Private Snafu
Encyclopedia
SNAFU
SNAFU is an acronym that stands for situation normal: all fucked up. It is sometimes bowdlerized to all fouled up or similar. In simple terms, it means that the normal situation is in a bad state, as it always is, therefore nothing unexpected. It is usually used in jest, or as a sign of frustration...
is the title character
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
of a series of black-and-white American instructional cartoon
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
shorts produced between 1943 and 1945 during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The character was created by director Frank Capra
Frank Capra
Frank Russell Capra was a Sicilian-born American film director. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, and eventually became a creative force behind major award-winning films during the 1930s and 1940s...
, chairman of the U.S. Army Air Force First Motion Picture Unit
First Motion Picture Unit
The First Motion Picture Unit was the first unit of the United States Military to be made up entirely of motion picture personnel. It was also the title of a 1943 documentary about the unit.-Organization:...
, and most were written by Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel
Dr. Seuss
Theodor Seuss Geisel was an American writer, poet, and cartoonist most widely known for his children's books written under the pen names Dr. Seuss, Theo LeSieg and, in one case, Rosetta Stone....
, Philip D. Eastman, and Munro Leaf. Although the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
gave Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
the first crack at creating the cartoons, Leon Schlesinger
Leon Schlesinger
Leon Schlesinger was an American film producer, most noted for founding Leon Schlesinger Productions, which later became the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio, during the golden age of Hollywood animation.-Early life and career:...
of the Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
animation studio underbid Disney by two-thirds and won the contract. Disney had also demanded exclusive ownership of the character, and merchandising rights. Nel (2007) shows the goal was to help enlisted men with weak literacy skills learn through animated cartoons (and also supplementary comic books). They featured simple language, racy illustrations, no profanity, and subtle moralizing. Private Snafu did everything wrong, so that his negative example taught basic lessons about secrecy, disease prevention, and racial equality.
Private Snafu cartoons were a military secret - for the armed forces only. Surveys to ascertain the soldiers' film favorites showed that the Snafu cartoons usually rated highest or second highest. Each cartoon was produced in six weeks, compared to the six months usually taken for short cartoons of the same kind.
Content
United States Department of War
The United States Department of War, also called the War Department , was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army...
had to approve the storyboard
Storyboard
Storyboards are graphic organizers in the form of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence....
s, the Warner directors were allowed great latitude in order to keep the cartoons entertaining. Through his irresponsible behavior
Behavior
Behavior or behaviour refers to the actions and mannerisms made by organisms, systems, or artificial entities in conjunction with its environment, which includes the other systems or organisms around as well as the physical environment...
, Snafu
Snafu
Snafu may refer to:* SNAFU, an acronym* Snafu , an English rhythm and blues band of the 1970s* Snafu, a 1970 album by East Of Eden* Snafu , a 1981 Intellivision video game title published by Mattel Electronics...
demonstrates to soldiers what not to do while at war. In Malaria Mike, for example, Snafu neglects to take his malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
medications or to use his repellant, allowing a suave mosquito
Mosquito
Mosquitoes are members of a family of nematocerid flies: the Culicidae . The word Mosquito is from the Spanish and Portuguese for little fly...
to get him in the end—literally. In Spies
Spies (Private Snafu)
Spies is part of the Private Snafu series of animated shorts produced by Warner Bros. during World War II. Released in 1943, the cartoon was directed by Chuck Jones and features the vocal talents of Mel Blanc.-Plot:...
, Snafu leaks classified information a little at a time until the German Japanese enemies piece it together, ambush his transport ship, and literally blow him to hell. Six of Snafu's shorts actually end with him being killed due to his stupidity: Spies (blown up by enemy submarine torpedoes), Booby Traps (blown up by a bomb hidden inside a piano), The Goldbrick (run over by an enemy tank), A Lecture on Camouflage
A Lecture on Camouflage
A Lecture on Camouflage is a 1944 American animated film directed by Chuck Jones. A Private Snafu cartoon short made for the troops during World War II.-Plot summary:...
