I was amazed when PEACE ON EARTH began, as its animation was simply beautiful--much more than most Harmon-Ising pictures for MGM. You can really tell that the animation department pulled out all the stops to make this film--with amazingly lovely snow scenes and characters that really showed a ton of effort to construct.
The overall message to this short, ironically, is anti-war. During the 1930s there were many anti-war films and this would be one of the last. That's because the hopes and dreams of a peaceful world were dashed with the onset of WWII in September, 1939. Just a few years later, some of the very same animators that made this film were making propaganda films to bolster the US efforts once we entered this global war! The problem with this message is that it does come off as very heavy-handed and preachy. While in 1939 many loved the anti-war message, within a short time the film was to seem quaint and incredibly over-idealistic thanks to the ferocity of the war and the new nuclear age. Overall, it's lovely to look at but horribly dated and preachy--though I do admit it had a very strange ending that made it more tolerable.
The overall message to this short, ironically, is anti-war. During the 1930s there were many anti-war films and this would be one of the last. That's because the hopes and dreams of a peaceful world were dashed with the onset of WWII in September, 1939. Just a few years later, some of the very same animators that made this film were making propaganda films to bolster the US efforts once we entered this global war! The problem with this message is that it does come off as very heavy-handed and preachy. While in 1939 many loved the anti-war message, within a short time the film was to seem quaint and incredibly over-idealistic thanks to the ferocity of the war and the new nuclear age. Overall, it's lovely to look at but horribly dated and preachy--though I do admit it had a very strange ending that made it more tolerable.