Walt Disney On The Front Lines

Education for Death (1x27)

Uitzenddatum: Jan 01, 1943

After an unskippable 65-second intro from Leonard Maltin meant to prepare you for this grim, fabled short, Education for Death opens with the question, "What makes a Nazi?" A couple informs the Nazi government that a son has born to them. They insist he is fully Aryan and get a copy of Mein Kampf and approval to name him "Hans." In Kindergarten, Hans learns the story of "Sleeping Beauty" in which the prince is Hitler, portrayed as guttural and insane. Sleeping Beauty is an obese woman with a Viking helmet who represents Germany. Hitler becomes a hero for Hans, who is being weaned into a fearless and hateful young man. Some dramatic, stylized animation distinguishes this from the other shorts in this collection. Though it employs a tiny bit of humour, its subject matter is about as dark as possible and it is more than a bit disturbing. As Maltin states, though, that was the point of it.