The Ducktators

The Ducktators is a Looney Tunes cartoon that was released in 1942 by Norman McCabe. The cartoon satirizes various events of World War II.

Story

The cartoon takes place on a farm, beginning with numerous animals being shown. After a brief few moments, two ducks (who are expecting a duckling) go over to their egg after it starts to hatch; once the egg has hatched, a baby duck with a Hitler moustache emerges and yells "Sieg Heil!" while giving the Nazi salute. After time passes the baby duck grows into adulthood, holding aggressive speeches toward other ducks and geese; one goose who was listening agrees with him and gives the nazi salute. The goose, representing Benito Mussolini, then delivers a speech to the only listener: a baby chicken who had been forced to stay and applaudes. After these happenings, storm troopers are sent marching across the area, while one, a dove (who symbolises peace), grieves at what has happened. The duck and the goose are then seen at what appears to be a peace conference, in which the duck slaps the goose and puts the newly-signed peace treaty through a shredder. Another duck holding the flag of the Empire of Japan is seen swimming across water and placing the flag on a tiny island, that is actually a turtle, who emerges from the water and chases the duck. The three (the two ducks and the goose) then are seen marching (and singing) across a field. The dove then tries to reason with the storm troopers, however they don't listen and trample him. The dove then can be seen fighting (and beating) the three. After random fighting, the story ends, with the dove victorious.

Political references

The original duck to hatch from the egg had a moustache and a Nazi emblem throughout the cartoon, indicating that the duck symbolised Adolf Hitler. The goose who helped the duck had an open Italian accent, and the baby chicken at the end of one of his speeches could be heard yelling "Duce!" multiple times, indicating that this goose is Benito Mussolini. The third who was also a duck was using the flag of the Empire of Japan, and openly singing "I'm the Japanese Sandman", indicating that this was a reference to Hideki Tojo. Also, the Japanese duck was hit over the head at the end by a rabbit with a moustache, who spoke with a British accent.

Censorship

The ending where the dove is sitting with his kids and points out that his enemies have been defeated (and are now mooseheads above the fireplace), followed by a notice to buy war bonds, has been rarely seen since the short was syndicated to television through Gulid Films in the 1950's. As the cartoon is in the public domain, this edited version has frequently been found on VHS and DVD home video collections (with the exception of the sixth volume of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection, which has this cartoon's full ending). When Cartoon Network aired this cartoon as part of a ToonHeads episode about Norm McCabe's cartoons, the ending was shown uncut.

Availability

The complete version was made available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 6 on October 21, 2008.

External links

• Full video
• IMDb page