The other cartoon is Nimbus Libere, a 1944 cartoon from Vicky France featuring Popeye, Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Donald Duck, and Felix the Cat on a bombing raid, dropping bombs directly on the citizens (instead of military targets) while a savage anti-Semitic caricature of a radio announcer tells then that it’s all for the best. The Donald Duck bootleg is surprisingly good.
sort of a Japanese James and the Giant Peach I wonder if Roald Dahl knew about this?
No American characters are potrayed in this film, but Momotaro is also featured in the strange 1945 propaganda piece Momotaro’s Divine Sea Warriors.
IIRC, this was produced toward the end of the war, with the goal of encouraging the young men remaining in Japan to join in and win. However, the war ended before this was widely distributed.
The first time I watched this on youtube, it had no subtitles. Now I see someone has added them, so I’m going to have to watch it again and better understand what’s going on. I especially liked the portrayal of the American soldiers at the end!
I think they were supposed to be British, though one of the last scenes is of the anthropomorphic animal characters (representing Japanese soldiers) practicing parachute landings on a large map of North America.
**Brian Ekers ** is on the right track, those are indeed not American soldiers but British ones, the ending of the movie is actually based on the Japanese campaign that captured Singapore. With references to battalions from different British commonwealth nations. The surrender scene was based on the very comical and ridiculous stalling by the British commander trying to avoid doing what it was clear was needed, the British were going to lose and it was very silly to avoid saying the word “surrender”, it finally took place when the Japanese general threatened to make an attack later that day.
The Documentary The World At War had footage to show the very scene the Japanese animators parodied. (That took place curiously inside a Ford Motor car factory).
Link goes to the scene, but the documentary is a good one to watch from the beginning as it shows the context of those animations.
To be fair, he was under /direct orders/ not to surrender, and, In Aus he has never been forgiven for the surrender (which encompassed the surrender and eventual death of many Australian soldiers). It’s relevant to remember that he did not surrender because of an immediate lack of ability to fight back: he surrendered because (a) he had lost (his air cover had gone to Russia), and (b) the civilian population was all going to die of thirst or cholera in short order.
Huh. I never knew that was what was depicted in the ending. I thought it was a prediction of how the final battle between American soldiers and Peach Boy would play out.
The mouths and teeth on the Japanese soldier-critters are creepy.