Highly Overrated But Still Good

Brilliant and touching

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

The first must-see film of the year.

This is a 10-minute movie from over 65 years ago and the inclusion of director Chuck Jones and voice actor Mel Blanc should tell you that it is actually a cartoon, despite the serious subject. Not only Disney made these animated educational films, but Warner Bros. as well. This one here managed the unique achievement to win an Academy Award "despite" being animated and of course I am talking about the Documentary, Short category here. However, the award did not go to the legendary Chuck Jones (he still had to wait a couple more years for his win), but to producer Edward Selzer who scored really many nominations and wins with his cartoons in the 1940s and 1950s. This one here is about health care and how it's just a really small sum everybody needs to contribute to help those who need it, also the elderly. War was over, so these educational movies moved into different directions, domestic issues again mostly, just like this one here. However, I did not think this was close to Warner Bros' best. Not recommended.

"2,621,392. A nice even figure. That's the number of babies who'll be born next year in the United States. Of these babies, 118,481 will die before reaching their first birthday." So begins Chuck Jones's 'So Much for So Little', an Academy Award winning cartoon. Doesn't sound like the recipe for comedy gold, does it? Well, the truth is 'So Much for So Little' is not primarily a comedy short. It is an educational picture about the importance of a good health service. Sounds dull, right? Fortunately, Chuck Jones works his magic on this public information film to create a thoroughly entertaining cartoon. Although he's basically illustrating a voice-over narration, Jones manages to draw us in to the story of Johnny Jones, one of those 2,621,392 babies who may end up being one of the 118,481 dead. Why should we care? Well, Jones makes us care by segueing into the story of Johnny's life, incorporating his school days, his falling in love, marriage and retirement. He does this so engagingly that we forget we are hearing the tale of a baby we've been told has a good chance of being amongst the percentage that will die. Jones returns to this fact right at the end of the short, abruptly reminding us of the information that we have forgotten while becoming emotionally involved in the character's potential life. 'So Much for So Little' advocates a worthy cause in a totally convincing, captivating and (crucially) entertaining way and was fully deserving of its Oscar win.

For folks back when this "short" was made, they weren't as aware of toxic wastes, untreated sewage water flowing in their creeks, etc., so this animated documentary was a good wakeup call. The message here is to keep babies healthy and away from diseases that were fairly prevalent apparently in this time period. Inoculations and better sanitation are the suggestions here, and what's wrong with that? Judging by how "dated" some of these diseases are in this short, a lot of progress has been made, although we still have concerns in related areas today. Check out the gloom-and-doom left-wing loonies here on the user-comments who hate positive messages or anything in which Americans are portrayed as good people trying to help each other. Talk about illness! This interesting, eye-opening documentary, animated by the famous Chuck Jones, was part of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2. It's recommended except for people are obsessive-compulsive like the TV character, "Monk," who would get super-paranoid watching this 10 minutes of germ-talk.

Although somewhat dated in a few details, much of what this details regarding public health and safety, such as inoculation versus disease and the need for good sanitation is still of importance today. I saw this in Cartoon Network on a special ToonHeads featuring rarely seen or little-known animation. This won an Oscar for Documentary Short (actually, it tied with another short) and was well deserving of its award. The animation is superb and worth watching. It was also quite disturbing to learn that, apparently, a bare fifty years ago the infant mortality rate in the United States was as high as it was. Five of every 100 births. While we have made progress, we can still make a good deal more. Most recommended.