Description
When Ub Iwerks decided to end his contract with Columbia Pictures and leave his own studio behind, Paul Fennell stepped up to take over the reins of Cartoon Films Ltd. One of the first projects that was announced early in 1941 was a current events series outlining the recent military actions taken by the Nazis in Europe. This was before Pearl Harbor and many Americans took an isolationist attitude.
Animator Tom Minton, who worked with Fennell at Filmation in the late 70s remembers him screening these cartoons for the crew. Fennell told them that when “Broken Treaties” opened in Westwood in August of 1941, the audience broke into a chorus of boos, reacting to the blatant propagandizing and the caricatures of European leaders that they would have preferred to ignore. When the second film, “This Changing World” debuted in late December of 1941, the reaction was the exact opposite. The attack on Pearl Harbor was in the headlines, and it was clear that the United States was going to war. Audiences responded favorably, and “This Changing World” was nominated for an Academy Award.
It’s clear that Disney was influenced by these films in making “Victory Through Air Power”. They share a similar format, with a commentator at a desk narrating, animated maps and dramatic scenes of battle rendered in limited animation with lots of camera effects. Paul Fennell pioneered the use of animation for propaganda purposes that would be used later at all the major studios, as well as the First Motion Picture Unit.
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