I'm wondering if every short film nominated for an Oscar in this year was just an animated propaganda film. Well, maybe they weren't but for sure this one is and it is little else. With the title pointing towards victory and the opening (and consistent) song about production (on Uncle Sam's instruction), this film opens in the woods to find innocent animals coming to the news that war has been declared. Before you can say "old Glory", the woods are cut down into cabins for production offices and all the creatures go about producing weapons, uniforms and food for our troops.
In terms of how it does this, the film is actually pretty clever in the use of creatures as both workers and the means of production. So for example we get a bee driving a bulldozer style vehicle but the tracks are a pair of caterpillars wrapped around each side, or a toucan cutting barrels from a length of piping and other such things as this. This side of it is quite nice as it is imaginative and done with color but for me the heavy propaganda aimed towards children was a little bit too much for me. I understand it has to be watched in context of the time and place, but it still was a bit much for me – in particular the song was the audio equivalent to painting yourself in stars and stripes before going to hit baseballs off an aircraft carrier into a sea full of guys on jet-skis, it was really American and flag waving. I do of course know that almost everyone does this when in a war, but as a piece of child- friendly "support our troops" thing, this was generally a bit too heavy- handed for me even if the ways the creatures are employed as equipment and workers was generally nicely done.