FOXSYLVANIA

Tex Avery was an animation genius who rebelled against many traditions, creating in Screwball Squirrel a deliberately unlovable character who was intended to be a satire of cute, sentimental cartoon characters such as were often seen in Disney productions. Also known as Screwy Squirrel, this rodent was aggressively chaotic and obnoxious, and appeared only in five theatrical shorts between 1944 and 1946 before being discontinued as Avery himself grew to find the character annoying, and disliked him! This was not an affable, cutesy, or nice squirrel…

Screwy was really manic and wild, and so you might say that there were elements of Daffy Duck and the much later Roger Rabbit in him, but without any redemptive or likeable features. Screwy would actively torment a dim-witted dog called Meathead, and bring about the unseen but clearly implied destruction of other characters that he found offensive…

(“Disney-esque” squirrel versus “Screwy…”)

Screwball Squirrel meets his apparent death in a 1946 cartoon when he is crushed to death by a hug from a spoiled, dim, and emotionally-needy dog called Lenny. Since death is seldom permanent in cartoon characters, however, Screwy who “don’t move no more” appears at the end of the feature holding up a sign reading, “Sad ending, isn’t it?” The aggressively chaotic character would much later be seen in the 1990’s TV series “Droopy, Master Detective” and “Tom and Jerry...”