Snafuperman (1944)

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Uh-oh. Look out! The United States is doomed! It's "Snafuperman," one of the clandestine Warner Bros. cartoons starring the world's absolutely STUPIDEST soldier: Private Snafu. True, he's determined to defeat the Nazis, but if only he knew the distinction between friend and enemy! In my opinion, the funniest scene in "Snafuperman" is the very beginning, in which Snafu listens to the radio and noisily bangs on a series of pots, helmets, & crates while several other indignant officers are trying to study; one officer shouts, "How the hell do you expect a guy to study with all that racket going on?!" (I can't explain it, but there's something very humorous regarding even a mild cuss word in a Warner Bros. cartoon.) As a professional musician, how could I neglect Carl Stalling's wonderful musical accompaniment for "Snafuperman"? A swinging big band arrangement of "Little Brown Jug" can be heard over the radio as Snafu toys with his makeshift drumset. Shortly afterward, Beethoven's famous Piano Sonata in C Minor (Opus 13) accompanies Snafu stressing to his colleagues the importance of filling up those Nazis with lead. And as the aerial bombs are being loaded onto their respective planes, what could be a more appropriate accompaniment than "Off We Go Into the Wild Blue Yonder"?

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 IIThe 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?

This film, like all Pvt. Snafu films, was designed to be shown to Allied troops to illustrate various points in a humorous and watchable way. Because the audience was made up exclusively of adult men, most of the Snafu cartoons abound with colorful language and sexual innuendo--except for this one (if you exclude what the acronym S.N.A.F.U. stands for). This seems like a "nicer" version of the cartoon series made by Looney Toons and it is still pretty entertaining.In this toon, Snafu's fairy godfather appears and turns him into "Snafuperman" so he can single-handedly battle the Axis. Unfortunately, despite having muscles and the ability to fly, Snafu is just as stupid as ever. Because he never bothered to read his manuals or maps, he nearly blows up the Capitol building instead of Berlin and fails miserably in his attempt to thwart a Nazi bombing raid.The cartoon is very well-made and good fun. And, even though we are not the target audience, it's something I recommend you try.

SNAFUperman is a piece of American history. These short cartoons would be good little spoofs on their own but are now a great way of showing Americas use of propaganda in the second world war.Private Snafu a private in WWII is turned into SNAFUperman(A pun on Superman) by his technical fairy, first class. He refuses to read his manuals and by god it shows. The whole point is that Superman is fictional and it'll take more than Supermen to win the war.These cartoons are little treasures and should be saved for future generations. I used SNAFUperman as a great source in learning about attitudes towards the war not in my home country of England but in those far away from me.Perfect