For MSU folks, I'll be introducing a screening of Disney propaganda films from the WWII era at the Michigan Historical Museum next month (link). This includes two of my favorites: one made for Canada before the US got involved, where the Seven Dwarfs literally hike from the mine shaft to the nearby city to buy war bonds, and The New Spirit, which features Donald Duck being encouraged to pay his taxes as part of the war effort (cognitive dissonance: the image above is of Walt talking to the State dept about this short).
1940s is my favorite period of Disney because so much happened. The animator's strike in 1940, as well as Fantasia's costly fiasco. Most people don't know that a great deal of the Disney "classics" were not hits in their initial theatrical runs. Were it not for WWII, Disney would have gone under. But the govt contracts to make these films kept them afloat. This included not only propaganda tied directly to the war, but also their considerable involvement in the Good Neighbor Policy in South America.
They also started doing live action during this time, but a lot of those are hard to find. At the end of the war, Disney began to integrate live action into its own films (not only the hybrid animation films, which didn't take, but also the True-Life Adventures semi-doc films, which proved quite popular and resilient). And, of course, Song of the South--culturally and aesthetically--was very much a product of this period. Probably a third of Disney's Most Notorious Film is about this period (another third is about the 1980s).
If I had to write a book about Disney again--not that I want to--it would probably be about fleshing this period out more. When I went to teach Disney history, I discovered that there was very little good scholarly sources that deal in depth with this period.
That, or it would be about the Ron Miller era of the late 1970s and early 1980s--actually, I really do want to write that one. It would be about the fascinating period of Disney history that's been squeezed out by "Uncle Walt" on one side and Eisner on the other.
Anyway, hope to see people there.
js
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