(large enemy bomb lands on him), Private Snafu vs. Malaria Mike (malaria), and Going Home (run over by a street car).
Later in the war, however, Snafu's antics became more like those of fellow Warner alum Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny is a animated character created in 1938 at Leon Schlesinger Productions, later Warner Bros. Cartoons. Bugs is an anthropomorphic gray rabbit and is famous for his flippant, insouciant personality and his portrayal as a trickster. He has primarily appeared in animated cartoons, most...
, a savvy hero facing the enemy head-on. The cartoons were intended for an audience of soldiers (as part of the bi-weekly Army-Navy Screen Magazine
Army-Navy Screen Magazine
The Army-Navy Screen Magazine was a short film program, which was shown to the American soldiers around the world during World War II. It included a newsreel and a cartoon of Private Snafu....
newsreel), and so are quite risqué by 1940's standards, with minor cursing, bare-bottomed GIs, and plenty of scantily clad (and even semi-nude) women. The depictions of Japanese and Germans are quite stereotypical by today's standards, but were par for the course in wartime U.S.
Snafuperman
Snafuperman is a 1944 animated short comedy produced by Warner Brothers Pictures and directed by Friz Freleng. It is one of a series of black and white "Private Snafu" cartoons created for the Army-Navy Screen Magazine and shown only to American soldiers...
, the Technical Fairy transforms Private Snafu into the superhero Snafuperman, who takes bungling to a super-powered level through his carelessness.
The Snafu shorts are notable because they were produced during the Golden Age of Warner Bros. animation. Directors such as Chuck Jones
Chuck Jones
Charles Martin "Chuck" Jones was an American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films, most memorably of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio...
, Friz Freleng
Friz Freleng
Isadore "Friz" Freleng was an animator, cartoonist, director, and producer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros....
, Bob Clampett
Bob Clampett
Robert Emerson "Bob" Clampett was an American animator, producer, director, and puppeteer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes animated series from Warner Bros., and the television shows Time for Beany and Beany and Cecil...
, and Frank Tashlin
Frank Tashlin
Frank Tashlin, born Francis Fredrick von Taschlein, also known as Tish Tash or Frank Tash was an American animator, screenwriter, and film director.-Animator:...
worked on them, and their characteristic styles are in top form. P. D. Eastman was a writer and storyboard artist for the Snafu shorts. Voice characterizations were provided by the celebrated Mel Blanc
Mel Blanc
Melvin Jerome "Mel" Blanc was an American voice actor and comedian. Although he began his nearly six-decade-long career performing in radio commercials, Blanc is best remembered for his work with Warner Bros...
(Private Snafu's voice was similar to Blanc's Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny is a animated character created in 1938 at Leon Schlesinger Productions, later Warner Bros. Cartoons. Bugs is an anthropomorphic gray rabbit and is famous for his flippant, insouciant personality and his portrayal as a trickster. He has primarily appeared in animated cartoons, most...
characterization, and Bugs himself actually made cameos in the Snafu episodes Gas and Three Brothers
Three Brothers (short)
Three Brothers is part of the Private Snafu series of animated shorts produced by Warner Bros. during World War II. Screened for troops in September 1944, the cartoon was directed by Friz Freleng and features the familiar voice of Mel Blanc.-Plot:...
). Toward the end of the war, other studios began producing Snafu shorts as well (the Army accused Schlesinger of padding his bills), though some of these never made it to celluloid
Celluloid
Celluloid is the name of a class of compounds created from nitrocellulose and camphor, plus dyes and other agents. Generally regarded to be the first thermoplastic, it was first created as Parkesine in 1862 and as Xylonite in 1869, before being registered as Celluloid in 1870. Celluloid is...
before the war ended. The Snafu films are also partly responsible for keeping the animation studios open during the war—by producing such training films, the studios were declared an essential industry.
Because they are now in the public domain, various Private Snafu shorts are available on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
, and more than a dozen are catalogued in the Internet Archive
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
.
