If you know anything about the US propaganda campaign during World War II, you probably know about Frank Capra’s brilliant Why We Fight series, with animations by the Walt Disney studio—and maybe you even know Disney’s other effort, the deployment of Donald Duck for the US Treasury in “The New Spirit.” (As Karina Longworth points out, the war work bailed Disney out of a financial hole, and like a lot of government-rescued businessmen, he resented it.) But Capra also did a series with the Warner Brothers animation talents, including Chuck Jones and Mel Blanc, adding Theodore “Dr. Seuss” Geisel into the mix—a series not for the general public, but for the GI, starring Private Snafu.
The grunts knew SNAFU stood for Situation Normal, All Fucked Up. Even if the acronym was sanitized to “Fouled Up” for official use, everyone knew what the little private, whose voice indicated he came from a Brooklyn neighborhood near Bugs Bunny’s, stood for: the routine indignities of even a necessary war. The army tested films with focus groups of GIs, who said they liked real battle footage well enough, they weren’t too keen on glorification of the home front—but they loved the idea of seeing their gripes acknowledged and legitimated.
So that’s what the Snafu team did, developing a character who chafes at KP and censorship and enforced chastity, while ruefully recognizing the need of these restraints. As Mark David Kaufman points out, the Snafu films served as a safety valve for the soldiers.
They also embodied a decidedly raunchier world view than Capra’s films for civilian cinema, as in this film, cautioning Snafu about the perils of booby traps.
For more, in addition to the resources linked above, have a look also at James Sparrow, Warfare State, and the entry on the National Archives’ Unwritten Record blog.
The book, Four Came Home, about the major Hollywood directors, other actors and craftsmen who worked within the “war effort” has entertaining and enlightening details of the Private Snafu series, as well as the Why We Fight films.