WWII had a tremendous effect on the world as we once knew it. There was a distinct division between the western and the eastern worldviews that can also be seen in the animation that was produced by its style, aesthetic, and purpose.
Firstly, it is noteworthy that before WWII, western animation studios such as Disney dominated the animation industry and had a worldwide distribution. In contrast, many of the pre-war animations in eastern culture were destroyed or banned.
In the east, the governments almost entirely controlled and funded the animation industry. These governments knew that animation was a great way to gain more power and use it for educational purposes. The animation was produced for propaganda and to promote these governments’ socialist values and the communist agenda. In Japan, there was the film control committee (created in 1934) that made sure that film production was entirely overlooked by the government. It was also looking to limit the influence of foreign cultures (especially western influence) and ideologies by preventing animation imports. The eastern aesthetic was more superficial and constantly tried to avoid mimicking the Disney style, and each country has created its own animation style.
In the west, we can see that animation studios are privately owned, such as Disney studios in the US and Halas & Batchelor studios in Europe. Even though the government was sponsoring some of the studio’s projects, especially during the war, these studios were never under the government’s control. The governments of the western side encouraged local productions and studios, and these studios balanced between advertising and government-sponsored projects and personal productions and entertainment films. The western countries’ aesthetics usually mimicked the Disney style at the time and tended to be more detailed.
