Читать книгу Understanding Disney - Janet Wasko - Страница 21

The bitter labor strike marked the end of what many have called “Disney’s golden age.”⁴⁸ Both Pinocchio and Fantasia had entailed high costs and suffered at the box office in 1940 due to the loss of foreign markets because of World War II. Several other feature projects even had to be suspended.

And then the war hit home, for both the United States and the Disney operations. The day after Pearl Harbor, US Army troops took over the Disney lot, using the studio (the only one in Hollywood occupied by the military) as a repair and storage facility over the next eight months.⁴⁹ But the company also became involved with the war effort via a large number of government films contracted during the conflict. By 1942, more than 93 percent of the studio’s production was devoted to government projects, including a wide range of animated and live-action films produced for at least six branches of the government.

Military training films included a series of aircraft identification films for the Navy, plus other titles such as High-Level Precision Bombing, Glider Training, as well as Dental Care and A Few Quick Facts about Venereal Disease. The studio also produced a number of educational films, such as Food Will Win the War, The Grain that Built a Hemisphere, and The New Spirit (encouraging Americans to pay income tax).⁵⁰

The company also produced a few propaganda films, primarily satirical pieces such as Education for Death (1943) and Der Fuehrer’s Face (1943). Victory through Air Power (1943) was a full-length feature promoting long-range bombing as a key military strategy. However, it was Donald Duck who became the wartime hero at the studio and who was featured as a loyal, dedicated American citizen in short films such as Commando Duck and Home Defense (1943).⁵¹

The studio also released a few features during the war, including the South American films and Bambi (1942); however, the box-office grosses were disappointing. The government work during the war, while ultimately unprofitable, served to keep the studio alive, as well as to diversify the company’s filmmaking activities. The ongoing support from the company’s primary bank, the Bank of America, also helped the studio through these difficult years.⁵²