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One in the series of "Private SNAFU" cartoons produced during WWII, "Target SNAFU" (1944) was directed by Frank Tashlin and features the voice of Mel Blanc, and a script by Phil Eastman and Theodor Geisel aka Dr. Seuss. Here, an ill-prepared Private Snafu is up against an air armada of malaria-infected mosquitoes. The cartoon uses "The Toy Trumpet" by Raymond Scott as part of the score. This cartoon was part of an awareness campaign aimed at informing troops about the dangers posed by the insects. During the Pacific War, the lack of effective mosquito control measures caused malaria to reach epidemic status. Early in the war, it was estimated that malaria caused eight to ten times as many casualties than the battlefield. In 1943, James C. Magee, Surgeon General of the United States Army, created special units to plan and carry out malaria control. The same year, Douglas MacArthur issued orders concerning malaria control measures. Among them was raising the shipping priority of anti-malaria supplies, providing troops with prophylactic drugs (quinine and atabrine) and mosquito repellents, and training troops in the importance of malaria. Soldiers were reluctant to take antimalarials (particularly Atabrine, which had worse side-effects than quinine) because of the side-effects, and Private SNAFU vs. Malaria Mike was an attempt to challenge this aversion.

Motion picture films don't last forever; many have already been lost or destroyed. For almost two decades, we've worked to collect, scan and preserve the world as it was captured on 35mm, 16mm and 8mm movies -- including home movies, industrial films, and other non-fiction. If you have endangered films you'd like to have scanned, or wish to donate celluloid to Periscope Film so that we can share them with the world, we'd love to hear from you. Contact us via the weblink below.

This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com