Was Walt Disney a fascist? (April 12, 2005)

[madkaugh]

One of the more curious charges against Disney was that he was a secret Nazi. A few white supremacist groups still cherish this notion. Their best evidence is a misreading of the short film “Der Fuehrer’s Face” (1943), in which Donald is seen in a Nazi uniform, swastikas and all. In the end we find out it’s all a nightmare, but that doesn’t dissuade the racists.

More than ‘It’s a dream’, “Der Fuehrer’s Face” was an anti-Nazi propaganda cartoon. The entire cartoon can (still?) be viewed on YouTube, and the song was a hit for Spike Jones. http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=der+fuehrer%27s+face&oq=der+fuhrer%27s+face&gs_l=youtube.1.0.0i10l10.33245.36979.0.45868.2.2.0.0.0.0.110.219.0j2.2.0…0.0…1ac.XQhiRRF-SFs

Additionally, Disney studios made other wartime propaganda films and training films for the war effort:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney’s_World_War_II_propaganda_production

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Walt_Disney’s_World_War_II_productions_for_Armed_Forces

[C_K_Dexter_Haven]

Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards, madkaugh, an interesting post. When you start a thread, however, it’s helpful to other readers to also provide a link to the column in question – saves searching time and keeps us on the same page. In this case: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1623/was-walt-disney-a-fascist

No biggie, you’ll know for next time, and, as I say, welcome!