The Grain That Built a Hemisphere
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The Grain That Built a Hemisphere |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1943 |
| length | 10 mins |
| Rod | |
| Director |
Bill Justice Bill Roberts |
| production | Walt Disney |
| music | Edward H. Plumb |
The Grain That Built a Hemisphere (English for "the grain that created a hemisphere ") is an American cartoon . The approximately ten-minute film was directed by Bill Justice and Bill Roberts , who remained anonymous, and is about corn .
action
The documentary first shows the presumed predecessor of today's corn, the plant teosinte and lemongrass . Subsequently, the indigenous people of South America are shown, who mainly act as hunters and only find out over time that edible foods can be made from plant products, especially from grain. The film shows the first attempts at cultivation, with offerings to the grain god. The Mayans are said to have built huge places of worship for their grain god. A Mayan pyramid and the Mayan rites to promote maize cultivation are presented. The Aztecs and their customs follow . Then you can see how corn continues to spread across the world. The following is a list of products in which corn is still used today, such as cornbread , popcorn and tortillas .
After looking back, modern forms of cultivation and varieties are shown. The following are the types of use, especially the production of fodder. On a farm you can see the animals competing to get their corn. After that, a chemist is shown who makes various products, such as beer , glucose, and sugar. This is followed by an outlook on future uses of the maize, for example as fuel or as construction material. The film ends with a look back at the discovery of corn. The narrator thanks the Indian and asks the question of the importance of corn for future generations.
background
Walt Disney had the short film created for the Canadian government during World War II . The Office of the Coordinator for Inter-American Affairs took over the patronage . The film was intended as a propaganda film and, like ten other films by the Disney group, aimed at the states of North, Central and South America, hence the mention of the Aztecs and the Mayas. The priority was to create a “bond of unity and solidarity” during the Second World War and to emphasize commonalities. Due to the temporal circumstances, the film also shows the possible use as an explosive and fuel, but also emphasizes the important role of maize in supplying the world's population.
The feeding scene was taken from the short film Farmyard Symphony (1938) in the Silly Symphonies series . Other images come from Dumbo (1941), Bambi (1942) and the propaganda film The New Spirit (1942). A scene with Richard Wagner's Treulich from the opera Lohengrin is accompanied by music .
The short film received an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary in 1943 . The film is now public domain in the United States and is available on the WWII archives of the Internet Archive website. It was published there and in Canada on the DVD Walt Disney on the Front Lines - The War Years in the series Walt Disney Treasures .
Web links
- The Grain That Built a Hemisphere in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Also named in the opening monologue of the film: "a common bond of union and solidarity"
- ↑ Steven Watts: The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life . University of Missouri Press, 2001, ISBN 978-0-8262-1379-2 , pp. 230 .
- ^ The Grain that Built a Hemisphere. Dr. Grob's Animation Review, April 12, 2012, accessed February 14, 2013 .
- ^ Richard J. Lesowsky: Cartoons Will Win the War: World War Two Propaganda Shorts . In: A. Bowdoin Van Riper (Ed.): Learning from Mickey, Donald and Walt: Essays on Disney's Edutainment Films . McFarland & Co. year = 2011, Jefferson NC, S. 47-48 ( thecinetourist.net ).
- ^ Academy Awards 1943. Internet Movie Database , accessed February 13, 2013 .
- ^ The Grain That Built A Hemisphere. Internet Archive , accessed February 13, 2013 .
- ↑ The Grain That Built a Hemisphere in the online film database