User reviews

Another entry in the Private Snafu series made for use by the US Army during World War II. This one's directed by Chuck Jones and features a cameo appearance by Bugs Bunny. The focus in this short is protecting yourself against chemical warfare. Snafu learns the hard way (it's always the hard way with this guy) to take care of his gas mask and keep it with him at all times. A fun short with solid voice work, nice music, and good animation. The stuff with the gas cloud is especially well-animated. Love the Bugs cameo, too. All in all, a quick but entertaining black & white cartoon. Not the best of the series but pretty good.

This is one of those animated military training films. Private Snafu, who doesn't seem to listen very well, has been trained in using his gas mask, but because it uncomfortable, he tosses it in the garbage. Eventually, this teachable moment tells us that there are better ways use this critical equipment.

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 lesser ones like 'It's Murder She Says' and 'Operation Snafu' are still very much watchable. Even when inept, Snafu is still very much endearing and fun for a vast majority of his cartoons, excepting 'The Chow Hound' and his too short appearance in 'In the Aleutians'.

'Gas' is not one of the best Private Snafu cartoons like 'Spies', 'The Goldbrick', 'Infantry Blues', 'Booby Traps' and 'Private Snafu vs. Malaria Mike', but it is a very good cartoon and effectively makes its point of the importance of wearing a gas mask. As creepy as those things looked (doesn't help when they have been portrayed in the past in a nightmarishly creepy way, like a 'Dr Who' episode for example), they certainly were important in protecting one against things that would have made them ill or worse killed them if not worn.

Like a lot of Private Snafu cartoons, 'Gas' is a very short cartoon, with the 3 minute running time feeling rather brief, and occasionally it's slightly rushed.

However, 'Gas' is very well-animated though with fluid character designs, detailed and not sparse backgrounds and lively colours/shadings. The gas cloud is very creative visually in particular. Carl Stalling always did write outstanding music for the many cartoons he scored for and that is true for 'Gas', the orchestration is very lush and the pacing is characteristically lively.

Snafu is endearing and amusing, and while not exactly wild the writing is very funny yet is also educational without talking down to the viewer. The voice acting from Mel Blanc and Billy Bletcher is great.

In conclusion, very good. 8/10 Bethany Cox