A Very Animated War – War of Images

During the Cold War, both the capitalist and the communist bloc sought to influence the inner world of children and young people through comics and animated films. Subtly—and sometimes less subtly—they engaged in ideological propaganda. With great skill, they ruled in the minds of children and young adults, permeated their imagination, and, through animated worlds, shaped their ideas of reality. For both sides knew: whoever controls childhood controls the future. Never before in human history were comics, animated films, and children’s magazines published with such zeal. This Cold War in the youth press and in animated cartoons is full of ugly twists, adventures, manipulation, and lies of every kind—especially as television penetrates family life and thus occupies the private sphere. Every morning, TV stations broadcast thousands of hours of cartoons, which children absorbed even before going to school, conditioning their imagination. For this reason, control over the broadcasts and programmes on air was important to both sides. The film shows how it became possible to control and manipulate the minds of children and young people with the help of comics and animated films—through images.