Strange & Vicious War Cartoons

Film archivist Dennis Nyback presents this 16mm program. Lineup includes:

Cap’n Cub (1945) Ted Eshbaugh was a talented cartoonist responsible for the cult hit The Sunshine Makers.  Hard to figure what he was thinking here. The real problem was probably that the war ended and there was no place for a lovable killer teddy bear.

The Sinking of the Lusitania (1918) This monumental work of early animation took Winsor McCay over two years to produce. It was based on the event of May 7, 1915 when the German U-Boat U-20 torpedoed and sank the passenger ship RMS Lusitania with a loss of life of 1,198. It inflamed American fervor to get into the war. McCay, in the era before cel animation, drew over 25,000 drawings  to create this work.

The Draft Horse  (1942) Chuck Jones created this curiously pacifistic war cartoon which features the only public appearance of Private Snafu.  It is the tale of horse who wants to get in to the war and fight, until he gets a taste of how horrible war is, and decides to sit out the war knitting sweaters for the war effort.

Russian Rhapsody (1944) Bob Clampett created this fast paced romp in which Hitler is defeated by the “Gremlins from the Kremlin.”

Plus More!
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Showtimes

Tuesday, May 17