Movie Review: Hitler’s Folly

Apparently, there’s not a lot of humor when it comes to ol’ Adolf.

Adolf Hitler is arguably the most controversial man who has ever lived. With a vision for a perfect world, he led one of the largest armies to ever exist and conquered a large portion of Europe. His most heinous crime of all was the imprisonment and killing of six million Jewish people. The world had never and hasn’t since experienced a war on the scale of World War II. The fallout of the war can still be felt today in parts of the world.

But if you have any knowledge of history at all, you probably knew all of that already. You know about World War 2, you know who it affected, you probably know some of the key figures in the war, and you certainly know Adolf Hitler… or do you?

Hitler’s Folly is a mockumentary film by respected film maker and animator, Bill Plympton. Plympton has worked on a number of films and projects over the years, some of which we’ve reviewed on this site. His newest endeavor aims to look at Hitler’s life and motivations from a different perspective. Historians who know of Hitler’s life know about his aspirations to be an artist. What if those aspirations played a bigger role in his life than we once thought?

Hitler’s Folly takes us through the life of Adolf Hitler from a sympathetic angle. The events of his life unfold just as they happened in real life, but perhaps we have misunderstood what caused these events and what the motivations behind them were. This mockumentary makes the claim that Hitler simply wanted to create the largest animation empire in the world with his iconic character Downey Duck.

Hitler’s Folly is noticeably low budget. The opening scene and a few to follow look as though they were shot on a camera phone and that is clearly the intention. This secret life of Adolf Hitler was stumbled upon by a regular Joe and is taking the initiative to spread the information to the world. A regular person would just whip out their iPhone and do something similar to this. A problem that could have been dealt with better is the sound editing. Sometimes it’s hard to make out what Josh (our narrator) is saying.

Another problem the film faces is that it’s meant for a specific audience. This isn’t a slam on the quality of the film, just that the subject matter may go over the heads of some people. To get the humor of the film you’ll have to know a lot about Hitler and the events of World War II. Many of the events in this mockumentary are fictional, but to fully appreciate the comedy, it would help if you knew the original story before being told the alternate version. To put it simply: It’s funnier if you can distinguish what is fact and what is false.

Overall, Hitler’s Folly is a fun way to kill an hour and eight minutes. It’s a clever perspective, it’s unique, it can be interesting for animators and historian alike. It falls short with editing and it gets a little incoherent at times. There are moments in the film that I think could have been explained better.

Plympton has made it free for your viewing pleasure on his website, he just asks that you donate to his studio if you have the means to do so. This can also be done on his website if you hit the “donate” button. The film can be found just by following this link: http://www.plymptoons.com/