Dark Toons just in time for Christmas! Watch the new NC on A Garfield Christmas - th-cam.com/video/C1yoUJuwRwc/w-d-xo.html Watch more Dark Toons here - bit.ly/DarkToons Follow us on Twitch - www.twitch.tv/channelawesome
Really enjoyed it I liked good will to men the other mgm cartoon from Hanna Barbera I like the animation on the mice. Also can you please do a dark toons episode of DC superhero girls #happybirthdayzee if u could. Merry Christmas Channel Awesome 🎄🎄🎄❤️
To give the very very very short, simple story, America enters WW1 to make the world safe for Democracy, but there's a backlash against all that in the 1920s with people saying America joined a European Conflict to make Bankers and Arms dealers rich, leading to the Isolationism of the 1920s-1930s so as Europe and Asia descend back into war, Americans go, we don't need to get screwed over again, but there were also those who saw what the Nazis were and knew they had to be fought eventually but America was too stubborn and blind to all...or Pro-Nazi because Hitler was the good guy in their eyes because he beat up Communists. Then there is the DLC side plot that is the Spanish Civil War which is like the "prequel" to WW2 as that was Communists and Fascists using Spain as their battle ground and a whole slew of political stuff that's way more complicated than a cartoon about squirrels can handled. TLDR version: America though Europe sucked and we shouldn't help Europeans fight the invaders who are other Europeans....so Swap Poland and Hitler for Ukraine and Putin and you get it.
The "vegetarian versus meat eater" makes sense. They wouldn't have understood what the human motives were, but they do understand predator versus prey so they are putting the conflict into their own context.
When I saw this on VHS as a kid, I always thought it was an allegory for how humans judge each other by how they differ from each other, with eating habits standing in for religion or race. To me, it said that humans would wage war for really stupid reasons, but nature would come back and thrive unlike humanity.
I think it's humans are petty as well, especially with it coming down to the last soldier on each side. They could have thrown their weapons down and walked away. No one would judged them, no one was around to judge them. And if truly they were the last two people left they could have each made peace with themselves and found their equilibrium. But they didn't, the most petty choice.
There weren't a lot of known crew in the MGM cartoon team that emmigrated to US after WWI. A lot of them were either born US citizens, or some occasional 1900s opportunistic immigrants, but few experienced war first-hand Still, newsreel existed, and with known documentaries already showing the European and Asian side of WWII before Pearl Harbor, the abstract awareness still existed, just not in the way of Mrs. Miniver or Waterloo Bridge.
"It (peace) is something to strive for even if we never really get it" is a great sentiment. Doing what's necessary means nothing if we forget why we do it. Merry Christmas, all!
Because Americans keep electing warmongers who want to mess with brown people. That’s America’s job in the world. Bombing brown people. George Carlin was right.
Oh my God, I remember this cartoon! It aired once on Cartoon Network when I was a kid. Judging from the equipment the soldiers are wearing, it appears to be referring to World War 1, and the famous Christmas Truce.
Christmas Truce? They killed each other to the last man in this cartoon, I would not consider this a Truce. Had they shown soldiers laying down arms, not fighting anymore, sure, but here it's all about the madness of war. The only peace you can see in the cartoon is when there's no more humans in the world.
Another fact about Mel Blanc's voice talent. For Disney's 1940 Pinocchio movie, Mel Blanc recorded voice lines for Gideon, Honest John's sidekick, but Disney changed their minds and made him mute at the last minute!
And The only sound of Mel blanc that remained in the movie was a hiccup. Which Mel blanc went back to the studio to record even after he left. Edit-for those who were wondering where I found this out I heard it on the dvd commentary of pinocchio
Not that I’m doubting, but what’s the hearsay on that? I remember Gideon a very physical, slap stick character that didn’t seem to have any lines. Did Blanc record his lines prior to anything being animated at all?
@@zacharyemmett1784 Mel's earliest voice shtick was a drunk who hiccuped faster than Porky Pig's stutter. That was GOING to be the idea for Gideon, but they changed it at the last minute, likely on the success of Snow White's Dopey.
I dunno if cutting his dialogue was a last minute change, considering that Gideon doesn’t open his mouth to talk during any of his scenes. It likely happened much earlier in production.
Damn, tiny detail that I’m surprised Doug didn’t mention: as the “terminator hand” soldier sinks into the water, the bubbles coming up are blood red. Not instantly noticeable, it’s darks as hell yet subtle.
I noticed those red/pink bubbles and wondered if that was meant to be blood! Talk about driving the point home! This is brilliantly dark…with a purpose!
Yes,CN used to be fun to watch then they started showing a lot of crappy anime as well as such crappy homemade stuff as "Regular Show"!! Thank goodness for MeTV Toons!!😮😢😮😅😊
@@Thenumber1yoshi True, but honestly, this one's a lot more dark. Stealing Christmas is one thing, erasing all of mankind is a completely different one.
@@glowworm2 He only steals Christmas from a small village not the whole goddam world. It should be called The Grinch who stole Christmas from a small village and Christmas is just the name of the holiday how can you steal a name for goddam sakes.
@@glowworm2 Well maybe colorful post-apocalyptic Nintendo games where all of humanity on Earth is long dead like Pikmin, Splatoon, and the oldest example of the trope I’ve experienced Shiver Star in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, has kind of desensitized me from the concept.
Yeah, this one stuck with me, but I don't think I ever liked it. Definitely wasn't a fan of the grandpa, but seeing the soldiers was fun for me at the time.
Holy cow. I forgot I had seen this as a kid and the moment this started, it all came out of my mind and hit me like a sledgehammer. Wow. This was great
The thing we forget about all the cartoons from the 1920s-1950s that were theatrical shorts, is they were made as much if not more so for adults as for kids hence why so many adult themes/references/etc in all these cartoons
Correction: Hitler invaded Poland in September, first of September and ended the invasion in October. But other than that, this is a really good analysis that honestly made me interested in doing creepy and dark stuff. Just hope you will be making episodes of this series more often.
