The Home Front

Whenever I see a WWII-themed cartoon - whether a Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoon or a Pvt. Snafu cartoon - it reminds me that the government no longer tells us to actually contribute things to the war effort (except of course to get killed). "The Home Front" portrays Snafu in a miserably cold setting assuming that his friends and family are sitting pretty; specifically that grandpa is watching a striptease! But then, a sort of guardian angel appears and shows Snafu by TV that everyone is contributing to the war effort.

So, it was wartime propaganda, but a clever form thereof. Not to mention that some of the stuff here would have been R-rated for the era (of course, these shorts didn't get shown in theaters). Worth seeing.

Private Snafu is dealing with the miserable cold and grousing that his family back home is probably living it up without a care in the world. The Technical Fairy, First Class shows up to let Snafu see how wrong he is and we see that his family and girlfriend are working hard contributing to the war effort at home. A fun entry in the Snafu series of shorts made for use by the US Army during WW2. Because they didn't have to pass the Production Code, these shorts often had more racy humor and images than other cartoons from the period. Highlights of this one include Snafu's grandfather watching strippers and a horse making manure jokes. The black & white animation is nice. The voice work from Mel Blanc is wonderful. It's not the best Snafu short but it is very enjoyable.

I love the old Pvt. Snafu cartoons, as they are so very subversive yet entertaining and important to the war effort. These films were made by Warner Brothers but were NOT meant to be seen by the general public, but by soldiers and sailors. Because of this, the language was often quite colorful--with swearing and sexual innuendos sprinkled liberally throughout.

This Snafu cartoon was not nearly as exciting as his other toons about booby traps and spies, but it was still pretty entertaining. Snafu starts off the film serving some place like Alaska. He's whining about how tough it is and how easy all the family has it back at home. The rest of the film is all about what he thinks they are are doing AND what they actually are doing to help the war effort. My favorite of these was when he imagined his grandpa at the strip show--pretty hot stuff for 1943! By the way, "Snafu" is taken from a very crude military acronym. I really don't need to explain it further.

The Home Front (1943)

*** (out of 4)

Another fun entry in the Private Snafu series has him complaining thinking that everyone in his hometown are having fun while he's preparing for battle. He thinks his mom is just gossiping while grandpa is watching dirty ladies and his girlfriend is out with other men. We then see what they're actually doing back at home. This series from the War Department was created to train soldiers and it's obvious that the main lesson to take away from this entry is that soldiers shouldn't always think the worst because there are many avenues for "help" during war time. This entry is certainly an entertaining one as the animation is top-notch and once again Mel Blanc is good with his vocal work. I really liked the sequences showing what grandpa was supposed to be doing as they've got some adult nature to them.

This is another SNAFU propaganda film. The Private is stationed in an icy clime and is fed up that others in our country don't care that he is doing his duty. Of course, he is shown how people he thinks are worthless are actually assisting the war effort, big time. There are tanks, and destroyers, and food and everything you can imaging because the people are helping out. There was some of that, but we know it's not so simple.