Snafuperman

The message in this "cartoon," another in the series of instructional videos to folks during World War II is "read your manuals." Obviously, this one is geared strictly for the military men. Others were for both military and civilians during the tension-filled years of World War II

The dumb guy in the story thinks he can be a military superman without doing his homework. For example, the idiot was going to bomb Washington by mistake, thinking it was Berlin. Well, you get the message.

This cartoon had a little more humor to it, at least visually, than the other two I saw in this series. Seeing "Snafuperman" doing the backstroke while flying in the air was pretty good, along with a few other sight gags.

Note: I was shocked to hear a guy yell, "How the hell do you expect...." The word "hell" doesn't offend me, but hearing that in a 1944 cartoon?? What gives? Was the audio redone on this?

Friz Freleng's 'Snafuperman' is one of the lesser Private Snafu shorts. A warning of the importance of studying your field manual, 'Snafuperman' makes it point rather clumsily. The story, in which Technical Fairy, First Class makes Snafu into a superhuman in order to help him see the error of his ways, is predictable and unfunny. Freleng's earlier Snafu short 'Rumours' had been bursting with ideas and laughs but here the director is lumbered with a rather boring topic and he struggles to make an entertaining short from it. Even at around three minutes long, 'Snafuperman' seems to drag and, unlike the best cartoons in the series, it feels like an instructional film first and entertainment second. Though they were knocked out more quickly than the usual Warner cartoons, the Snafu shorts largely maintained a surprisingly high standard. 'Snafuperman' is a reflection of the sort of quality you'd more reasonably expect from a less talent bunch of creative minds.

Here we find that paragon of soldierly virtue, Private Snafu, convinced that all that malarkey about "Enemy Recognition" and reading training manuals is a waste of time. He becomes Snafuperman (a parody of Superman) and discovers it isn't as simple as he thinks. Very good military training film done by the Warner Brothers animation department for the war effort. Well worth watching. Recommended.

Arguably the most famous Private Snafu short, due to it being a parody of Superman. For those who don't know, Snafu was a moronic soldier character that appeared in many black & white instructional shorts made for use by the military. The idea was to teach soldiers how to properly follow safety procedures and the like by showing them what would happen if they didn't. Snafu was a putz who rarely did what he was told, insisting he knew better. This time Snafu dismisses studying his field manual, claiming he isn't going to beat the Nazis with books but rather a "bellyful of lead." This causes a very funny 'fairy godmother' type of character to show up and give Snafu the powers of Superman in order to fight the Nazis. Despite his newfound powers, Snafu is still a screw-up who almost bombs the Capitol building! This one was directed by Friz Freleng with the great Mel Blanc providing Snafu's voice. It's not quite as racy as some of the other Snafu cartoons but it is amusing and the animation is nice. If you're a Superman fan, this probably has an added bit of appeal for you. Not the best Snafu but enjoyable.

A Private Snafu cartoon short that is a parody of the 1940s Superman cartoons.

You even get a snatch of the Superman cartoon theme.

Snafu gets superpowers and becomes Snafuperman as he fights the Japs and the Germans.

However his failure to read the field manual causes him all sorts of problems.

Snafuperman nearly bombs Washington instead of Berlin.

This was a fair parody with the educational aspect being. Read the instructions.