Powerful

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

. . . continues with PRIVATE SNAFU VS. MALARIA MIKE. Since MIKE's daughter refers to him as "Daddy" during this animated short's final scene, there can be no doubt about the willful ignorance of basic Birds & Bees, Facts of Life, Sex Education 101-type stuff being foisted off by Warner Bros.' team of City Slickers on Captive Boot Camp audiences including a mixture of their fellow Urbanites, along with a generous helping of Country Boys. Mankind, of course, has known since the days of the Ancient Greeks that only FEMALE mosquitoes bite, sucking up their obligatory four or five lifetime "blood feasts" to propagate their species. So what kind of Conspiratorial Scam are Hollywood's Looney Tuners trying to pull off with their wrong-headed MIKE? Given that about half of this cartoon is comprised of views of Pvt. Snafu's bare butt, having a male character so Hell-bent on drilling it strongly suggests the promotion of a Gay Agenda. Though any overt intimation of the sort would have been considered as a "Crime against Nature" during Snafu's 1940s heyday, MIKE's behavior is against Nature to begin with, so what's one violation more?

"Private Snafu vs. Malaria Mike" is another of these Snafu cartoons and it runs for almost 5 minutes. The only somewhat interesting part was when we see the tree show the symptoms of malaria. The rest of this black-and-white film was very forgettable. The title isn't true either as for the entire film it was really the other way around and Snafu did not even know about Mike trying to bite him. He was pretty lucky with not being bitten on several occasions. So yeah, even with the inclusion of legends like Jones, Blanc and Bletcher, not everyone can be a winner and I thought this was a cartoon that neither delivered in terms of comedy nor knowledge. It is only interesting for historical reasons because we see here how the army tried to get the people/soldiers aware of certain dangers. I do not recommend watching.

Another in the series of black & white cartoon shorts made for the U.S Army during World War II about moronic Private Snafu, a soldier who never does what he's supposed to and suffers the consequences. This one is about educating soldiers on malaria and how best to protect themselves from it. An evil mosquito named Malaria Mike gets a sight of Snafu washing his bare butt in the swamp and decides he likes what he sees. In an amusing gag, he pulls out a chart that shows the different places on a soldier's body that are "choice cuts." The rest of the cartoon is the mosquito trying to attack Snafu, who manages to avoid being bitten...for a little while. This time around it's Snafu's failure to properly protect himself that leads to his inevitable demise. In that sense, it's different from many of the other shorts where he caused problems through action not inaction. It's also different in that the star of the short is really the mosquito. It's directed by Chuck Jones with Billy Bletcher providing the voice of Malaria Mike and Mel Blanc as Snafu. There are a lot of shots of Snafu's naked rear, which is sort of risqué for the time. The animation is good, despite the lack of color. It's a funny cartoon but not my favorite of the Snafu shorts I've seen.

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 film, you see a lot of Private Snafu! As the film begins, he's swimming naked in the jungle--making him a prime candidate to get bitten by the main character, a malaria-carrying mosquito. However, throughout the cartoon, Snafu keeps getting lucky and it looks like he might just make it. But, considering it's Snafu, you can pretty much guess what will happen next.This cartoon is quite educational but funny. While not among the very best (such as SPIES and BOOBY TRAPS), it is one of the better films in the series.