I remember seeing “Peace On Earth” during Christmas assembly at school when I was a kid. We would usually watch a few different Christmas animated shorts. “Peace On Earth” was usually one, along with “Pluto’s Christmas Tree” and maybe “Donald’s Snow Fight”. Sometimes if we were really lucky we would be able to watch “Mickey’s Christmas Carol”.
@@hannahmabbott7370 it was elementary school, so pretty much every year from kindergarten to grade 7. I was born in January, so I started kindergarten when I was 4, and I finished grade 7 when I was 13.
Oh wow! This is an obscure one but it has such meaning to me. My brothers and I watched this when we were kids. To your point Doug, I think the message is indeed brought across. I think it does what it wants to do better than a Ray Bradbury short story There Will Come Soft Rains which goes too far in the direction of being SO unrelentingly bleak and miserable that it doesn't inspire anything other than a desire for death, ironically. Peace on Earth, by contrast, is likewise very dark and uncompromising, but it doesn't exactly "blame" humanity. At least, not to the extent that a kid would understand because the animals and squirrels are "people." In that, they're living in houses, talking, singing Christmas carols, and Grandpa is telling veteran's stories. So the idea for me as a kid was just witnessing the horrors of war but seeing the world rebuilt afterwards. It was, powerfully hopeful. Not in a cheap way because unlike toothless similar stuff in the 90's, this one actually showed literally one of THE worst horrors in human history.
To be honest to Good Will To Men, MGM usually remade their cartoons in cinemascope in the 1950s, a lot of Tom and Jerry and Droopy cartoons got remade to mostly make use of the wide-screen aspects of Cinemascope with lines and jokes basically rehashed
I think it's promoting peace, trying to stay out of war just like you said. It's sad and beautiful . Wishing you and your friends and family a wonderful, joyous Christmas!
Finally after two year of requesting it, you finally touched on this underrated Cartoon. The interesting thing about Hugh Harman cartoons is that they are more atmospheric then other cartoons at the time, and even though the plots are always lacking, they are beautiful to look at. Many of his Happy Harmonies were competing with the Disney Silly Symphonies at the time. Another connection is that he and Rudy Ising (his partner) used to work for Disney on the Alice Comedies and Oswald Cartoons before Charles Mintz signed them away from Walt. But they were not happy with the direction Mintz was going and quit before being hired by MGM. Some of their cartoons were good, like To Spring was interesting. This cartoon and Good Will To Men were both nominated for Oscars for Best Animated Short. The 1955 reboot was made in Cinemascope, so it made the artwork look more grand. Merry Christmas Doug.
Thank you for reviewing this Mr. Walker! This is one of those cartoons that really stuck to me.. I recall seeing this on Cartoon Network as a kid around Christmas time.. I had no idea what the title was.
This is a spectacular short in terms of the art and animation. Keep in mind that WWII was still revving up around this time (even though the U.S. didn't get their boots in the door until after Pearl Harbor), but the WWI imagery here is...wow. And I mean that in the best way. This is just an atmosphere in it of itself.
Honestly this is a personal favorite of mine during the holidays when I was a kid especially when it was played on toon heads on two separate occasions one showcasing War cartoons while the other showcased Christmas specials and I think I like when it's played in Christmas time because I don't know it has a hold on me on how to convey scary imagery into hope.
Doug, this is when you are at your best. I love you and the team, thank you for making me laugh and feel like I’m at home when I put your videos on. Merry Christmas.
I remember seeing this cartoon multiple times on Cartoon Network when I was a little girl! It's since stuck with me forever and taught me a valuable lesson! Thank you for bringing this up Doug! Merry Christmas Doug, Rob, Barney, Sandy 😇, Chaplin, Buster, Malcolm, Tamara, and the rest!
To be honest, I just saw "Good Will to Men" the remake of this short, and I think it carries just as well. Although that scene of the last two men fighting one another to their deaths is a bit more harrowing and memorable than simply showing the atomic bombs, although the grave scene is pretty terrifying. It also has the preacher mouse clearly touting the book as the bible before they all break into song again. "Peace on Earth" actually has a bit more humor to it actually with Mel Blanc as the grandpa squirrel, the mouse one is pretty darn serious and literally preachy because it takes place in the remnants of a church.
I suspect the more heavy-handed religious references in the retelling was due to the social change of the ‘50s following WWII. But to be fair, I found it a bit more easier to digest than just hearing “peace on Earth” uttered repeatedly like in the original.
I love this toon, and the song choice is excellent for this story. It's always been one of the Christmas toons I look back to even now because the message is so powerful, yet it still reflects the same issue humanity is still struggling with after decades of this release.
Even though this 1930s anti-war cartoon is nearly a Century old, it STILL has poignancy, prescience, and messages that still remarkably resonate in the 21st Century as well.
@@gregzotter6189 One of the things I’ve noticed (and, I’m sure others have too), is that dictators like Vladimir Putin NEVER, EVER seem to learn from the mistakes of their fellow despots (past and present), what happens when they get way too full of themselves and bite off way more than they can chew. They ALWAYS seem to fail that lesson time and again you know? 🤦♂️🙄
Several episodes of The grim adventures of billy and Mandy would be a good show for Dark Toons. One good example would be the episode "Wish Bones". The show is primarily a comedy with some light horror theming, but there are a handful of scary episodes especially for kids.
@@joshuakusuma5953 Remember the episode that ends with Billy's spider son, Jeff, gets tired of trying to win his 'dad's' affection, so he just straight up cacoons him and forces him to tell him that he loves him? Remember, Kids, If kindness doesn't work, use fear and intimidation!
The Moomins : Tiny Guests and The Suitcase. It's a perfect choice for winter. It really shows how terrifying it would be if summer became cold and dark over night.
I really hope TMNT 2003 gets covered in some capacity in this series. That show had some pretty dark moments,especially for something airing on Fox's Saturday Morning block and later CW's Morning block.
If you’re looking for other dark toons suggestions, how about the 1943 Disney Chicken Little. The parallels to what was going on in Europe during the Second World War and the ending was quite surprising, even the narrator is shocked by how it ends.
This cartoon ABSOLUTELY deserves a Dark Toons episode devoted to it. In terms of holiday-themed dark toons, Columbia's 1937 "The Little Match Girl" might be worth an episode... except that I honestly like Doug too much to ask him to go through that.
