(1943)
Directed by H.C. Potter (live action), James Algar, Clyde Geronimi, Jack Kinney (animated sequences)
Written by: Perce Pearce, T. Hee, Erdman Penner, Bill Conttrell, James Brodero, George Stallings, Jose Rodriguez, based on Victory Through Air Power by Maj. Alexander P. Seversky
Starring Maj. Alexander P. Seversky
IMDB Entry
Everyone knows that Disney defends their copyrights like a mama bear defending her cubs, so I was a bit surprised that they let one of the animated features fall into the public domain. It is Victory Through Air Power.
This was a passion project by Walt Disney. He read the book Victory Through Air Power by Maj. Alexander P. Seversky, which advocated the use of bombing as a military strategy. He bought the thesis and decided to make a movie about it.
The film starts with a animated documentary about the history of aviation before a look at how planes can be used in the military. Seversky (who appears in the film) argues that control of the air is the best way to win the war. We are shown how important airplanes were so far in the war and postulated how it could be used to win future battles against Germany and Japan.
The movie is a precursor to using animation in educational films and Disney jumped into the format, producing films to teach the general public about how things worked on a war footing and as propaganda against Nazism. It also broke Disney's de facto ban on limited animation, since that was used on a few sequences.
It was not a success, with a box office take that barely covered its budget. His usual distributor, RKO, refused to release it, so he went to United Artists to get it into theaters. But it was influential, convincing both Churchill and Roosevelt to put more money into strengthening the air forces.
Why did Disney let the copyright lapse? Most likely because it is not designed for entertainment and is dealing with an issue that, while vital when it was made, has little relevance today except to film and military historians. Disney did recycle the history of aviation sequence in their TV shows, but the rest isn't anything people are worried about today. There's also the portrayal of Japanese and German, which is full "these are our enemy" mode. And finally, it was not the type of fare that fits in with the image of the Mouse.
