Mikekush's Blog

In spirit of the most recent reading chapter of Mice and Magic Ch.7 as well as reading the interview by the committee of un-American activities with Walt Disney, I found this interesting Soviet cartoon. The animation portrays the story of a wealthy old woman who seems to be unkind to everyone but her dog. When she dies, the old woman ironically does not give her wealth to any of her heirs but to the dog instead. The cartoon goes on to portray the dog living out the lifestyle of a rich man reaping the benefits of the capitalist system through inheirtance rather than earning its own fortune.

Here is the animation itself. According to the story the old woman made no mistake and left all of her wealth and power to the dog. He is treated to the best meals, spas, clothing, and cars. He even smokes the finest cigars and goes to high-class parties and shows. The animation then takes an interesting turn. The dog begins to denounce pacifists and run for election using nationalist tatics. He says he knows what is good for the country. This, to me, is a symbol of the enormous amount of control politicians have in societies, most people do not dare to go up against the kind of wealth and power because they know they would not succeed.

The animation ends with some powerful imagery with the dog marching with an army and airplanes flying over his head. This short obviously portrays that capitalism is only in the interests of the few and those few will continue to wage war to keep it this war. It reflects and glorifies the ideas of the Bolsheviks and Lenin . This propaganda would instill these ideals that the proletariat in Russia should be a one ruling class in Russia. Masking the idea of democracy in the excesses and evils of capitalism would allow for the justification of Leninist-Stalinist system of government. The animation did a good job of putting the idea in the minds of the people that capitalists were imperial bullies set on world domination. The animation reminded me of the theories put out by Lenin in his book Imperialism,The Highest Stage of Capitalism

I commented on Mike G’s blog and Danyael’s blog

In the spirit of the animation Snow White since we’ll be watching it in class, I decided to make my blog post about it. In the film women’s gender roles of the time are reinforced by Snow White’s behavior Throughout the movie we see her doing domestic tasks such as cooking, cleaning, washing, etc. She often does this while gleefully singing or humming along. She is presented as the good woman in the story who also takes care of the seven dwarves with not a word of dispute.

Interestingly enough the stepmother is the more active female in the story. However she is portrayed in a much more negative way than Snow White. She is seen this way so much so that her death is seen as justifiable. What does that say about the roles of women should take in 1930s American society? However you could argue for the sake of the story that the stepmother had to be this way in order for it to take place. Snow White often faints in the movie and has very little to do other than domestic tasks.

The film itself was released during the Great Depression when many men were out of work let alone if there were any women working at all. She even starts singing at one point declaring that someday a prince will come for her. This was probably a wish for many women at the time to marry a rich man and to have no worries regarding wealth.

This week I commented on Brittany Alberry’s blog and Megan Pettry’s blog.