I was thinking of talking about Hugh Harman's MGM short,
Peace on Earth, around Remembrance Day, but I figured with its strong Christmas vibe that I would save it for December. It's a pretty powerful short that nominated an Oscar for best animated short film way back in 1939, on the eve of the Second World War, and it was even nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Peace on Earth features a Utopian earth that has been reconquered by the animals of the world after mankind has successfully obliterated himself from the face of the planet through modern warfare. It starts with woodland squirrels singing a song that sounds suspiciously like
Hark the Herald, but with the key lyrics replaced by the word, "Peace on Earth, good will to man." A pair of young squirrels don't know what man is, so they ask their wise old Grand Pappy who relates the sad tale of how the race of man ceased to exist. The short goes into dark territory as Grand Pappy relates the terrifying realities of war, with animated tanks, soldiers in gas masks brandishing bayonets take one and other out. The animators used rotoscoping (drawing over live battle footage) to accurately portray what war really looked like in 1939.
The result is a harrowing piece of animation that I would imagine flooring audiences who were used to kinder, gentler animated short before and between their features-something from the Wonderful World of Disney, perhaps. I have to say the ending is more than a little preachy as the animals take their cues from living in peace from the Bible. It's a little heavy handed for a cynical gal like me... but the message of peace remains as topical as ever. Little has changed in the world as we still teeter on the brink of complete annihilation. I take comfort in the fact that in this post-apocalypse the animals survive. This short was remade in 1955 by Hanna-Barbara, under the new name
Good Will to Men. Here's the original short in all its glory...
