The Spirit of '43
About The Spirit of '43
Donald Duck gets his week's pay and is pulled two ways. A thrifty duck in Scottish clothes tells him to save the money for his income tax. A spendthrift in a zoot suit tells him to blow it. The two tear apart, and one is shown as a friend of Hitler. Donald chooses to save and pay the tax. The rest of the short, reused from The New Spirit, shows the money going into planes, ships, and bombs.
Cast & crew
More about The Spirit of '43
Jack King directed. Carl Barks wrote the story and designed the thrifty duck. Walt Disney produced it. Clarence Nash speaks Donald. Fred Shields narrates. Ward Kimball animated. Walt Disney Studios released it in January 1943 as a sequel to The New Spirit.
Themes
Background
The Treasury used it in January 1943 to push Americans to file income-tax returns and pay for the war.
Making
Barks's saver is the same tightfisted duck he later named Scrooge McDuck.
Music
The war montage uses Beethoven's Fifth Symphony under the line about taxes burying the Axis.
Preservation
The short is in the public domain in the United States.
Notes
- The thrifty duck, in Scottish clothes, is Carl Barks's early design for Scrooge McDuck.
- The title points at the phrase Spirit of '76.
- The second half reuses the war-materials montage from The New Spirit (1942).
- The film is in the public domain in the United States.
Scenes
- The saver and the spender pull Donald in opposite directions.
- The spender is revealed as a friend of Hitler.
- Donald walks off to pay the tax.
Influenced by
- The New Spirit (1942)
Also available
- Internet Archive (TheSpiritOf43_56)
Quotes
Taxes to defeat the Axis.