Also, Warner Home Video
Warner Home Video
Warner Home Video is the home video unit of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., itself part of Time Warner. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video . The company launched in the United States with twenty films on VHS and Betamax videocassettes in late 1979...
has begun including Private Snafu shorts as bonus material on their Looney Tunes Golden Collection
Looney Tunes Golden Collection
The Looney Tunes Golden Collection was an annual series of six four-disc DVD box sets from Warner Bros.' home video unit Warner Home Video, each containing about 60 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies animated shorts...
DVD sets from the third volume
Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3
Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3 is a DVD box set from Warner Home Video that was released on October 25, 2005. It contains 60 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies theatrical short subject cartoons, 9 documentaries, 32 commentary tracks from animators and historians, 11 "vintage treasures from...
to the fifth
Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 5
Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 5 is a Looney Tunes collection on DVD. Following the pattern of one release each year of the previous volumes, it was released on October 30, 2007....
. Nine have been included in total (three per set).
On December 16th 2010, Thunderbean Animation released a DVD containing all the Snafu cartoons entitled Private Snafu Golden Classics. This release contains new transfers from original 35mm negatives. Extras in this release includes audio commentaries. Pre-orders began on Amazon on December 13th and the discs shipped out December 23rd.
The character has since made a couple of brief cameos in recent years: the Animaniacs
Animaniacs
Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs, usually referred to as simply Animaniacs, is an American animated series, distributed by Warner Bros. Television and produced by Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation. The cartoon was the second animated series produced by the collaboration of Steven...
episode "Boot Camping" has a character looking very much like Private Snafu, and the Futurama
Futurama
Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late 20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J...
episode "I Dated a Robot
I Dated a Robot
"I Dated a Robot" is the fifteenth episode in season three of Futurama. It originally aired on May 13, 2001.-Plot:After the crew sees an episode of The Scary Door, Fry decides to do all the things he always wanted to do and the Planet Express crew obliges...
", shows Private Snafu on the building mounted video screen for a few seconds in the opening credits.
The name "Private Snafu" comes from the unofficial military acronym SNAFU
SNAFU
SNAFU is an acronym that stands for situation normal: all fucked up. It is sometimes bowdlerized to all fouled up or similar. In simple terms, it means that the normal situation is in a bad state, as it always is, therefore nothing unexpected. It is usually used in jest, or as a sign of frustration...
, for "Situation Normal: All Fucked Up." This was deemed too-strong language even for their target audience, so the opening narrator merely hinted at its meaning: "Situation Normal, All ... All Fouled Up!"
While Private Snafu was never officially a theatrical cartoon character when the series was launched in 1943 (with the debut short Coming! Snafu, directed by Chuck Jones), a proto–Snafu does appear, unnamed and in color, in Jones' cartoon The Draft Horse, released theatrically one year earlier, on May 9, 1942. This appearance would serve as the basis for Snafu's character in the series.
The 24th film of the series, Going Home, produced in 1945, was never released. The premise is what damage could be done if a soldier on leave talks too much about his unit's military operations. In the film, Snafu discusses a "secret weapon" with his girlfriend which was unnervingly (and unintentionally) similar to the atomic bombs under development that were dropped on Hiroshima
Little Boy
"Little Boy" was the codename of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 by the Boeing B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay, piloted by Colonel Paul Tibbets of the 393rd Bombardment Squadron, Heavy, of the United States Army Air Forces. It was the first atomic bomb to be used as a weapon...
and Nagasaki
Fat Man
"Fat Man" is the codename for the atomic bomb that was detonated over Nagasaki, Japan, by the United States on August 9, 1945. It was the second of the only two nuclear weapons to be used in warfare to date , and its detonation caused the third man-made nuclear explosion. The name also refers more...
.
In 1946, a series of cartoons for the Navy featuring Private Snafu's brother "Seaman Tarfu" (for "Things Are Really Fucked Up") was planned, but the war came to a close and the project never materialized, save for a single cartoon entitled Private Snafu Presents Seaman Tarfu in the Navy. In the cartoon Three Brothers
Three Brothers (short)
Three Brothers is part of the Private Snafu series of animated shorts produced by Warner Bros. during World War II. Screened for troops in September 1944, the cartoon was directed by Friz Freleng and features the familiar voice of Mel Blanc.-Plot:...
