Why the Squirrel Didn't Go To School

Tex Avery and writer Heck Allen find a convenient way to end The Screwy Truant (1945).

At the start of the cartoon, Screwy calls kids going to school “a bunch of chumps” and grabs a bamboo fishing rod from behind a tree. For the next six minutes, he harasses a dullard truant officer determined to bring him in.

But fishing had nothing to do with the truancy. At the end of the cartoon, Screwy reveals he has measles.



A typical Avery reaction.



I like this in-between.



It turns out the measles are highly contagious. They spread to the truant officer and then the “The End” sign in the background to end the cartoon.



Don’t ask why Screwy showed no signs of measles before this. He’s screwy, you know.

This cartoon has, like all the Screwys, great gags. The roll of phoney squirrel tail may be my favourite.

Invisiblity is Screwy

Screwy Squirrel spends most of The Screwy Truant (released in January, 1945) finding ways to bash Meathead with a mallet.

The chase takes them into farm country, where Screwy notices a barn being painted. Here`s where director Tex Avery and gagman Heck Allen go next.



The stretched nose on Meathead is from Screwy honking it.



And it's on to the next gag.



The pace of this cartoon gallops along as Tex fills it with gags. For example, he uses only three frames between when Meathead notices the mallet to when Screwy bashes him with it (four frames).

As animator Mark Kausler learned from personal experience, Avery wasn’t fond of the Screwy cartoons, but they have some really funny gags. (My favourite in this cartoon is probably the 500 yards of phoney squirrel tail). Boxoffice loved it. Its opinion in the April 28, 1945 edition:

Hilarious. Speedily paced and gagged to the limit, this short-reel comedy will delight patrons of either sex and all ages. In it Screwy Squirrel not only plays hooky from school but manages to bedevil the pursuing truant officer into a state of near frenzy. A novelty ending brings in Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf for a sequence of additional laughs.

Showmen’s Trade Review liked Screwy, too. It proclaimed this cartoon “Good” in its May 12, 1945 edition, continuing:

Screwy Squirrel is a pleasurable enough character, and his antics with a truant officer who would lead him on a straight path furnish seven minutes of good entertainment.”

It could not be better worded.

Falling Meathead

Tex Avery got his gags across with economy. At MGM, he didn’t believe in excess dialogue and movement. Backgrounds were clean enough to see the characters (and the gags).

Here’s a scene from Screwball Squirrel (1944). All Screwy says is “Hands up!” The drawings tell the rest. Screwy is held; there’s no need for him to move. The background has no clutter. All the attention is on Meathead. When he’s out the picture, Screwy can go to from pose to pose to finish the gag.



Ed Love, Preston Blair and Ray Abrams are the animators, while Heck Allen worked with Avery on gags.

Big Heel-Watha Background

A pan over a Johnny Johnsen background was a favourite way for Tex Avery to start a cartoon. Generally, there was an overlay of some kind panned at a different speed to add depth.

These are parts of the opening background of Big Heel-Watha (1944). The tall fir trees in front are on an overlay. You can see they’re at different spots over the background, as the camera moves left to right.



I’m not certain about any of the Tex Avery’s MGM layout people at this point. Claude Smith designed characters and he may have done the setting layouts, too, though Avery supervised everything pretty closely.

Ed Love, Preston Blair and Ray Abrams animated the cartoon. The opening narration is by Frank Graham.

Corny Old Gag

Tex Avery of 1944 at MGM referred to Tex Avery of 1941 at Warner Bros.

In Of Fox and Hounds, a fox cons Willoughby the dog into jumping over a fence. The dog doesn’t realise the fence is at the top of the cliff.

In Happy-Go-Nutty, Screwy Squirrel pulls the same gag on Meathead the dog. But there's a difference.

Screwy shows up at the bottom of the cliff. “Extra, extra! Read all about it! Dumb dog falls for corny old gag!” Avery and writer Heck Allen are referring to the earlier cartoon. Rich Hogan got the writer credit on that one.

Preston Blair, Ray Abrams and Ed Love animated the MGM short.

Screwy Water Fountain

Screwy Squirrel heckles Big Heel-Watha by substituting a sign at the Old Faithless geyser with a drinking fountain. You can guess what happens. Then we gets dry-brush swirls (there was a lot of that in the first few Screwy cartoons) and then the take.



MGM released Big Heel-Watha in 1944. Screwy doesn't make his appearance until about half-way into the cartoon. Ed Love seems to animate a lot of Heel-Watha, the Droopy Indian, but not here. Preston Blair and Ray Abrams are the other animators, with Johnny Johnsen painting some fine forest backdrops.

Screwy

Screwy Squirrel wants to know from Meathead if he’s the guy who chases the screwy squirrels that bust out of a mental hospital? After getting an affirmative answer, Screwy whips out a Napoleon hat (the symbol of insanity) and tells him to start chasing.

Screwy heckles the dog, whipping out a mallet and a kid’s stick horse before galloping out of the scene.



The scene is from Happy-Go-Nutty (1944), a cartoon animated by Ed Love, Preston Blair and Ray Abrams. There are some great in-betweens of Screwy in this scene, too. The Independent Film Journal of July 22, 1944 simply said “Laughs galore.”