This used to air on Cartoon Network as part of a Christmas episode of Toonheads that I used to watch every year, usually on Christmas Eve late at night. Included were this short, Bedtime For Sniffles, and I think a Captain and The Kids short. I remember just randomly catching it once, then looking for it each year, seeing it about 4-5 years in a row and then being very disappointed when it wasn't broadcast again. Thanks for talking about this. I've been hoping for Toonheads or some of these shorts to be remastered and released somewhere/somehow for about 20 years now, but no luck. Merry Christmas everybody.
Oh my god you’re stirring up memories. I watched this one once a long time ago and I really liked it. It is perry terrifying or at least really dark. It does have some humor, and the message is good…granted the United States DID end up entering World War 2 almost two year to the day this was originally released.
This aired on Toon Heads on Cartoon Network way back in the day. Same as Doug, I could never remember the name of the short, but the imagery always stayed with me. Imo peace on earth is a masterpiece and is still relevant.
That period in between wars was dark af. I cannot imagine what people who went through the horror of WWI felt seeing how things were going to hell again. Makes sense as to why so many movies and cartoons of that period were so dark.
Several people have mentioned seeing this on Cartoon Network or Boomerang as kids. Now, I'm nowhere old enough to have seen it first run in theaters during 1939, but being 60, I can still "do you one better" as they say. I may have seen it as part of an "MGM" package of cartoons that included many of the "Tom & Jerry" shorts, "Barney Bear", and so on upon one of the stations broadcasting in Atlanta during the 1960s, possibly even WJRJ Channel 17. That station would eventually get purchased by media mogul Ted Turner who would rebrand it as WTBS (later shortened to just TBS). Turner would go on to purchase the bulk of the MGM entertainment library, so "Peace on Earth" got quite a bit of replay during the 70s well into the 1980s. And, of course, Turner would help create Cartoon Network and its spinoff Boomerang where several of you have seen it.
I recently watched this. Warner Brothers included this as an extra on the DVD of the 1938 version of A Christmas Carol. There was a remake done in 1955 and in CinemaScope called "Good Will to Men" and included on the DVD of the Gene Kelly musical "It's Always Fair Weather."
I first saw this cartoon when I bought a tape of MGM Christmas cartoons, some time in the mid-80s. When I was in High school, I had a teacher who explained that before we (America) became involved in WW2, a lot of people believed that technology had advanced to the point that the next war really would kill everyone. He explained how they expected the use of poison gas to be so unrestrained that huge toxic clouds, driven by surface winds, would kill millions whenever a cloud of gas strayed into a populated zone. Their visions of how the war might pan out if all the major powers became involved were about as bleak as this cartoon. Bill Hannah and Joe Barbera remade this flick in the mid-50s, during the Cold War. It's just as bleak a vision of the future. These two cartoons, along with Weird Al Yankovic's 'Christmas at Ground Zero' constitute my trinity of apocalyptic visions of Christmas. I love them all. Thanks for sharing this.
Mel Blanc’s part in Pink Elephants On Parade is: *I am not the type to faint* *When things are odd* *Or things are strange* *But seeing things, you know that ain’t* *Can certainly give you an awful fright* *What a sight!* You’ll never unhear it now 😊
When I was a kid, I'd always watch 2 hour block of cartoons on TNT. Around Christmas this was the 1 that would always play last. Out of the tons of cartoons I've seen over my 40 years, this is 1 of the ones that stuck with me.
I have liked the idea of anthropomorphic animals rebuilding society after mankind is wiped out by war as seen in some Sonic the Hedgehog mediums and planet of the apes. You could say that Zootopia and Busyworld could be set on Earth hundreds if not thousands of years from now.
If it wasent for the museum cave painting scene I would heavily disagree with you on the Zootopia point. That's like the ONLY evidence humanity existed in the Zootopia universe, so far I mean.
Yeah, it was the Archie Comics that tackled that concept, the main idea was that Mobius used to be Earth in a sci-fi setting, til they captured and experimented on a alien, causing the other aliens to rage war and throw de-evolution bombs on the planet, mutating and killing most of the human population, some humans survived but the animal kingdom was also mutated and evolved into Mobians, becoming the new dominant species.
I have been looking for this cartoon for YEARS. I only slightly remember small parts from when I watched as a small kid that aren't Google-able. Thank you sooooo much!!
One of my favorite cartoons growing up when I was real little was heavy metal, great movie. If you want peace on Earth everyone should read "The art of war" because like it says "the only battle ever truly won is the one you never have to fight."
I feel like Nightmare Hospital would make for a good episode. Not sure if Doug sees Steven Universe as a show for older kids. But I think a couple of the show's episodes would make for good dark toons.
To everything, there is a season. Evil triumps when good men do nothing. Sometimes you have to take a stand, and say "no more." Peace, is always the objective.
Thank you for doing this one. I saw it on TV as a child, and I've remembered it ever since. I was very excited when I saw it suggested in my TH-cam feed and I instantly clicked it. It is beautiful animation; it is a powerful/haunting message. Sadly, I don't believe there will be true Peace on Earth until Jesus returns but we can still work in big and small ways to make the world a better place. Oh, while 90 volume Bible is a great joke (I smiled at that), it works because this is probably the children picturing it as grandpa talks. They just imagine what Grandpa says and nothing more. Alternatively, it's Grandpa simplifying it in his own head. Anywho, great video.
I think I was about five years old when I first saw this short. I wasn't really paying attention to it until the grandfathers shadow morphed into the soldier. As soon as that happened, I just stared at the screen in awe until the death of the final soldier. Easily one of my favorite piece of animation, and started my obsession with gas masks.
i think turner classic movies showed this at one point and it was always a cartoon that my mind would think back to from time to time, so i appreciate this video for bringing it back to me
Wow I had never seen that before, thank you for introducing it to me, I can see why that would stick with you both visual disturbing and beautiful at the same time! "Hyde and go tweet" was one I loved to be scared by as a kid, the design of the moster tweety and the evil laugh always made my skin crawl!
