How War Came

This is a weird one: in 1940 Columbia Pictures commissioned a series of cartoon current events shorts. Only two were produced; this is the first one released.

Radio news commentator Raymond Swing Gram gives a brief overview of how World War II started that is reasonably correct although overly brief. Mel Blanc can be heard doing the voice of Hitler, even though he sounds more like Eddie "Rochester" Anderson.

On the strong side, this one starts out looking like the sort of art that the Fleischers used in the Superman series: dark, dramatic Art Moderne work, and then we get a lot of techniques that make it clear that Disney's animators saw this before they started working on VICTORY THROUGH AIR POWER.

Although you may be put off a bit by Mr. Gram's voice, this Oscar-nominated short is an important stage in the evolution of propaganda films -- even if it's not as much fun as Private Snafu.

This is the eighth Oscar-nominated cartoon for 1941 that I'm reviewing on this site having previously done the same for George Pal's Rhythm in the Ranks, Friz Freleng's Rhapsody in Rivets, Walter Lantz' Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B, Rudolf Ising's The Rookie Bear, Hanna-Barbera's The Night Before Christmas, Jack King's Truant Officer Donald, and Dave Fleischer's Superman. This one begins with live-action footage of commentator Raymond Gram Swing as he starts to tell how various conflicts involving Japan, Italy, and Germany would lead to what became World War II. This is illustrated by various maps of the countries being shown with certain images of what's going on. We also get moving animated footage of soldiers walking to invade certain areas. All this while Swing continues to explain what's happening. Since this was made before December 7, 1941, the only time the U. S. is mentioned as a possible participant is at the end when the narrator suggests how that country could take part in helping their allies fight the good fight. Quite interesting. This was one of only two shorts in Paul Fennell's This Changing World series. The other one, Broken Treaties, I'll review soon after I review the rest of these Academy Award nominees for Best Short Subject, Cartoon. Only two more left to go for this particular year...