Gripes (1943)
Private Snafu gripes his way through camp, cutting corners on drills and orders — until his contempt for basic military discipline and procedure catches up with him in the field.
Directed by Friz Freleng, Gripes is one of the earliest entries in the Private Snafu series, using the character’s grumbling disregard for army procedure to argue that the discipline soldiers find tedious is what keeps them alive.
Background
Gripes is an early Private Snafu short from 1943, directed by Friz Freleng for the U.S. Army. The series was produced by Warner Bros. Animation under contract with the Army Signal Corps and ran from 1943 to 1946. The shorts were voiced by Mel Blanc and drew on the studio’s animation staff. Freleng was one of Warner Bros.’ leading directors, known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series. The short was made as a training film and is a U.S. government work.
What to watch for
Snafu’s grumbling is the engine of the short. Watch the camp scenes, in which he cuts corners on drills and orders, and the way his contempt for discipline gets him into trouble. The lesson, that army procedure keeps soldiers alive, is delivered through the consequences he meets in the field. Freleng’s staging makes the complaints comic, and the animation moves between camp comedy and the more serious danger of combat. The short runs only a few minutes, but it shows the series’ basic method: a bad soldier’s habits become a lesson for real ones.
