Journal Entry – Week 7

The Private Snafu series was designed to instruct GIs in military techniques and behaviors. How do you think Private Snafu – Fighting Tools uses humor to get the point across? Does it use voice, drawing, movement or story? How?

The short film make it seems like it uses humor with silly animation, clumsy mistakes, and a sarcastic narrator. Snafu’s weapons don’t work because he doesn’t take care of them, and the animation makes his failures look ridiculous. The narrator jokes about his mistakes, making the lesson easy to understand. It’s a fun way to remind soldiers to take care of their gear.

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.

Many of the films we saw this week show stereotypical versions of the enemy. Watch “Bust the Axis”, made in the UK directed by an American and “Momotarō no Umiwashi”. How is the enemy portrayed in each of these films? What negative stereotypes are depicted? What means are used in terms of drawing style and movement? What are the behaviors demonstrated by the characters?

Both war cartoons rely on some pretty obvious enemy stereotypes. “Bust the Axis” makes fun of the Axis powers with over-the-top caricatures, the Germans with those pointy helmets, Italians with huge noses, and Japanese characters with really racist features like buck teeth and yellow skin. They move all jerky and clumsy, portrayed as cowardly losers. Meanwhile, “Momotarō no Umiwashi” does the same thing to Westerners, giving them massive noses and stiff movements, showing Americans and Brits as corrupt colonizers who get easily beaten by the graceful, honorable Japanese characters. The animation styles really hammer home these differences – with heavier lines and darker colors for villains in the American film, and sharp, angular features for the Western bad guys in the Japanese one. Classic propaganda techniques from both sides.

The animated film Private Snafu – Fighting Tools uses humor to get the point across by making the tune of the music pleasant and upbeat, possibly as if it’s a happy song, however the words used add more effect with the tunes. The film uses voice as well as drawing and movement to get the point across.