I would love to see you cover To Be. An amazing Canadian cartoon about a woman who visits an exhibition by a scientist who claims to have created teleportation; only to find out he's actually cloning people then murdering the originals. As you can imagine that leads to an existential argument with a super dark conclusion.
Thank you Doug my husband hasn't seen this since he was a kid so finding it brought back his memory's watching Christmas cartoons with his siblings....
This cartoon has stuck with since i saw it on CN when i was 9 years old and it left it's impact on me since. But the remake i saw 2 years ago on MEtv back to back with original and it made me cry tears for what felt like hours because i believe both shorts embody the message of peace and i am an hopeful optimist and think one day we'll find peace.
When I was a kid, we had a VHS recording of a bunch of Christmas specials of old cartoons that aired in the early 90s or so. There were these in-between segments of these two kids introducing each short and I don't remember all of them, but I remember they were on the slow-burn side of animation, a lot of calm cartoons to just enjoy the spirit of the season. There was a Tom and Jerry short, a Sniffles the Mouse short in there, and there was THIS cartoon. Imagine being five years old and seeing this wartime cartoon among Christmas specials. It was kinda freaky, and I'm not sure I really processed what was going on.
There was another major 1930s conflict we forget about to really help with the context of this cartoon, The Spanish Civil War would have just concluded only a couple months before and a lot of people, in addition to all the other European troubles leading to WW2 breaking out, would have had all this on their minds.
We forget about it because it's largely a thing best forgotten. Both sides were terrible; one was backed by Stalin and the other by Hitler. There was literally no one to root for; just a bunch of bad people destroying a bunch of other bad people, with no good options for the innocent civilians caught in the middle of it to support.
In 1941, Mel Blanc signed an exclusivity voice contract with Leon Schlesinger Productions, and from then on only did voices in Warner Brother cartoons, although he continued doing radio programs. Prior to the contract, he did voice work for other studios, including Universal Studios, where he created the voice for "Woody Woodpecker". Even after he stopped doing the voice for Walter Lanz, the laugh, and "Guess Who?" at the beginning of the cartoon, remained Mel Blanc, even after Grace Stafford continued voicing the character.
Amazing video as always Doug! Could you happen to do one on Play Safe (1936). The short traumatized me as I child off an old VHS tape of random cartoons.
![[LIVE] : ONE ลุมพินี 84 วันนี้!! คู่เอก "ก้องศึก vs เมืองไทย"](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/3kuzsAIDf1c/mqdefault.jpg)
Dark Toons just in time for Christmas!
Watch the new NC on A Garfield Christmas - th-cam.com/video/C1yoUJuwRwc/w-d-xo.html
Watch more Dark Toons here - bit.ly/DarkToons
Follow us on Twitch - www.twitch.tv/channelawesome
Really enjoyed it I liked good will to men the other mgm cartoon from Hanna Barbera I like the animation on the mice. Also can you please do a dark toons episode of DC superhero girls #happybirthdayzee if u could. Merry Christmas Channel Awesome 🎄🎄🎄❤️
To give the very very very short, simple story, America enters WW1 to make the world safe for Democracy, but there's a backlash against all that in the 1920s with people saying America joined a European Conflict to make Bankers and Arms dealers rich, leading to the Isolationism of the 1920s-1930s so as Europe and Asia descend back into war, Americans go, we don't need to get screwed over again, but there were also those who saw what the Nazis were and knew they had to be fought eventually but America was too stubborn and blind to all...or Pro-Nazi because Hitler was the good guy in their eyes because he beat up Communists. Then there is the DLC side plot that is the Spanish Civil War which is like the "prequel" to WW2 as that was Communists and Fascists using Spain as their battle ground and a whole slew of political stuff that's way more complicated than a cartoon about squirrels can handled. TLDR version: America though Europe sucked and we shouldn't help Europeans fight the invaders who are other Europeans....so Swap Poland and Hitler for Ukraine and Putin and you get it.
My suggestions for Dark Toons are
“Something Fishy”, _Heathcliff & the Catillac Cats_ .
_Garfield's Babes and Bullets_
_Garfield: His 9 Lives_
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Academy Awards Animation Collection on Disc 2
Rescue at Midnight Castle, plz.
The "vegetarian versus meat eater" makes sense. They wouldn't have understood what the human motives were, but they do understand predator versus prey so they are putting the conflict into their own context.
Eh, I think it's just to display how petty the humans were. Maybe that's just me, but I thought it alluded to the spiraling out of control 'causes'.
When I saw this on VHS as a kid, I always thought it was an allegory for how humans judge each other by how they differ from each other, with eating habits standing in for religion or race. To me, it said that humans would wage war for really stupid reasons, but nature would come back and thrive unlike humanity.
(100th like)
It's basically the opposite of humans ascribing human psychology traits to animals.
I think it's humans are petty as well, especially with it coming down to the last soldier on each side. They could have thrown their weapons down and walked away. No one would judged them, no one was around to judge them. And if truly they were the last two people left they could have each made peace with themselves and found their equilibrium. But they didn't, the most petty choice.
"They clearly saw some footage of WW1 and went an extra mile ahead" Considering this was premiered in 1939, they were not the only ones who did that.
WW2 was gearing up.
Boooooo
Boooooo!
That joke was actually funny but
Boooooooo
There weren't a lot of known crew in the MGM cartoon team that emmigrated to US after WWI. A lot of them were either born US citizens, or some occasional 1900s opportunistic immigrants, but few experienced war first-hand
Still, newsreel existed, and with known documentaries already showing the European and Asian side of WWII before Pearl Harbor, the abstract awareness still existed, just not in the way of Mrs. Miniver or Waterloo Bridge.
And they blew the whole budget in 1945.
They exported it to Japan, too
@@rav-7072 OOF.
"It (peace) is something to strive for even if we never really get it" is a great sentiment. Doing what's necessary means nothing if we forget why we do it.
Merry Christmas, all!
Because Americans keep electing warmongers who want to mess with brown people. That’s America’s job in the world. Bombing brown people. George Carlin was right.
Oh my God, I remember this cartoon! It aired once on Cartoon Network when I was a kid. Judging from the equipment the soldiers are wearing, it appears to be referring to World War 1, and the famous Christmas Truce.
