{{short description|1939 American cartoon short}} {{use American English|date=January 2020}} {{use mdy dates|date=January 2020}} {{Infobox film | name = Peace on Earth | image = PeaceOnEarthFilm.jpg | alt = | caption = Title card | director = Hugh Harman | producer = {{ubl|Hugh Harman|Fred Quimby (uncredited)}} | story ={{ubl|Jack Cosgriff|Charles McGirl}} | narrator = | starring ={{plainlist| * Mel Blanc * Martha Wentworth * Shirley Reed * Jeanne Dunne * The Hollywood Choir Boys (all uncredited)<ref name="CartoonVoices">{{cite book |last1=Scott |first1=Keith |title=Cartoon Voices: of the Golden Age, 1930-1970 - Volume Two: Selected Filmographies with Voice Credits |date=2022 |publisher=BearManor Media |location=Orlando |isbn=979-8-88771-010-5 |page=121 |url=https://www.amazon.com/Cartoon-Voices-Golden-Age-Vol/dp/B0BFNYS7B8/ref=sr_1_2?crid=27FV8T5UTPZXZ&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.7UprpJXfbCIehYM7OPypEA0w7TEQSbgY80huNIunnJQQznfvefrO2i9QQ5UudyqrTfj8GG2FfsgwfsuIAwazLp2q35ALBmvpO6T5OQiMPOX3wimpQ7gUFXcRgyPz88kUMZWEymyqlbjv13IdPa6-bdaHsr239vd1VVSGBB4IG3kqV3oKld2iYg9AY2RUhqpDHLypkv_OFriwa_w9Rh_31B-rT0dG2ne8aek6i8hUCkA.XVCijLO00jrbW1nkgizWcc5RVeEeasxcQX8DP47wwfg&dib_tag=se&keywords=cartoon+voices+of+the+golden+age&qid=1734321026&sprefix=cartoon+voices+of+the+golden+ago%2Caps%2C328&sr=8-2 |access-date=22 November 2025}}</ref> }} | music = Scott Bradley | animator = {{plainlist| * George Gordon * Carl Urbano * Irven Spence * Al Grandmain (all uncredited) }} | editing = | studio = {{ubl|Harman-Ising Productions|MGM Cartoons}} | distributor = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | released = {{film date|1939|12|9}} | runtime = 9 minutes | country = United States | language = English | budget = | gross = }} '''''Peace on Earth''''' is a one-reel 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon short directed by Hugh Harman, about a post-apocalyptic world populated only by animals, after human beings have gone extinct due to war. The film's copyright was renewed in 1966, and it will enter the American public domain on January 1, 2035.{{Efn|Under [https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/copyright/hprcatcard/19/55/19/70/ME/TR/O_/GO/LD/WY/N_/MA/YE/R_/IN/C_/P-/S/19551970METRO_GOLDWYN_MAYER_INC_P-S/CC19551970METRO_GOLDWYN_MAYER_INC_P-S.0085.jpg R399702]}}
==Plot== On Christmas Eve, a grandfather squirrel visits his two young grandchildren, who ask him who the "men" are in the phrase "Peace on Earth, good will to men." He recalls that men went extinct when he was a young child. Through flashbacks, he remembers them only as "monsters" wearing "great, big iron pots on their heads" (helmets), "walked on their hind legs" (bipedalism), carrying "terrible-looking shootin'-irons with knives on the end of them" (bayonets), whose "eyes flashed" (goggles), and had "these tremendous big snoots (snouts), like this, that curled down and fastened onto their stomachs" (gas masks). Always going to war, finding an increasingly frivolous thing to fight over as soon as another was settled, they fight in scenes of devastation reminiscent of World War I until there are only two left. Each fatally shoots the other, and the last sight of a man is a hand curling into a fist as it slips under in a watery foxhole.
Animals — among them the young squirrel who would later become the grandfather — come out of hiding to find a Bible open to "Thou shalt not kill." An owl reads the words, taking it to be a good rulebook that men ignored. The owl finds “Ye shall rebuild the old wastes” (paraphrasing Isaiah 58:12 and 61:4). The animals agree, using men’s devices of war to build the town of Peaceville. There, in the present day, the grandchildren have fallen asleep, as their mother tucks them in.
