Journal Entry – Week 7

Private Snafu – Fighting Tools used humor through movement and story to get its point across. Private Snafu’s main point in Fighting Tools is to take care of your gun. For example, when Snafu was shoot at a German solider and his gun began to cough and melt into a puddle, which is quite silly and comical because now Private Snafu is left with nothing to fight with. The solider says that their weapons are ultimately better because they take care of them, and implies that Snafu should be doing the same. These small gags along with the running story of wanting to beat the enemy help get the point across. You want to beat the German army and maintain your pride so you must maintain your guns and take care of them so they actually work.

Prompt 2: In the Private Snafu series there is some light humor, and it uses this humor to probably grasp the attention of the audience/ GIs in the military, on what to do and what not to do when handling weapons. This film does use voice, drawing, movement and use of story.

Analysis: In “Bury the Axis”, we see what was represented as the Nazi leader, Hitler, and Stalin (If I recall from my history)- working together. I couldn’t understand much from the film. The words I understood most were from other characters, however, Hitler’s sounded jibberish. Was that to influence the audience to believe he only spoke foolishness? To make them think that he was just filled with too much pride but no intelligence behind it? I see that he was defeated twice, middle and in the end when he tried to challenge the United States, Great Britain, China, and Soviet Union. As I went further into the film, I noticed that it humored me to hear Hitler speak- the same way anyone would feel if they heard a madmen yelling random things.

Answer: Hiter is presented as a overly confident individual who speaks nothing but foolery. Its prevalent by how he speaks (Not understandable and quick) and how he is shown (attracting the support of ducks). Stalin or whoever that person is, is being portrayed as a obedient dog that got picked up by Hitler. The animator only shows that whoever follows the two foolish people will lose at their hands. As propaganda back then only emphasized how our country required men to go out and be heroes and etc, we see in this one how the United States is superior in the face of another enemy.We can also see a attempt to solidify the cooperation of other countries. In Momotaro no Uwiwashi, i had to look it up since I couldnt find it. In it, we see that one side (Japan) is represented by animals who are bombing the shit of a American. What I found funny was that they was represented with a small head and a wide body. Furthermore, how they held a beer bottle in the situation of being bombed overhead by a jet. Clearly, both sides make eachother look inferior and dull. They also express themselves as smart and more rational.

Both “Bust the Axis” and “Momotar no Umiwashi” are World War II propaganda films that attempted to promote morale and condemn the enemy. In “Bust the Axis,” the antagonist is depicted as a faceless, terrifying force with no distinct traits. They are portrayed as robotic, machine-like entities with no feeling or compassion who exist just to harm the Allies. This presentation perpetuates the negative impression of the opponent as cold and cruel, devoid of personality or uniqueness.

In Fighting Tools, the point is conveyed to soldiers through humor, voice, drawing, movement, and storytelling. The film emphasizes the importance of proper military behavior and technique by using a bumbling and careless character, exaggerated voice acting, colorful cartoon drawings, and comical storytelling.

“Private Snafu: Fighting Tools” uses humor and its story to make a point to keep your weapons in good condition so they don’t jam. Given that this message is directed toward the soldiers, I assume this is to make them feel humiliated if they’re not putting “the world’s most powerful weapons” to good use. It also advises them not to behave wimpy as the film characterizes the American soldier as smaller than the Nazi soldier.

Private Snafu used humor to make his point by demonstrating what not to do with your military guns. This was during WWII, so they demonstrate what could happen if your guns were not properly cleaned in a humorous manner. Throughout the story, they use voice and movement to convey humor. Private Snafu sings songs about his guns and wants to be a hero, but he can’t shoot any of his guns because he didn’t clean them properly, which is the moral of the story: clean your guns. They made private snafu short and scrawny, Whereas the Nazi appeared to be tall and bulky. When private snafu points a gun at him and he becomes intimidated and afraid. The movement of these characters is quite comical when Private Snafu points a gun at him and the nazi becomes intimidated and afraid, putting his hands up which ends up showing his belly, as his shirt becomes too short. The guns also react to not being clean, such as the machine gun melting due to overheating or the Cannon, which had creatures living inside singing about how unclean it was.

Private Snafu – Fighting Tools was a series designed to instruct GIs in military techniques and utilized humor to encourage the troops and emphasize the consequences of not following orders. In this short, Private Snafu discovers what happens when his rifle isn’t properly cleaned when encountering an enemy Nazi.
This episode uses voice when both Snafu and the Nazi sing songs regarding the various weapons that Snafu had neglected to clean, and there are even rodent and duck characters who sing as well. Drawing and movement are also used. While the short is in black and white, shadows emphasize sizes and shapes, for example, the size difference between the Nazi and Snafu. I believe the story itself is the most powerful tool because, in the end, Snafu becomes a POW, all because he didn’t take care of his tools properly.

At the beginning of the short film where the flying bird transported Hitler in a diaper as if he was a baby and he was traveling in the air he drop Hitler at a random house where Hitler shot him an instant Hitler became Nazi. In his way gathered his alliance from a different country as France, Polland, and Northway but as soon he gets to Russia they bombed him so he had to retreat to go colonize Thailand which they won’t let him, and so did the United state and Uk. There were a lot of stereotypes that were in that short film Hitler hates every country that was trying to oppose him for his power and if any of them try him he will go to war with all of them just to stay in power. The means used in terms of drawing and moving styles is stop motion. The behavior that was with Hitler was that he had so much hatred for his enemies that in the end he end up losing and the other countries won the war together in union.

In “Bust the Axis,” British propagandists portrayed their Axis enemies in an unflattering light as much as possible. Hitler is portrayed as a zombie-like man with very severely skeletal face. He has high cheekbones, tiny eyes (one of which that seems to be lazy), with dark circles around them, a large nose, huge ears, and incredibly gaunt cheeks. He appears to be cruel to his allies, the geese, as he constantly kicks and abandons them. He is constantly shouting, pulling out his hair, and he seems to be blitzed out on drugs. Mussolini is portrayed as bulldog. He has an underbite, his eyes are bulging, nose is flat against his face, with a huge chin, and he appears to be wearing a studded dog collar. Mussolini seems to be constantly crawling and barking on the floor, not unlike a dog. He appears to be acting cowardly at every opportunity he is presented. Hirohito is suggested at being a snake, a backstabber, and being someone laughable, as he is introduced by performing a variety of circus acts. He has bespectacled eyes that are like slits, one eye appears to be lazy, a small nose, and a grotesquely smiling mouth. The short appears to be animated via stop motion.

In “Momotarō no Umiwashi,” Japanese propagandists portrayed their American enemies as bumbling, sobbing, drunken, disorganized, unable to swim, and generally incompetent. The Americans always seem to have bottles of booze coming out of various places of their uniforms. They are always scrambling around as if they are bamboozled. They do not seem to have orders on how to operate if attacked, which I think is very odd. They are drawn via traditional animation.

 For one, the animation exaggerates the axis, powers facial features. The film also depicts Hitler as a incompetent fool. For example, he walked by a sign that said Russia then came back, beat up and hurt. One leader was depicted as a coward, hiding in something that looks like a doghouse. The Japanese leader was almost treated as otherworldly compared to the other leaders. The film also makes a mockery version of Japanese music. The film also had the 3 L scared to hold a bomb, letting it blow up in the tank. I feel the film demonstrates that these enemies are a bunch of imbeciles.