We will look at how different national animated productions developed in the aftermath of WWII, and how they were shaped by geo-political factors.<\/p>\n
Jump to the different sections with the links below:<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Overview of the Post War Global Context<\/a> | Great Britain <\/a> | Canada<\/a> | France<\/a> |\u00a0<\/i>Japan<\/a><\/i>\u00a0| China<\/a> | Soviet Union (USSR) <\/a>| Czechoslovakia<\/a> | The Zagreb School<\/a> |\u00a0<\/i>Assignment<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n WWII (1939-1945) left much of the world in turmoil. The trauma of the Holocaust, the destruction of European cities, civilian casualties, the fall of fascist regimes, and the rise of Communist governments and censorship would lead to a complete shift in world economics, politics, and cultural output.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In contrast to Europe, the USA (who had won the war with their allies: Great Britain and the Soviet Union) were experiencing a social and economic boom: policies encouraging returning soldiers to get an education and to buy homes led to the “baby boom” (a period marked by a significant increase of birth rate). Jobs were plentiful as f<\/span>actories which had been used to manufacture weapons were repurposed to produce consumer goods. <\/span><\/p>\n It is important to note that these socially-minded policies did not apply to African-American veterans. Segregation, racial violence, and state racism were still the conditions under which African-American citizens lived for much of the late 1940s – 1960s. While the civil-rights movement led to many important legislations in the fight for equality, systemic racism is still alive and well today. The fact that African-America families weren’t given the same benefits as their white counterparts after WWII, accounts for a lot of the social disparities in today’s America.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A sense of foreign threat, and belief in the need to maintain a strong military, was still very present in the USA after WWII’s victory. The Soviets (who had been the USA’s allies during the war) were now perceived as enemies as the two global powers vied for influence and control over the post-war world. While this fight never reached US soil (thus the term “Cold\u00a0<\/em>War” (1947\u20131991)), it devastated many countries (i.e: Korea, Chile, Vietnam, Afghanistan – to name just a few) where the Soviet and American government provided resources to their respective supporters. The threat of a nuclear attack was also an everyday reality as the USSR and China acquired the bomb which had been used by the US to destroy Hiroshima & Nagasaki during WWII. While Communist regimes were very restrictive and punitive – in some cases responsible for mass murder – America led its own type of censorship during the Cold War: the US government s<\/span>tarted investigating, prosecuting, and in some cases executing, its own citizens who were suspected of having communist ties. Artists such as Charlie Chaplin (filmmaker), Langston Hughes (poet), and Leonard Bernstein (composer) were “Blacklisted” (meaning that they weren’t allowed to work, publish, and\/or get funding), and some left the country.<\/span><\/p>\n While the fight for political power was difficult at times, the US was winning on the cultural front: American popular-culture was flowing into many nations and becoming increasingly popular – including American animation which dominated worldwide distribution. Many<\/span>\u00a0nations emulated the Disney style, as in Italy\u2019s first feature-film \u201cLa Rosa di Bagdad\u201d (\u201cThe Rose of Baghdad\u201d)<\/strong> (1949) by Anton Gino Domenighini (the film was released in the US in 1952 and Julie Andrews even provided the princesse’s voice. See excerpt (3 min) below). <\/span>Governments were aware of the power of cinema and animation – both economically and culturally – and wanted local alternatives to American films.\u00a0In some countries, government funding was provided to encourage production and led to a thriving animation culture.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a>Overview of the Post War Global Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n