Date: Thursday, September 17th, 2015 at 8:00PMVenue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco
Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117
Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com
Featuring:
The Spirit of '43 (B+W, 1943)
Don@ld Duck is here to tell everyone to file their taxes ("Taxes to defeat the axis!") in this didactic propaganda piece from Di$ney. Donald has just gotten his paycheck and he's got an angel and a devil trying to tell him how to spend his money. The angel, a kilt-wearing Scotsman that may or may not be Scrooge McDuck, urges Donald to file his taxes and give his money to helping the war effort. The devil - a zoot-suiter - wants Donald to have a good time with his cash. When the devil turns out to be a Nazi covered in swastikas, Donald's right on his way to his accountant!
Private Snafu vs. Malaria Mike (B+W, 1944, Chuck Jones)
Fifth Column Mouse (Color, 1943, Friz Freleng)
An allegory for the axis powers; this cartoon pits a hungry cat against a group of rodents. The cat tricks one of the mice that he is there to protect them as long as they appease him and serve him like a King. When his true colors are shown, the mice storm onto the battlefront in a mechanical bulldog to even the score.
Chicken Little (Color, 1943)
Another allegory for the Nazis' rise to power, this twisted fable features Foxy Loxy utilizing Hitler's own philosophies of mind control to fetch himself a feast of fowl. Originally, Foxy got his ideas from "Mein Kampf", but the studio switched the title of the book (but not the content) to read "Psychology".
The Grain That Built a Hemisphere (Color, 1943)
Nancy and Sluggo Doin’ Their Part (B+W, 1940s)
Featuring:
The Spirit of '43 (B+W, 1943)
Don@ld Duck is here to tell everyone to file their taxes ("Taxes to defeat the axis!") in this didactic propaganda piece from Di$ney. Donald has just gotten his paycheck and he's got an angel and a devil trying to tell him how to spend his money. The angel, a kilt-wearing Scotsman that may or may not be Scrooge McDuck, urges Donald to file his taxes and give his money to helping the war effort. The devil - a zoot-suiter - wants Donald to have a good time with his cash. When the devil turns out to be a Nazi covered in swastikas, Donald's right on his way to his accountant!
Private Snafu vs. Malaria Mike (B+W, 1944, Chuck Jones)
Keep those pants up, Private Snafu! A cunning mosquito is loaded with malaria and he’s eying your USDA choice rump! The witty Private Snafu series was designed to convey vital information to servicemen who had wildly varying levels of education and literacy skills. Made by the folks who brought you Looney Tunes, this one was written by Theodore Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss!
Looney Tunes: Meet John Doughboy (B+W, 1941, Robert Clampett)
Falling Hare (Color, 1943, Robert Clampett)
America's Defense Effort is caricatured in this phony newsreel introduced by Porky Pig. Full of goofy site-gags and jokes about the draft, the mess hall and the clucking machine gun nests, this isn't quite propaganda as much as satire. Jack Benny and Rochester are a secret weapon in an uncomfortably racist moment in an otherwise tame and hilarious cartoon.
That rascally wabbit finally gets what's coming to him when he goes from tormenter to tormented by a tiny little gremlin who is out to ruin the war effort. A tiny little monster is out to detonate a bomb in an army airbase, and it's up to Bugs to stop him.
Movietone-style spoof narration is used in this tale of one man’s desperate stand against all odds. Mosquitoes go through an intense and very specific boot camp in this entertaining documentary send up of war effort newsreels of the day. Looney Tunes fans will thrill to Robert C. Bruce’s jaunty March of Time style narration.
An allegory for the axis powers; this cartoon pits a hungry cat against a group of rodents. The cat tricks one of the mice that he is there to protect them as long as they appease him and serve him like a King. When his true colors are shown, the mice storm onto the battlefront in a mechanical bulldog to even the score.
Chicken Little (Color, 1943)Another allegory for the Nazis' rise to power, this twisted fable features Foxy Loxy utilizing Hitler's own philosophies of mind control to fetch himself a feast of fowl. Originally, Foxy got his ideas from "Mein Kampf", but the studio switched the title of the book (but not the content) to read "Psychology".
