Happy

Feet 2 Propaganda and Childrens anima8on

Introduc8on

A study of the use of animated lms to inuence children, inves8ga8ng its origins and jus8ca8ons. It par8cularly focuses on the contemporary lm Happy Feet (2006, dir. George Miller), an animated feature lm that was a box oce success but was widely cri8cised for its propaganda content.

Key Ideas
Elements of propaganda lms can be incorporated into lms that have messages that seek to implement posi:ve change within society. However, what one genera:on may see as posi:ve, later genera:ons may experience nega:ve eects from. Maire Messenger-Davies Children, Media and Culture (2010:32) What is Propaganda? Propaganda . a process for the sowing, germina:on and cul:va:on of ideas and, as such, is - or at least should be - neutral as a concept. The problem is that human beings frequently inject morality into processes. Phillip Taylor Muni:ons of the Mind: A History of Propaganda (2003) Why do children par4cularly like anima4on? It is a genre whose basic technique makes a profound dierence to the way the events portrayed are interpreted: they are only drawings. Anima:on is not bound by the rules of realism applying to live human characters, and from this many other kinds of judgements follow. Maire Messenger-Davies Dear BBC : Children, Television Storytelling, and the Public Sphere (2001:225) It is generally agreed that their [childrens] experience of lm watching is more intense than that of adults owing to the visual impact of the medium and their emo:onal involvement with the stories. Sarah Smith Children, Cinema and Censorship : From Dracula to Dead End (2005:13).

Context - Propaganda
The term propaganda was rst used by the Va8can in 17c to describe the way they dealt with the protestant reforma8on. Its more recent pejora8ve connota8ons date mainly from the excesses of atrocity propaganda during the Great War of 1914-18. During the rst world war the Bri8sh government deployed facts selec8vely yet ra8onally, lying by omission. Adolf Hitler went on to adapt these methods for his own, quite dierent, purposes. Propaganda thus bred propaganda.

Fig 2 - Bri8sh WW1 poster Lea, Fig 3 -Nazi poster, cap8on: The Jew: The inciter of war, the prolonger of war (1943) Phillip Taylors Muni&ons of the Mind : A History of Propaganda (2003)

Context Propaganda & Anima8on

1895 - rst demonstra8on of the Lumiere Brothers Cinematographe - fairly portable, it was used all over Europe, making it available to the working popula8on. The Bolsheviks recognised its poten8al to deliver potent messages to the people. (g 4) 1918 - The Sinking of the Lusitania: a short anima8on by American ar8st Winsor McCay depic8ng German torpedos striking the RMS Lusitania, to create an8- German sen8ment. (g 5) 1926 The BaCleship Potemkin an experimental Russian revolu8onist propaganda lm, claimed to be one of the most inuen8al lms of all 8me. America later told its own movie industry to "insert morale-building and ci8zenry arousing themes in its lms by all means possible. (g 6)
Nicholas Reeves (2004) Power of Film Propaganda : Myth or Reality Bell, Elizabeth (1995) From Mouse to Mermaid: The Poli:cs of Film, Gender, and Culture

1930s-40s - Anima8on became popular, especially for winning over youthful audiences, with Walt Disney and Looney Tunes ac8vely aiding the U.S. war eort through their cartoons which provided training and instruc8ons for viewers as well as a poli8cal commentary on the 8mes. (g 7)

1950s-70s America produced a vast amount of cold war propaganda, and par8cularly targeted children with anima8ons that depicted Asians, American Indians and Soviets in an extremely derogatory way, for example the an8-oriental caricatures Si and Am in Disneys Lady and the Tramp (1955) (g 8) 1980s/90s the rise of Consumerism product merchandising oaen makes more money than the anima8on itself anima8ons are oaen designed to sell toys. (g 9)

2000 - poli8cal agendas are favoured in childrens anima8on but who gains? (g 10)

Elizabeth Bell (1995) From Mouse to Mermaid: The Poli:cs of Film, Gender, and Culture (1995). Maire Messenger-Davies(2001) reader Dear BBC : Children, Television Storytelling, and the Public Sphere

Cultural Context Happy Feet

Happy Feet (2006) was a box oce success and won both an Academy Award and a BAFTA for the Best Animated Film. However its sequel, Happy Feet 2 (2011) was heavily cri8cized for its overtly liberal propaganda content, and derided for being pro- environment, pro-homosexuality and pro-communism. Director George Miller acknowledged that he reworked the script for to amplify the environmental themes, but some cri8cs and conserva8ve groups complain that he ramped up the liberalism to the point of propaganda. the darkest, most disturbing feature length animated lm ever oered by a major studio. Fox News Well played, leaies: This is Kiddie Karl Marx Kyle Smith, NY Post It is currently fashionable to highlight environmental issues, and as a na8on, Australia is par8cularly concerned about ecology and climate issues. Happy feet, being made in Australia, may be expected to have a pro-environmental agenda, so the controversy is more about the way liberal issues are pushed on a young and impressionable audience than the liberal topics themselves.

Two schools of thought.