, it is revealed that Snafu has two brothers, a carrier pigeon keeper named Tarfu (acronym for "Things Are Really Fucked Up") and a dog trainer named Fubar
FUBAR
FUBAR is an acronym that commonly means "fucked up beyond all recognition/any repair/all reason".-Etymology and history:The Oxford English Dictionary lists Yank, the Army Weekly magazine as its earliest citation: "The FUBAR Squadron.....
(for "Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition").
Postwar children's literature
Nel (2007) shows that the wartime experiences of authors Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss), Philip D. Eastman, and Munro Leaf shaped their successful postwar children's books, especially the use of simple language, and some of the themes. Dr. Seuss wrote the famous 'The Cat in the Hat' (1957) because Geisel believed the widely-used "Dick and Jane" primers were too boring to encourage children to read. Geisel, Eastman and Leaf authored books designed to promote personal responsibility, conservation, and respect for multiculturalism, though they were ambiguous about racism and sexism. Geisel's characters were often portrayed as rebels who displayed independence of mind. Eastman's characters, on the other hand, typically embraced the wisdom of authority figures. Leaf's heroes, were in between, and seemed more ambiguous toward independence and authority, according to Nel.Filmography
Note: This is a complete filmography of Private Snafu shorts, excluding shorts made by Warner Bros. Cartoons.| Title | Director | Notes | DVD availability |
|---|---|---|---|
| *Few Quick Facts: Inflation (1944) | Osmond Evans | Studio: UPA | |
| Few Quick Facts: Brain/Shoes (1944) | Unknown | Studio: MGM | |
| Few Quick Facts: Bullet/Diarrhea and Dysentery (1945) | Unknown | Studio: MGM | |
| Few Quick Facts: Fear (1945) | Zack Schwartz | Studio: UPA | |
| Private Snafu Presents Seaman Tarfu in the Navy (1946) | Hugh Harman | Studio: Harman-Ising Studio | |
| Mop Up (How To Get A Fat Jap Out Of A Cave) | Tex Avery | Planned for 1946 Never completed Studio: MGM |
|
| Tuscarora | Hugh Harman | Planned for 1946 Never completed Studio: Harman-Ising |
|
| Few Quick Facts: Untitled | ? | 1945 | Snafu burns himself with cigar in bed. |
In addition the Few Quick series had several cartoons that didn't feature Private Snafu:
- Few Quick Facts on Weapons of War (1945) (lost cartoon) (UPA)
- Few Quick Facts: Weapons/ USS Iowa (UPA) (1945)
- Few Quick Facts: Lend Lease (UPA) (1945)
- Few Quick Facts: Voting (lost cartoon) (Disney) (1945)
- Few Quick Facts: Japan (UPA)
- Few Quick Facts: Venereal Disease (lost cartoon) (Disney) (1945)
Further reading
- Nel, Philip. "Children's Literature Goes to War: Dr. Seuss, P. D. Eastman, Munro Leaf, and the Private SNAFU Films (1943–46)," Journal of Popular Culture, June 2007, Vol. 40 Issue 3, pp 468-487
See also
- List of Warner Bros made SNAFU shorts
- SnafupermanSnafupermanSnafuperman is a 1944 animated short comedy produced by Warner Brothers Pictures and directed by Friz Freleng. It is one of a series of black and white "Private Snafu" cartoons created for the Army-Navy Screen Magazine and shown only to American soldiers...
- A Lecture on CamouflageA Lecture on CamouflageA Lecture on Camouflage is a 1944 American animated film directed by Chuck Jones. A Private Snafu cartoon short made for the troops during World War II.-Plot summary:...
- US Navy Pilot DilbertRobert C. OsbornRobert Chesley Osborn was an American satiric cartoonist, illustrator and author.-Pre-World War II Career:Osborn was born October 26, 1904, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. He entered the University of Wisconsin in 1923, then transferred to Yale in 1923. At Yale, together with Dwight Macdonald, Wilder...