The Grain That Built a Hemisphere (Color, 1943)
A different kind of propaganda short from Di$ney, this mini-doc on the importance of corn was made in conjunction with Canadian government. Tracing its roots from the communities of indigenous Americans to the insidious bi-product that invades almost every aspect of our daily lives, this short ends with a blitz of corn patriotism!
An animated warning against the threat of nuclear annihilation, featuring a stern and foreboding narrator. Watch as San Francisco becomes a giant skull surrounded by the graves of our imaginary fallen. This didactic piece of propaganda is pretty rich considering we're the only country that has ever dropped an atomic bomb on another country.
Nancy and Sluggo Doin’ Their Part (B+W, 1940s)
Our favorites from the funnies get down to the serious business of raising funds for the USO. Sluggo comes up with a suitably money-making schemes of all and all the gang joins in!
Sky Pirates (B+W, 1938, George Pal)
The Puppetoons take to the skies when a marauding band of air pirates begin dropping bombs. An air battle ensues and the military must make the skies safe again. Quirky and visually stunning, this short features Pal's hand-carved wooden puppets and some great aerial imagery and sight gags. Made for Horlicks malted milk in Britain.
Sky Pirates (B+W, 1938, George Pal)The Puppetoons take to the skies when a marauding band of air pirates begin dropping bombs. An air battle ensues and the military must make the skies safe again. Quirky and visually stunning, this short features Pal's hand-carved wooden puppets and some great aerial imagery and sight gags. Made for Horlicks malted milk in Britain.
Boom Boom (B+W, 1936 Jack King)
A very early Porky Pig is a World War I doughboy along with Beans the Cat. Animals sing "You're in the Army Now" to a frightened Porky who wishes he were back home on the farm. Porky and another soldier rescue General Hardtack from the enemy and fly him through enemy lines.
Ace in the Hole (1942, Alex Lovy)
Ace in the Hole (1942, Alex Lovy)
Woody Woodpecker is at a military base and wants to fly an airplane. After reading a textbook he pilots a PU-2. Large bulldog acts as antagonist.
Curator’s Biography
About Oddball Films
Oddball films is a stock footage company providing offbeat and unusual film footage for feature films like Milk, documentaries like The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, Silicon Valley, Kurt Cobain: The Montage of Heck, television programs like Mythbusters, clips for Boing Boing and web projects around the world.
Our screenings are almost exclusively drawn from our collection of over 50,000 16mm prints of animation, commercials, educational films, feature films, movie trailers, medical, industrial military, news out-takes and every genre in between. We’re actively working to present rarely screened genres of cinema as well as avant-garde and ethno-cultural documentaries, which expand the boundaries of cinema. Oddball Films is the largest film archive in Northern California and one of the most unusual private collections in the US. We invite you to join us in our weekly offerings of offbeat cinema.
Curator’s Biography
Kat Shuchter is a graduate of UC Berkeley in Film Studies. She is a filmmaker, artist and esoteric film hoarder. She has helped program shows at the PFA, The Nuart and Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theater and was crowned “Found Footage Queen” of Los Angeles, 2009. She has programmed over 150 shows at Oddball on everything from puberty primers to experimental animation.
About Oddball Films
Oddball films is a stock footage company providing offbeat and unusual film footage for feature films like Milk, documentaries like The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, Silicon Valley, Kurt Cobain: The Montage of Heck, television programs like Mythbusters, clips for Boing Boing and web projects around the world.
Our screenings are almost exclusively drawn from our collection of over 50,000 16mm prints of animation, commercials, educational films, feature films, movie trailers, medical, industrial military, news out-takes and every genre in between. We’re actively working to present rarely screened genres of cinema as well as avant-garde and ethno-cultural documentaries, which expand the boundaries of cinema. Oddball Films is the largest film archive in Northern California and one of the most unusual private collections in the US. We invite you to join us in our weekly offerings of offbeat cinema.