Going Home (film #13 on The Complete Uncensored Private SNAFU DVD (Image Entertainment, 1999)). [Category: Military & Propaganda]

Private SNAFU goes home on leave and blabs confidential information about his outfit to everybody who will listen, resulting in his outfit being wiped out. This is a really cleverly-done cartoon. Every time SNAFU shoots his mouth off, his words are transformed from private conversation into some form of public broadcasting. For example, his conversation in a movie theater about a secret weapon turns into on-screen newsreel footage of the weapon in all its particulars, a conversation with his girl behind the bushes in the park gets flashed on a neon sign, and a conversation in a barber shop is skywritten with an airplane. I love this concept, especially the newsreel footage (fake ephemera-within-ephemera?) and the neon sign. Ironically enough, this cartoon was never released because the "secret weapon" portrayed was too similar to the atomic bomb, a real secret weapon at the time.

Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ***. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: *****.