The war changed how people did and saw things. Even animated films, in the guise of entertainment, joined in the war effort. In this section, you'll find classics of the genre and get an overview of the conflict before discovering archival footage, comments and opinions on the main themes treated in the other sections of the site.
Each film on this site is available for viewing at low speed or high speed.
Low speed: recommended if your Internet connection uses a dial-up modem (56 kbps or slower). Low-speed viewing results in lower quality image and sound.
High speed: recommended if you have high-speed Internet (DSL, cable modem) or are connected to an institutional network. Viewing in high-speed mode may cause occasional jerky images and sound interruptions if the speed of your connection is not fast enough.
If you're not sure which speed to use for viewing the films, try high speed first. If the results are not satisfactory, switch to low speed.
Format
Films can be available for viewing in either Macromedia Flash or QuickTime. Image and sound quality are similar for all these formats.
Flash: lets you view the film directly in the Web page without launching an external application. Requires the Flash plug-in (download for free at Macromedia Flash Player).
QuickTime (alternative format): requires QuickTime, version 7 or more recent (download for free at QuickTime).
Closed captions (CC)
Translation of the audio portion of a film into subtitles, for example, dialogue, narration, sound effects, etc. These captions let hearing-impaired viewers read what they cannot hear. Closed captions are available for a few films. To access them, you must select QuickTime (under Format) and With closed captions (under Accessibility).
Described video (DV)
A narrated description of a film's key visual elements to enable the vision-impaired to form a mental picture of what is happening on screen. Described video is available for a few films. To access them, you must select QuickTime (under Format) and With described video (under Accessibility).
Film
(54:15)
June to December, 1944. After years of dedication and sacrifice, an Allied victory seems tantalizingly close. The Liberators accompanies Canadian soldiers from their D-Day landings on the shores of Normandy, up along the coast of northern France and into Belgium and Holland. The film also visits the homefront in Canada, where the war effort was transforming the country into a formidable industrial nation--the fourth largest producer of armaments among the Allied countries. In achieving this, women played a leading role, with almost one million in the work force by 1944. The Second World War changed the way Canadian women saw themselves and, indeed, the way the country as a whole saw itself--a young nation that had now become much more mature and self-confident. Interspersed with archival footage are the vivid memories of men and women who recall life during the war years. Part two of the series.