OIAF 2008: Brainwashed! Propaganda Animation
Professor Karl F. Cohen Presents Cartoons That Tell Us What to Think
Sep 24, 2008
(Writer's Note: Look for a full-length interview with presenter Prof. Karl F. Cohen in the next couple of weeks)
Everyone loves cute cartoons, that bring laughter to the hearts of children everywhere. Such joy and wonder wouldn't possibly have another agenda, would it?
Would it?
Enter San Francisco-based Professor Karl F. Cohen. In his presentation, Brainwashed! Cartoons that Tell Us What to Think, shown at the 2008 Ottawa International Animation Festival on Thursday, September 18th, he screened vintage cartoons that promoted agendas other than pure entertainment.
Whether it was happy little elves shilling for Borden's milk, a 1940's-era Bugs Bunny promoting War Bonds or Disney stumping for Dwight "Ike" Eisenhower in the 1950's, animation has a long and sordid history acting as a vehicle for propaganda.
"The Sinking of the Lusitania": Fudged Facts
One of the most disturbing shorts was by legendary animator Winsor McCay, depicting the 1915 sinking of the Lusitania.
Designed to inflame racial hatred against Germany, it distorted facts in order to claim that the "dastardly and cowardly Hun" had murdered innocent women and children.
In an early shot, the cartoon admitted the German embassy had warned potential passengers that the Lusitania was a naval auxiliary ship and, under international law, could be attacked without warning. The White Star Line was smuggling small arms ammunition aboard the Lusitania, and had given orders that it should ram any enemy ships it sighted (cash bonuses were given for successful attempts).
However, the short later claimed "the cowardly Germans struck without warning." Amid images of innocent civilians drowning, McCay unleashed overwrought statements like "a babe, clinging to its mother's breast, cried out for vengeance!"
The short inspired the US to enter World War I and anti-German sentiment found its way into the humiliating 1919 Treaty of Versailles, which indirectly inspired World War II.
"The Brotherhood of Man": Racial Integration is Un-American
Even more innocuous cartoons like Robert 'Bobe' Cannon's 1946 short "The Brotherhood of Man" courted controversy. Segregationists objected to its depiction of "Negroids and Mongoloids" as physical and mental equals to God-fearing Whites.
Bowing to racist pressure, Congress forbid the US Army from distributing the cartoon in post-WWII Europe. In the 1950's, the House Committee on Un-American Activities accused several people who worked on the film – scriptwriters Ring Lardner Jr., Maurice Rapf and Phil Eastman – of being communists. All were eventually blacklisted.
"The Sunshine Makers" and "I Like Ike"
Sometimes a film can develop new, inadvertent connotations. Burt Gillett and Ted Eshbaugh originally intended their 1935 short "The Sunshine Makers" to be a thinly-disguised ad for Borden condensed milk. However, hippies in the late 60's adopted the flick as their ode to sunshine acid (liquid LSD).
Gillett also directed the classic 1933 short "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" for Disney.
Speaking of Disney, Walt's older brother Roy supported Republican presidential candidate Dwight Eisenhower back in the 1950's, and presumably used Disney artists to help out. Their 1952 commercial "Ike for President" exhorted people not to think about such petty details as issues and platforms but to blindly join all good Americans in saying, "I like Ike!"
Eisenhower served 2 terms as President of the United States.
"Destination Earth": Oil Promotes Democracy
The screening wrapped up with the 1956 short "Destination Earth." It depicted Colonel Cosmic, a Martian from a Stalinist regime, journeying to Earth, and visiting "the greatest country on the planet" . . . New Zealand.
Jest kidding. The short, directed by Carl Urbano and produced by Sutherland, was a propaganda piece showing how oil exploration fueled capitalism and democracy. It was coincidentally funded by . . . the American Petroleum Institute. Funny how that works.
Col. Cosmic inadvertently unleashes a capitalist revolution on Mars when he tells this to a stadium full of his downtrodden brethren, who promptly overthrow their evil dictator and search for oil.
Certainly, capitalism trumped communism in the late 1980's when the Soviet Union collapsed, but as to whether capitalism promoted democracy . . .
Fun Fact: Germans . . . I hate those bastards. You can't trust them.
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