Peace on Earth
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Peace on Earth |
| Original title | Peace on Earth |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1939 |
| length | 9 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Hugh Harman |
| production |
Fred Quimby , Hugh Harman for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| music | Scott Bradley |
Peace on Earth is an American animated short film directed by Hugh Harman from 1939. The animated film with a clear anti-war message was released shortly after the start of World War II and was nominated for an Oscar .
action
Christmas Eve in a snowy small town. Three squirrels sing the Christmas carol Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men . A squirrel father listens to them and then goes home. His wife knits, the little children slept and woke up when their father entered. He repeats the words "Peace to Earth, Good Will to Men" and the two squirrel children want to know who the "men" actually are in the song.
The squirrel father tells the story of the people: They were large, always armed beings who got into arguments and waged wars for every conceivable reason . Even the vegetarians and meat eaters fought. He depicts fights for his children, tracks shooters behind machine guns and reports on bombs and aerial wars. The last two people who were left after all the wars also shot each other in the end.
The world was now without people. The animals came out, including the squirrel father, who was a kid at the time. All the animals gathered in a bombed-out church, where the Bible was still open on the pulpit. “ You shall not kill ” ( Exodus 20:13), the eagle owl read from it and everyone agreed that mankind has hardly read this book. The eagle owl turned the page of the Bible. He read “Ye shall rebuild the old wastes.” (Eng. “You should rebuild the old ruins”, Isaiah 58:12) and the animals then built Peacetown. The helmets of the fallen soldiers were converted into roofs or whole houses and swords were used as lamp posts.
The squirrel father, who lives in Peacetown, ends his story. Both children fell asleep in his arms. Silent Night sounds, the mother squirrel covers her children and sings along with the line “Sleep in Heavenly Peace”.
production
Peace on Earth was published on December 9, 1939. The animated film announced its anti-war message shortly before Christmas and shortly after the outbreak of World War II , which at the time was still limited to Europe.
Peace on Earth, good will to men is a new text for the Christmas carol Hark! The Herald Angels Sing . The squirrel father, who also tells the entire story, is voiced in the original by Mel Blanc .
In 1955 MGM brought out Good Will to Men, a remake of Peace on Earth , which was nominated for an Oscar.
Awards
Peace on Earth was nominated in 1940 for an Oscar in the category " Best Animated Short Film ", but could not prevail against The Ugly Duckling .
The 1982 New York Times obituary for Hugh Harman and other sources wrote that Peace on Earth was a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1940 . However, this was not awarded during the Second World War from 1939 to 1943.
Web links
- Peace on earth in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hugh Harman, 79, Creator Of 'Looney Tunes' Cartoons . In: New York Times , November 30, 1982. Retrieved October 28, 2018.
- ↑ Hugh Harman. In: Turner Classic Movies . Retrieved October 28, 2018 .
- ↑ The official website nobelprize.org neither lists nor mentions the film.