Customer Reviews

Disney Dons Dogtags: The Best of Disney Military Insignia from World War II (Recollectible series)

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3 star:		(1)
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One of the most personal, meaningful efforts ever produced by the Walt Disney Studios was not an animated movie for the masses, a big box office live action adventure, or even a theme park. It was the work they provided for the soldiers, sailors, and airmen of World War II. The studio animators under Walt's direction provided free of charge the design of over 1,000 original artistic logos for the armed forces. These were used on individual planes, tanks, and ships for their crews. They also helped design unit insignias for organized armoured units, air wings and squadrons, infantry units and others. These requests were sometimes funneled through the official military channels, but more often came in a letter sent from overseas signed by a bunch of American young men. Most often the boys would send in a rough sketch of what they had in mind, or asked to use a certain animated character they favored. Other times they let the studio come up with whatever they wanted, and the artists often created new characters on the spot. No request was too big or too small, the animators completed every job. These designs were incredible and inspiring works of art, not something dashed off in a hurry.

This effort began when early one morning a fews days after the bombing of Pearl Harbour, the phone rang at Walt Disney's house. The Studio called to tell him that 700 army troops had set up camp at the Walt Disney studio campus, in order to protect the nearby airfield. The long war hurt the Disney company many way, including the loss of key staff to the armed forces, reduction in commercial output and attendance, and cuts in overseas theatrical releases of their films. Despite these issues that could have caused resentment of the wars interference in Disney growth and success, the company dove in to do their part to support the war effort.

Whether it was in producing great war time comedy animated shorts such as "Der Fuhreres Face" to keep up the public morale; or educational films to teach soldiers how to operate a certain weapon or avoid disease; or deeply researched theory films like "Victory Through Airpower"; or animated shorts that promoted war bonds... the studio worked overtime to do their part. The logos and unit insignia are a big part of that effort.

The beautiful color photos reproduce the actual designs in page after page of color photos. A wonderful book for the Disneyphile, OR for those that are just interested in high quality unit design artwork from planes, etc. from WWII.

Also see the book "Donald Duck Joins Up: The Walt Disney Studio During World War II (Studies in Cinema)" to get a more complete picture of all the other combined efforts of the studio during the war, including the logos in this book. In order to see the logos themselves, the book on this page features more of them than any other book.

A great book filled with dozens of pictures. Disney designed over 1,100 insignia during the war. This book pictures some of the best. Check out toonsatwar.com for more info on the Disney Studio's involvement in World War Two.

When I got this book new YEARS ago, I guess I was expecting a lot more. I had seen the vast resources of the Disney vaults, and I felt that this, while it has some nice items, was just skimming the surface of the wonderful treasures therein. Also, the overly-artsy layout of the book seems to attempt to hide the meager content with glitsy and jazzy designs on nearly every page. It actually has had me wishfully waiting for a sequel to this, to cover all the untold leftovers that haven't been shown.
I would have been happy with a very simple book design, even with repetetive basic tables displaying the art and stories behind it, and let the art itself tell the story and show its own grandeur, rather than an over-fluffed layout leaving me thirsty for more.
I will give it a 3 star "ok-to-good" rating because what is in there is quite good, but overall the book itself falls short of delivering a comprehensive promise of any kind.

I've always enjoyed browsing through this book to look at the amazing selection of military insignia that the Disney folk created for the fighting forces. It's worth saying though that I think the title is aimed at the general reader and those interested in pop culture rather than those who are looking for a serious analysis of the companies war effort.

There are probably a few hundred insignia in these pages presented in a bright and breezy manner which I thought worked well with this kind of graphic material. Most of the designs are shown as flat art, clean and tight enough to make me think they were taken from the original artwork. Other examples seem to be enlargements from printed sources because the screen is clearly visible. The book's square format works well with the material.

Here and there throughout the pages are various matchbooks with the designs printed on the cover and on page thirty-six Pepsi-Cola get a look in with a matchbook showing the logo for Patwing Support Force Aviation Repair Unit 1. Pepsi produced forty-eight different covers and it's a pity they all couldn't be included. There also a few clothing patches and poster stamps shown. A slight annoyance is that there is no index.

Walton Rawls writes about the insignia and how the various artists interpreted the Disney menagerie into stunning graphics to keep up the morale of the military during WW2. This lovely book is a celebration of great art that worked.

***LOOK AT SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.

I am a military insignias artist. I have been recreating military insignias on leather for over 18 years. The Disney artist have created some of the very best military art work in the world. This book has some of the many terrific designes creaded by the Disney artists. I have been fascinated with the Disney art work ever since I had lunch with Walt Disney as a young boy.