Korea, but Kim Jong “Bad Hair Day” Il is said to be quite the film buff.

[jovan]

@Tapioca Dextrin

According to IMDB, Snow White was never released in Nazi Germany .

Hitler had a private showing arranged in 1938.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)

It has been well documented that Adolf Hitler watched this film with a roomfull of children, and was delighted by Disney’s adaptation of the German fairy tale. In fact, Hitler offered Disney anything he wanted in exchange for Disney’s creation of feature-length animated features in Germany. Though this is the basis for the Walt Disney as a Nazi rumors, Disney’s biographer Bob Thomas proves that Disney declined Hitler’s invitation, and in fact soon entered production on such anti-German projects as Der Fuhrer’s Face and Victory Through Air Power.

http://www.militantesthetix.co.uk/opticsyn/floridani.html

In 1938 Hitler arranged for a copy of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to be brought to his private cinema at Ubersalzberg. He thought it one of the greatest films ever made. (Storm/Dreßler, 110)
(…)
Storm, J.P, M. Dreßler. Im Reiche der Micky-Maus: Walt Disney in Deutschland 1927-1945. Berlin: Henschel Verlag.

[Cisco]

@Tapioca Dextrin

Here’s a real Hitler painting and another one

Holy crap - I hate to compliment the old bastard but those are really good. I always heard that he dabbled in art when he was young and gave it up because he was told he’d never be any good. That second one is the product of someone who did much more than dabble.

@Siam Sam

Donald Duck throwing one of his temper tantrums would probably go over well in German.

Have you seen this?

[hajario]

@Siam Sam

Donald Duck throwing one of his temper tantrums would probably go over well in German.

A good friend of mine got a German pen pal through one of those student services when he was around 12 years old. The summer between High School and college he took a trip through Europe and got the chance to meet her and some of her friends. One of the first things they asked him was to settle a long time argument that they were having: Is Donald Duck really saying anything or is he just mumbling?