So Much for So Little

1949
6.1| 0h10m| NR| en
Details

Little Johnny Jones, to be born in the next year, is shown growing to a ripe, healthy old age, thanks to the efforts of his local public health officers. But without them, he might be one of the 5% or so that dies in the first year. The price for the public health service: about 3 cents a week.

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Warner Bros. Pictures

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Reviews

KnotMissPriceless Why so much hype?
Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
TheLittleSongbird Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons.Chuck Jones deserved his status as one of animation's most legendary, greatest and most important directors/animators. He may have lacked the outrageousness and wild wackiness of Bob Clampett and Tex Avery, but the visual imagination, wit and what he did with some of the best-known and most iconic characters ever were just as special. 'So Much for So Little' is interesting and well made, but did it deserve its Oscar Win? Not to me, while appreciating it highly of Jones' three Oscar-winning cartoons it's perhaps my least favourite.'So Much for So Little's' portrayal of inoculations is somewhat one-sided agreed and some of the content is very of the time and would be very different now. With that being said, what we are told and how it's executed on the whole is fascinating, engaging, important and entertaining, making its points without preaching too much. The voice acting from Mel Blanc and Frank Graham is as spot on as can be. Two multi-talented voice actors on top form. Jones' direction is solid and the cartoon is paced in a lively fashion.Animation is excellent, it's fluid in movement, crisp in design, vibrant in colour and very meticulous in detail.Ever the master, Carl Stalling's music is typically superb. It is as always lushly orchestrated, full of lively energy and characterful in rhythm, not only adding to the action but also enhancing it.In summation, very interesting and well done but didn't blow me away and won't be for everybody. 8/10 Bethany Cox
slymusic Directed by Chuck Jones, "So Much for So Little" is a very nice Warner Bros. cartoon. Notice I wrote "nice", not "funny", as humor is not the real gist of this cartoon. It's an attempt for post-war families all over the country to increase their awareness of the quality of public health services in their communities. Specifically, this film traces the life span of one John Emerson Jones, Jr., during which time the narrator continuously addresses him and recommends that he take care of himself through periodic checkups.Certain sequences in "So Much for So Little" put a smile on my face. The sight of little John in a suit of armor holding a lance is quite amusing as he attacks various diseases (tough customers on the path of life, as they are called) in human form. This cartoon also highly benefits from the music score of Carl W. Stalling. Among other songs that I recognize are "Strolling through the Park One Day" as John takes a walk with his wife Mary; "Singing in the Shower" as a fly washes its feet (!!); the all-too-familiar "Powerhouse" during the blood test; and Chopin's "Raindrop" Prelude in D-Flat at the sight of sewage water pouring into a clean creek.When I first see John as an infant in this cartoon, I want to weep for him, because the narrator points out that John's chances of not seeing his first birthday are quite high. As the film progresses, however, my potential sadness is put to rest. As I wrote earlier, this is a fairly serious cartoon, as the life expectancy of infants is greatly dependent upon the quality of our public health services.
ccthemovieman-1 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.
Robert Reynolds 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.