Disney

Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie (1928) was the first Disney cartoon with sound, and one of Mickey Mouse's earliest appearances; definitely a classic. It is actually very funny, and the music is perfectly synchronised with the animation. Mickey's design in this animation is slightly different to how he looks now, as gloves have been added so that his hands are more distinguishable and he now looks generally more polished. His personality is also very different; in this animation, Mickey is shown as being really quite mischievous and a little mean, whereas now he is seen as being a very innocent character.

Disney's Flowers and Trees (1932) is part of the Silly Symphonies series, and is Disney's first cartoon using tricolour technicolour; which is greatly boasted about in the beginning sequence to show how upto-date Disney was with their technology and techniques. Also at the beginning, Disney has stated "Mickey Mouse presents...", however Mickey doesn't appear in the cartoon at all; people will see the words "Mickey Mouse" and associate them with the cartoon celebrity and be more inclined to watch the animation.
          I like this animation as the animators have cleverly animated the trees in a way that they can be believable as human characters so the actions are easily read, whilst still keeping it very clear that they're trees. This is also true for the other plants in the forest. The music also goes very well with the animation; it is an early example of sound-on-film synchronising.

Mickey Mouse

The design of Mickey Mouse has changed greatly since he was first seen in 1928. He was originally designed by Walt Disney, with contributions from Ub Iwerks and Hugh Harmon. He was also originally voiced by Walt Disney himself. Mickey became a cartoon celebrity and Walt Disney even won a special oscar in 1935 for his creation. The financial gain from Mickey's success became the basis for the massive Disney empire; without Mickey it is unlikely that Disney studios would be as successful as it is today.

The original Mickey design is shown above. Since then, he has gained white areas in his eyes, his nose has become flat, he has gained gloves and the soles on the bottoms of his shoes are now flat. Mickey now looks generally more polished than before. Of course he is also now in colour, but in the times of Steamboat Willie, coloured animation was not possible, or was very difficult.

Plane Crazy (1928) is an early Mickey Mouse cartoon, and is one of the first Mickey cartoons with sound, a relatively new idea in 1928. It shows the old design of Mickey, and also shows how his personality has changed over the years. In the earlier cartoons, he is seen as being a bit mean and not as innocent as he is now. I like this cartoon, as I like many of the old Mickey Mouse cartoons, because it is funny and I like the light-hearted cartoony style of the characters, particularly the cows. The music is also very well synchronised with the animation, adding to the humour and effectiveness.

The Opry House (1929) is another early Mickey Mouse cartoon. You can see Mickey's design has changed slightly in that he now has gloves, however he still has the old Mickey personality as he comes across as being irritable and angry, however it is still a very comedic cartoon. This is helped by the inanimate objects doing human actions, such as when the stool kicked Mickey in the bum.

The Band Concert (1935) is one of the first Mickey Mouse cartoons which uses colour. In this cartoon, Mickey is conducting an orchestra of animals, when a storm hits. But this opens the animation to a bunch of gags as the orchestra carries on playing while they are being chucked around by the storm. The music the animals are playing also fits perfectly with what is happening in the animation, so it is very cleverly done, as if the characters are providing their own music.

Donald Duck

After time, Mickey's popularity began to fade, so Donald Duck was created as a more mischievous character on the basis that the audience would love a character with a bit of a dark side. After his first appearance in The Wise Little Hen (1934), Donald became very popular and often appeared alongside Mickey. This led to further associated characters; Minnie Mouse and Huey, Duey and Louis.

Disney's Propaganda

Der Fuehrer's Face was made by Disney as propaganda in order to show Nazi's as being the evil and to get America to join in the war. Even though it is clearly about something very serious, Disney has put the message across in a funny and entertaining way; it needs to be funny and entertaining otherwise viewers would get board and stop watching it, and the point of the animation would be missed. I think that the way the Nazi's are put across is quite clever, such as the way they march is quite funny, and an exaggerated version of the stereotype. Although many people nowadays do find this cartoon quite comical, it can also sometimes feel a bit uncomfortable to watch and can give you a "is it OK that I'm laughing at this" kind of feel, because it could offend quite a few people in quite a big way.

The Spirit of '43 was made to try to persuade people to save their money so they were able to pay the high taxes. Disney did this by showing the bed duck as a Nazi and showing Scrooge McDuck as the American side. It then talks about how the money from the taxes will all be used to buy weapons to defeat the Nazi's, leading to America's victory in the war. Like a lot of American propaganda, this could possibly offend some people, however it is less potentially offensive than Der Fuehrer's Face.

Donald Duck Gets Drafted (1942) is another propaganda animation by Disney. At first, the army is advertised as being a great things to work for by showing advertisements with soldiers and pretty women and advertising there to be "pretty hostesses" in the air force planes. However, when Donald joins the army, asking to be a part of the air force, he is quickly let down and employed in a different field. After this let down, he then soon discovers that army life is not as glamorous as the adverts were claiming. From this it is clear that this is propaganda made to put people off joining the American army as they promise the world and don't deliver.

Education for Death is a propaganda animation by Disney about the raising of a Nazi, following the life of a boy named Hans, starting from his birth. A fiarytial of sleeping beauty is used as a methaphor; the "sleeping beauty" called Germany is shown as an unattractive woman, and Hitler is the prince who rescues her, however is not a hero of the story as he is temporarily shown growing devil horns. When Hilter rescues Germany spend spend a lot of time yelling "hail Hitler" which makes them seem a bit stupid, and the making fun of Hitler's relationship with Germany is confirmed by the narrator making the rude comment "the moral of the story is Hitler got Germany on her feet, climbed in the saddle, and took her for a ride". When Hans is slightly older, he becomes ill and the Nazis threaten to take him from his mother because she is mollycoddling him too much. When Hans returns to school he is punished for giving the wrong answer, and the schools are shown to be teaching children to be more power hungry. When Hans is finally grown up he is a Nazi soldier, shown with blinders, a muzzle and a collar, representing him as being one of the Nazis dogs. He then marches into battle and dies, showing America that the Nazis will die and America will win the war. This piece of propaganda is a lot darker than the Donald Duck ones, however it is more emotive and was probably more effective as an older audience is more likely to pay attention to it.