You can make a poli8cal statement all you want in an adult movie. But its big-8me objec8onable when you start fois8ng it on kids who don't know any beqer.

If it is propaganda, then which type is worse ... propaganda that will scare us into believing that invading a na8on that has nothing to do with the war on terrorism has something to do with the war on terrorism, gepng our soldiers killed by the thousands, and Iraqi civilians killed by the tens of thousands ... or propaganda that urges we treat our environment beqer so that we may live beqer, healthier and longer?

Key Individuals
Walt Disney Winsor McCay Sergei Eisenstein
The Sinking of the Lusitania, (1918), designed to intensify an8-German feeling(Fig 13&14)

Der Fuehrer's Face hit the theaters in 1943 and won the Oscar for best animated short lm the same year. (Fig 11&12)

The Ba`leship of Potekmin (1925) - one of the most inuen8al propaganda lms of all 8me. (Fig 15&16)

 Historical uses of anima8on to inuence children

Disney (1943) Educa:on for Death commissioned by the US Government to educate US children about Nazi Germany. (Fig 17)

Popeye (1932) (g 18) Promo8ng nutri8onal food

links between historical and contemporary propaganda anima8on for children. Ian Wojcik-Andrews, Children's lms: history, ideology, pedagogy, theory (2000) Sarah Smiths Children, Cinema and Censorship : From Dracula to Dead End (2005).

Contemporary examples of anima8on used to inuence children

Aladdins Arabic merchant sings Where they cut o your ear if they dont like your face./Its barbaric, but hey./Its home.(Disney,1992 ) (Fig 19)

Also from Disney is G Force (2009) with a heavily an8-consumerism message But also a huge amount of merchandising. (g 20 & 21)

nd animated characters are not bound by socially acceptable morals or realism.

Conclusion a tool to inuence children as they Anima8on has oaen been used

Happy feet is used as a process for the sowing, germina8on and cul8va8on of ideas but is not neutral in any way and is therefore propaganda aimed specically at children. History shows that elements of propaganda have been incorporated into lms that have messages that seek to implement both posi8ve and nega8ve change within society. However, what one genera8on may see as posi8ve, later genera8ons may experience nega8ve eects from.

ILLUSTRATIONS
Fig 1 & 10 Happy Feet 2 - hqp://happyfeeqwo.warnerbros.com/dvd/ Fig 2 - hqp://www.ww1propaganda.com/world-war-1-posters/bri8sh-ww1-propaganda-posters Fig 3 Nazi Poster hqp://www.bytwerk.com/gpa/posters2.htm Fig 4 & 7 - Mein Kampf - hqp://museumviews.com/2009/08/the-art-of-lm -walt-disney-and-the-art-of-wwii-propaganda/ Fig 5 - Lusitania hqp://www.x8meline.com/evt/view.aspx?id=714478 Fig 8 Lady & the Tramp hqp://www.justdisney.com/walt_disney/pictures/pictures.html Fig 9 Toy Story merchandise - hqp://pixarplanet.com/blog/toy-story-toys-at-the-licensing-interna8onal-expo Fig 11&12 - hqp://www.justdisney.com/walt_disney/pictures/pictures.html Fig 13 & 14- hqp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Winsor_McCay.jpg Fig 15& 16 Fig Potemkin- hqp://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serguei_Eisenstein Fig 17 Educa8on for Death - hqp://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Educa8onForDeath Fig 18 Popeye- hqp://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2011/07/08/comic-book-legends-revealed-322/ Fig 19 Aladdin - hqp://disneyfactz.tumblr.com/post/10864730334/fact-176-the-lyrics-of-the-opening-song-arabian Fig 20 Gforce -hqp://derricklferguson.wordpress.com/2011/03/01/g-force/ Fig 21 G Force merchandise - hqp://www.dlp.info/News/2009/10/g-force-vs-up/

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bell, Elizabeth (1995) From Mouse to Mermaid: The Poli:cs of Film, Gender, and Culture. [online]. Indiana University Press. Available from:<hqp://lib.myilibrary.com?ID=207886> 8 March 2012 Messenger-Davies, Maire 92001) Dear BBC : Children, Television Storytelling, and the Public Sphere NY: Cambridge University Press Messenger Davies, Maire, (2010) Children, Media and Culture Maidenhead: Open University Press Reeves, Nicholas (2004) Power of Film Propaganda : Myth or Reality? London: Con8nuum Interna8onal Publishing Smith, Sarah (2005) Children, Cinema and Censorship : From Dracula to Dead End London: I.B. Tauris Taylor, Philip M (2003) Muni:ons of the Mind : A History of Propaganda UK: Manchester University Press Wojcik-Andrews, Ian (2000) Children's lms: history, ideology, pedagogy, theory Psychology Press

Filmography
Aladdin (1992) Dir. Ron Clements Ba`leship Potemkin(1925) Dir. Sergei Eisenstein Der Fuhrers Face (1943) Dir. Walt Disney G-Force (2009) Dir. Hoyt Yeatman Happy Feet (2006) Dir. George Miller Happy Feet 2 (2009) Dir. George Miller The Sinking of the Lusitania (1918) Dir. Winsor McCay