Victory Vehicles

A Walt Disney GOOFY Cartoon.

Various bizarre & unusual VISTORY VEHICLES are demonstrated by Goofy as possible ways to provide locomotion despite the wartime rubber shortage.

This very humorous little film pokes gentle fun at the serious transportation problem faced on the World War Two American Home Front due to the rationing of rubber. The Disney animators obviously had much fun coming up with the highly imaginative vehicles. Pluto makes a cameo appearance as the method of propulsion for a dogcart. The sprightly tune "Hop On Your Pogo Stick" deserves to be revived by the Disney folks.

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by drawings. As a lad in Marceline, Missouri, he sketched farm animals on scraps of paper; later, as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War, he drew figures on the sides of his vehicle. Back in Kansas City, along with artist Ub Iwerks, Walt developed a primitive animation studio that provided animated commercials and tiny cartoons for the local movie theaters. Always the innovator, his ALICE IN CARTOONLAND series broke ground in placing a live figure in a cartoon universe. Business reversals sent Disney & Iwerks to Hollywood in 1923, where Walt's older brother Roy became his lifelong business manager & counselor. When a mildly successful series with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was snatched away by the distributor, the character of Mickey Mouse sprung into Walt's imagination, ensuring Disney's immortality. The happy arrival of sound technology made Mickey's screen debut, STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928), a tremendous audience success with its use of synchronized music. The SILLY SYMPHONIES soon appeared, and Walt's growing crew of marvelously talented animators were quickly conquering new territory with full color, illusions of depth and radical advancements in personality development, an arena in which Walt's genius was unbeatable. Mickey's feisty, naughty behavior had captured millions of fans, but he was soon to be joined by other animated companions: temperamental Donald Duck, intellectually-challenged Goofy and energetic Pluto. All this was in preparation for Walt's grandest dream - feature length animated films. Against a blizzard of doomsayers, Walt persevered and over the next decades delighted children of all ages with the adventures of Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi & Peter Pan. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that simplicity of message and lots of hard work will always pay off.

Okay, it's WWII. And there's a gas and rubber shortage. So America compensates by inventing loads of wacky vehicles that are powered in more eccentric ways.

The narrator says that the money we save could be dropped on Tokyo or Berlin. Such a nice thing to say in a Disney cartoon. There is also a road sign saying 'SAVE YOUR SCRAPS TO BEAT THE JAPS.' How lovely. I'm sure the Japanese will appreciate this today. God forbid they get the Disney channel.

It's primarily a Goofy cartoon. And I don't find him all that funny. Though there is a lot of invention and imagination put into it. Shame it had to be so Xenophobic. But I guess it was okay to be so at this point in history.

I know it's hard to look past xenophobia today, but realize that most of the free world was being devastated by the Axis countries. If you can, look at this as a wonderful collection of impromptu vehicles that Goofy test drives in order to stay ahead of the rationing requirements and the need for metals and fuels for munitions. The ultimate device for getting to work is interesting, but I never thought of pogo sticks as forward moving devices.

This is a wartime animated propaganda short that was made to offer arguments for the rationing of materials for the war effort, primarily gas. Civilian use was curtailed and this short rather whimsically posits the use of pogo sticks as the principal replacement for the automobile. A perfect pairing with Goofy, it's doubtful that it would have worked with any other character. Well worth watching. Recommended.

The Disney war-time shorts are all entertaining at least but not of an entirely consistent quality. Victory Vehicles is one of the best ones, and it helps enormously that one of Disney's finest ever characters is the focus. And also that Goofy is on top form as well, he is still the appealing everyman but he excels just as much in the multiple personalities that can be seen here. It is a beautifully animated short, vibrantly coloured and crisp in detail. The music is both rousing and whimsical, with the pogo-stick song something that won't escape your head in a long time. And I do mean this in a good way, it is incredibly catchy stuff and further advantaged by how well the animation matches it. The gags are very inventive and are also very funny, the running foot car and golfing vehicle sequences are particularly note-worthy, while the story is simple with a good message that gets its point across effectively. The commentary is relevant and cleverly observed, put across like the storytelling in a way that never feels heavy-handed in approach.

Overall, one of Disney's best war-time shorts and a pleasure to see Goofy again. 10/10 Bethany Cox