The Screwy Truant

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.

Also have much admiration for Tex Avery, an animation genius whose best cartoons are animated masterpieces and some of the best he ever did. Of the five Screwy Squirrel cartoons, it's 'The Screwy Truant' that's my favourite despite loving the previous three cartoons almost as equally. After 'Big-Wheel-Watha', which is the most tame of the Screwy cartoons but still manages to be great, 'The Screwy Truant' is back to being very violent. It's perhaps the most violent Screwy cartoon, and pretty relentless at it, but not in a way that's sadistic or stomach-churning.

Despite being a compelling, much more anarchic than his sweet appearance and funny character, as well as being charismatic enough to carry his cartoons as a lead character (as he does here), it is somewhat easy to see why Screwy didn't click and didn't last long, being a brash character with few sympathetic qualities. As one can guess, while one can see why others find him annoying, he's never been a problem with me. It was great and refreshing to see a dog in a different more authoritative role.

Tex Avery does a wonderful job directing, with his unique, unlike-any-other visual and characteristic and incredibly distinctive wacky humour style all over it once again.

Furthermore, 'The Screwy Truant' is once again wonderfully over-the-top, very creative in its violent tone and some of it is hilarious, with enough variety to stop it from being repetitious. The box and the Little Red Riding Hood characters getting lost gags are particularly strong.

It's beautifully and brilliantly animated as usual. The character designs are unique, Avery always did have creative character designs, and suitably fluid. The music, courtesy of Scott Bradley, is lushly and cleverly orchestrated, with lively and energetic rhythms and fits very well indeed.

Voice acting is very good.

Overall, absolutely wonderful and my favourite of the overall truly great and under-appreciated Screwy Squirrel series. 10/10 Bethany Cox

The Screwball Squirrel cartoons are never favored for the annoying character. Rather, Screwball cartoons use some of Tex Avery's best gags. "The Screwy Truant" is a good example. In the course of the seven-minute short, Screwball spends time running away from the Truant Officer who is trying to get him into school. Along the way, there are characters lost in the wrong cartoon, the greatest of the sequences where the characters go in and out of doors in a hallway, and my personal favorite, the character finding a box simply labeled "Things to Hit (insert name of antagonist) With" followed by everything but the kitchen sink (well... never mind.)

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I don't really care for the character of Screwy Squirrel. Of all of Tex Avery's wonderful cartoon creations, he is the one I could really do without. That being said, The Screwy Truant has to be one of, if not the best cartoon featuring this extremely annoying character. In this one Screwy is chased by a truant officer dog. The result is some very funny gags that remain fresh due to the fact that they have not been over used in other cartoons. My favorite bit involves Red Riding Hood and the Wolf getting lost in the wrong cartoon.

The most interesting character in this cartoon is the truant officer. Tex Avery gave him monumental abilities. But they do him no good against the impish squirrel. He counters every effort the officer makes to drag him off to school. Really, would one like to be in the same room with Screwy? It's a pretty well made little effort.

This was my second look at the "Screwy Squirrel" character of the mid 1940s, a character invented by the great Tex Avery and writer Heck Allen. Only five cartoons featuring this squirrel were made. That's too bad, because this humor is just pure genius.

The sight gags almost from the start are absolutely fantastic. The dumb dog I saw in the first Screwy cartoon is now the "villain," as truant officers are always the bad guys, aren't they? Of course, the squirrel's attitude is pure juvenile delinquent. The opening scene has Screwy outside the school house and telling us, the audience, "Can you imagine those chumps going to school on a nice day like this?"

Screwy may not be Avery's super-nice little "Droopy," but he is just as fascinating to watch and a great vehicle for laughs and because he's different, I appreciated the character. It's almost refreshing to see a wise-guy "good guy," just for variety sake. His violent nature, however, is sometimes shocking. This squirrel is a killer!

I don't know if all the Screwy cartoons as good as this one, but it is the best of the three I've seen, just squeaking out "Lonesome Lenny," which also was outstanding. Reviewers here mainly think this is the best of the SS cartoons, and I wouldn't argue with that.

I also have to believe that audiences back in 1945 had never quite seen the inventive tricks that Avery and Heck played in here. This is a wild, outrageous cartoon and I can't rate it high enough! Great stuff!