SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Kodie Bird True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Asad Almond A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

bob the moo Curiosity brought me to this Disney cartoon since of all the things you probably don't expect to see in them is a reference to Hitler in the title. Within a few seconds that list of "things you don't expect in a Disney cartoon" got a brand new #1 as I saw the sight of Donald Duck wearing the swastika and living in Nazi Germany! Yes this film is a piece of propaganda based around a Mel Brooks-esque song which spoofs the Nazi party anthem. The plot sees Donald living in Germany, working in an ammunition factory and struggling with the demands from his bosses, the limited rations and other conditions.Watching this film years later is an odd experience because it is a very basic and crude affair if you watch it today; it blasts stereotypes and uses nationalistic and racist caricatures in its animations while all the time the visual humor is very much limited to "look at these suckers" style humor (which is reconfirmed at the end). However it isn't really possible to watch it without the context that this is a propaganda film and this is not only to be expected but is actually the whole point. In this regard it does work and I did find parts of it funny and quite imaginative while the song itself is very good. I can understand why Disney kept it out of circulation for so long, since it could have damaged Donald as a character to be seen dressed as a Nazi (albeit to make a point).The thing that surprised me the most is reading that it won the Academy Award that year for best animated short – I am now really curious as to what the other nominees were because I struggle with the idea that this was the best the year had to offer. Of course voting is always political in these things and I guess there is no more worthy political cause to vote with at the Oscars than defeating Nazism – but for sure this is why the short won, not just off the quality.

emasterslake 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.

Shawn Watson It's easy to see why Disney has kept this hidden since 1942. It may have won Academy Award for Best Animated Short Subject but this isn't something I would want to be associated with.Donald Duck has a dream he is living under a Nazi regime and his life is a joyless, oppressed existence. He is forced to hail Hitler every couple of seconds whether he means it or not and the unseen Nazis never have a bayonet more than an inch away from his face. The message is rather unsubtle as Donald wakes up to the site of his Statue of Liberty model. 'Thank God I live in the United States of America' he says. What's dangerous about this cartoon is that there is never a certain face given to the enemy. It gives the impression that anyone of a different skin color/ethnic origin was to be regarded with suspicion and fear. Not exactly the kind of attitude you want to promote to today's youngsters. Probably why it's been locked up for so long.

shadycraft This Disney short is an amazing piece of animation that any movie lover can enjoy and be moved by. It features Donald Duck starring as a Nazi worker who is awakened by a band singing the cartoon's incredibly catchy theme song (along with an alarm clock, cuckoo clock, and rooster, all doing the Nazi Salute!) He starts his day by heiling pictures of Hitler, Hirohito, and Mussolini, which is quite shocking to hear from a Disney character. He then has a healthy breakfast of bread so stale that he has to use a saw to slice it, coffee (which is actually just one coffee bean dipped in water), and a few sprays of a perfume called Aroma de Bacon & Eggs. His meal is cut short though by a soldier shoving a copy of Hitler's best selling novel, Mein Kampf, in his face. He then is hauled off to work `48-hours-a-day for the Fuehrer' in a shell factory where he is forced to heil every picture of Hitler that follow the shells on the conveyer belt which moves so fast that it's almost impossible for him to keep up (He even stands on his head to salute a picture that was framed upside-down.) He does however get a paid vacation, `through the kindness of the Fuehrer', which consists of him exercising in front of a large picture of the Alps for thirty seconds. He then of course has to work overtime which eventually causes him to go crazy and see insane visions of shells walking on and hitting him and playing musical instruments while singing the title song super fast. After this insane sequence is over, Donald awakens in his bed wearing stars-and-stripes themed pajamas and realizes it was only a nightmare. He then proceeds to kiss is Miniature Statue of Liberty and proclaims `Oh boy! I'm glad to be a citizen of the United States of America.I absolutely adore this cartoon and wish Disney would stop being so uptight and release it, along with their other WW2 shorts because they are really powerful and very important shorts that show us just what Americans thought back during the war. I highly recommend this and any other Disney WW2 short that you can actually get a chance to see.10/10