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Peace on Earth (film)

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(Redirected from Good Will to Men)

Peace on Earth
Title card
Directed byHugh Harman
Story by
  • Jack Cosgriff
  • Charles McGirl
Produced by
Starring
Music byScott Bradley
Animation by
Production
companies
Distributed byLoew's Inc.
Release date
  • December 9, 1939 (1939-12-09)
Running time
9 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

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.

Plot

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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;" the animals agree, using men's devices of war to build a human-like city called Peaceville, which is 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."

Accolades

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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).

Remake

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Good Will to Men
Directed by
Story by
  • William Hanna
  • Joseph Barbera
Produced by
StarringElmore Vincent
June Foray
Sandy Descher
Mitchell Boys Choir[6]
Music byScott Bradley
Animation by
Layouts byDick Bickenbach
Backgrounds by
  • Robert Gentle
  • Don Driscoll
Color process
Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • December 23, 1955 (1955-12-23)
Running time
9 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

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.

Home media

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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.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Scott, Keith (October 3, 2022). Cartoon Voices of the Golden Age, Vol. 2. BearManor Media. p. 110. Retrieved October 2, 2022.
  2. ^ "Hugh Harman, 79, Creator Of 'Looney Tunes' Cartoons". New York Times. November 30, 1982.
  3. ^ a b Barbera, Joseph (1994). My Life in "Toons": From Flatbush to Bedrock in Under a Century. Atlanta, GA: Turner Publishing. pp. 72–73. ISBN 978-1-57036-042-8.
  4. ^ "The Nomination Database for the Nobel Peace Prize, 1901–1955". nobelprize.org.
  5. ^ Beck, Jerry (1994). The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals. Turner Publishing. ISBN 978-1878685490.
  6. ^ Scott, Keith (October 3, 2022). Cartoon Voices of the Golden Age, Vol. 2. BearManor Media. p. 129. Retrieved October 2, 2022.
  7. ^ Crump, William D. (2019). Happy Holidays—Animated! A Worldwide Encyclopedia of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year's Cartoons on Television and Film. McFarland & Co. p. 121. ISBN 9781476672939.
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Wikiquote has quotations related to Peace on Earth (film).
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