The New Spirit (1942)

The New Spirit Review

The New Spirit is a 1942 animated short film from the Donald Duck series. It is your standard propaganda movie.

In this propaganda film made to promote the war effort, Donald is asked to pay taxes to the government in order to support more weaponry for the army. Needless to say, this movie was very much of its time as Hollywood made so many of these films during WWII. My issue is that here it was even more manipulative and propagandistic than usual, but it worked to make Americans pay more taxes, so it did its job.

The New Spirit has phenomenal animation. This is why it’s not a total slog to sit through along with the reliably fun Donald of course. The final section is boring, but it’s so well animated that it at least transcended the material visually. The movie is very polished and it features an endearing Donald, who is in the first scenes so funny. But the movie eventually turned into just being a documentary, which made it quite mediocre. It was nominated for the documentary Oscar, which makes it a rare animated film nominated in the category.

The New Spirit is your typical propaganda short, one that is visually dazzling and at first charming, but eventually boring and manipulative.

My Rating – 3.3