Watch The Gold Brick For Free

Best movie ever!

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Very funny entry in the Private Snafu cartoon series made for the U.S. army during WW2. This one is about laziness and shirking your duties, which could certainly be a dangerous thing for a soldier to do during wartime. Lazy Snafu is encouraged by "Goldie the Goldbrick" to skip drill by pretending to be sick. Goldie is an amusing "fairy" that has to be seen to be believed. He sings a great song that would no doubt turn the most responsible among us into slackers. The short's directed by Frank Tashlin with voicework from the great Mel Blanc. The black & white animation is nice. Look at Snafu's nurse -- insert cartoon whistles here! The short ends with a twist that will be offensive to some today but it's important to keep these things in the proper historical context.

This is a 4-minute cartoon featuring Private Snafu, who is not really among my favorite Warner Bros characters. He is voiced by the most prolific voice actor in film history, Mel Blanc, just like all the other characters in here and the director is Frank Tashlin, who also directed many more Warner Bros. films. As all other Snafu films, this one is black-and-white too. I have to say the music was fine and the only other reason to watch this are the World War II references that are so frequent in Snafu short films. This one here is especially explicit with anti-Japanese propaganda. In terms of the story, however, it is a weak watch just like pretty much all the other Private Snafu films. Not recommended.

The only thing that didn't come off so well was the caricature of the Japanese Goldbrick, that it's stereotypical is one thing and while I'm not sure whether it can count as racist it is still not done subtly or tastefully and may offend people anyhow. The Goldbrick is still very good, and one of Snafu's better outings. Snafu is still funny and endearing, even when he is the world's worst soldier you can still identify with him. Mel Blanc's voices are still terrific and done with such energy that few voice actors have matched. The animation is beautifully shaded and fluid, while the music is as characterful as you'd expect. And what an irresistibly catchy song. The writing is funny and witty, agreed very Dr. Seuss-like in its rhymes and droll poetry, while the gags are clever and the least they get in effectiveness is amusing. There are also a few elements that may seem tame now but were actually very daring for the time, they are still very interesting and fun to see. There have been some Snafu outings like The Home Front that was a little too heavy on that but here in The Goldbrick it's pitched just right. The second half is more grim in tone but directs its message(a good one too) and to me in a way that wasn't that preachy. All in all, very good and one of Snafu's better outings. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Basically what you can learn from Private Snafu is how not to be a soldier, and in "The Goldbrick", Snafu is persuaded in song by his technical fairy that he no longer needs to exert any physical energy on his duties. That means trouble! Two highlights: First, the snoring Snafu blows upward the skirt in his girl's picture frame, thus revealing her panties; a bugle then blows reveille in Snafu's ear, and his head bobs uncontrollably from side to side. And second, the fairy reveals himself at the end as a stereotypical Japanese soldier who happily finishes the fairy's goldbrick song.Lesson learned: Soldiers, don't lie down on the job. Our country needs you!