Screwball Squirrel

I'm interested in how we imagine as a society, so study movies. I'm increasingly convinced that many of the cleverest folding ideas were introduced first through shorts, specifically cartoons. They were cheaper to produce and wouldn't drag down the bill if they failed.

1944 is a bit late in the game for the history of folding, so the experiments have to be outrageous.

This is. Superficially, it is a chase cartoon where the plucky small creature outwits and pummels the bigger, dumber one. I understand that the form was mandated by funders. Ignore it.

Much more interesting is how Tex wrapped that in a selfaware perspective.

It starts with a fight for control of the cartoon, one character saying: "what kind of cartoon is this anyway?"

Midway in the chase, the little guy — the squirrel — asks what the next scene will be, and literally lifts the page to see the cartoon underneath.

Near the end, the big dumb guy says that he's had enough and the cartoon is over. That shrinking iris effect begins, but the little guy begs for some more time. He makes a promise which is of course broken.

At the real end of the thing, the little guy comes on stage to talk to the audience and reveals that he was able to perform all those tricks because he had a twin. The final joke is that the big dog had one too (about which the screwy squirrel was unaware.)

Important stuff. Funny, engaging.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

MGM asked Tex Avery to develop a running character to rival Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera's Tom & Jerry, and Avery, who was gag-oriented as a director, developed a character suited to his style of animated comedy, Screwy Squirrel.

The cartoon features Avery's brand of superbly-timed and edited gags revolving around the chase theme universal to cartoons, but two gags display Avery's aversion to running characters and also hurt the cartoon's quality. Both involve a saccharine-sweet squirrel straight out of Disney central casting who is viciously pummeled to death, first by Screwy, later by both Screwy and the dog who's been chasing him throughout the short. The gratuitous nature of these assaults is repellent and unfortunately common to cartoons of the 1940s; unlike the physical gags elsewhere in the cartoon, these scenes are not done for laughs, but for sadistic joy and as such are unnecessary and ugly.

This is not the best entry in the five-short series for Screwy Squirrel, but it is a good start.

Tex Avery preferred doing one-shot cartoons as opposed to using a regular character or characters. He was more interested in the gags than anything else. Studios, of course, want something recognizable to the audience, to developing continuing interest and thus sell more tickets. So Avery, because MGM wanted him to come up with a character to rival the Tom and Jerry shorts done by the other principle unit at the studio (Hanna and Barbera) came up with Screwball Squirrel.

While Screwy was a decent enough character, the trouble was that he was too limited, too much a one-note character. He was a walking sight gag. There were five cartoons done with Screwy before the series ended, in typical Avery style, with Lonesome Lenny. The Screwy cartoons are funny, but also too predictable. The first one, here, opens wonderfully with a lighthearted (or maybe not) shot at cutesy little animal cartoons that were staples at "other studios" for years and takes off from there. This is probably the best of the series. Well worth watching. Most highly recommended.

This is the first of several Screwball Squirrel cartoons. It's a real shame that this Tex Avery character never really took off, as I would have really loved to see more.

The cartoon begins with a cute little squirrel talking about the film and all his friends in the forest. Screwball then walks him away from the camera and beats the stuffing out of him and takes over the cartoon. He then phones and insults a bird dog so that through the rest of the film this hapless dog gets tortured repeatedly by Screwball. The film ends with the appearance of the same cute squirrel and BOTH Screwball and the dog pummel him!

The film is great because of all the Tex Avery touches--great over-the-top sight gags (such as catching the street car inside the tree) and the completely surreal aspects of the film. While it's not the best Avery cartoon (that might be SWINGSHIFT Cinderella), it is pure vintage Avery and fun for everyone but complete stick-in-the-muds.

Screwball Squirrel (1944) has to be the greatest single cartoon character ever created. If Tex Avery is forever to be remembered for one thing, it's this creation. He stretched the bounds of decency (and sanity) with this cartoon. No matter what came beforehand or afterwards, animation was never the same again.

This was the first in several animated shorts based upon Screwy a.k.a. Screwball Squirrel. The cartoon opens up with a thumper like character frolicking through the woods. He happens to come across the title character. He takes the rabbit by the hand and cold cocks him offscreen and hijacks the show. A collection of sight gags, pratfalls and a lot of physical abuse takes place during the rest of the show. A real funny short that has to be seen to be believed.

Take note that the show was created during the height of World War II so a lot of humor from that era is worked into the short. But besides the nitpicking it's truly a classic character and an extremely funny one at that. Watch Tex Avery change the face of animation forever.

Highly recommended!

A+

It's going to be real hard to find an unedited copy of this short. Just keep your eyes open and you'll find it!