Maltin introduces this as "the most unusual feature film Walt Disney ever made." Victory Through Air Power, he says, is meant to send a message rather than entertain. Adapted from a book by Alexander P. de Seversky, this 1943 film calls on America to focus energies on long-range bomber planes in order to win World War II.
Victory Through Air Power opens with messages which declare that America has been saved from past struggles by men of vision of courage. The scrolling notes then reveal that the film is dedicated to Billy Mitchell, an Army general whose advice to look into aerial assaults in the years after World War I went mostly ignored or ridiculed by the nation.
After this, we are treated to an amusing animated history of aviation, which starts from the turn-of-the-20th century test flights by the Wright brothers. We see aviation being explored by various nations for various purposes and then airplanes put to limited use in World War I. While it does purport to be a documentary of sorts, it keeps a light-hearted tone and features some warm, colorful '40s-style Disney animation.
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