Walt Disney and Nazism.

(This was a letter to a friend in response to his comments about Walt Disney liking Hitler.)

Walt Disney and Naziism

I have been thinking about our conversation regarding Walt Disney the other day in which you referred to him as a Nazi. Because of certain controversial viewpoints he held I can’t entirely disagree with you, but I feel that term is a little strong. A more accurate terminology would be fascistic because you can be a fascist without being a Nazi, but you can’t be a Nazi without being a fascist. Moreover, Disney, based on evidence, was no Nazi.

Here is why I say this.

I am also a fan of the comics’ artist Windsor McKay. McKay is famous for drawing the first animated cartoon “Gertie the Dinosaur”, as well as drawing the highly surrealistic strips for the Hearst papers, “Dreams of a Welsh Rarebit Fiend” and “Little Nemo” (“Little Nemo” was the source of inspiration for the animation in Tom Petty’s “Running down a Dream” video). I was alarmed to find out that McKay, as well as his employer, William Randolph Hearst, was a fan of Benito Mussolini. When you mentioned that Disney was a fan of Hitler, I was able to put this into perspective. Both men (Mussolini and Hitler), early in their career, would appeal to children of immigrants in this country, because through self-determination and discipline they would rise above the poverty level that they were born to, and achieve what could be called success. (This would also appeal to many Americans in terms of “the American Dream”, which, most obviously, is represented in the story of Abraham Lincoln. In fact, Lincoln was so much a hero of Disney’s, that he not only built the Audio-animatronics presentation “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln” at Disneyland; he included in the ticket books an extra ticket for the show, so that everyone could experience the show essentially free.) At the time that their careers as powerful leaders were starting no one, of course, dreamt of the actual darkness that resided in their souls.

If Disney admired Hitler early in his career, he certainly didn’t when the beginnings of World War II rolled around. Disney willingly turned over part of his studio to the Army during wartime, and went on a goodwill tour of South America in 1941 that is credited with helping to stem the tide of Nazism in the countries that his group visited. To be truthful, the reason that he did these things wasn’t altogether altruistic; the failure of “Pinocchio” and “Fantasia” had plunged the studio into financial chaos, and through the agreement with the government, Disney initially hoped for government funds that would save his studio from ruin. He ultimately didn’t need them; the trip provided inspiration for two highly profitable films, “Saludos Amigos” and “Three Caballeros”, which saved the studio (see the film “Walt y El Grupo”). But the Studio’s contribution to the war effort is well documented; they, as well as Warner Brothers, contributed many educational cartoons for the military, as well as cartoons used for propaganda purposes.

You criticized Disney for using only Germanic fairy tales as a basis for his films, as proof of his Nazism. There are two things wrong with this. Primarily, the blame for America’s fascination with Germanic fairy tales doesn’t reside with Walt. He was only making films based on stories that almost everyone in the United States had, and has, grown up with. The blame resides with the Brothers Grimm. When they published their book based on their research into folklore, their success was worldwide; this means that their book was a success in Europe, and therefore in the British Empire and its colonies. And, as Victoria was the world power in those days, and the United States was only a “wannabe”, if the book was read in Britain, it was read in the States also.

Secondarily, Walt only made two movies based on Germanic fairy tales; “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and “Cinderella”. Although the tale of “Sleeping Beauty” is to be found in “Grimm’s Fairy Tales”, Disney was actually inspired to make the film by the Tchaikovsky ballet; so much so that the ballet’s music was used on the soundtrack. Tchaikovsky based his ballet not on the Grimm’s retelling of the story, but on the version by Charles Perrault, a Frenchman, which Disney also went to as a source. Furthermore, “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” in “Fantasia” is a tale that dates back to Roman times (as is “Ferdinand the Bull” which is one of the studios shorts), the Nutcracker Suite section (of course) uses music based on the Russian folk tale of the same name, and the “Pastorale” section uses imagery from Greek Mythology. Although “The Little Mermaid” was finally filmed in the mid-eighties, Disney was drawing up plans to make it as a film just after the release of “Pinocchio.” Hans Christian Anderson (a Dane), of course, wrote “The Little Mermaid”, and “Pinocchio” was by Carlo Collodi (an Italian).

 I don’t disagree with you regarding Disney’s attitudes, however. He was a fanatical anti-communist (who probably participated in the ‘50s blacklisting, and used the term “pinko” freely in conversation), was profoundly anti-union (he had been badly hurt by a strike in the early ‘40s), and was part of the group of studio heads that L.B. Mayer had called together, that decided to run Orson Welles out of town on a rail for what he was doing to William Randolph Hearst in “Citizen Kane”. Most of the other studio heads had reason to be afraid of Hearst; Louella Parsons had a little black box that contained incriminating information on some of the biggest stars in Hollywood, which she used to blackmail Mayer into taking action against Welles. Disney, from what I can see, had no such problem. At the time, the studio was only making animated pictures, not live-action ones, and so (to me) his judgment is suspect.

I hope you understand that this is not argumentative, it is sent in the spirit of clarification.