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Der Fuehrer's Face

  • 1942
  • Approved
  • 8m
IMDb RATING
7.5/10
4.9K
YOUR RATING
Der Fuehrer's Face (1942)
Hand-Drawn AnimationSatireAnimationComedyFamilyShortWar

Donald Duck has a nightmare that he lives in Germany slaving under the Nazi regime.Donald Duck has a nightmare that he lives in Germany slaving under the Nazi regime.Donald Duck has a nightmare that he lives in Germany slaving under the Nazi regime.

  • Directors
    • Jack Kinney
    • Ben Sharpsteen
  • Writers
    • Joe Grant
    • Dick Huemer
  • Stars
    • Pinto Colvig
    • Charles Judels
    • Billy Bletcher
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.5/10
    4.9K
    YOUR RATING
    • Directors
      • Jack Kinney
      • Ben Sharpsteen
    • Writers
      • Joe Grant
      • Dick Huemer
    • Stars
      • Pinto Colvig
      • Charles Judels
      • Billy Bletcher
    • 36User reviews
    • 9Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Won 1 Oscar
      • 1 win & 1 nomination total

    Photos4

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    Top Cast4

    Edit
    Pinto Colvig
    Pinto Colvig
    • Nazis
    • (voice)
    Charles Judels
    Charles Judels
    • Nazis
    • (voice)
    Billy Bletcher
    Billy Bletcher
    • Nazi
    • (voice)
    • (uncredited)
    Clarence Nash
    Clarence Nash
    • Donald Duck
    • (voice)
    • (uncredited)
    • Directors
      • Jack Kinney
      • Ben Sharpsteen
    • Writers
      • Joe Grant
      • Dick Huemer
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews36

    7.54.8K
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    Featured reviews

    10Quinoa1984

    One of the best cartoons I've ever seen

    Der Fueher's Face is a masterpiece of a cartoon and It's my favorite cartoon from Donald Duck. It shows how crazy the Nazi invasion was by showing what happens to a duck in that situation. Not only is it well done, it gives kids a look into the craziness that was World War 2. One of the best cartoon's ever made.
    8emasterslake

    One of the best Disney Wartime Cartoons

    This is one of the most underrated Disney shorts ever made during WW2.

    It's been banned since the end of WW2. Due to it having Nazis and the over use of the quote "Heil Hitler".

    Donald finds himself a Nazi in a Nazi-Land where everything is a Neo Swiss Symbol from telephone posts to trees.

    Donald gets a wake up call by a marching band of Nazis.

    Donald then gets drag all the way to a Bomb Shell factory where he has to screw in every single War Head that comes out of the factory.

    Not only that but he also has to say Heil Hitler when he's told to or when he sees a picture of Hitler.

    This whole thing drives him mad. This reality he's in is too good to be true.

    I really liked this short. The "Der Furher's Face" theme will get stuck in your head after watching it. It's also one of the few Disney shorts that poke fun into the Nazis more than the other ones.

    So if you like Donald Duck and WW2 theme cartoons then you'll surely like this one.

    You're able to see it on the "Disney Treasures Front Line" Box Set.
    8ackstasis

    "Heil Hitler!"

    WWII-era filmmakers used two broad approaches when attempting to discredit Adolf Hitler and Germany in general. The first, and least interesting in my view, was to treat them with the utmost seriousness, painting the Nazis are perverted, sadistic and evil baby-killers, and the like. Secondly, there was the comedic approach, by which Hitler was belittled through having entire audiences laughing in his face. 'The Great Dictator (1940)' and 'To Be or Not to Be (1942)' accomplish this hilariously well, but what about the younger demographics? To help communicate the evils of Nazism to children, the Walt Disney cartoon 'Der Fuhrer's Face (1942)' tosses Donald Duck (voiced by Clarence Nash) amid Hitler's militaristic regime, where he slaves away for "48 hours a day" in a munitions factory, continually bombarded with the swastika symbol and the phrase "heil Hitler!" At the end of the cartoon, after a surreal montage of Nazi (or "Nutzi," as the film says) oppression, Donald wakes up in America, thankfully sighing "am I glad to be a citizen of the United States of America."

