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6.2/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6.2/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. There's Something About a Soldier remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you like your cartoons with a side of 1930s surrealism, sure. If you’re looking for a coherent story, you’re in the wrong place. This is for the animation nerds who want to see the Fleischer studio at its most unhinged. If you hate weird, rubbery physics or just general bug-based anxiety, skip it.
I didn’t expect a military recruitment drive involving giant mosquitoes, but here we are. It’s barely a few minutes long, yet it feels like it lasts an hour because the logic is just so... fluid. It's got that classic, bouncy, slightly unsettling animation where limbs stretch like taffy.
Betty Boop is the face of the operation here. She’s handing out kisses like they’re war bonds. It’s honestly kind of funny how casual she is about the whole “go fight a war” thing. She just sort of winks, puckers up, and suddenly everyone is in uniform.
The mosquitoes though. Those things are nightmare fuel. They’re these giant, bulbous, buzzing monsters that seem to just be part of the regiment. Nobody really questions why they are marching alongside the men. It’s like the movie just decided, "Hey, why not?"
It’s a far cry from the more grounded stuff you might see in The Circus of Life, where things at least attempt to stay within the realm of human experience. This is pure, unfiltered cartoon fever dream.
There’s a moment where one of the recruits gets distracted by a mosquito and it’s genuinely weird. The timing is just off enough to be funny but not enough to be a punchline. I can’t tell if the animators were trying to make a statement about war or if they just really liked drawing big bugs that day. 🦟
It’s not a masterpiece. It’s a curiosity. You watch it once, you get confused, you move on. But you won't forget those giant bug eyes anytime soon.