Yeah it's likely reference to Christmas Truce.
Toonheads: Christmas cartoons.
Christmas Truce? They killed each other to the last man in this cartoon, I would not consider this a Truce.
Had they shown soldiers laying down arms, not fighting anymore, sure, but here it's all about the madness of war. The only peace you can see in the cartoon is when there's no more humans in the world.
WWI uniforms were worn until the middle of WWII.
Ww1 soldiers started to wear helmets around 1916, the truce happened in 1914, so the war portrayed could've been around 1917 or 1918.
Another fact about Mel Blanc's voice talent. For Disney's 1940 Pinocchio movie, Mel Blanc recorded voice lines for Gideon, Honest John's sidekick, but Disney changed their minds and made him mute at the last minute!
And The only sound of Mel blanc that remained in the movie was a hiccup.
Which Mel blanc went back to the studio to record even after he left.
Edit-for those who were wondering where I found this out I heard it on the dvd commentary of pinocchio
Not that I’m doubting, but what’s the hearsay on that? I remember Gideon a very physical, slap stick character that didn’t seem to have any lines. Did Blanc record his lines prior to anything being animated at all?
@@RussianJackal yes, i believe so!!
@@zacharyemmett1784 Mel's earliest voice shtick was a drunk who hiccuped faster than Porky Pig's stutter. That was GOING to be the idea for Gideon, but they changed it at the last minute, likely on the success of Snow White's Dopey.
I dunno if cutting his dialogue was a last minute change, considering that Gideon doesn’t open his mouth to talk during any of his scenes. It likely happened much earlier in production.
Damn, tiny detail that I’m surprised Doug didn’t mention: as the “terminator hand” soldier sinks into the water, the bubbles coming up are blood red. Not instantly noticeable, it’s darks as hell yet subtle.
I noticed those red/pink bubbles and wondered if that was meant to be blood! Talk about driving the point home! This is brilliantly dark…with a purpose!
They used to show this one all the time on Cartoon Network back when they showed older stuff
Oh yea. I don’t remember this in particular but I remember the Tex Avery show on CN.
That’s how I saw it for the first time, i think it was a few nights before Christmas, but I remember it really sticking with me.
Yes,CN used to be fun to watch then they started showing a lot of crappy anime as well as such crappy homemade stuff as "Regular Show"!!
Thank goodness for MeTV Toons!!😮😢😮😅😊
Not too often you get a dark toons with Christmas. This is truly a magical time of the year. And this definitely a classic.
He did the original Chuck Jones’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas as a dark toons a while back.
@@Thenumber1yoshi True, but honestly, this one's a lot more dark. Stealing Christmas is one thing, erasing all of mankind is a completely different one.
@@glowworm2 He only steals Christmas from a small village not the whole goddam world. It should be called The Grinch who stole Christmas from a small village and Christmas is just the name of the holiday how can you steal a name for goddam sakes.
@@heribertovizcaino4682 Dude, get a grip.
@@glowworm2 Well maybe colorful post-apocalyptic Nintendo games where all of humanity on Earth is long dead like Pikmin, Splatoon, and the oldest example of the trope I’ve experienced Shiver Star in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, has kind of desensitized me from the concept.
I’m still surprised that Peace On Earth aired on Boomerang once and I watched it
Me too. For years I thought I dreamed it
I never saw this on Boomerang
Yeah, this one stuck with me, but I don't think I ever liked it. Definitely wasn't a fan of the grandpa, but seeing the soldiers was fun for me at the time.
@@wokenlunatic2849 I was like six or seven when I saw it, I think it aired for Christmas, I still surprised that I watched it before bed
I guess it's one of those things that they just shoved in without giving it a look over and were fine with because it was an old property.
Doug, two days in a row now that you've covered some of my favourite deep cut Christmas cartoons ever. I'm very merry.
Holy cow. I forgot I had seen this as a kid and the moment this started, it all came out of my mind and hit me like a sledgehammer. Wow. This was great
The thing we forget about all the cartoons from the 1920s-1950s that were theatrical shorts, is they were made as much if not more so for adults as for kids hence why so many adult themes/references/etc in all these cartoons
Correction: Hitler invaded Poland in September, first of September and ended the invasion in October. But other than that, this is a really good analysis that honestly made me interested in doing creepy and dark stuff. Just hope you will be making episodes of this series more often.
The sentiments of this story make me think of Dr. Seuss' Butter Battle book...cuteness and creativity but with a heck of a message!
We don’t even get a happy ending. We leave on a creepy, open ended note. Who will drop it, you or he? We’ll see.
Looking forward to Doug doing that one
I remember seeing “Peace On Earth” during Christmas assembly at school when I was a kid. We would usually watch a few different Christmas animated shorts. “Peace On Earth” was usually one, along with “Pluto’s Christmas Tree” and maybe “Donald’s Snow Fight”. Sometimes if we were really lucky we would be able to watch “Mickey’s Christmas Carol”.
That’s cool
How old were you?!
@@hannahmabbott7370 it was elementary school, so pretty much every year from kindergarten to grade 7. I was born in January, so I started kindergarten when I was 4, and I finished grade 7 when I was 13.
Oh wow! This is an obscure one but it has such meaning to me. My brothers and I watched this when we were kids. To your point Doug, I think the message is indeed brought across. I think it does what it wants to do better than a Ray Bradbury short story There Will Come Soft Rains which goes too far in the direction of being SO unrelentingly bleak and miserable that it doesn't inspire anything other than a desire for death, ironically.
Peace on Earth, by contrast, is likewise very dark and uncompromising, but it doesn't exactly "blame" humanity. At least, not to the extent that a kid would understand because the animals and squirrels are "people." In that, they're living in houses, talking, singing Christmas carols, and Grandpa is telling veteran's stories. So the idea for me as a kid was just witnessing the horrors of war but seeing the world rebuilt afterwards. It was, powerfully hopeful. Not in a cheap way because unlike toothless similar stuff in the 90's, this one actually showed literally one of THE worst horrors in human history.
