{"id":84699,"date":"2024-04-05T00:01:09","date_gmt":"2024-04-05T07:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/?p=84699"},"modified":"2024-04-05T06:35:13","modified_gmt":"2024-04-05T13:35:13","slug":"totally-nuts-the-80th-anniversary-of-screwball-squirrel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/index.php\/totally-nuts-the-80th-anniversary-of-screwball-squirrel\/","title":{"rendered":"Totally Nuts: The 80th anniversary of \u201cScrewball Squirrel\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\"\"\n

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\u201cOn April 1, 1944, [Tex] Avery unleashed an April Fool\u2019s joke on the world. In the short Screwball Squirrel<\/em>, he introduced Screwy Squirrel, who was two degrees of separation on the insanity scale from Daffy Duck, another of Avery\u2019s \u2018discoveries\u2019 when he was at Warners.\u201d – John Canemaker, in his book Tex Avery: The Great American Director from the Golden Age of the Hollywood Cartoon<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>MGM\u2019s Screwball Squirrel<\/em>, celebrating its 80th anniversary this year, does indeed dial-up the \u201cinsanity\u201d to 11 and stands as another brilliant notch in director Tex Avery\u2019s legendary, over-the-top animation career.<\/p>\n

Screwball Squirrel<\/em> announces itself in the opening moments of the short subject, taking a comedic swing at the milder Disney short subjects, as a cute, Disney-esque character named Sammy Squirrel skips across the screen, collecting nuts, and tossing them in a basket.<\/p>\n

As he is about to pick up one of the nuts, Screwy Squirrel appears, asking, \u201cHey, what kind of cartoon is this going to be anyway?\u201d \u201cWell, you see, I play the lead in this picture,\u201d Sammy answers timidly, with a smile on his face. \u201cMy name is Sammy Squirrel, and the story is all about me and my cute little furry friends in the forest.\u201d Screwy rolls his eyes, exclaiming, \u201cOh brother! Not that!\u201d<\/p>\n

As Sammy continues to drone on, Screwy walks his fellow squirrel behind a tree and proceeds to pummel the cute little critter (we only see stars and hear the clamor, making it funnier). Screwy then tells the audience, \u201cYou wouldn\u2019t like that story, anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The story that does play out in Screwball Squirrel is one in which the titular character tortures a poor dog named Meathead. What follows is almost a \u201cbest of\u201d Avery\u2019s classic cartoon comedy gags.<\/p>\n

When Screwy smacks Meathead in the face with fly paper, the dog’s face peels off on the paper, leaving a white, blank slate where the dog\u2019s features once were. When Screwy looks at the paper, multiples of the squirrel\u2019s head pop out of his body in surprise.<\/p>\n

Screwball Squirrel also plays with the fact that it knows it\u2019s a cartoon. When planning his next cruel prank on Meathead, Screwy pulls back the corner of the screen to see what happens in the next scene. And, in another moment, as the film\u2019s soundtrack skips, Screwy and Meathead\u2019s movements repeat until the squirrel jogs the needle on the record.<\/p>\n

As the short culminates, the audience learns that Screwy and Meathead were twins, which is how they accomplished all they did. Sammy Squirrel returns and tells the audience, \u201cMy cartoon would\u2019ve been cuter!\u201d After this, Screwy and Meathead beat the cuter squirrel as the short ends.<\/p>\n\"\"\n

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In addition to the brilliance of Avery at the helm as director, Screwball Squirrel features inspired work from his legendary collaborators, including animators Ed Love and Preston Blair and storyman Heck Allen.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The team played with the rules by not only breaking every \u201cwall\u201d in Screwball Squirrel, but also in staging. In one scene, Screwy and Meathead jump into a barrel that starts rolling, and the camera seems to \u201cfollow\u201d the barrel from above as it rolls past, then down a hill. It\u2019s a dizzying moment in an already dizzying film.<\/p>\n

Adding to the freewheeling proceedings is great voice work by actors Wally Maher, as Screwy and Cal Howard as Meathead.<\/p>\n

After this debut, Avery would bring Screwy Squirrel back in the shorts Happy-Go-Nutty, Big Heel-Watha (Buck of the Month), The Screwy Truant<\/em>, and Lonesome Lenny<\/em>. Screwy never caught on like many other characters of this classic age. However, eighty years after Screwy\u2019s debut, many animation fans still consider the riotous little rodent an ingenious creation from one of the legends of the art form.<\/p>\n

In his book, Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons<\/em>, Leonard Maltin summed Screwy up best: \u201c\u2026Avery took his character further and made him so aggressive, so completely obnoxious that there was no room left for \u2018lovability.\u2019 Screwy died after four films, but not without leaving some pleasant memories behind. It’s hard to completely dislike a character who can lead a pursuing dog into a darkened cave – where all light is cut off, even to us – and after an enormous crash light a match and say, \u2018Sure was a funny gag – too bad you couldn’t see it!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n