The Infantry Blues

A fun Private Snafu short made for use by the U.S. Army during World War II. This one has Snafu complaining that the infantry does all the grunt work while the other branches of the military have easier jobs and get all the glory and respect. So Snafu's personal fairy seen in many of the other Snafu shorts tries to set him straight by showing him how the Tank Corps, Air Force, and Navy have it rough, too. The point being that we're all in this together and each of us doing our part, an important reminder during wartime when low morale could be a major problem. Directed by Chuck Jones, with nice black & white animation. The action scenes are great. Solid voice work from the always reliable Mel Blanc. This is a very enjoyable cartoon from an entertaining and often risqué series (as evidenced again here with some swearing allowed, something you'd never see at the time in a cartoon available to the public).

The Infantry Blues (1943)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

This entry in the Private Snafu series has him complaining that the "infantry" boys simply don't get any respect and they have to do all the work where as sailors have it easy. This is another entry that's neither great or awful but somewhere in the middle. This series was obviously not meant to be Oscar-winning material and it's main goal was to simply teach soldiers certain things like watching out for spies, not playing sick or in this case, just a simple fun song about cheering up because the infantry is an important part of the service. As with earlier films, this one here looks extremely good as the animation is great and Mel Blanc certainly does a nice job with the vocal work.

The Private Snafu cartoons, while somewhat formulaic, are always entertaining and Infantry Blues is among the best of them(Spies and Booby Traps are my personal favourites of the series). The black and white animation looks so crisp and smooth, the story gets its point across effectively without being heavy handed and is also very snappily paced and the humour is often hilarious(though there are more daring cartoons in the series), so effective the visual humour is here that even the weakest gag is still very amusing. Snafu is funny and endearing, for the worst soldier in the army he is a likable and never annoying one. Technical Fairy is a wonderfully deadpan support character. Mel Blanc's vocals for both characters are superb and instantly recognisable, each character having their own defined personality and vastly different from one another. The best things though about Infantry Blues are the music and especially the dialogue. Carl Stalling's music is very characterful and enhances every line and sound effect, the pre-existing music brilliantly utilised and appropriate. The dialogue is deliciously witty and the rhyming style has Dr Seuss all over it. In conclusion, a great Private Snafu cartoon. 9/10 Bethany Cox