Throughout the film, a Christmas carol of young rabbits and a squirrel, using the melody of "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," is featured with altered lyrics emphasizing "peace on Earth, good will to men."
==Voice Cast==
*Mel Blanc as Grandfather Squirrel (uncredited)<ref name="CartoonVoices" /> *Shirley Reed and Jeannie Dunne as The Two Child Squirrels (uncredited)<ref name="CartoonVoices" /> *Martha Wentworth as Mother Squirrel singing ''Silent Night'' at the end (uncredited)<ref name="CartoonVoices" /> *''The Hollywood Choir Boys'' as The Young Animal Christmas carolers led by Hal Crane (uncredited)<ref name="CartoonVoices" />
==Accolades== According to Hugh Harman's obituary in ''The New York Times''<ref>{{cite news |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CEEDB1039F933A05752C1A964948260 |title=Hugh Harman, 79, Creator Of 'Looney Tunes' Cartoons |newspaper=New York Times |date=November 30, 1982}}</ref> and Ben Mankiewicz, host of ''Cartoon Alley'', the cartoon was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.<ref name="BarberaAutoBio">{{cite book|last=Barbera|first=Joseph|title=My Life in "Toons": From Flatbush to Bedrock in Under a Century|year=1994|publisher=Turner Publishing|location=Atlanta, GA|isbn=978-1-57036-042-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/mylifeintoonsfro00barb/page/72 72–73]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/mylifeintoonsfro00barb/page/72}}</ref> However, it is not listed in the official Nobel Prize nomination database.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://nobelprize.org/nomination/peace/database.html |title=The Nomination Database for the Nobel Peace Prize, 1901–1955 |publisher=nobelprize.org}}</ref> According to filmmaker and animation historian Greg Ford, the cartoon was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, but it didn't win nor did it lose, since the Nobel Prizes were called off that year (ironically) due to the onset of World War II.<ref>Ford, Greg, ''Peace on Earth'' audio commentary, ''Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Academy Awards Animation Collection'' Disc 2, (DVD 2008) Warner Home Video (Burbank)</ref>
Mankiewicz also claimed that the cartoon was the first about a serious subject by a major studio. In 1994, it was voted #40 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Beck |first1=Jerry |title=The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals |date=1994 |publisher=Turner Publishing |isbn=978-1878685490}}</ref>
It was also nominated for the 1939 Academy Award for Short Subjects (Cartoons). It did not claim that honor (which instead went to Walt Disney's Silly Symphony ''The Ugly Duckling'').
==Remake== {{suppress categories|{{Infobox film | name = Good Will to Men | image = | alt = | caption = | director = {{ubl|William Hanna|Joseph Barbera}} | producer = {{ubl|Fred Quimby|William Hanna|Joseph Barbera}} | story = {{ubl|William Hanna|Joseph Barbera}} | starring = Elmore Vincent<br>Sandy Descher<br />June Foray<br />Mitchell Boys Choir<ref name="CartoonVoices2">{{cite book |last1=Scott |first1=Keith |title=Cartoon Voices: of the Golden Age, 1930-1970 - Volume Two: Selected Filmographies with Voice Credits |date=2022 |publisher=BearManor Media |location=Orlando |isbn=979-8-88771-010-5 |page=142 |url=https://www.amazon.com/Cartoon-Voices-Golden-Age-Vol/dp/B0BFNYS7B8/ref=sr_1_2?crid=27FV8T5UTPZXZ&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.7UprpJXfbCIehYM7OPypEA0w7TEQSbgY80huNIunnJQQznfvefrO2i9QQ5UudyqrTfj8GG2FfsgwfsuIAwazLp2q35ALBmvpO6T5OQiMPOX3wimpQ7gUFXcRgyPz88kUMZWEymyqlbjv13IdPa6-bdaHsr239vd1VVSGBB4IG3kqV3oKld2iYg9AY2RUhqpDHLypkv_OFriwa_w9Rh_31B-rT0dG2ne8aek6i8hUCkA.XVCijLO00jrbW1nkgizWcc5RVeEeasxcQX8DP47wwfg&dib_tag=se&keywords=cartoon+voices+of+the+golden+age&qid=1734321026&sprefix=cartoon+voices+of+the+golden+ago%2Caps%2C328&sr=8-2 |access-date=22 November 2025}}</ref> | layout_artist = Dick Bickenbach | background_artist = {{ubl|Robert Gentle|Don Driscoll}} | music = Scott Bradley | animator = {{plainlist| * Lewis Marshall * Kenneth Muse * Ed Barge * Irvin Spence * Reuben Timmins }} | studio = MGM Cartoons | distributor = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | released = {{Film date|1955|12|23}} | color_process = {{ubl|Technicolor|CinemaScope}} | runtime = 9 minutes | country = United States | language = English | budget = | gross = }}}} Fred Quimby, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera remade the cartoon in CinemaScope in 1955.