Operation: Snafu (1945)

Operation: Snafu belongs to the Private Snafu series of WWII training cartoons Warner Bros. animators made for the US Army, several written in part by Dr. Seuss. Friz Freleng directed this one, notable in the run for dropping the dialogue entirely and, for once, letting its accident-prone hero succeed.

Background

Operation: Snafu belongs to the Private Snafu series, the cartoons Warner Bros. animators made for the US Army during World War II, several scripted in part by Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss). Friz Freleng directed this entry, released December 22, 1945, near the very end of the war and the series’ production run. It stands out within the Snafu catalog for dropping spoken dialogue altogether, telling its story purely through action, sound effects, and Carl Stalling’s typically propulsive scoring.

What to watch for

The plot sends Snafu behind enemy lines in Japan on a mission to steal a set of secret war plans, and, in a reversal of the character’s usual bungling, he actually succeeds, even managing to personally capture a senior Japanese commander along the way. How much the cartoon accomplishes without a line of dialogue is the main point of interest here, since most Snafu shorts lean heavily on voice actor Mel Blanc’s delivery for their jokes; this one instead has to build its gags entirely through staging and timing, a noticeably different rhythm from the talkier entries that make up most of the series.