Fantastic!

A Disappointing Continuation

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Blistering performances.

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' are still very much watchable. Even when inept, Snafu is still very much endearing and fun for a vast majority of his cartoons, excepting 'The Chow Hound' and his too short appearance in 'In the Aleutians'.'Gas' is not one of the best Private Snafu cartoons like 'Spies', 'The Goldbrick', 'Infantry Blues', 'Booby Traps' and 'Private Snafu vs. Malaria Mike', but it is a very good cartoon and effectively makes its point of the importance of wearing a gas mask. As creepy as those things looked (doesn't help when they have been portrayed in the past in a nightmarishly creepy way, like a 'Dr Who' episode for example), they certainly were important in protecting one against things that would have made them ill or worse killed them if not worn.Like a lot of Private Snafu cartoons, 'Gas' is a very short cartoon, with the 3 minute running time feeling rather brief, and occasionally it's slightly rushed.However, 'Gas' is very well-animated though with fluid character designs, detailed and not sparse backgrounds and lively colours/shadings. The gas cloud is very creative visually in particular. Carl Stalling always did write outstanding music for the many cartoons he scored for and that is true for 'Gas', the orchestration is very lush and the pacing is characteristically lively.Snafu is endearing and amusing, and while not exactly wild the writing is very funny yet is also educational without talking down to the viewer. The voice acting from Mel Blanc and Billy Bletcher is great.In conclusion, very good. 8/10 Bethany Cox

. . . Private Snafu's newest bed buddy, his gas mask, whispers endearingly to the congenital boot camp goof off as the latter cradles his long-disrespected safety device at the end of GAS. After World War One ended in 1918, the Planet realized that Earth had a serious problem because future Major League Baseball Hall-of-Famer (one of the five charter members!) Christy Mathewson had been gassed by the French (as Baseball's best player ever, another Hall charter member, Ty Cobb, was positioned nearby). Ironically, the French have never produced a slugger who could hit Right-Handers--such as Mathewson, who never pitched on Sundays. Humanity faced a Tough Choice: either bar star athletes from the fun of competing in future World Wars, OR ban chemical weapons. All the countries with baseball teams voted to abstain from any further GAS attacks, or risk a 15% Luxury Tax PLUS the loss of two First Round Draft Picks. So WHY was the American government STILL charging U.S. taxpayers in 1944 (and even today) the cost to produce GAS masks, and to train military personnel in their use? Two words: North Korea. The ruling Ping Pong Pang Dynasty there never could puzzle out WHO'S ON FIRST? and banned baseball. Consequently, they because an international pariah (for not signing the GAS Treaty, as well as for not fielding a diamond squad).

Another entry in the Private Snafu series made for use by the US Army during World War II. This one's directed by Chuck Jones and features a cameo appearance by Bugs Bunny. The focus in this short is protecting yourself against chemical warfare. Snafu learns the hard way (it's always the hard way with this guy) to take care of his gas mask and keep it with him at all times. A fun short with solid voice work, nice music, and good animation. The stuff with the gas cloud is especially well-animated. Love the Bugs cameo, too. All in all, a quick but entertaining black & white cartoon. Not the best of the series but pretty good.

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, Snafu is very lax in caring for and wearing his gas mask. However, after being his typical ineffectual self, Snafu learns to love his gas mask after nearly being wiped out by the enemy.Like all the Snafu films, although they were intended as training films, they are very watchable even today.