The New Spirit (1942)
0h 7m | PG-13
Animated documentary promoting timely filing and payment of Federal income taxes, demonstrated by Donald Duck's difficulties with his tax return.
Director: Wilfred Jackson
Studio: U.S. Department of Treasury
Genre: Animation
Video: 720p
Cast
Clarence Nash
as Donald Duck (voice) (uncredited)
Fred Shields
as Radio Announcer (voice) (uncredited)
Cliff Edwards
as (voice) (uncredited)
Reviews
I know that money isn’t what it was, but even in 1942 I’d have thought poor old “Donald” would be on more than $2,501 in an whole year! What does that matter? Well the slightly offbeat message for this wartime cartoon is “taxes against the axis”. Yep, it’s a rallying call for citizens of the USA to pay their income tax! With some rousing Yankee Doodle style cheerleading to start and some more traditional animations of the militarisation those dollars pay for at the end, this is a less frantic outing for the duck (who still sounds like Katharine Hepburn) and he does his bit to keep the payrolls of industry moving. The radio is quite a menacing looking gadget, like something from “Metropolis” (1927), but otherwise it’s all fairly standard stuff.