So many of the history postings focus on war events and since it's the Christmas season, I want to share a unique and touching animated short film that I recently discovered. From 1939, Hugh Harman's charming and chilling post-apocalyptic "Peace On Earth", which poses the grim question, "What were men?"



From the Wiki:
In 1994, [Peace On Earth] was voted #40 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field. It was also nominated for the 1939 Academy Award for Short Subjects (Cartoons). It did not claim that honor (which instead went to Walt Disney's Silly Symphony The Ugly Duckling).

As a veteran of the USAF Strategic Air Command during the Cold War, this film reminded me of the days when we had to contemplate what an ultimate war might really mean. I'm glad to say that my unit's B-52 bombers were retired after the Cold War ended and, somewhere in Russia or the Ukraine, matching units of their Long-Range Aviation stood down as well.

Jim, somehow I don't think that's what Hugh Harman was trying to say in this film.   

The theme of nature reclaiming the earth after a human-caused apocalypse has been imagined and depicted many times in literature and film. This early example is unique and, yes, historic as a well-crafted animated film that addresses a serious subject: the horrors of war.