    Despite winning an Oscar in 1943 for Best Short Subject Cartoon, 'Der Fuehrer's Face' was rarely seen following the end of the war. As the atrocities of Hitler's "Final Solution" came to light, the Nazi badge quickly became something, not to be merely ridiculed, but to be loathed. Nevertheless, the sheer audacity of Jack Kinney's cartoon has to be seen to be believed. There's hardly a frame in which the swastika is not visible in one form or another, and Donald is ludicrously forced to bark "Heil Hitler" whenever he comes across a photograph of the Fuhrer. The cartoon's climax is a dizzyingly-surreal montage in which anthropomorphised Nazi machinery relentlessly beats Donald into submission. It's all a little disconcerting, as was its intention, but it's also a lot of fun. Also featured is Oliver Wallace's song "Der Fuehrer's Face," which was covered by Spike Jones and His City Slickers with great success. Indeed, the name of this cartoon was changed from "Donald Duck in Nutzi Land" to capitalise on the song's popularity.
    6claudio_carvalho

    Effective and Caustic Propaganda in Times of War

    In World War II, a marching band playing "Der Fuehrer's Face" passes by Donald Duck's house. He awakes, has a poor breakfast with stale bread. Then he goes to an army factory where he works in the production of ammunition brainwashed by the Nazi propaganda. Donald Duck has a nervous breakdown with the stressed situation but when he awakes, he finds that he had a nightmare and he actually lives in United States of America.

    The historical cartoon "Der Fuehrer's Face" is an effective and caustic propaganda in times of war. Despite being dated in 2009, the despair of Donald Duck is still a hilarious fun against the Nazism and tyranny of Hitler. My vote is six.

    Title (Brazil): Not Available
    tony_ginorio

    Fun with Fascism

    In this marvelously surreal and funny short, Donald Duck is a subject of Nazi Germany, forced to make munitions for the Reich. He has to endure abysmal food rations (wooden bread, Aroma of Bacon and Eggs, and coffee brewed from a single bean), superhuman workloads, 30 seconds of forced calisthenics for his "vacation", and an unrelenting barrage of Hitler portraits which he must hail unfailingly - or else! It's all too much for Donald, who has a nervous breakdown, and the film disintegrates into a bizarre phantasmagoria of dancing missiles and stomping boots. Thankfully, it was all just a bad dream, and Donald is relieved to see that the hailing shadow on the wall is cast by his Statue of Liberty on the window sill. As he kisses it he proclaims, wearing his star-spangled jammies, "Am I glad to be a citizen of the United States of America." This cartoon, perhaps the most savagely satirical Disney ever made, was a sensation in its day, winning the Oscar and spawning a hit song. After the war, however, it was shelved and kept out of public circulation - and not without reason. Now it has been released on DVD as part of the excellent Walt Disney Treasures collection, "Walt Disney on the Front Lines", for discerning film buffs to enjoy. Many will find it disquieting to see a beloved American icon wearing a brownshirt uniform with swastika armband, hailing pictures of Hitler, and goose stepping to work; but then, Donald doesn't seem too thrilled about it, either. In no way does this cartoon promote Nazism. Instead, it punctures its pretensions of superiority by reducing its brutality to absurd slapstick, turning its Ubermensch into buffoonish caricatures. (Bear in mind that at the time of this cartoon the true extent of Hitler's inhumanity was unknown to the Allied countries.) As Mel Brooks has noted, the best way to deal with monsters like Hitler is to laugh at them. So go ahead and laugh, laugh, right at Der Fuehrer's Face.

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    Related interests

    Jodi Benson, Jason Marin, and Samuel E. Wright in The Little Mermaid (1989)
    Hand-Drawn Animation
    Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
    Satire
    Daveigh Chase, Rumi Hiiragi, and Mari Natsuki in Spirited Away (2001)
    Animation
    Will Ferrell in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
    Comedy
    Drew Barrymore and Pat Welsh in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
    Family
    Benedict Cumberbatch in The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023)
    Short
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    War

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Donald salutes a caricature of the Japanese Emperor Hirohito, along with the other Axis leaders. Ironically, Emperor Hirohito would visit Disneyland during a state visit to America in 1975. The Emperor even bought a Mickey Mouse watch, which he kept for the rest of his life.
    • Quotes

      Donald Duck: [sees the shadow of someone saluting] Heil Hit...

      [sees the shadow is a miniature Statue of Liberty]

      Donald Duck: Oh boy!

      [kisses it]

      Donald Duck: Am I glad to be a citizen of the United States of America.

    • Crazy credits
      A caricature of Hitler is hit by a tomato, which then runs into the words THE END.
    • Connections
      Edited into Donald's Diary (1954)
    • Soundtracks
      Der Fuehrer's Face
      By Oliver Wallace

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • January 1, 1943 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Languages
      • English
      • German
    • Also known as
      • Donald Duck in Nutzi Land
    • Production companies
      • Walt Disney Animation Studios
      • Walt Disney Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 8m
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

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