Censored (1944)
Private Snafu wants to tell his sweetheart, Sally Lou, that he thinks his unit will be sent to the South Pacific. But every effort he makes to get his letter through uncensored is thwarted by a resourceful (and unseen) censor with an array of contraptions and booby traps. Not even Snafu's carrier pigeon can avoid the censor -- not when he has a hawk for an assistant. Technical Fairy, First Class, comes to the rescue and agrees to deliver the letter -- but he has good reason to say that he'll hate himself in the morning.
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An absolute waste of money
It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.
It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny
. . . conveying the message that "Loose lips sink ships." However, frame-by-frame scrutiny of this World War Two Era "Private Snafu" Warner Bros. animated short reveals that CENSORED is ACTUALLY promoting a "Loose lips jinx Nips" message. Bare Nips appear on many of the Pin-ups plastering the walls of Snafu's South Seas Quonset Hut. They later are featured prominently when Snafu's loose-lipped gal back home, Sally Lou, greets her mailman totally topless. Bare Boobies are even used as a camouflage screen by the Japanese troops acting upon Sally's Brazen Braless Baring of American Invasion plans for "Bingo Bango Island." This atoll is drawn as an apparently welcoming but actually Nit- or Nip-infested portal for the entry of clueless U.S. Seamen. Snafu then crows about catching someone with "their pants down," but it's awfully hard to tell just whose panties are in a bunch. CENSORED is pretty much five minutes of non-stop sexual innuendo. Warner Bros.' subliminal marching orders urge U.S. servicemen to instigate a Baby Boom by servicing American Ladies ASAP. This strategy of eventually overwhelming the Japanese through a sheer U.S. numerical advantage was, of course, short-circuited by the atom bombs. However, by then the flood of babies already were in the pipeline (no more able to be returned to the Tube than excess toothpaste).
Not one of the masterpieces of animation, neither did it need to be and nor did it try to. Censored is still very good as a cartoon and has degrees of interest too. The first half is funnier than the second with slightly better timing, and the it's-only-a-dream ending may leave one feel cheated(unless it's necessary this viewer has never been a fan of this type of ending anyway so there may be a little bias). The animation is excellent though, everything is beautifully drawn and the colour shadings are crisp and expressive, while the music is catchy and characterful as well as appropriately orchestrated. The humour and gags are a lot of fun, for the time also quite daring, you have to love Snafu's facial expressions and the part with the electric eye. Censored has a good and important lesson of being careful what you write that makes its point without being preachy, and is interesting for the scantily clad and somewhat erotic character of Sally Lou as well. Snafu is very endearing even when being the worst ever soldier. Mel Blanc as always does stellar vocals, the Japanese communications are indeed stereotypical but Blanc does also make them rather amusing to hear. Overall, very good quality stuff and of good interest value. 8/10 Bethany Cox
The Private Snafu films were clearly made to be seen by soldiers and not by the general public. The dirty jokes, sexual innuendos and language is relatively tame today but never would have been allowed in the regular theaters due to the Production Code. But, such off-color remarks went over very well with the enlisted men and helped to illustrate important information in a humorous and memorable fashion.In this particular short, Snafu keeps trying again and again to sneak a letter to his girlfriend past the military censors. However, again and again they catch him. So, when his Technical Fairy First Class arrives, Snafu asks him to deliver the letter. As usual, the fairy is able to show Snafu what COULD happen if this information got out--even if it seemed very innocent.All in all, not among the very best (such as BOOBY TRAPS and SPIES) but still a very good cartoon. Not only did it illustrate its point well but had a few good laughs thrown in to make the message quite palatable.
Frank Tashlin's 'Censored' is a so-so Private Snafu short which aims to teach the importance of the Censor in stopping military secrets from leaking out. Snafu attempts to get word out to his girlfriend that he's to be stationed in the South Pacific but the Censor foils each attempt he makes to send the letter. These early scenes are the best, with the unseen Censor plucking the letter out of the sky with long mechanical arms, nets and even a specially employed eagle! The second half of the cartoon, in which Snafu manages to send the letter with the aid of Technical Fairy, First Class (who is actually teaching him a lesson), is less funny and climaxes with a disappointing only-a-dream finale. The main point of interest in this part of the cartoon is the appearance of Snafu's extremely scantily clad girlfriend who is even seen bare-breasted, albeit with strategically placed limbs at all times! Aimed at the military, the Snafu shorts were often characterised by a heightened bawdiness but these scenes, crowbarred in as they may be, are by far the most erotic I've come across in any of these shorts thus far. Despite all this, I prefer the Snafu shorts that go for the jugular a little more, usually resulting in the death of the main character. For great examples of this, seek out Tashlin's 'The Goldbrick' or Chuck Jones's 'Spies'. 'Censored' is fairly weak by comparison.