"Screwball Squirrel" (1944), aka The First Screwy Squirrel Cartoon, aka "The one that begins and ends with a cute little Disney squirrel (animated by Avery's resident Disney man, Preston Blair) getting the crap beat out of him."
I don't have time to comment further on the cartoon, but it doesn't need much more comment; it's the essence of Tex Avery's MGM cartoon work: a lead character so obnoxious that he seems almost like a deliberate parody of the wise-guy cartoon characters Avery had helped create for Warner Brothers; gags that are as much about cartoon gags as they are cartoon gags in themselves. It's meta-cartooning at its best.
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
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6 comments:
OOHHHH, BRUDDA. I love this character.
OOHHH BRUDDA. Avery hated the character with a passion, which is why there are only four Screwy Squirrel cartoons and he is definitively killed off in the final one.
You gotta love that laugh of Screwy Squirrel, although I also liked his laugh from The Screwy Truant.
Tex also marked all 'dead' letters of his with a sketch of Screwy.
Tex Avery hated the character? this is news to me!
I don't know whther Tex hated Screwy or not, but I sure do. ; )
I think affection for the characters--or indifference, or dislike--comes through in well-made cartoons like a hot knife through butter...or even just a general malaise on the part of the animators/director. These loud and obnoxious turns are all one note, so they leave me totally cold. I couldn't even give a shite about the technique.
Perhaps it's a girl thing?
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