Grandpa squirrel tells the tale of how men couldn’t stop fighting each other and, finally, the last two men on the planet shot each other to death.
Harman employs some melodramatics in showing the last man on Earth dying during a World War One-type trench war.
The short is set at Christmas time, as the little animals sing “Peace on Earth” to the melody of “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.”
Harman began planning this cartoon before World War Two began. Its anti-war message was still welcome at the time of its release. I imagine it wouldn’t have been once Pearl Harbor was attacked. The story (by Charles McGirl?) talks of a war between vegetarians and meat eaters. After December 7, 1941, America was involved in a war far less trivial.
The background art and effects animation are outstanding. It is shame whoever was responsible for it never got credit.
Hanna-Barbera's CinemaScope remake "Good Will to Men" is less effective, graphically sterile in comparison to its predecessor, but there's still some good rotoscoping and--being the fifties--they're able to climax the war sequence with a nuclear explosion. And it got nominated for an Oscar too. But no Mel Blanc to do Grandpa's (in the new version a choirmaster mouse) voice.
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