There _is_ something beautiful in the idea of life marching on, even in the worst of catastrophes.
I had this as part of a collection of cartoons set during Christmas time for VHS, and this was far and away the best one. And easily the darkest.
Reminds me of the film 9 with all the war footage and humans being extinct and replaced with small creatures.
I was thinking the same thing with the imagery.
To be honest to Good Will To Men, MGM usually remade their cartoons in cinemascope in the 1950s, a lot of Tom and Jerry and Droopy cartoons got remade to mostly make use of the wide-screen aspects of Cinemascope with lines and jokes basically rehashed
I think it's promoting peace, trying to stay out of war just like you said. It's sad and beautiful . Wishing you and your friends and family a wonderful, joyous Christmas!
Finally after two year of requesting it, you finally touched on this underrated Cartoon. The interesting thing about Hugh Harman cartoons is that they are more atmospheric then other cartoons at the time, and even though the plots are always lacking, they are beautiful to look at. Many of his Happy Harmonies were competing with the Disney Silly Symphonies at the time. Another connection is that he and Rudy Ising (his partner) used to work for Disney on the Alice Comedies and Oswald Cartoons before Charles Mintz signed them away from Walt. But they were not happy with the direction Mintz was going and quit before being hired by MGM. Some of their cartoons were good, like To Spring was interesting. This cartoon and Good Will To Men were both nominated for Oscars for Best Animated Short. The 1955 reboot was made in Cinemascope, so it made the artwork look more grand. Merry Christmas Doug.
Thank you for reviewing this Mr. Walker! This is one of those cartoons that really stuck to me.. I recall seeing this on Cartoon Network as a kid around Christmas time.. I had no idea what the title was.
Nice! More Dark Toons! Been a while!
I saw this late at night on CN back in the late 90's and I have never forgotten it.
This is a spectacular short in terms of the art and animation.
Keep in mind that WWII was still revving up around this time (even though the U.S. didn't get their boots in the door until after Pearl Harbor), but the WWI imagery here is...wow.
And I mean that in the best way. This is just an atmosphere in it of itself.
in of itself*
“There’s money in this world! They ain’t gonna have peace for long” 😭😭😭
Honestly this is a personal favorite of mine during the holidays when I was a kid especially when it was played on toon heads on two separate occasions one showcasing War cartoons while the other showcased Christmas specials and I think I like when it's played in Christmas time because I don't know it has a hold on me on how to convey scary imagery into hope.
Doug, this is when you are at your best.
I love you and the team, thank you for making me laugh and feel like I’m at home when I put your videos on.
Merry Christmas.
Watched this years ago and was blown away by it. Great short.
How long ago?
@@shelby5809 I’d say 15-20 years or so
@@jessehcreative Thank you.
A suggestion I have is the 2003 TMNT series Insane in the Membrane. The body horror was so graphic that the episode was banned from airing.
I remember seeing this cartoon multiple times on Cartoon Network when I was a little girl! It's since stuck with me forever and taught me a valuable lesson! Thank you for bringing this up Doug! Merry Christmas Doug, Rob, Barney, Sandy 😇, Chaplin, Buster, Malcolm, Tamara, and the rest!
To be honest, I just saw "Good Will to Men" the remake of this short, and I think it carries just as well. Although that scene of the last two men fighting one another to their deaths is a bit more harrowing and memorable than simply showing the atomic bombs, although the grave scene is pretty terrifying. It also has the preacher mouse clearly touting the book as the bible before they all break into song again. "Peace on Earth" actually has a bit more humor to it actually with Mel Blanc as the grandpa squirrel, the mouse one is pretty darn serious and literally preachy because it takes place in the remnants of a church.
I suspect the more heavy-handed religious references in the retelling was due to the social change of the ‘50s following WWII. But to be fair, I found it a bit more easier to digest than just hearing “peace on Earth” uttered repeatedly like in the original.
I love this toon, and the song choice is excellent for this story. It's always been one of the Christmas toons I look back to even now because the message is so powerful, yet it still reflects the same issue humanity is still struggling with after decades of this release.
Even though this 1930s anti-war cartoon is nearly a Century old, it STILL has poignancy, prescience, and messages that still remarkably resonate in the 21st Century as well.
It's truly sad that we as a species fail to learn from the past.
@@gregzotter6189 One of the things I’ve noticed (and, I’m sure others have too), is that dictators like Vladimir Putin NEVER, EVER seem to learn from the mistakes of their fellow despots (past and present), what happens when they get way too full of themselves and bite off way more than they can chew. They ALWAYS seem to fail that lesson time and again you know? 🤦♂️🙄
I saw this cartoon on MeTV recently when it aired on a Saturday morning. Didn’t realize it was considered dark.
This cartoon deserves all the respect and love we can give it
I’ve been asking for this for over a year! Thank you!
Several episodes of The grim adventures of billy and Mandy would be a good show for Dark Toons. One good example would be the episode "Wish Bones". The show is primarily a comedy with some light horror theming, but there are a handful of scary episodes especially for kids.
Oh man, the Who Killed Who episode is probably one of the darkest.
@@joshuakusuma5953 Remember the episode that ends with Billy's spider son, Jeff, gets tired of trying to win his 'dad's' affection, so he just straight up cacoons him and forces him to tell him that he loves him?
Remember, Kids, If kindness doesn't work, use fear and intimidation!
"What is a man, Grandpa?"
"A miserable little pile of secrets!"
The Moomins : Tiny Guests and The Suitcase. It's a perfect choice for winter. It really shows how terrifying it would be if summer became cold and dark over night.
Yes, been waiting 2 years for Doug's opinion on this cartoon and the reboot. Great work covering this Dark Christmas Toon.
I really hope TMNT 2003 gets covered in some capacity in this series. That show had some pretty dark moments,especially for something airing on Fox's Saturday Morning block and later CW's Morning block.
For sure for sure
2012 managed to kill Splinter twice
The whole Good Genes arc comes to mind
Same as it Never Was.
I faintly remember watching this one night on Boomerang in the 2000's. I swear I thought it was a fever dream until now
I have never heard of this one. So I am going to look for it. Thanks for bringing this to my attention Doug.
