Rumors

This Snafu short has a lesson not to spread bad rumors about the war.

But knowing Snafu he ends up telling it to one guy then told to another, and another till the whole rumor is spread out in the base.

This short has allot of random stuff to it. Not to mention the large use of talking baloney that say nothing but Rumors. A Horn Bird and Bed Gator that are similar to Dr. Seuss's Animals. And a Smoke being as well.

Snafu gets frighten by all those things. I wouldn't blame him since I too would be creep out if I see Balony talking to me.

It's another good snafu cartoon. Random but good to view.

This was another World War II message to the soldiers and to the Allies to be careful about spreading rumors. These were called "instructional" cartoons because it was a mixture of serious messages along with a funny-looking main character called "Pvt. Snafu."

All of us have imaginations, along with fears and what-have-you, and that's what happens here as Pvt. Snafu incorrectly adds two and two to something he hears and comes up with "five." You can start panics and all kinds of disasters if you spread enough rumors and enough people believe them. That includes losing confidence in your country and your cause, as pointed out here in this cartoon. A good way to lose a war is demoralize the enemy. That's still being done today.

"We lost the war," declares one big baloney near the end of this cartoon. Amazing how some Americans still haven't learned. This cartoon may be 65 years old but it sure has relevance today. As I write this, there were two terrorist bombings in Europe today and some people still think the "War On Terror" is just a bumper sticker slogan. Amazing.

The writer, the famous "Dr. Suess," uses analogies of "hot air balloon juice" here to present the above message. With Theodore Geisel (his real name) you know the rhymes will be clever.

Nothing hilarious here, but it wasn't meant to be. You have to understand the climate of 1943 and the justified paranoia that was out there during World War II. People forget that war could have easily wound up with the other side winning. It was a tense time

During WWII, various artists from the different cartoon units (such as Looney Tunes, Disney and Walter Lanz) all gave their time to the war effort by working on training films (among other things) meant only to be shown to the soldiers. Because of this, the cartoons were not in color but DID have some colorful content...such as swearing and sex jokes! I can only assume that folks thought that if the young men were old enough to die or kill, they were more than old enough for some bawdy humor.

"Rumors" is one of the more effective installments of Private Snafu. It's all about how stupid rumors morph and do much damage to morale. And, it's all begun with our favorite idiot, Private Snafu, listens to an unfounded rumor and begins passing it through camp. Very well made and enjoyable even today....more than 70 years later.

Once when I was in college and we had an international fair, the Russian section had a Soviet-era poster saying "Ne boltay!", meaning "Don't gossip!". I "translated" it for the "generation" of TV watchers as "Don't be Gladys Kravitz!" (in reference to the nosy neighbor on "Bewitched").

However, when you see the result of gossip in the Pvt. Snafu short "Rumors", you see that it's not quite a laughing matter. In this case, the perpetually witless soldier overhears something about bombing and immediately assumes that the Axis Powers have attacked the United States. So, he tells it to someone, who tells someone else, who tells someone else, and it continues. As in "The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming", the story gets blown more and more out of proportion each time, so that when it gets back to Snafu...well, you know what I mean! Yes, it's mostly WWII propaganda - complete with a derogatory term for the Japanese - but I have to say that the Pvt. Snafu shorts were actually quite funny. Of course, since they had Dr. Seuss writing and Mel Blanc providing the voices, it's no surprise that these came out rather cool. Worth seeing.

Many of the Private Snafu cartoons are very enjoyable, being very well-made, entertaining and educational with good morals and interesting historical and instructional material. Even when inept, Snafu is still very much endearing and fun for a vast majority of his cartoons.

'Rumors' is up there with the best Private Snafu cartoons, certainly one of the most entertaining and most creative. In hindsight the message may be a little on the laboured side, but still makes its point without being preachy or patronising. It warning against rumour spreading and its consequences if done is educational and come to think of it is still very much relevant now.

As usual, 'Rumors' is very well-animated though with fluid character designs, detailed and not sparse backgrounds and lively colours/shadings. Carl Stalling always did write outstanding music for the many cartoons he scored for and that is true for 'In the Aleutians', the orchestration is very lush and the pacing is characteristically lively.

The narration entertains, resonates and teaches and doesn't fall into the trap of over-explaining or being over-used. Snafu endears and amuses even when so inept at what he does, while the writing is classic Dr Seuss and gets increasingly wilder, more creative and at times more nightmarish the bigger the rumours get. The voice acting is suitably zesty.

Overall, great and one of the best Private Snafu cartoons. 9/10 Bethany Cox