Daily Archives: March 17, 2025

Private Snafu – Fighting Tools uses humor in a few different ways to get its point across, mainly through voice, drawing, movement, and story. The exaggerated, sarcastic narration mocks Snafu’s mistakes, making the lesson more memorable while keeping it entertaining. The animation itself is cartoonish and over-the-top, with Snafu’s clueless expressions and dramatic failures adding to the comedy. Slapstick plays a big role too with his carelessness with his weapons leads to exaggerated mishaps. The story follows a simple but effective setup: Snafu neglects his weapons, and when the time comes to use them, they fail him completely.

Gertie the Dinosaur by Winsor McCay and Fantasmagorie by Émile Cohl are both early animations, but they have different styles. McCay’s Gertie uses clean, detailed lines to show a more realistic dinosaur interacting with its environment, while Cohl’s Fantasmagorie has loose, sketchy lines and a more abstract, surreal feel. McCay’s backgrounds are simple but give a sense of place, while Cohl’s backgrounds are minimal and constantly changing. In terms of storytelling, Gertie has a more structured plot with Gertie responding to commands, while Fantasmagorie is a series of random, fluid transformations without a clear story. McCay focuses on smoother, lifelike animation, while Cohl explores playful, experimental movement.