A Spectre is Haunting Europe -- the Spectre of Communism

Cartoons of the World, Unite! You Have Nothing to Lose but your Animators!

In a unique homage to the potential for subversion in the celluloid medium, Manifestoon assembles a number of classic cartoons from the Golden Age of cartooning between the 1930s and the 1950s to graphically illustrate The Communist Manifesto.

Manifestoon [8:17]


While American cartoons [specifically the work of Walt Disney's cartoon assembly line] have tended to be viewed as being merely a handmaiden to the fundamental capitalist virtues of consumerism, individualism and private property [See Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart’s How To Read Donald Duck: Imperialist Ideology in the Disney Comic for deeper analysis], the creator of Manifestoon believes that "these ideas were secondary to a more important lesson — that of the 'trickster' nature of many characters as they mocked, outwitted and defeated their more powerful adversaries. In the classic cartoon, brute strength and heavy artillery are no match for wit and humour, and justice always prevails ... it was natural to link my own childhood concept of subversion with an established, more articulate version. Mickey running over the globe has new meaning in today's mediascape, in which Disney controls one of the largest concentrations of media."