First and foremost, the answer is no. I just wanted to get that out of the way immediately, because as a lifelong Walt Disney admirer, the very question offends me. Nevertheless I feel that it is worth addressing because there are some people under the very unfortunate impression that Disney was some sort of Hitler supporter. In fact, if you enter the words “Was Walt Disney” into Google, the very first auto-fill suggestion is “Was Walt Disney a Nazi?”

This bogus conspiracy seems to have its roots in a couple of different places: first, in the belief that Walt Disney was an anti-Semite (another slanderous mistruth that I will address in a separate article next week), and second, in an old Mickey Mouse cartoon entitled ‘The Wayward Canary’ (1932), in which a lighter is briefly seen with a swastika drawn on the side.

No one is quite sure why Disney included the swastika image, but the cartoon was made years before Hitler’s invasion of Poland and even before the rise of the Third Reich, during a time when nobody really knew what Nazism would ultimately mean for the world. Most likely, the inclusion of the swastika was intended as a nod to the German people as Disney was constantly interested in reaching overseas audiences.

The most common “evidence” that people use in support of the Disney-Nazi theory, though, is an entirely different cartoon, ironically a popular American propaganda cartoon from 1943 entitled ‘Der Fuehrer’s Face,’ which features the character of Donald Duck as a reluctant Nazi living in Germany during World War II.

In the cartoon, Donald can be seen saluting Hitler several times, marching with other Nazis and even greeting portraits of the Axis leaders Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Emperor Hirohito. It was created to support the war effort in America, and despite some incorrect descriptions on various websites, it was never banned (at least in America). It was however, kept out of general circulation for many years due to its esoteric content. Check out the cartoon for yourself.

At first the footage seems shocking, but in fact the cartoon is completely pro-American, with Axis leaders drawn as caricatures and Nazis portrayed as oppressive tyrants who enslave the German people while demanding the highest level of conformity. In the end, it all turns out to be a nightmare, and Donald is seen waking up and kissing a small replica of the Statute of Liberty. If you watch the cartoon from start to finish, you’ll see that that alone is enough to completely put to rest the theory that Walt Disney was in any way a Nazi sympathizer. Disney also produced other anti-Nazi films during the war, including ‘Education for Death – the Making of a Nazi,’ and ‘Commando Duck.’

Is it shameless American propaganda? Absolutely. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? You can decide that for yourself. But was Walt Disney a Nazi? I think you have your answer.

ANAHEIM — Famed cartoon curmudgeon Donald Duck was arrested today after authorites received obscenity complaints from several guests at the Disney Resort in Anaheim. “It just sickens me,” said Mary Ballard, who filed one of the formal complaints. “You can’t even take your kids to Disneyland anymore without having to see this smut.”

The complaints stemmed from the fact that the duck was completely exposed from the waist down, wearing only a shirt and a hat. When police apprehended him, he reportedly became belligerent. “Mr. Duck started waving his fists in the air,” said Officer Mike Black of the Anaheim PD, “and kept shouting ‘What’s the big idea?’ When I cuffed him, he began screaming a bunch of words I couldn’t understand, but I’m pretty sure at one point he called me a [bleep]ing pig.”

This isn’t the first time that Mr. Duck’s pantsless antics have landed him in hot water. Parents have long expressed concern over the fact that when their small children hug him, their faces are perfectly aligned between his naked thighs. “We have to stop giving celebrities a free pass,” said Officer Black. “I mean, first Roman Polanski, and now this? But look, people. If a grown man wearing only a sailor hat and a bowtie started wandering around an amusement park hugging your children, would you tolerate it? I really don’t think so.”

Bail for Mr. Duck is set at $10,000.

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