I saw this when I was maybe 6-8 years old; that was 30 years ago. It stuck with me. Always fighting over nothing...that's us.

. . . prior to the German Invasion of Poland, which "officially" kicked off World War Two for most of the planet (except China, which already had been occupied by Hitler's Japanese buddies). Warner warned the normal people of America of the Coming Storm with feature films such as THE CONFESSIONS OF A NAZI SPY. Even though Adolf had made no secret of his plans to eradicate the World's Jews, the American Rich People's Party members controlling the U.S. Congress, along with the nation's equivalent of Today's Fox "News" (led by Radio Ranter Father Charles Edward Coughlin, a.k.a. "Hitler's Priest," of Royal Oak, MI) had intimidated most of Hollywood's Jewish Movie Moguls to be "appeasers." Historians consider MGM's 1939 animated short PEACE OF EARTH to be the zenith of the U.S. Appeasement Movement. It's the cartoon equivalent of Rodney King asking Hitler, "Can't we all just get along?" In PEACE ON EARTH, the Jews are labeled as The Vegetarians, warring against the Nazi Meat-Eaters forces. This scenario shows the deranged hypocrisy of the Tinseltown Appeasers' thinking. As History proved, Nazis versus Jews was NOT a "fair and balanced" fight. Furthermore, humans would have and will survive any imaginable Good War, emerging from the shelters of Amazon Rain Forests and the Inuit Far North once the gun smoke clears.

Yes, it is quite preachy. This is the story of what is left after humans are no longer on earth, due to their propensity for violence and war. A grandfather squirrel tells his little grandsquirrels about how all this came about. Since the cartoon was made in 1939, the war was raging in Europe but the U.S. Government was sitting back watching. Of course, two years later came Pearl Harbor. Certainly, such a presentation could be seen as unpatriotic but that's not fair. The fact of the matter is, no matter who is to blame, we have the ability to annihilate our species. Also, this is a cartoon, and the animals wear clothes and live in houses. They have the emotions and judgments of humans so are they really humans with fur. Also, though metaphorical, there are good guys and bad guys in the human race. A beautiful cartoon offering.

Peace on Earth (1939) *** (out of 4) Oscar nominated short from MGM has a Grandpa squirrel telling his grandchildren how men's wars caused the end of humans, which led to the forrest animals rebuilding society. This is a pretty grim and dark cartoon but it manages to be sweet and cute at the same time.Later remade as Good Will to Men, which is just as entertaining and also earned an Oscar nomination.Both films show up on Turner Classic Movies quite often. The best time to catch them is during their Oscar month.