Alas Rotas

Walt Disney turns his hand to government information animation in this initially rather oppressively narrated film about the anopheles mosquito. This eponymous scourge is responsible for the spread of malaria and this destroys lives and livelihoods. How to stop it? Well for that, he drafts in the help of the seven dwarves who proceed to show us how - in not a terribly ecologically sound fashion - we can kill their larvae in stagnant ponds, spray them out of existence in the nooks and crannies of our homes and we can use door and window screens as well as muslin to protect ourselves from their pesky pervasiveness. It's entirely too simplistic, but it does raise awareness of this disease in an entertaining enough fashion with "Dopey" getting most of the laughs as he and his pet toad do some bug-management. Worth a watch, but hardly scientific.

For the love of God, don't watch this while eating dinner. I made that fatal mistake. It's not a pleasant cartoon, it's a nasty little public service announcement warning of the dangers of mosquito breeding in your back yard. If you're quite squeamish when it comes to bugs (as I am) it'll make you completely paranoid.

The horrid detail it goes into, especially the cross section close-ups of a mosquito biting some guy, really give you the heebie-jeebies. A good thing the Seven Dwarfs are so obsessed with cleaning up and totally eliminate every possible mosquito breeding ground from their home. According to this short they can breed almost anywhere. Needless to say, I cleaned my kitchen and bathroom right after watching this, while struggling to keep my dinner down.