A Brief History of Animation

The art of animation can be traced back to the Paleolithic era, with the art form evolving from simple cave drawings to Egyptian hieroglyphs, to flipbooks and thaumatropes. Over time, the technology and techniques used in animation improved beyond what anyone could have imagined thousands of years ago, with larger budgets and greater scope than ever before. However, animation is more than squash-and-stretch characters, zany gags, and outrageous set-pieces. It has proven itself to be a powerful tool for a variety of purposes, from the dramatic to the business-oriented, and even as a political propaganda tool. Meanwhile, those who opposed conflict and sought to promote peace were hard at work creating animations of their own. This article will explore these facets of animation.

World War II and the Wartime Cartoon

On September 1^st, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, unleashing World War II. While the United States maintained neutrality at first, on December 7^th, 1941, the Imperial Japanese army attacked Pearl Harbor, prompting the US to declare war. During this period, the most popular animation studios of the 1930s and 1940s, Walt Disney Studios and Warner Bros. Cartoons, produced an array of shorts that served as propaganda tools. These animations featured the likes of Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and even characters facing off against the Axis Powers in an array of irreverent gags, anti-fascist sentiment and nationalistic themes. These cartoons ultimately helped boost morale and patriotism within civilian audiences. Even the military had its own set of cartoons; Private Snafu, produced by Warner Bros. Cartoons, humorously depicted various scenarios within military ranks and life overall. Meanwhile, Japan likewise produced animated shorts for its wartime effort, with many of those shorts preceding what became the modern anime industry years later. 

Wartime Cartoons, Starring Racism

The entrenchment of racism in World War II was reflected in many wartime cartoons, as they featured an array of vicious racial stereotypes and fearmongering often designed to demonize the enemy. Racial, sexual and gender-based stereotyping in comedic animation at the time was already prevalent, but the wartime cartoon sub-genre presented these stereotypes in a way not replicated again until the rise of web animations decades later.

Depiction of the Enemy

Many US-based animated shorts featured parodies of Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito, such as The Ducktators and Der Fuehrer’s Face. Both of these animations featured satirical while at the same time perpetuating stereotypes against black people. As for the other Axis power, many US-produced shorts featured explicitly racist depictions of Japanese people and soldiers; meanwhile, anime shorts featured an equal amount of blackface and unflattering depictions of Allied forces, with one notable example being Momotaro: Sacred Sailors.

The Peace Animation

Following the end of World War II, a new conflict had arrived: the Cold War. The development of nuclear weapons, the founding of NATO and of the Warsaw Pact left an indelible mark on the world. From the 1960s-1980s, the peace movement in the West was at its height. With the people demanding peace, many peace-themed films and shorts released in the 1980s. A notable animation among these was When the Wind Blows, first a graphic novel by the late Raymond Briggs, subsequently turned into an animated film. The animation focuses on Jim and Hilda Bloggs, a loving elderly couple residing in the English county of Sussex who try to survive after a nuclear attack. Compared to many of its contemporaries at the time, the film stood out for its blend of innocence, humanity, and horror, advocating a powerful anti-war message.

Japan’s Plead for Peace

Japan also produced animated films that promoted peace, such as Barefoot Gen and Future War 198X. Barefoot Gen was a historical manga adapted into an animated film in 1983. Its story is loosely based on mangaka Keiji Nakazawa’s experiences following the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The year before Barefoot Gen’s film adaptation saw the release of Future War 198X, which was regarded as the Japanese anime equivalent to nuclear war films such as The Day After and Threads. These films, despite being animated, graphically show the toll of war, both conventional and nuclear, on human beings and animals alike. They featured angry and sometimes satirical criticisms of the logic that leads to war, war preparedness strategies, and human existence after such destruction. These films desperately pleaded for peace in an era that did not seem to recognize it.

War and Peace Animation Today

As the art form of animation evolves alongside improving technology, many creators now have democratized access to the tools and information needed to create new and challenging pieces of animation. These animations tell a variety of relevant stories. For example, Waltz with Bashir is a 2008 anti-war documentary focusing on director Ari Folman’s service in Israel’s Defense Forces, the IDF, during the invasion of Lebanon. Japanese animations are a bit more mixed: on the one hand, much of Studio Ghibli’s output, particularly their adaptation of Grave of the Fireflies, features consistent anti-war themes and visuals. In contrast, the mobile phone game Kantai Collection featured anthropomorphized versions of WWII-era battleships depicted as cute and sometimes sexualized women. Many other games and anime franchises that depicted anthropomorphized women as weapons were promoted by the Japan Self-Defense Forces, leading to concerns about them being military propaganda, or to preserve Japanese war memories.

The Influence Artificial Intelligence on Animation

The rise of generative AI raises further questions about the future of animation as a propaganda tool or a means for peace. With the development of more advanced AI generation tools, wartime cartoons and peace animations may increasingly take the form of AI-generated images and videos. At the current stage, outright replacement of traditional or computer-generated animation may be challenging due to the instability exhibited by many AI programs and the potential of an AI bubble burst. However, AI-generated animation continues to improve significantly at a rapid pace and scale. Regardless of how it is created, animation continues to grow and evolve, alongside proving itself to be a versatile art form.