Tex Avery is probably the best and most influence cartoon director of his time. He was truly the anti-Disney, and this cartoon is one of the best examples of that. I love his style, it was so unique and really ahead of it's time. My favorite character of his is Screwy Squirrel,he clearly was created as an anti-mickey mouse and this cartoon has very much an anti-Disney or anti-early MGM attitude. I love how he constantly breaks the fourth wall and how there is no plot, it's just screwy showing the audience that a manic chase is more entertaining then a sweet cartoon. My favorite gag is when the film start skipping and screwy simply walks over and fixes the record. I understand that some thought he was too violent and mean, but he's funny and unique! I like how for some reason he sounds like he has a cold and often sniffs, weird, but I like it. His laugh is great, Wally Mahar did his voice, and screwy reminds me of bratty kid who likes to cause mayham for his own pleasure. Mayabe movie goes at the time didn't get such a wacky character who constantly talks directly to them, but he has a cult following. I love that screwy squirrel!

This was the first effort of Tex Avery to give us the character, "Screwy Squirrel." Reportedly, it was the answer to the popular Tom and Jerry cartoons at the time. Man, this squirrel is a mean rodent, almost sadistic. His pleasure, apparently, is to torment this dog called "Meathead." This poor mutt takes a bad beating, time after time, and Screwy delights in doing whatever he can to him, followed by a sadistic laugh. I could see where that laugh could become annoying if you heard it often enough, but I don't remember much of it in the other SS cartoons I saw. I can also see why Screwy didn't become a hit, even though he was funny. As a leading cartoon character, he's just a little too nasty. However, Bugs Bunny inflicted a lot of pain on others, too, but they often - at least Elmer Fudd - started trouble. Plus, there was something lovable about Bugs. Here, this dog was just minding his own business when Screwy called him on the telephone and used some psychology to get him to come over.....only so he could abuse him. Now, that's mean!As in most Tex Avery cartoons, the jokes are more adult-oriented and the director emphasizes, through another Thumper-like "Bambi" squirrel early in this cartoon, that is is not going to be a cute and fuzzy story. Avery once said he was "the anti-Disney" type and preferred his cartoons with an edge. Screwy beats up Thumper right away, just to emphasize the point.Avery and his main writer, Heck Allen, also were good at having the main characters stop the story and talk to us - the audience - a number of times. That, or they would hold up a sign telling us something like, "Stupid, ain't it?" These "asides" to let us know what the characters are thinking are almost always clever and add to the cartoon's humor. I particularly thought it was neat when the character would comment that he knew all of this baloney that was happening on screen was just a cartoon anyway, so he'd make some wisecrack about "this cartoon this and that." Supposedly, this was the first time this sort of thing had ever been done in a cartoon. It must have really surprised audiences in the theater. That's how inventive Mr. Avery and Mr. Allen were with their animated short features. Their "Droopy" cartoons featured a lot of those "asides," too.After watching this, I viewed two other "Screwy Squirrel" episodes and found them spectacular.

This is the first of several Screwball Squirrel cartoons. It's a real shame that this Tex Avery character never really took off, as I would have really loved to see more.The cartoon begins with a cute little squirrel talking about the film and all his friends in the forest. Screwball then walks him away from the camera and beats the stuffing out of him and takes over the cartoon. He then phones and insults a bird dog so that through the rest of the film this hapless dog gets tortured repeatedly by Screwball. The film ends with the appearance of the same cute squirrel and BOTH Screwball and the dog pummel him! The film is great because of all the Tex Avery touches--great over-the-top sight gags (such as catching the street car inside the tree) and the completely surreal aspects of the film. While it's not the best Avery cartoon (that might be SWINGSHIFT Cinderella), it is pure vintage Avery and fun for everyone but complete stick-in-the-muds.

MGM asked Tex Avery to develop a running character to rival Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera's Tom & Jerry, and Avery, who was gag-oriented as a director, developed a character suited to his style of animated comedy, Screwy Squirrel.The cartoon features Avery's brand of superbly-timed and edited gags revolving around the chase theme universal to cartoons, but two gags display Avery's aversion to running characters and also hurt the cartoon's quality. Both involve a saccharine-sweet squirrel straight out of Disney central casting who is viciously pummeled to death, first by Screwy, later by both Screwy and the dog who's been chasing him throughout the short. The gratuitous nature of these assaults is repellent and unfortunately common to cartoons of the 1940s; unlike the physical gags elsewhere in the cartoon, these scenes are not done for laughs, but for sadistic joy and as such are unnecessary and ugly. This is not the best entry in the five-short series for Screwy Squirrel, but it is a good start.