So Much for So Little (1949)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

Chuck Jones

Writers:

(more)

Genre:

Documentary | Short | Animation

Plot:

Little Johnny Jones, to be born in the next year, is shown growing to a ripe, healthy old age, thanks...

Plot Keywords:

Educational | Infant Mortality | William Tell Overture | Propaganda

Awards:

Won Oscar.

Cast

Frank Graham

...

Narrator (voice) (uncredited)

Directed by
Chuck Jones		(as Charles M. Jones)

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Friz Freleng		uncredited
Chuck Jones		uncredited

Produced by
Edward Selzer	....	producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Carl W. Stalling		(uncredited)

Animation Department
Peter Alvarado	....	background artist
Peter Alvarado	....	layout artist
Robert Gribbroek	....	background artist
Robert Gribbroek	....	layout artist
Ken Harris	....	animator
Paul Julian	....	background artist
Paul Julian	....	layout artist
Phil Monroe	....	animator
Lloyd Vaughan	....	animator
Ben Washam	....	animator

Music Department
Carl W. Stalling	....	musical director (as Carl Stalling)
Milt Franklyn	....	orchestrator (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Federal Security Agency
• United States Public Health Service
• Warner Bros. Pictures

Distributors

• Warner Bros. Pictures (1949) (USA) (theatrical)
• Warner Home Video (2004) (USA) (DVD)

Runtime:

10 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Federal Security Agency

Movie Connections:

Featured in Toonheads: The Lost Cartoons (2000) (TV)

Soundtrack:

William Tell Overture

so much hokey for so little time; no one predicted the current state of health care

When we watch movies and cartoons from the '40s and '50s, we can often tell that they came from that era, as they promote a happy-go-lucky, perpetually optimistic attitude. But they're usually still OK to watch. "So Much for So Little" doesn't fit in this group. It's purpose is to remind us that if we give three cents a week to health care, we'll cut down on the infant mortality rate. It displays this by showing a wholesome, all-American boy growing up through the years.

Well, we've seen the unfortunate reality. Almost 47 million Americans go each day without health care. Countless people live near toxic waste dumps to this day; New Orleans was already like a cesspool before Hurricane Katrina exacerbated the pollution. As for the boy's adult years, now that we can look back on the baby boomers' young adult life, it would have been more realistic to portray him as a hippie and then a disco pimp.

But the main point is that Chuck Jones should have known better than this. Maybe it would have come out better had he cast Bugs, Daffy, Porky or one of those other guys. You can find it in the documentary "Toonheads: The Lost Toons" on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection, and its status as part of Looney Tunes history is about the only thing that makes it worth watching (in fact, I wish that the documentary's narrator had poked fun at it rather than praising it).