Victory Through Air Power

When I was about 13 years old around 1978, our school teacher had our class watch a 16mm print of the first part of Disney's "Victory Through Air Power", which is all in animation and is about the history of aviation. I loved it. In the decades since, I'd always clearly remembered the comical shot of an early WWI fighter plane pilot using a machine gun before the technology to synchronize machine guns with propellers had been developed.

When I became interested in Disney animation several years ago, I hoped to find a copy of that one. But I learned that it had never been released on any videotape or videodisc format, and that my only glimmer of hope of ever seeing it again was to buy a 16mm film projector and find an old 16mm print, and probably pay a lot for it. More than any other, this title had me seriously thinking about doing that.

It's been some time since I've kept up with new DVD releases. I was shopping at Costco today and stumbled across some of Disney's "Treasures Limited Edition" tins. I already had some of those, but I noticed that these were titles I hadn't seen before. I tossed the Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck titles into my cart, passed on one that was about Tomorrow Land, and dug through to make sure I hadn't missed any. I could hardly believe my eyes when I picked up one that said "On the Front Lines" and "The War Years". My first thought was to wonder if it included that aviation history I had seen in 1978. I turned it over and yes, it said it included not only the aviation history part I had seen then, but the entire film!

Somewhat in a daze, I went straight to the checkout line, then straight home, then straight to the DVD player. Even my wife watched it with me, I guess because she could see how excited I was about it.

I loved it in 1978 on 16mm, and I loved it again in 2004 on DVD. It's at once an interesting history, attractive animation, and fun entertainment. I was also interested to see the realism in animation of planes I had learned about over the years.

The live action part was also very interesting and well worth watching, if a little on the tedious side at times, especially for my wife. It's certainly very interesting to consider how this movie may have changed the course of the war, or more precisely, this movie may have brought enough attention to the book that inspired it, and to that book's brilliant and prophetic author, to have changed the course of the war.

It was so interesting, I plan to watch it again soon -- though my wife probably won't.

I'm struggling to articulate how it feels to suddenly stumble across this title on a very well-made DVD, after not seeing it at all for 26 years and having more or less given up any serious hope of ever seeing it again. It's still almost a little hard to believe.

When I looked up this DVD title on the web, I was a little startled to find that I had bought it on the very day it was released! (May 18th, 2004)

It looks like Disney has let the earlier "Treasures Limited Edition" tins go out of print, and undoubtedly they will do the same with "On the Front Lines". If you have any interest at all in aviation history, and/or in WWII, and/or in rare Disney animation gems, then "On the Front Lines" is a must-have, just for Victory Through Air Power. (I haven't even watched most of the shorts on the DVD yet.)

I just watched this feature last night from my copy of "Disney Treasures: On the Front Lines," which is an excellent set with many cartoon shorts, educational films, and propaganda films that are unusual of Disney, but nonetheless retain the same feel as the ordinary Disney short.

Being a pacifist, I think that all people should try to understand warfare for what it is, but try to avoid jumping into war until it is absolutely necessary. WWII was indeed a necessary war to fight, and the film, though not specifically aimed to do so, makes this point very clear.

First, before getting directly into the battles, the film educates us on the history of flight. With cartoon humour and sight gags it comes off very entertaining.

Then, the film is turned over to Alexander de Seversky, author of the book on which the film is based. De Seversky makes a valid point that the war should be fought with an enlarged military air force as opposed to naval and land based tactics. He is made to be very informative and enjoyable to watch against the animated maps and diagrams created by Disney's finest animators.

Eerily, there is a link to the 9/11 happening in the idea de Seversky expresses that air power removes the lines between civilians and soldiers and puts the lives of any of us at risk. It is fortunate that he had not lived to see this sad day.

Disney is most known for their family friendly output, featuring lovable characters like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. During WWII several of those characters were put in some really unusual situations as Disney were used to output propaganda movies in an attempt to make the public buy more war bonds to finance the war efforts, with Donald Duck in the Oscar-winning Der Führer's Face as the possibly most famous, or even infamous.

Victory Through Air Power is a feature length animated documentary based on the book by Alexander de Seversky, who also features in the movie. It tells the history of aviation, with main focus on the use of airplanes in war situations, and culminates in one man's viewpoint of how the war could have ended. It is the historic parts that really stands out, starting with the Wright brothers and covering the most historic events in early aviation in its recap of aviation history up until WWII started. But the movies message about the importance of an air force in a modern war rings true to this day, and the movie's presentation of how the war could have gone on for many more years than it actually did was also interesting.

There is nothing hasty or cheap looking in this movie, it is a proper, well done feature length animated movie from Disney, and a fascinating ride even today, as long as one has the right mindset for it.

A history of a propaganda about world war 2 an eagle fighting against an octopus, with more guns and planes this was actually a short that premiered on july 17th from 1943 wait a minute, this was actually a documental, promoting of the soundness of estrategical aerial bombing.

Now that Disney's released the Black Cauldron and Melodytime, that leaves very few Disney films that have never been released on a home video format. In fact, it pretty much leaves this and Song of the South.

I have seen about half of the movie, in bits and pieces, because of Disney's habit of using clips from older animations in newer compilations. Chances are, if you've ever seen Disney animation showing WWII vintage fighters or bombers, you've seen a part of this film.

There's nothing terribly entertaining anymore about Victory- it's as entertaining as any other WWII-era propaganda film. But, given collectors' completist mindset, and given the historical significance of any and all war-era films, I think Disney needs to release this movie; even if it's in an extremely limited mail-order-only release. It needn't come in a clamshell, but Disney owes it to their fans to let them have the opportunity to see ALL of their work.