Doing Their Bit

<p> The golden age of animation stretched from the early 1930s to the mid-1950s with movie cartoons reaching an extraordinarily high level of artistry and technique--far higher than today's TV cartoons for instance.</p><p> Nearly 1000 cartoons were produced by the seven major animation studios in the U.S. between January 1 1939 and September 30 1945--the immediate pre-World War II period up to the cessation of hostilities. More than a quarter of the cartoons substantially refer to the war and thereby are invaluable in helping to understand American attitudes and Hollywood's reflection of them.</p><p> The meat of <I>Doing Their Bit</I> is a filmography with extremely detailed summaries of the 260 or so commercially produced animated war-related shorts 1939-1945. There is also a good bit of overall commentary on these films as a group. Two chapters wrap up animated cartoons of World War I and the general political tenor of animated talkies of the 1930s. This edition also includes a new chapter on the outrageous government-sponsored Pvt Snafus.</p>