Saw this back in the day. Definitely was dark but I never thought it might be TOO dark.
I remember watching this on Cartoon Network. I need to watch it again.
If you’re looking for other dark toons suggestions, how about the 1943 Disney Chicken Little. The parallels to what was going on in Europe during the Second World War and the ending was quite surprising, even the narrator is shocked by how it ends.
This cartoon ABSOLUTELY deserves a Dark Toons episode devoted to it.
In terms of holiday-themed dark toons, Columbia's 1937 "The Little Match Girl" might be worth an episode... except that I honestly like Doug too much to ask him to go through that.
The ending of THAT Chicken Little is taken from the original fable. All the chickens, duck. and geese died in the
book.
@@chrismulwee4911 Yup, but the moral does get through
@@kelleyceccato7025 I'd like to see him cover that, and/or the Disney "Little Match Girl" from 2006.
@@jenniferschillig3768 Columbia did a "Little Match Girl" in 1937 that was extremely depressing/disturbing. That too would deserve attention.
This used to air on Cartoon Network as part of a Christmas episode of Toonheads that I used to watch every year, usually on Christmas Eve late at night. Included were this short, Bedtime For Sniffles, and I think a Captain and The Kids short. I remember just randomly catching it once, then looking for it each year, seeing it about 4-5 years in a row and then being very disappointed when it wasn't broadcast again. Thanks for talking about this. I've been hoping for Toonheads or some of these shorts to be remastered and released somewhere/somehow for about 20 years now, but no luck. Merry Christmas everybody.
Oh my god you’re stirring up memories. I watched this one once a long time ago and I really liked it. It is perry terrifying or at least really dark. It does have some humor, and the message is good…granted the United States DID end up entering World War 2 almost two year to the day this was originally released.
This aired on Toon Heads on Cartoon Network way back in the day. Same as Doug, I could never remember the name of the short, but the imagery always stayed with me. Imo peace on earth is a masterpiece and is still relevant.
The remastered version is available as a bonus feature on the DVD and Blu Ray of the 1938 A Christmas Carol that came out in 2005.
I believe the 1936 Cartoon called Play Safe would make a great episode.
Thanks for bringing back my childhood. This was an awesome short.
I love this cartoon the animation is amazing and has a great story it’s beautiful
That period in between wars was dark af. I cannot imagine what people who went through the horror of WWI felt seeing how things were going to hell again. Makes sense as to why so many movies and cartoons of that period were so dark.
Several people have mentioned seeing this on Cartoon Network or Boomerang as kids. Now, I'm nowhere old enough to have seen it first run in theaters during 1939, but being 60, I can still "do you one better" as they say. I may have seen it as part of an "MGM" package of cartoons that included many of the "Tom & Jerry" shorts, "Barney Bear", and so on upon one of the stations broadcasting in Atlanta during the 1960s, possibly even WJRJ Channel 17. That station would eventually get purchased by media mogul Ted Turner who would rebrand it as WTBS (later shortened to just TBS). Turner would go on to purchase the bulk of the MGM entertainment library, so "Peace on Earth" got quite a bit of replay during the 70s well into the 1980s. And, of course, Turner would help create Cartoon Network and its spinoff Boomerang where several of you have seen it.
I recently watched this. Warner Brothers included this as an extra on the DVD of the 1938 version of A Christmas Carol. There was a remake done in 1955 and in CinemaScope called "Good Will to Men" and included on the DVD of the Gene Kelly musical "It's Always Fair Weather."
I first saw this cartoon when I bought a tape of MGM Christmas cartoons, some time in the mid-80s.
When I was in High school, I had a teacher who explained that before we (America) became involved in WW2, a lot of people believed that technology had advanced to the point that the next war really would kill everyone. He explained how they expected the use of poison gas to be so unrestrained that huge toxic clouds, driven by surface winds, would kill millions whenever a cloud of gas strayed into a populated zone. Their visions of how the war might pan out if all the major powers became involved were about as bleak as this cartoon.
Bill Hannah and Joe Barbera remade this flick in the mid-50s, during the Cold War. It's just as bleak a vision of the future. These two cartoons, along with Weird Al Yankovic's 'Christmas at Ground Zero' constitute my trinity of apocalyptic visions of Christmas. I love them all. Thanks for sharing this.
Mel Blanc’s part in Pink Elephants On Parade is:
*I am not the type to faint*
*When things are odd*
*Or things are strange*
*But seeing things, you know that ain’t*
*Can certainly give you an awful fright*
*What a sight!*
You’ll never unhear it now 😊
But that sounded like Sterling Holloway.....???
this is my favorite darktoons episode yet! Merry Christmas, Critic and Happy Holidays to everyone at Channel Awesome
Surprised this was happening on a Thursday
Dark Toons comes out every Thursday.
@@eeveefamilypicnic8536Didn't know there were only seven thursdays this year
@@eeveefamilypicnic8536 Not every Thursday though.
When I was a kid, I'd always watch 2 hour block of cartoons on TNT. Around Christmas this was the 1 that would always play last. Out of the tons of cartoons I've seen over my 40 years, this is 1 of the ones that stuck with me.
I have liked the idea of anthropomorphic animals rebuilding society after mankind is wiped out by war as seen in some Sonic the Hedgehog mediums and planet of the apes. You could say that Zootopia and Busyworld could be set on Earth hundreds if not thousands of years from now.
Just say you are a furry
If it wasent for the museum cave painting scene I would heavily disagree with you on the Zootopia point. That's like the ONLY evidence humanity existed in the Zootopia universe, so far I mean.
I'm sure animals could scarcely make a worse mess of it than we did... 😉
Yeah, it was the Archie Comics that tackled that concept, the main idea was that Mobius used to be Earth in a sci-fi setting, til they captured and experimented on a alien, causing the other aliens to rage war and throw de-evolution bombs on the planet, mutating and killing most of the human population, some humans survived but the animal kingdom was also mutated and evolved into Mobians, becoming the new dominant species.
Check out "Rock & Rule" 1983 animated film ^_^
I have been looking for this cartoon for YEARS. I only slightly remember small parts from when I watched as a small kid that aren't Google-able. Thank you sooooo much!!
