Additional venues are still to be announced. The traveling show, which debuted at the Walt Disney Family Museum last year, features 550 photos, drawings, prints and video clips that demonstrate how Disney artists turned their energies from fantasy fare to propaganda. Nevertheless, this little-known chapter in entertainment history unfolds in a new exhibition, “ The Walt Disney Studios and World War II,” on view through February at the Museum of Flight in Seattle. Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) Fifinella insignia for the 318thWomen’s Flying Training Detachment, 1943 War isn’t a popular topic.”Ĭourtesy of the Walt Disney Archives © Disney The world of Disney is seen as “an upbeat place to take refuge,” she adds. “It’s not a story the company tells,” says Kirsten Komoroske, executive director of the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco. (Though a spokesperson initially offered an interview with a Disney archivist, the company ultimately declined to comment.) Since its founding in 1923, the studio has meticulously guarded its family image both at home and abroad, including in Japan and Germany-countries that were once America’s enemies. Despite the fact that World War II saved the studio from financial ruin, Disney has long been reluctant to revisit its wartime history. But others-in line with the fearful, racially charged wartime climate-stereotyped or demonized the enemy. The majority of the Walt Disney Company’s military training films and educational shorts adopted an uplifting approach to patriotism. Uncle Sam deployed the whole Disney crew, reassigning its members from pratfalls to pitching war bonds and victory gardens in animated movies.
Donald Duck (then Disney’s biggest star) donned khakis as a United States Army recruit, while Minnie Mouse recycled leftover bacon grease to make explosives.
When World War II rewrote the script for Americans’ daily lives, beloved cartoon characters were cast in new roles, too.
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