Horst in Translation ([email protected]) "Spies" runs for 3.5 minutes, is in black-and-white, directed by Chuck Jones and voice acting comes from Mel Blanc. This one shows us how Snafu cannot keep a secret and enemies have their eyes and ears everywhere, so they know all about Snafu's plans. This was a pretty entertaining watch, packed with nice political references and we seven see Hitler as Satan in the end. I can totally see why this Snafu cartoon is more popular than most of the others. It is better in terms of humor, but also more relevant in terms of political context. And it actually tells an important message to soldiers. Be quiet about what you know if you talk to people that you cannot 100% trust. This somehow applies today as well. A very entertaining film and I very much recommend it. My favorite Snafu.

phantom_tollbooth Chuck Jones's 'Spies' is one of the best Private Snafu cartoons made for the military. Used to instruct soldiers against certain behaviour by using Snafu to epitomise it, the Snafu cartoons were known for their bawdier nature inserted to keep the soldiers' attention. So 'Spies' features some prominent breast-based recording equipment, then-risqué use of the word "Hell" and a great horse's ass joke. Directed with great flair by Jones, 'Spies' main trump card is a cracking, witty script entirely in rhyme written by none other than the great Dr. Suess. Suess and Jones were a match made in heaven, as the classic 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' would later attest, and this early collaboration between the two is a worthy forerunner. Though it only lasts about three minutes in total, 'Spies' packs in plenty of laughs and sneaks its message in amongst them so that the audience doesn't feel it has been crammed down their throats at the end.

Robert Reynolds For several of the shorts in this series, Theodore Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss) scripted and the speech patterns here reflect his quite familiar cadence. It's great! Private Snafu really screws up royally here, which was the point, as the series was meant to show soldiers what not to do and what the consequences could be. These are not balanced and fair cartoons-there was a war on at the time and Germany and Japan were the ENEMY, so the caricatures are not nice. If you are easily offended, you likely won't like these. The series is great and well worth watching. Recommended.

Kieran Kenney THERE ARE PROBABLY "SPOILERS" IN HERE. If you don't wish to learn more than you so desire about this film, please DON'T READ THIS REVIEW! A brilliant Private Snafu cartoon in which the lovably thick-minded anti-hero gets a Situation Normal All F***ed Up. And boy does he f*** up in this one, making friends with a pretty (indeed, very pretty) blonde who turns out to be sending messages to Der Fuhrer's radio personel via two floral microphones concealed in the young madchen's hefty bosom. The delightful riming dialogue and inventive sight gags are among the movie's highlights, which also include talking moose heads, "chain and paddellock" diagrams of the private's rather small brain, a news-stand salesman reading a magazine with "SEX" on the cover, a group of u-boats rising in swastika formation, and a whole barrage of disgustingly racist stereotypes add to the zaniness. The final climactic moments, in which Snafu is (WARNING, ANOTHER SPOILER AHEAD) literally blown to Hell and taunted by the demonized Hitler while seated in a near-boiling cauldron, is totally priceless, the stuff great movie moments are made of.