A Few Quick Facts: Fear (1945) Online

Following the strike at Disney in the early 1940s, some of the staff left and formed UPA, later best known for Mr. Magoo. UPA got itself a contract with Columbia and started out. They didn't have the budgets that Disney lavished on his shorts, so they made a virtue of necessity, going for minimalist animation and details.

Here we see, in this Private Snafu short from 1945 -- yes, that's Mel Blanc doing his Private Snafu voice -- the UPA house style emerge: the whole thing starts with silhouette-like animation in a half-reel cartoon about the physiological effects of fear. The effect, for the period, is startling. Although this is not a noteworthy cartoon on its own merits, it is revolutionary in its technique for the period.

Many of the Private Snafu cartoons are very enjoyable, being very well-made, entertaining and educational with good morals and interesting historical and instructional material. Even lesser ones like 'It's Murder She Says' and 'Operation Snafu', prior to watching the two 'A Few Quick Facts' Private Snafu cartoons, are still very much watchable. Even when inept, Snafu is still very much endearing and fun for a vast majority of his cartoons.

After great Private Snafu cartoons like 'Spies', 'The Goldbrick', 'Infantry Blues', 'Booby Traps' and 'Private Snafu vs. Malaria Mike', the series saw a couple of rare misfires with the two 'A Few Quick Facts' cartoons. It is hard to say which is better or worse between 'Inflation' and 'Fear', with the few good and numerous bad things being exactly the same, though 'Fear' did (very) marginally more with its subject matter and has content that goes less over people's heads.

Even though minimalist in detail, the animation is still quite good, the details still don't look too cheap, it's fluid and it's crisp. Mel Blanc's voice work is as lively as ever, then again Blanc was one of the greatest voice actors who ever lived who was rarely bad and it took a lot for him to be so. The music score is also suitably peppy, though no Carl Stalling which is a shame.

However, Snafu is underused and when he is used he is merely a "just there" presence, meaning none of his comic timing or endearment comes through. Pacing is tedious due to the cartoon being thin in content. The content itself is tame and doesn't do a good job educating or entertaining, the comedy isn't there and the instructional aspects are not particularly illuminating. The subject matter once again dealt with indifference and heavy-handedness.

Overall, pretty poor, for Private Snafu that's disappointing. 3/10 Bethany Cox

. . . U.S. World War Two veterans. What prompted so many Heroes from America's Greatest Generation to succumb to their Sugar High? This question has mystified many medical sleuths who have NOT been exposed to this U.P.A. cartoon studio attack on America's Truest Patriots. A FEW QUICK FACTS: FEAR is not only full of Big Sugar fallacies, but it's also an example of Mass Murder on the cheap by a pack of Corrupt Corporate Bozos willing to sacrifice all of Humanity (not to mention any Souls with which they were allegedly born) for the sake of a few pennies more on their Sacred Bottom Line. The "minimalist" drawings presented here--and spread out over a tedious four minutes--would amount to around eight seconds of Looney Tunes time, IF any of them even merited the light of day (or a movie projector) in the first place (none do). Of course, this offense to visual aesthetics pales in comparison to Big Sugar's message here: That Sugar Equals Strength (which cancels out fear), so members of the U.S. Military must cram their livers full of sugar if they want to Win the War (or Survive It)! War profiteers at Big Sugar colluded and coordinated with Big Tobacco to insure that chocolate and cigarettes were the primary ingredients of American soldiers' Daily Rations. For shame!

During WWII, the US government financed a series of Private Snafu cartoons. Using a wonderful sense of humor, they were able to convey important messages to the troops--and the films were not shown to the general public. You can tell this in a few of the films, as the humor is a bit more adult than you could have gotten away with in theaters. Today, you can find these shorts on DVD as well as for free downloads at archive.org.

I just finished watching an amazingly unfunny and dull Snafu cartoon--"A Few Quick Facts: Inflation". And, since this film also begins with "A Few Quick Fact", I had very low expectations. Sadly, I was right. While you briefly see Private Snafu, there is no humor and it's a very dull film about the flight or fright reflex. That, combined with splashy UPA-style graphics, make this one a hard one to recommend. Pretty dull and un-Snafu-like.