In the Aleutians – Isles of Enchantment (1945)
A mock travelogue narrated with heavy irony, this short tours the mud, fog, and violent williwaw winds of the Aleutian Islands — with Private Snafu, in a diving suit, fishing a waterlogged B-17 out of the surf along the way.
Directed by Chuck Jones, In the Aleutians – Isles of Enchantment trades Snafu’s usual safety lesson for dark comic sympathy, using a sarcastic elephant-seal narrator to prepare troops for just how miserable their new posting would be.
Background
In the Aleutians - Isles of Enchantment is one of the Private Snafu training shorts made for the US Army during World War II, directed by Chuck Jones for Warner Bros. The Snafu series was produced for the Army Signal Corps and used frank, adult humor to prepare soldiers for conditions they were likely to face. Its title and framing borrow from travelogue conventions. American forces fought Japanese troops in the Aleutian Islands in 1942 and 1943, and the cartoon’s climate and terrain reflect the real hardships of that posting.
What to watch for
The short is structured as a mock travelogue, with a sarcastic narrator who presents the mud, fog and violent williwaw winds of the islands as attractions. Snafu fishing a waterlogged B-17 out of the surf is the film’s most visual gag, and the cartoon’s dark comedy relies on viewers recognizing how grim the posting actually was. Watch how the narration’s irony does the work of a lesson, telling soldiers what to expect while mocking the travelogue form that would normally sell a place as paradise.
