Make Mine Freedom (1948)

After World War II a series of educational cartoons were created by John Sutherland Studios for Harding College. Initially Walt Disney had been approached to make these cartoons but referred them to Sutherland who'd been a former Walt Disney employee. Sutherland, son of a Midwestern bank president, had been worked on the story for Bambi and voiced the adult version of the title character himself. His wife was Paula Winslowe who had voiced Bambi's mother. Over the next several years, Sutherland produced this series as Fun Facts About American Business in order to convey complex economic concepts in a direct entertaining way.

At the time these cartoons were distributed by MGM and shown in movie theaters before mainstream feature films. Afterward they had a life in the school educational film market. These cartoons also featured a voice cast of prominent cartoon voice actors and were created by a group of golden age animation veterans. In recent years, animation "experts" and "academics" have condemned, dismissed, and smeared these cartoons as "anti-communist propaganda" when, in reality, they only seek to discredit them because they're just as relevant and effective today as they were at the time. Many of these cartoons feature the same cast of characters.

The most famous of these cartoons today is Make Mine Freedom from 1948 but there's an entire series of these shorts. This first short was directed by Bill Hanna of Joe Barbera, the creators of Tom & Jerry who'd later co-found the first major TV animation studio. It was originally more than double the length and called The Secret of American Prosperity but was edited down and retitled Make Mine Freedom. The alternate title is a reference to the popular soft drink slogan "Make Mine Moxie" and was a catchphrase in 1930's and 40's pop culture.

Here, in the inaugural cartoon, we see John Q. Public confront snake oil salesmen Dr Utopia selling his flimflam scam of Ism to the American public. The cartoon explores the contrast of totalitarianism with constitutional freedom.

These cartoons have never been collected together in one place and we are doing so here. They should not be forgotten.

Original release date February 25, 1948

This page is not affiliated with Harding College or John Sutherland Studios.