Not even bad in a good way

Amateur movie with Big budget

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

A fun entry in the Private Snafu series made for use by the US Army during WW2. Directed by Chuck Jones with rhyming dialogue courtesy of Dr. Seuss, this one was actually never released. The story is a simple one about Snafu coming home on leave and running his mouth to everybody that will listen, spilling his guts about things he shouldn't, which ultimately ends in disaster for the military. It's not known for sure why this short was shelved, though its depiction of a secret weapon being used against the Japanese that is similar to the atomic bomb is often suspected to be the main reason. The black & white animation is very nice. The sexy women are a highlight. Mel Blanc's voice work is flawless, as usual. It's a brief but amusing short with a lot of interesting elements.

Not one of the best of the Private Snafu series, Spies and Booby Traps are my personal favourites but it is certainly worth watching. There are funnier Snafu cartoons around, by all means it is still fun and amusing but Snafu over-explaining things gets a bit too much, and there are others also in the series that are more daring and have more energy. The animation flows very smoothly though and looks good even now, while the music is lush and lively with good use of pre-existing tunes. Going Home may not be the funniest Private Snafu cartoon around but the humour still succeeds thanks to the witty rhyming dialogue and narration and never-less-than-amusing visual gags. If you are familiar with the formula the series adopts, all revolving around Snafu's ineptness in the army, the story isn't going to hold that many surprises but it's hardly tired or dull and it handles its serious message admirably, laying it on too thick or poking too much fun at it were very easy traps to fall into and Going Home manages to avoid both of them. Snafu as ever is endearing and lots of fun to watch and the narration entertains and teaches, good chemistry between the two too. Frank Graham fills the narrator role beautifully and even better is the versatile and always consistent Mel Blanc, making Snafu a hugely entertaining character as well as a touchingly likable one. All in all, there are better cartoons in the Private Snafu series but Going Home is solid stuff still. 7/10 Bethany Cox

This is part of a series of training films featuring Private Snafu, the worst excuse for a soldier ever. There will be spoilers ahead:The Private Snafu shorts were made with the intent to train soldiers in proper behavior by showing them the worst possible behavior from a moron in uniform, one Private Snafu.In this short, Snafu returns to Podunk, a wide spot in the road, to a hero's welcome. Clearly, his home town doesn't realize what an idiot he is! He proceeds to violate all security protocols to blab everything he knows, to make himself look like an important man.Of course, there will inevitably be consequences to his inability to keep his trap shut. This being a training film designed to drive home a point, the consequences manifest themselves by the end of the short.As is typical, Snafu is clueless as to his own part in the fiasco which unfolds and he receives his just desserts. This short is available on various DVD collections of the Snafu shorts and is well worth seeing. Recommended.

This animated short was one of many featuring the character Pvt. Snafu made by Warner Brothers for the US War Department during the Second World War as training tools. They were meant to teach soldiers the right thing to do by showing them the wrong thing! Here Snafu is back home on leave and it isn't long before he is telling his family, his girlfriend, his barman, barber and anybody in earshot just what his unit has been up to. This includes details of their locations, strengths and weaknesses. He also tells of a new super weapon... and it was this that got the film shelved as the military thought it bore a resemblance to the atom bomb and that was obviously too secret to even joke about.While this isn't as funny as Warner Brother's shorts that were made for public consumption it has plenty of chuckles tucked in to the serious message... a great way to get the troops to want to see a training film and remember its content... even if this one wasn't shown the intention was there. The way he tells detail after detail does get a little stale but there are still enough laughs to make this worth watching.