| Peace on Earth | |
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 Title card | |
| Directed by | Hugh Harman |
| Story by |
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| Music by | Scott Bradley |
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| Distributed by | Loew's Inc. |
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Running time | 9 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Peace on Earth is a one-reel 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon short directed by Hugh Harman, about a post-apocalyptic world populated only by animals, after human beings have gone extinct due to war.
On Christmas Eve, two young squirrels ask their grandfather (voiced by Mel Blanc) who the "men" are in the phrase "Peace on Earth, good will to men." The grandfather explains that men went extinct when he was a young child, and that he could never make sense of the creatures, whom he perceived as like monsters due to having only ever seen them wearing gas masks and carrying guns with bayonets. Through flashbacks, he recalls that men were always going to war, finding one thing to fight over as soon as another was settled, with the arguments becoming increasingly frivolous and arbitrary. In scenes of devastation reminiscent of World War I, they fight until there are only two combatants left; each fatally shoots the other, as one is seen slowly and defiantly sinking into the mire to death.
In the ruins of a church, animals—among them the young squirrel who would later become the grandfather—come out of hiding to find a Bible open to "Thou shalt not kill." An owl reads the words, determining they were a rulebook that men ignored. Leafing past the Ten Commandments, the owl finds “Ye shall rebuild the old wastes” (paraphrasing Isaiah 58:12 and 61:4). The animals agree, using men’s devices of war to build a human-like city called Peaceville, where the animals live in the present. The grandchildren have fallen asleep, as their grandmother tucks them in.
Throughout the film, a Christmas carol, using the melody of "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," is featured with altered lyrics emphasizing "peace on Earth, good will to men."
According to Hugh Harman's obituary in The New York Times [2] and Ben Mankiewicz, host of Cartoon Alley , the cartoon was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. [3] However, it is not listed in the official Nobel Prize nomination database. [4] Mankiewicz also claimed that the cartoon was the first about a serious subject by a major studio. In 1994, it was voted #40 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field. [5]
It was also nominated for the 1939 Academy Award for Short Subjects (Cartoons). It did not claim that honor (which instead went to Walt Disney's Silly Symphony The Ugly Duckling ).
| Good Will to Men | |
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| Starring | Elmore Vincent June Foray Sandy Descher Mitchell Boys Choir [6] |
| Music by | Scott Bradley |
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| Layouts by | Dick Bickenbach |
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| Color process | |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date |
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Running time | 9 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Fred Quimby, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera remade the cartoon in CinemaScope in 1955. [3] This post-World War II version of the film, entitled Good Will to Men, is narrated by a deacon mouse who tells the story to a choir of mice preparing for a Christmas service. Good Will to Men featured updated and even more destructive forms of warfare technology such as flamethrowers, bazookas and missiles, and instead of the final battle being man-to-man, humanity is driven to extinction by a mutually assured nuclear holocaust. [7] This version did not explain why humans were constantly at war, only that the deacon believed they were eager to kill each other for killing's sake; it also does not reference the line of rebuilding, instead quoting love your neighbor as yourself as the foundation for society's future. This new version was also nominated for the Best Animated Short Subject Oscar, but lost to Speedy Gonzales . This film was the last animated production for producer Fred Quimby before his retirement in May 1955.
Both Peace on Earth and Good Will to Men are included, digitally restored and uncut, on the Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Academy Awards Animation Collection DVD set. Peace on Earth is also included as an extra on the A Christmas Carol DVD and Blu-ray from Warner Brothers and The Mortal Storm Blu-ray by Warner Archive Collection.
Frederick Clinton Quimby was an American animation producer and journalist best known for producing the Tom and Jerry cartoon series, for which he won seven Academy Awards for Best Animated Short Films. He was the film sales executive in charge of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio, which included Tex Avery, Droopy, Butch Dog, Barney Bear, Michael Lah and multiple one-shot cartoons, as well as William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, the creators of Tom and Jerry.
The golden age of American animation was a period that began with the popularization of sound synchronized cartoons in 1928 and gradually ended in the 1960s when theatrical animated shorts started to lose popularity to the newer medium of television. Animated media from after the golden age, especially on television, were produced on cheaper budgets and with more limited techniques between the late 1950s and 1980s.
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Hugh Harman was an American animator. He was known for creating the Warner Bros. Cartoons and MGM Cartoons studios and his collaboration with Rudolf Ising during the Golden Age of American animation.
Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising were an American animation team and company known for founding the Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animation studios. In 1929, the studio was founded under the name Harman-Ising Productions, producing Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies for Leon Schlesinger from 1930 to 1933. From 1934 to 1938, Harman-Ising produced the Happy Harmonies series, with William Hanna as their employee.
Rudolf Carl "Rudy" Ising was an American animator best known for collaborating with Hugh Harman to establish the Warner Bros. and MGM Cartoon studios during the early years of the golden age of American animation. In 1940, Ising produced William Hanna and Joseph Barbera's first cartoon, Puss Gets the Boot, a cartoon featuring characters later known as Tom and Jerry.
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The Milky Way is a one-reel animated cartoon short subject, produced in Technicolor and released to theatres with the film The Captain Is a Lady in 1940 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The short explores the adventures of the "three little kittens who lost their mittens", as they explore a dreamland where space is made up entirely of dairy products. The short won the 1940 Oscar for Best Animated Short Film, and was the first non-Disney film to do so. Other shorts nominated in 1940 included A Wild Hare by Warner Bros., introducing Bugs Bunny, and another MGM cartoon Puss Gets the Boot, with Jasper & Jinx, the prototype for Tom and Jerry. This makes 1940 the first time a Disney film wasn't even nominated for the award. It was added as a bonus feature in the Marx Bros. DVD release of Go West (1940) and Warner Archive Blu-ray release of Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940).
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The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio was an American animation studio operated by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer during the Golden Age of American animation. Active from 1937 until 1957, the studio was responsible for producing animated shorts to accompany MGM feature films in Loew's Theaters, which included popular cartoon characters Tom, Jerry, Droopy, Butch, Spike, Tyke, and Barney Bear.
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