During this unique period in animation history, The Walt Disney Studiosfunctioned as a morale-builder for both the civilian public and deployed Allied troops. Walt knew that cartoons would provide a direct yet amusing way to communicate with the American people about war-related issues and anxieties.
In addition to the short films and military insignia produced, Disney characters appeared in a variety of home-front initiatives, from advertisements, magazines, and stamp books, to government posters promoting tax payment, food recycling, rationing, war bond sales, and farm production.
“Tomorrow will be better for as long as America keeps alive the ideals of freedom and a better life,” Walt stated during World War II, and while Walt never served in the armed services, he was always one of the strongest supporters of Americans in uniform, even as a teenager in Kansas City, Missouri.
Oddly enough, the entry of the United States into World War II in 1941 helped rescue Disney's company from financial ruin. The day after Pearl Harbor, Walt Disney allowed the U.S. Army to “invade” his Burbank, California studios, making it the only Hollywood studio to ever be occupied by the military.
What was the role of Mickey Mouse in World War II?
The Disney Studio and WWII
Artists, animators, and Walt Disney himself pitched in, enlisting Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and other beloved Disney characters in the war effort. Disney partnered with several government programs to educate citizens and encourage them to do their part on the home front.
According to the Department of Defense, Donald Duck was officially drafted into the U.S. Army in 1941, before the U.S. entered the war. On May 1, 1942, he made his first military appearance in the cartoon "Donald Gets Drafted," where his draft card lists his actual middle name, Fauntleroy.
Back in the 1920s, when it all started with a mouse, the last thing Mickey could have been thinking was that he would be on the front lines of battle. But Walt Disney, creator of Mickey and founder of Walt Disney Pictures, changed his plans when the US was drawn into the Second World War.
Disney, born in 1901, was too old to be drafted. He was, however, eager to serve his country. During World War I, he dropped out of school at the age of 16 and tried to enlist, but he was rejected for being too young.
Disney's relationship with the military dates back to 1917, when Walt Disney's older brother Roy joined the Navy. Walt himself served a year later during World War I as a Red Cross ambulance driver when he was only 16 years old.
Throughout the early 1940s, Disney churned out military training films, educational shorts (provided to the U.S. government at cost), and military insignia for over 1,000 different units in the U.S. armed forces (provided free of charge).
Roy Oliver Disney was, with his younger brother Walter Disney, the co-founder of what is now The Walt Disney Company. After Walt died, Roy became the chairman of the company. Roy served as the company's chief executive officer ?
In early November 1966, he was diagnosed with lung cancer and was treated with cobalt therapy. On November 30, he felt unwell and was taken by ambulance from his home to St. Joseph Hospital where, on December 15, 1966, aged 65, he died of circulatory collapse caused by the cancer.
1939 Walt wins an honorary Academy Award with a unique casting: one full-‐sized Oscar and seven miniatures for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. 1940 Disney releases Pinocchio and Fantasia. Fantasia is released with a new technology, Fantasound, which precedes stereo and surround sound by 20 years.
To know the truth about Mickey Mouse and the secret to many of Walt Disney's successes, you have to know the story of Disney's best friend: Kansas City animator Ub Iwerks. It was Iwerks, not Disney, who in 1928 designed Mickey Mouse and single-handedly animated the first Mickey cartoon in Hollywood.
2 Disney implemented new and experimental film technologies like synchronized sound and music, full-spectrum color, and the multiplane camera. With his contributions, cartoons sharply advanced in maturity and professionalism during the 1930s.
These short animated films, intended as light-hearted and fun, found all their significance in the promotion of American culture and values during the Second World War. Walt Disney himself and his crew worked in tandem with the United States Army to help in the war effort and fight the Axis Powers through animation.
In 1917 the Disneys moved back to Chicago, and Walt entered McKinley High School, where he took photographs, made drawings for the school paper, and studied cartooning on the side, for he was hopeful of eventually achieving a job as a newspaper cartoonist.
Walt Disney founded his first professional film studio at a building designed by noted Kansas City architect, Nelle Peters, in May of 1922. He incorporated his new company with the Missouri Secretary of State's office. He called it “Laugh-O-gram Films”.
The Allies won World War I after four years of combat and the deaths of some 8.5 million soldiers as a result of battle wounds or disease. Read more about the Treaty of Versailles.
The Treaty of Versailles, signed following World War I, contained Article 231, commonly known as the “war guilt clause,” which placed all the blame for starting the war on Germany and its allies.
Why was Walt Disney rejected from the military in 1918?
During the fall of 1918, Disney attempted to enlist for military service. Rejected because he was only 16 years of age, Walt joined the Red Cross and was sent overseas, where he spent a year driving an ambulance and chauffeuring Red Cross officials.
They both turn 91 years old on Monday. That's right, they share the same birthday. They made their big debuts in the animated movie "Steamboat Willie" in New York on Nov. 18, 1928.
Additionally, as discussed below, Donald had a stint in the U.S. Army during World War II that culminated with him serving as a commando in the film Commando Duck, and he was frequently away serving in the U.S. Navy in the television cartoon series DuckTales.