<ref name="BarberaAutoBio"/> This post-World War II version of the film, entitled '''''Good Will to Men''''', is narrated by a deacon mouse who tells the story to a choir of mice preparing for a Christmas service. ''Good Will to Men'' featured updated and even more destructive forms of warfare technology such as flamethrowers, bazookas and missiles, and instead of the final battle being man-to-man, humanity is driven to extinction by a mutually assured nuclear holocaust.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Crump |first1=William D. |title=Happy Holidays—Animated! A Worldwide Encyclopedia of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year's Cartoons on Television and Film |date=2019 |publisher=McFarland & Co |isbn=9781476672939 |page=121}}</ref> This version did not explain why humans were constantly at war, only that the deacon believed they were eager to kill each other for killing's sake; it also does not reference the line of rebuilding, instead quoting love your neighbor as yourself as the foundation for society's future. This new version was also nominated for the Best Animated Short Subject Oscar, but lost to ''Speedy Gonzales''. This film was the last animated production for producer Fred Quimby before his retirement in May 1955.
===Voice Cast=== *Elmore Vincent as The Old Choir Master Mouse (uncredited)<ref name="CartoonVoices2" /> *Sandy Descher as The Child Mice (uncredited)<ref name="CartoonVoices2" /> *June Foray as The Old Lady Mouse and The Old Lady Rabbit saying "Merry Christmas" to each other at the end (uncredited)<ref name="CartoonVoices2" /> *Eight boys from the ''Mitchell Boys Chior'' singing ''Hark! The Herald Angels Sing'' (uncredited)<ref name="CartoonVoices2" />
==Home media== Both ''Peace on Earth'' and ''Good Will to Men'' are included, digitally restored and uncut, on the ''Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Academy Awards Animation Collection'' DVD set.
''Peace on Earth'' is also included as an extra on the ''A Christmas Carol'' DVD and Blu-ray from Warner Home Video and ''The Mortal Storm'' Blu-ray by Warner Archive Collection.
In 2025, ''Good Will to Men'' was included as a bonus short (restored in HD) on both the ''Tom and Jerry: The Complete CinemaScope Collection'' and ''Tom and Jerry: The Golden Era Anthology'' Blu-Ray sets from Warner Archive.
==See also== * List of Christmas films
==References== {{reflist}} {{notelist}}
==External links== {{wikiquote}} {{wikiquote|Good Will to Men}} * {{IMDb title|id=0031790|title=Peace on Earth}} * ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20211111050840/https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/310878/enwp Peace on Earth]'' at the TCM Movie Database * {{IMDb title|id=0048131|title=Good Will to Men}} * ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20220103045007/https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/2017283/enwp Good Will to Men]'' at the TCM Movie Database
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Category:1939 American animated short films Category:1930s Christmas films Category:1930s color films Category:1930s political films Category:1939 science fiction films Category:1930s war drama films Category:1939 drama films Category:American Christmas films Category:American animated science fiction films Category:English-language animated Christmas films Category:Animated films about Christianity Category:Animated films about death Category:Animated post-apocalyptic films Category:Anti-war films about World War I Category:Anti-war films Category:Cold War films Category:Films directed by Hugh Harman Category:Films produced by Fred Quimby Category:Films scored by Scott Bradley Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animated short films Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio short films Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films Category:Rotoscoped films