The New Spirit

Donald Duck has always been one of my favourites, which is reason enough to see The New Spirit. The message is interesting for the time, but feels dated I agree by today's standards. But other than that, there is very little to criticise. The animation is wonderful with lots of colour and detail, the war-like images are almost harrowing while the music is lush and catchy. The New Spirit has some fine moments like the ending and particularly the almost surreal part where the writing accessories come to life, and while things get more serious after a subtly humorous start it gets its point across without feeling too heavy-handed. Donald is strongly characterised, with his fever-pitch enthusiasm steadily wavering, and comes across as a very relevant spokesperson.

All in all, well made and fascinating if with a dated message. 8/10 Bethany Cox

I didn't quite get this cartoon as the tax system in this country is very, very different from that in America. It appears that if Donald Duck pays his taxes early then somehow it will give the American government a better chance at winning WWII.

This Donald does with worrying eagerness. So much so he races across the country with the envelope in his hand instead of relying on the postal system (do you blame him?).

Nothing much else of interest. It does say on a tax form though, that Donald has adopted his nephews Huey, Duey and Luey. This I never knew. It was also up from an Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject.

I don't find "The New Spirit" very interesting simply as a cartoon. But it retroactively brings up an important point: you can't wage unfunded wars. Regardless of what you think about war, there's still no way to wage it unless you tax people. To be certain, Franklin Roosevelt imposed very high taxes on the rich. George W. Bush, on the other hand, cut taxes during wartime and simply told people to go shopping. There can be no doubt that waging the unfunded wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (to say nothing of deregulating Wall Street) contributed to the worldwide economic crisis.

OK, too much analysis. As I said, this cartoon is nothing special.

With taxation today deemed the Eighth Deadly Sin it's hard to imagine that the message that paying your taxes is both a pleasure and a privilege would cut much ice with current political conservatives.

Harder still to image that ardent Republican Walt Disney would have employed an old curmudgeon like Donald Duck to present the message.

It just goes to show what a pressing national crisis can achieve.

I had a bit of a 'Disney propaganda' night today (with Der Fuehrer's Face, Education For Death, The New Spirit (or Spirit of '43) and Bugs Bunny Nips The Nips), and I'm afraid to say this was the worst one. All it had to say was: pay your taxes in time so we can spend it all on war-machinery to kill of the nazi's. Perhaps effective in it's time, but pretty lame in retrospect.

The good part of the movie was the ending, with the sky turning into the stars and stripes, as Donald decides to pay his debt instead of wasting it all on idle goods.

But if you want to see a really good WWII propaganda movie, I'd advise you go with Der Fuehrer's Face (also starring Donald Duck) instead. As for this one: 3/10.