Peace on Earth Review

Peace on Earth is a 1939 animated short from MGM. It is a pretty good, serious Oscar nominee.

In a post-apocalyptic world, animals populate the world and we learn that the humans have all killed themselves and went extinct. The animals adopted the laws from the humans and went by them without ever killing each other so peace came by. This is a very serious, dignified film which was rare for animated productions of its time and thus this movie is rather unique.

I loved the animation and the score is wonderful. The narration is also pretty good and the film feels very spiritual, mystical and in the end powerful with anti-war sentiment and a call for peace. My only gripe with the film is the pacing which is pretty bad. The film has an awfully rushed third act and an overlong narrated part. I wanted more details about the animal ruling of the planet.

Peace on Earth is a pretty strong, powerful Oscar nominee which is weakly paced, but so well scored, emotional and admirably dark.