Operation Snafu

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, like No Buddy Atoll preceding it, is less an instructional short like most of the others and more just a straightforward cartoon with a war theme. There's no dialogue in this one. It tells the story of Snafu stealing top secret documents in Japan and having to disguise himself as a geisha girl. I guess he's a spy or something here. Dumb. There aren't any good gags and nothing particularly controversial like many of the shorts. Unless we count the portrayal of the Japanese which, given the era in which this was made, would have been no big deal. Despite some nice black & white animation, it's pretty light on laughs and is easily the weakest entry in the whole series.

Any Private Snafu cartoon is watchable at least and Snafu for all his idiocy is still an endearing character. While it is nowhere near among the best of the series like Spies, Booby Traps and The Goldbrick(for me it's actually one of the weakest), Operation Snafu is worth a look.

The black and white animation is beautifully done, all the drawing is crisp and smooth and the black and white colours is attractive. You can always rely on Carl Stalling to write great music, and the music certainly is here, rhythmically it's very lively, the orchestration is lushly vibrant and it adds hugely to the action, it's in a way the heart and soul of the cartoon and the component that gives it its energy. The humour is mostly amusing(the geisha gag being the highlight), though it is never hilarious, and delivered in a lively fashion, the cartoon moves very quickly so it always feels energetic at least and while the Japanese character is a little stereotypical and makes you more crack a smile at most rather than laugh out loud Snafu is endearing and provides plenty of entertainment.

Operation Snafu takes a bit of time to get going, the action only properly takes off when Snafu appears on the scene and that's a little less than halfway through. There are also much funnier and more daring Private Snafu cartoons, the cartoon is rather atypical for Private Snafu, not saying or teaching an awful lot that feels fresh, and does veer on propaganda in places. The main running gag mostly entertains but a little over-utilised and some instances are more interesting than others. Mel Blanc is also rather wasted, he was a brilliant voice actor who elevated almost every cartoon he contributed to to a higher level but here he only has one line and it's neither funny or memorable. All in all, watchable but only just slightly above average. 6/10 Bethany Cox