“There’s a Yankee Doodle spirit in the heart of everyone. It’s the Yankee Doodle spirit now that’s shouldering a gun for freedom and liberty. Your freedom! Your liberty! This is our fighting song!” These lyrics are sung by Disney Legend Cliff Edwards to begin the special Donald Duck cartoon short The New Spirit. If the voice sounds familiar, it might be because Cliff Edwards is best known as the voice of Jiminy Cricket. This featurette was made for the Treasury Department and distributed by the War Activities Committee of the Motion Picture Industry. Told largely through the voice of a radio announcer with Donald Duck listening attentively, it teaches our beloved feathery foul that he should willingly and promptly pay his income tax to help with the war efforts. As the announcer explains to Donald, “If you made less than $3,000 last year, then you can use the new simplified form! It’s streamlined! It’s simple! All you need is a tax blank, your pen, some ink and a blotter.” The film concludes with visualizations of how those tax dollars will be used such as in the factories that make the guns “that blast the aggressors from the sea.” Surveys taken at the time showed that the film succeeded in convincing Americans to pay their taxes promptly, and the film was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Documentary.
