Tulips Shall Grow

For no other reason than curiosity, I have watched all the short animated films nominated for the Oscar in the 15th Academy Awards. Most of them (including the winning film) are propaganda pieces and this includes Tulips Shall Grow which is a very specific one. The film is targeted towards the resistance in Holland during the occupation and, although it is not light in its touch, it is a more engaging message than some of the other propaganda films which are heavy on the criticism of the enemy and the glorification of the home nation. Of course I understand why such films are this way, but it is nice that this is a little different.

The difference is that the message is one of resilience, survival and resistance – not one of dominance or mockery and for the time and situation this is more appropriate and also more palatable as a message. The film is simple; done in stop-motion we see Holland attached by machines which destroy the images that we are used to seeing (windmills, clogs and of course tulips). The victory does come of course but I additionally liked that it was a victory that was brought about more or less by the very things that makes Holland be Holland – the elements, the nature, the conditions. The symbolism is very obvious but it is effective and it is a nice message from the film and one that I personally prefer to some of the more flag-waving shorts in the same category, even if technically several of the other animated shorts are better than this one.

So it is still another propaganda piece but it is a nice change of pace that it has a message of resistance rather than dominance and it was refreshingly free of flag waving and the like.

The story begins in Holland in happy times, until a bunch of fascist war machines come in and destroy everything. A boy and girl are in the middle of it and experience incredible sadness. The arrival of the awful machines is really the high point (though violent) as the devastate the country.

Filmmaker and puppeteer George Pal remains a severely underrated legend in the realm of fantasy filmmaking. His films have remained fairly unknown yet were still prominent accomplishments in their own right. While I haven't seen many of his Puppetoon series, Tulips Shall Grow stands out for its fascinating anti war commentary.

This might have some of the most haunting imagery I've ever seen in a seemingly cutesy wutesy fairy tale. Pal did not shy away from depicting just how deadly the affects of WWII were to the general public, especially with him being a native Hungarian.

Hard to say what would happen if this short won its Best Animated Short Oscar, but it's certainly easy to imagine how much of an impact it would've continued to have.

This cartoon is a masterpiece. While a lot of people think George Pal was a closed-minded racist because of his "Jasper" shorts, this short proves that he clearly wasn't. Like a lot of cartoons from this time period, it was anti-Nazi propaganda, but unlike a lot of cartoons, It actually focuses on the Holocaust, rather than just winning the war, like most WWII shorts. George Pal, living in Europe throughout the 1930s, experienced the Holocaust first-hand. He wasn't Jewish, but it still upset him to see the Nazis burn down buildings and kill Jews. So, when he came to America to make more films and escape the draft, he made this. Overall, it is a great cartoon. It can still be shown on T.V. today, because the "Nazis" are really robots called the screwballs. If your a teacher, you might even show it to your history class!

Before George Pal became famous for his sci-fi films of the 50s (such as "War of the Worlds" and "When Worlds Collide"), he established himself as a stop-motion animator. Using very small budgets and a lot of patience, he made some charming little films using wooden dolls. "Tulips Shall Grow" is one of these--and it's also a propaganda piece meant to bolster the war effort.

The film begins in happy Holland. Happy people doing happy stuff amid the happy tulips. However, soon the 'Screwballs' (made of screws and balls, actually) invade--an obvious allusion to the Nazis. Thing look bad for the happy people, tulips and windmills. However, because the Screwballs are idiots, eventually they destroyed themselves and left this merry land to the locals. It features VERY splashy sets and dolls and it's quite cute--perhaps too much for some. But very well made and worth seeing. My only reservation has nothing to do with the original film but the condition of the print I saw. It was very orange and lacked the original color. It obviously was in color but not any more.