So Much for So Little

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.

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).

"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.

This is one of the scary little bits which is a long public service announcement. It starts with a baby and all the horrors that exist that will kill him if we are not careful. It isn't a wrong thing; it's just so heavy handed. It seems as though without big government, most of us don't have a chance. There are so many elements of society, especially the poor, who seem to be excluded from this presentation. How about minorities? Yes, the point is that it is cheap to prevent some the things portrayed--but a good deal is left out.

Who knew that when this was made, almost 5% of American babies were thought not likely to survive past their first birthday? This was because of varying levels of local healthcare services and because so many pesky bugs have never been trained to wash their legs after drinking from sewage contaminated rivers! Well fortunately, our own young specimen "Johnny Jones" does make it past that particular terminus and despite a receding hairline (that miraculously appears to disappear as he grows older) continues to thrive thanks to eduction, hygiene, nutrition and all sorts cof other sensible advice from doctors, nurses and clinicians who can cost as little as 3c per day! Watch what you eat, take some exercise and a ripe old age, children and grandchildren could beckon - all it takes is a bit of responsibility and a population/government that is prepared to prioritise a functioning and accessible healthcare system. That's all quite engagingly encapsulated into ten minutes of light-hearted animation that benefits from quite an amusing narration and doesn't labour the message too thumpingly. It is probably something that could be shown now, seventy-odd years later, with just about the same degree of potency and emphasis on ensuring facilities are universally available.