Good Will to Men

Hanna and Barbera would strike out there own making decent, but cheap cartoons-mostly for children. This one is an unnecessary remake of the far superior "Peace on Earth," which was released just before World War 2. This remake is a bit updated, with nuclear weapons as the big bad of humankind. Some reviewers have complained that this shows all humans as evil-ever think from an animals point of view-we are? Look at the wanton, thoughtless destruction we've laid upon the earth. Still, the original is far superior.

I saw this cartoon over 40 years ago, and I remember it to this day. There are very few things that one sees and has such an impact on your life. This cartoon's message is one that is still alive today, as it was in the 1950's and the cold war.

This cartoon is the result of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera deciding to revisit the theme explored in another cartoon, Peace on Earth, done in 1939. Both cartoons are excellent ststements and are still all-too relevant today. Exploring weighty concepts-war, hatred and destruction-both are equally effective in each its own right, although Good Will to Men is seen all too rarely. An excellent effort that is sadly out-of-print. Well worth the effort to track down. Most highly recommended.

This animated film is proof that the team of Hanna-Barbera could produce films with decent frame-rates and nice animation. This is because before they left MGM, the team was responsible for some wonderfully animated Tom & Jerry cartoons. Then, when the studio shut down its animation department (farming the work out to, of all places, Czechoslovakia), the two needed work and could not afford to make better cartoons. So, instead of the usual 24 frames per second, they produced what looked like slide-shots because so few cells were used and many were repeated. So, animation quality-wise, "Good Will to Men" was nice--not as nice as the best of Hanna-Barbera from the late 40s--but close.

As for the story, well, that's a different story. Some may love its risky anti-nuclear message--as the animals recount how mankind wiped itself out with all of their wars. And, for historical reasons, it is an interesting curio from the Cold War. But, it's also INCREDIBLY preachy. On a preachiness scale from 1 to 10, I'd give this one a 47. It is SO preachy about world peace that it actually made me cringe. Nicely animated but awful.

Please note that most reviewers adored it--one calling it 'the Citizen Kane of cartoon shorts', though at least bigtommyboy agreed with me...for what it's worth. It could just be that I am just too cynical for my own good.

Good Will to Men (1955)

*** (out of 4)

Oscar-nominated cartoon is a remake of the Oscar-nominated 1939 short Peace on Earth. The film has a preacher mouse telling the younger mice how men destroyed the world due to war and violence. This is a pretty good cartoon, although I prefer the original version. The animation is very good as are the characters and I always like seeing cartoons in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio. It's funny to think that an innocent short like this couldn't be made today due to the religious aspects of the story.