The New Spirit

The New Spirit

1942-01-22 7m NR
Animation
5.7
User Score
26 votes

Overview

Animated documentary promoting timely filing and payment of Federal income taxes, demonstrated by Donald Duck's difficulties with his tax return.

Wilfred Jackson

Director

Top Billed Cast

Movie Details

Status

Released

Original Language

en

Budget

$N/A

Revenue

$N/A

Runtime

7m

Release Date

1942-01-22

Recommendations

Reviews

CinemaSerf

CinemaSerf

2025-07-19T19:25:14.966Z

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.