The Spirit of '43

The Spirit of '43 is an American animated World War II propaganda film created by Walt Disney Studios and released in January 1943. The film stars Donald Duck and features writer/designer Carl Barks' prototype for the character Scrooge McDuck. It's a sequel to The New Spirit. The purpose of the film is to encourage patriotic Americans to file and pay their income taxes faithfully in order to help the war effort. The repeated theme in the film is "Taxes... To Defeat the Axis." The film is in the public domain and therefore can be seen on many gray market videos as well as official Disney releases. History The title is an allusion to the expression "Spirit of '76" (referring to the sentiment around the American Revolution in 1776). During World War II, Allied propaganda poked fun at the Axis powers by using negative stereotypes and caricatures. The plot of the second film recycled from The New Spirit involves how taxes are used to develop war materials to destroy the Axis.