The Spirit of '43

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The Spirit of '43 was a World War II propaganda cartoon short film created by Walt Disney Studios- in 1943 and starring Donald Duck as a sequel to The New Spirit. Arguably, it contains the first appearance of the character of Scrooge McDuck, although Scrooge is not named in the film.

In the cartoon, Donald Duck is portrayed as an ordinary working-class joe who gets his pay at the factory each week, and is reminded that in order to support the war effort against the Axis powers, he needs to remember to pay his income tax every quarter (in the 1940s, income taxes were paid directly by workers every three months, and not directly removed from employee paychecks as is done today). The purpose of the film was to encourage patriotic Americans to file and pay their income taxes faithfully every 3 months, in order to help the war effort. At one point, Donald Duck is faced with the classic "good angel on one shoulder, bad devil on the other shoulder" dilemma that was so common in cartoons of that era. The bad side is a zoot suit wearing hipster duck who urges Donald to spend his money at a tavern. The good side is represented by the "thrifty saver," who appears as a slightly elderly duck with a Scottish accent and wearing a kilt and Scottish cap and urging him to be thrifty and save so he can make sure to pay his taxes.

The film, along with Der Fuhrer's Face and others like it, was released on DVD by Disney in 2004.