One of my favorite cartoons growing up when I was real little was heavy metal, great movie. If you want peace on Earth everyone should read "The art of war" because like it says "the only battle ever truly won is the one you never have to fight."
I feel like Nightmare Hospital would make for a good episode. Not sure if Doug sees Steven Universe as a show for older kids. But I think a couple of the show's episodes would make for good dark toons.
I mean the most risqué thing they did was have a lesbian couple, anyone could enjoy Steven Universe but I wouldn’t call it an older kids show.
Rose 's Room is TERRIFYING still today imo.
@@avosmash2121 Oh yeah.
Gonna throw the Kitten Fingers episode onto thr pile.
To everything, there is a season.
Evil triumps when good men do nothing. Sometimes you have to take a stand, and say "no more."
Peace, is always the objective.
Thank you for doing this one. I saw it on TV as a child, and I've remembered it ever since. I was very excited when I saw it suggested in my TH-cam feed and I instantly clicked it. It is beautiful animation; it is a powerful/haunting message. Sadly, I don't believe there will be true Peace on Earth until Jesus returns but we can still work in big and small ways to make the world a better place. Oh, while 90 volume Bible is a great joke (I smiled at that), it works because this is probably the children picturing it as grandpa talks. They just imagine what Grandpa says and nothing more. Alternatively, it's Grandpa simplifying it in his own head. Anywho, great video.
My mom loves this short.
YES! THIS IS THE ONE I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR! I saw this when I was a kid in the 80s in syndication one Sunday morning.
I think I was about five years old when I first saw this short. I wasn't really paying attention to it until the grandfathers shadow morphed into the soldier. As soon as that happened, I just stared at the screen in awe until the death of the final soldier. Easily one of my favorite piece of animation, and started my obsession with gas masks.
I remember watching this once as a child.
i think turner classic movies showed this at one point and it was always a cartoon that my mind would think back to from time to time, so i appreciate this video for bringing it back to me
Wow I had never seen that before, thank you for introducing it to me, I can see why that would stick with you both visual disturbing and beautiful at the same time!
"Hyde and go tweet" was one I loved to be scared by as a kid, the design of the moster tweety and the evil laugh always made my skin crawl!
I watched this special all the time when I was a kid and I definitely didn't realize how dark it was
As necessary as war sometimes is, it's *always* important to remember the human cost. Cartoons like this help get that message across.
Decisions to go to war are always made by those who will never have to fight them or be at any real risk
I remember watching this short on Cartoon Network one Christmas Eve back when I was a kid.
I remember seeing this on Cartoon Network. No surprise it left a huge impact on me
Holy crap, I remember seeing this as a kid but haven't I seen it again since I was in middle school over 20 years ago!
I would love to see you cover To Be. An amazing Canadian cartoon about a woman who visits an exhibition by a scientist who claims to have created teleportation; only to find out he's actually cloning people then murdering the originals. As you can imagine that leads to an existential argument with a super dark conclusion.
I was thinking that I had seen this, then I saw the town with the helmet houses and realized I had. Perfect for Dark Toons.
I saw this back then Cartoon Network showed classic cartoons. Been waiting to see this here.
Thank you Doug my husband hasn't seen this since he was a kid so finding it brought back his memory's watching Christmas cartoons with his siblings....
Found if your interested
I only ever saw this once and I STILL remember it clearly! Thanks for telling me what it was!
A dark, hand drawn, Christmas cartoon?!
3:10 That's a good theory considering large chunks of France are still uninhabitable to this DAY
This cartoon has stuck with since i saw it on CN when i was 9 years old and it left it's impact on me since. But the remake i saw 2 years ago on MEtv back to back with original and it made me cry tears for what felt like hours because i believe both shorts embody the message of peace and i am an hopeful optimist and think one day we'll find peace.
When I was a kid, we had a VHS recording of a bunch of Christmas specials of old cartoons that aired in the early 90s or so. There were these in-between segments of these two kids introducing each short and I don't remember all of them, but I remember they were on the slow-burn side of animation, a lot of calm cartoons to just enjoy the spirit of the season. There was a Tom and Jerry short, a Sniffles the Mouse short in there, and there was THIS cartoon. Imagine being five years old and seeing this wartime cartoon among Christmas specials. It was kinda freaky, and I'm not sure I really processed what was going on.
I remember watching this at a family members house during the holidays. I still never forgot it.
If this is from 39, this thing MUST be stored on film somewhere...
This short BEGS for an hd re-release!!
I saw "Good Will to Men" 1st, then "Peace on Earth years later.
WWII was humanity's humbling experience and character building era.
There was another major 1930s conflict we forget about to really help with the context of this cartoon, The Spanish Civil War would have just concluded only a couple months before and a lot of people, in addition to all the other European troubles leading to WW2 breaking out, would have had all this on their minds.
We forget about it because it's largely a thing best forgotten. Both sides were terrible; one was backed by Stalin and the other by Hitler. There was literally no one to root for; just a bunch of bad people destroying a bunch of other bad people, with no good options for the innocent civilians caught in the middle of it to support.
And the war in China.
MAN!
The way they switched from the cute creatures to world war one was amazing!
Dude, I was just thinking about this! It's the perfect dark toon for Christmas!
It does have a Wizards 1977 feel to it
Holy crap I thought my memory of this episode was just some childhood fever dream I could never find it
In 1941, Mel Blanc signed an exclusivity voice contract with Leon Schlesinger Productions, and from then on only did voices in Warner Brother cartoons, although he continued doing radio programs. Prior to the contract, he did voice work for other studios, including Universal Studios, where he created the voice for "Woody Woodpecker". Even after he stopped doing the voice for Walter Lanz, the laugh, and "Guess Who?" at the beginning of the cartoon, remained Mel Blanc, even after Grace Stafford continued voicing the character.
Amazing video as always Doug! Could you happen to do one on Play Safe (1936). The short traumatized me as I child off an old VHS tape of random cartoons.
I remember this! I had it on an old VHS I think
This is one of my all time favorite cartoons. Last year, I found it on the internet archive but cannot recall the quality.