The Spirit of '43 (S)

1943 · Documentary · 6 min. · United States

The Spirit of '43 (S)

The Spirit of '43 is a World War II propaganda cartoon created by Walt Disney Studios in 1943 and starring Donald Duck. It is a sequel to The New Spirit. Arguably, it contains the first appearance of the character of Scrooge McDuck, although Scrooge is not named in the film. In the cartoon, Donald Duck is portrayed as an ordinary American who gets his pay at the factory each week, and is reminded that in order to support the war effort against the Axis powers, he needs to remember to pay his voluntary income tax every quarter (in the 1940s, income taxes were paid directly by workers every three months, and not directly removed from employee paychecks as is done today). The purpose of the film was to encourage patriotic Americans to file and pay their income taxes faithfully every 3 months, in order to help the war effort. At one point, Donald Duck is faced with the classic "good angel on one shoulder, bad devil on the other shoulder" dilemma that was so common in cartoons of that era

Direction Jack King

Screenplay Joe Grant

Original title The Spirit of '43 (S)

4.8

51 votes (FilmAffinity)

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