Screwball Squirrel (1944)

Director:

Tex Avery

Writer:

Heck Allen (story)

Release Date:

1 April 1944 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Family | Comedy | Short

Plot:

A screwy squirrel provokes a pedigreed birddog to chase him throughout the picture. |

Plot Keywords:

Screwy Squirrel | Cartoon Squirrel | Breaking The Fourth Wall | William Tell Overture | Seasick

Cast

Wally Maher	...	Screwy Squirrel (voice) (uncredited)
Dick Nelson	...	Meathead (voice) (uncredited)

Runtime:

7 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

First appearance of Screwball/Screwy Squirrel.

Quotes:

Screwy Squirrel: Hello, Meathead?
Meathead: Uh, yeah?
Screwy Squirrel: Do you chase squirrels?
Meathead: Nope, n-nothing but birds, I'm a bird dog, registered, p-pedigreed b-bird dog, I chase nothing but birds, that's all, just birds.
Screwy Squirrel: Aw, you're probably too slow to chase squirrels. You're yellow. Why you... Oh, pardon me.
[Closes phone booth door so that audience cannot hear; blows raspberry through phone; Meathead arrives instantly]
Screwy Squirrel: I knew that'd get him. Ha ha ha ha!

Movie Connections:

Followed by Lonesome Lenny (1946)

Soundtrack:

Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush

A Sadistic Squirrel? Yup, And Pretty Funny, Too

This was the first effort of Tex Avery to give us the character, "Screwy Squirrel." Reportedly, it was the answer to the popular Tom and Jerry cartoons at the time.

Man, this squirrel is a mean rodent, almost sadistic. His pleasure, apparently, is to torment this dog called "Meathead." This poor mutt takes a bad beating, time after time, and Screwy delights in doing whatever he can to him, followed by a sadistic laugh. I could see where that laugh could become annoying if you heard it often enough, but I don't remember much of it in the other SS cartoons I saw. I can also see why Screwy didn't become a hit, even though he was funny. As a leading cartoon character, he's just a little too nasty. However, Bugs Bunny inflicted a lot of pain on others, too, but they often - at least Elmer Fudd - started trouble. Plus, there was something lovable about Bugs. Here, this dog was just minding his own business when Screwy called him on the telephone and used some psychology to get him to come over.....only so he could abuse him. Now, that's mean!

As in most Tex Avery cartoons, the jokes are more adult-oriented and the director emphasizes, through another Thumper-like "Bambi" squirrel early in this cartoon, that is is not going to be a cute and fuzzy story. Avery once said he was "the anti-Disney" type and preferred his cartoons with an edge. Screwy beats up Thumper right away, just to emphasize the point.

Avery and his main writer, Heck Allen, also were good at having the main characters stop the story and talk to us - the audience - a number of times. That, or they would hold up a sign telling us something like, "Stupid, ain't it?" These "asides" to let us know what the characters are thinking are almost always clever and add to the cartoon's humor. I particularly thought it was neat when the character would comment that he knew all of this baloney that was happening on screen was just a cartoon anyway, so he'd make some wisecrack about "this cartoon this and that." Supposedly, this was the first time this sort of thing had ever been done in a cartoon. It must have really surprised audiences in the theater. That's how inventive Mr. Avery and Mr. Allen were with their animated short features. Their "Droopy" cartoons featured a lot of those "asides," too.

After watching this, I viewed two other "Screwy Squirrel" episodes and found them spectacular.