The Weakly Reporter

Voices of: Mel Blanc, Bea Benaderet, Frank Graham
Directed by: Chuck Jones
Rating: Not rated
Genre: Animation, Short, Comedy
Length: 7 minutes
1944

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: An animated spoof of World War II newsreels.

Review:

Tim: This short animated film is fairly enjoyable. It's a spoof of World War II newsreels, so it's a mix of propaganda and news. It touches on things like rationing goods, women entering the workforce, things like that. It's an interesting comedic look at some of the big issues of the day. That aspect of the film was interesting- you actually did get some insight into what citizens were experiencing and exposed to in light of the war effort.

The film itself is very similar to other animated shorts of the day. Each scene sets up something that feels like it could be actual newsreel item before the punchline hits at the end. The film is 7 minutes long and it's really just one gag after another. In some ways, that's impressive- that so much humor was packed into this short film. I wouldn't say any of the jokes were all that funny, but they were at least mildly clever and amusing. It was a little hard to watch some of the sexist moments that were much more socially acceptable in the 1940s. It was a reminder that we've come a long way since then (although we have a long way to go).

I found this short film fine. The animation wasn't overly impressive and I wouldn't call this an especially funny film, but it was fairly interesting. It felt a little too packed with gags- you just move from one to the other, but it's not the worst way to spend seven minutes.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- N/A



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