Der Fuehrer's Face (1942): Disney animated short
Der Fuehrer's Face is the Walt Disney short named as Short Subject (Cartoon) winner at the 15th Academy Awards, a ceremony the Academy describes as honoring movies released in 1942. The FRAME snapshot holds no still with recorded rights, so this page shows none.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences lists Der Fuehrer's Face, Walt Disney as producer, as the winner for Short Subject (Cartoon) at the 15th Academy Awards. The Academy page for that ceremony says it honors movies released in 1942. This page takes the year from that description. It does not add a day and month the Academy page does not print.
Wikipedia's article on the short says Walt Disney Productions made it and that Donald Duck is in it. That is the source for the character's name on this page. The article's January 1, 1943 release line is flagged there as a self-published citation, so that day is not repeated here. This page does not retell the plot.
Why was Donald Duck a Nazi?
That question uses a title this site does not use. The record above is a Disney short named Der Fuehrer's Face, listed by the Academy among 1942 releases, with Donald Duck named by Wikipedia as a character in it. The short is not a statement that the character held office in the Nazi Party. No frame is shown, because the FRAME snapshot does not contain a still of the film with rights recorded on the object.
The poster is a separate object
The snapshot does hold a 1942 Treasury sheet that prints "Right in Der Fuehrer's Face!" and asks the viewer to buy bonds: Right in Der Fuehrer's Face. The FRAME record calls the pictured face a caricature of Hitler. That sheet is not a film still, and it is not labeled with the character's name. A 1941 Appreciate America poster of Donald Duck, NAID 513868, is a different object and is not this short.
Map animation that the National Archives attributes to Disney studio staff inside the Army film Prelude to War is also a different job of work. That film is Prelude to War (1942). The parent topic is anti-Nazi propaganda.
Sources
- Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, "The 15th Academy Awards | 1943," oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1943. The page is headed "Honoring movies released in 1942" and lists Der Fuehrer's Face, Walt Disney, Producer, as Short Subject (Cartoon).
- Wikipedia, "Der Fuehrer's Face," as of the revision consulted 5 October 2026, for the producer credit Walt Disney Productions and for Donald Duck as a character in the short. The January 1, 1943 date on that article is not used here.
- FRAME object record, Right in Der Führer's Face, 1942, for the Treasury poster only.
