Mickey Mouse Morale

On December 7, 1941, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, drawing the United States into World War II. The ext day U.S. Army troops requisitioned half of Walt Disney’s Burbank, California, studio for their use. But space was not all that Disney would provide the troops. Artists, animators, and Walt Disney himself pitched in, enlisting Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and other beloved Disney characters in the war effort.

Disney partnered with several government programs to educate citizens and encourage them to do their part on the home front. Disney characters appeared on posters, in books, and even on war bonds.

Disney’s animation studio created educational shorts, training films, and patriotic entertainment. Most famously, Walt Disney was asked to go to South America as part of the Good Neighbor Program promoting cordial relations between North and South America during the war.

Disney and his research team, dubbed "El Grupo," traveled and took in the sights both as ambassadors of goodwill, and as research for planned South American cartoons.

The most famous results of that trip were the films "Saludos Amigos" and "The Three Caballeros," both starring Donald Duck. In 1943 The New York Times praised Donald as an “ambassador-at-large, a salesman of the American Way” for his representation of the United States both at home and abroad.

Disney was most prolific during the war as a morale booster for the troops. Company artists created images of Disney characters for unit patches, eventually providing insignia to almost 1,300 units in the U.S. armed forces.

Fifinella was a female gremlin designed by Walt Disney based on Roald Dahl's book "The Gremlins." She was used as the official mascot and insignia of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPS).

Many Disney characters ended up as nose art on military aircraft.

The Studio’s work was not just instrumental in the United States’ war effort; using Disney characters to speak on behalf of the U.S. government also solidified the idea—building since Disney’s 1930s cartoon work—that the brand was associated with patriotism and a symbol for America writ large.