Three Brothers

Another entry in the Private Snafu series made for use by the US Army during World War II. This one's directed by Friz Freleng and features a cameo appearance by Bugs Bunny. The focus in this short is on valuing the job you do, even if it isn't glamorous. In this short we also meet Snafu's brothers Tarfu and Fubar, who are also in the service. Technical Fairy, First Class, once again tries to teach Snafu a lesson. When Snafu is complaining about his assigned duty of boot sorting, the Fairy shows him how much worse it could be by letting Snafu see the jobs his brothers have. Good black & white animation. Nice voice work from Mel Blanc. Funny short, even if it's far from the best of the series. My favorite bit was a background gag where a lady pigeon has a photo of a guy pigeon on her wall and its signed "Sincerely, Walter Pigeon."

During WWII, the US government financed a series of Private Snafu cartoons. Using a wonderful sense of humor, they were able to convey important messages to the troops--and the films were not shown to the general public. You can tell this in a few of the films, as the humor is a bit more adult than you could have gotten away with in theaters. Today, you can find these shorts on DVD as well as for free downloads at archive.org.

The cartoon begins with Snafu doing a very boring job--separating shoes. He longs for an exciting job, like the ones done by his brothers, Tarfu and Fubar. At that moment, Snafu's fairy godfather appears and shows Snafu that these other jobs aren't quite so wonderful. I assume the message they're trying to get to the troops is that all jobs are important and not to gripe. It's done with a nice sense of humor AND a special guest appearance--but to find out more, you'll have to see it for yourself.

By the way, try looking up the terms snafu, tarfu and fubar--then you'll understand that these films were NEVER meant to be seen by the general public!

Snafu couldn't take all the K.P. he's been doing. He wished he had a better possession in the army like his brothers do.

Technical Fairy First Class appears out of nowhere like always. And shows Snafu how his Borthers are doing.

His 2 Brothers are Tarfu(Things Really Fouled Up) and Fubar(Fouled up Beyond All Repair). As you may guess they are as dimwitted as Snafu himself.

They too hate they're own possessions in the army and wish they had better possessions from where they are.

To make a long summary short it's another good Snafu short. Tarfu and Fubar look like Snafu only with different hair cuts.

Three Brothers may not be one of the very best of the Private Snafu series like Spies and Booby Traps are, but it's in the better half and well worth tracking down. If a Private Snafu entertains while also getting its message across effectively it does its job well, Three Brothers does both well.

For Private Snafu, a series of cartoons that contained some material that was daring and ahead of its time (i.e. The Home Front for instance), it is pretty tame which some may feel on the bland side in comparison to others in the series. The pacing occasionally lacks crispness too and it's a touch routine story-wise.

However, the animation is very good indeed and holds up well. The characters move smoothly, the backgrounds show some meticulous detail without being simplistic or too complicated and the black and white is crisp. Carl Stalling was a remarkably consistent composer whose music always breathed life into any cartoon it appears in, the music in Three Brothers does nothing to change that. It's very vibrantly orchestrated and rhythmically it's very energetic and lively. A music score for a cartoon is even greater when it not only synchronises effectively with the action but also enhances that, the music does that brilliantly and in a way that only Stalling could do.

The cartoon is very funny and wittily written, no surprise seeing as Dr Seuss was at the writing helm, with sharp, playful dialogue that is enough to make one smile and well-timed visual gags. The story structurally is not the most exceptional, which is forgivable as the cartoon is very short even for a short film, but the charm and general energy is infectious, there is a great important message that is handled in a way that makes its point without feeling heavy-handed, and the characters carry Three Brothers beautifully. Snafu is still endearing regardless of how inept he is, his brothers Tarfu and Fubar are nice additions who are no less sweet and amusing, Technical Ferry-First Class is a blast and there's a delightful cameo from Bugs Bunny. Mel Blanc as always does a great job voicing the characters, very few voice actors could voice multiple characters in the same cartoon and give them each an individual personality, something that Blanc was pretty much an unparallelled master at.

All in all, funny, well-made and makes its point just fine. It is pretty tame and not one of the very best of the series, but that certainly does not stop it from being well worth tracking down. 8/10 Bethany Cox