World War Two and Animation

Hey guys. Adventure Van here with one of my College Papers!

World War Two has been the cause for a large amount of things. It created several dangerous weapons out of necessity, including the world renowned Nuclear Bomb, gave us the first large negative association with the swastika, and also resulted in giving us Bugs Bunny as one of the most famous cartoon characters. The last one might seem bizarre, but if it wasn’t for WW2, we wouldn’t have many iconic characters of our past, nor would we have such a variety in our past of animation companies.

Starting this out, Walt Disney was severely misinformed about unions, and didn’t appreciate or approve of their existence. Because of this, several strikes happened in 1941, and general discontent from animators for him was pretty high. However, even with these problems, Disney pretty much still had a monopoly on the animation business, where other companies had to fight tooth and nail for half as much of the business that Disney and their brand was getting. The biggest ‘competitor’ that Disney possibly had was none other than Warner Bros’ Animation Department, but that wasn’t saying that much. Disney was capable of putting out entire movies, and Mickey Mouse became an iconic creature in next to no time. It was extremely hard for any of the ‘competition’ to ever pose a threat to the gigantic company.

And one of Warner Bros’ Looney Tunes’ main problems was that they had no Mickey. They had two ‘main’ characters (characters that weren’t one time or playing minor roles as background characters) before WW2, Porky Pig and Daffy Duck. Daffy Duck was ‘cuckoo’, and not anywhere close to his now well known straight man role. Porky Pig was the straight man character who was definitely a bit of a pushover. Due to this dynamic, the cartoons that they had were good, but not bombastic. Neither had the selling value of a real protagonist, neither in likability or gag potential. Even with the powerful music department that the animations could get, they were still behind Disney, in terms of creativity, hilarity, and money making potential.

Disney’s monopoly seemed as if it was inevitable. It was surviving the depression with a distinct and unique lack of problems. But during WW2, things changed rapidly. The United States Military needed to have more propaganda for getting civilians to buy war bonds, so they hired multiple artistic studios, disregarding size, to make cartoons as propaganda.  Because they needed to have a straight man in these cartoons that wasn’t as nice and gullible as Porky Pig, Daffy was turned into a different kind of straight man: egotistical, easily angered, and ‘average’ man to fill the role of “Why should I care about the war, it’s not effecting me” down to the bill. Disney had more problems, as being such a big company, they were expected to help, but already annoyed animators that were sent to these propaganda camps were on edge. The companies they were planning on buying were getting the same offer, keeping them afloat.

The army threw together groups of animators as if they weren’t part of an official company already. This caused some pairings that wouldn’t have happened otherwise, and it’s a very important detail. Some powerhouse companies were created solely because people after the war stuck together because they were a good fit, like Hanna Barbera. It also caused some pairs to split, meaning some creative ideas may never be known, but by doing so it created brand new combinations of people. It was also when the fact of how angered Disney’s animators were came to a head, as many left to join other companies with the people they had met in the camps.

The war also caused the idea that “We don’t care about quality, we care about mass production”. This allowed ideas that a ‘commercial’ company might be against to flow free as new art styles and characters could be introduced as the army really didn’t care much about that. What they did care about was producing a lot of propaganda in a hurry, so animators working for the US government learned what they worked with well and what didn’t work so swimmingly, as well as allowing some improvisation that wouldn’t have come around otherwise. WW2 singlehandedly stopped animators from getting stuck into the same ruts that could eventually cause the end of theatrical cartoons

In 1945, after WW2 ended, Warner Brothers needed a new ‘insane’ character and they didn’t want to devolve Daffy from the actual character he became back to a Woody Woodpecker, so instead they created Bugs Bunny to fill that role. Of course, Bugs didn’t stay insane for too long either; he became an interesting character in his own right. They really created a personality for themselves, from the voice actor, Mel Blancs, giving the iconic Brooklyn accent and line of ‘What’s up, Doc?’ to the character, and the studio learning from the mistakes of other companies having their ‘insane’ ones on a downfall in profits, especially Woody Woodpecker. What people wanted was someone to root for, and Bugs Bunny was a trickster spirit, sure, but he wasn’t malevolent in the slightest.

Bugs was bad news for Mickey Mouse and the Disney Company. With the now ever popular and very original gagster taking stage, it seemed to be booting out Disney. The war had already stolen some of their best animators and moved them over to other companies, and they were in a hard place financially. They barely managed to pull through, and Disney was looking like its time in the limelight was spent. Of course, in today’s modern era, they’ve got a monopoly again, so they weren’t killed off completely, but Warner Bros’ had a solid grip on the animation market, and everyone and their dog were in a form of admiration for the lovable bunny.

And it wasn’t just Bugs that got the carrot and not the stick. Hanna Barbera wouldn’t have come around without the second great war, and without them would never have come Scooby Doo, one of the most long lived and powerful characters in American culture. Even some of Disney’s last ditch grabs for character designs in order to save themselves now have large audiences and followings. And, of course, any creation that fought Nazis wouldn’t have come into existence, but that isn’t solely related to animation. However, all of that included, it’s quite easy to see how animation, and, a good portion of American culture, was heavily effected by World War Two.

Bibliography:

Maltin, Leonard. Of Mice and Magic a History of American Animated Cartoons. Plume, 1987.

“Mel Blanc.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 23 May 2019,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Blanc.