Happy-Go-Nutty

Happy Go Nutty (1944)

*** (out of 4)

Tex Avery directed animated short with Screwy Squirrel escaping from a mental hospital and being chased by an even crazier dog. There's some pretty good drawings here and the two characters are entertaining enough for this nine-minute film. There are several nice gags including one scene with some "Coo-Coo" Cola.

Good entertainment for the whole family.

You have plenty of different options in watching this one but the Warner release has been remastered and looks the best.

In this cartoon, Screwy Squirrel busts out of a nut house and is chased by the dumb dog Meathead. It's a familiar cartoon plot, but it's helped by some original gags...especially the one you can't see. Still, there were times I had trouble laughing. Screwy Squirrel just seems to be one of the most annoying cartoon characters ever created. I think one of the reasons he bugs me is that the things he does to his co-star are not accompanied by the spirit of fun you'd see with Bugs Bunny. Screwy just seems very mean-spirited and hateful.

The Screwball Squirrel cartoons are vintage Tex Avery revved up by a factor of ten. As opposed to Droopy, Avery's best known creation (he was one of several to create Bugs Bunny) Screwy is NOT quiet or calm in any way. Tex Avery stretched the envelope in most cartoons, but with these he tried his best to break it wide open, which I suspect is why he only made five shorts with him. This one is excellent and is full of Avery touches. Well worth watching. Recommended.

This movie is the logical end point of all those Bugs Bunny cartoons that Tex Avery had worked on at Leon Schlesinger's cartoon factory: the innocent prey turns on the predator, pulling whatever he needs from just outside the frame, and follows it up with a continuing series of ever more absurd gags.

That last part is the essence of Tex Avery shorts, of course. There's never any real plot in the best of his cartoons, just an ascending series of gags, like KING-SIZED CANARY, that ends when they have enough film to ship out to the theaters. Neither does he believe in the little guy being oppressed; Screwy Squirrel starts the proceedings by breaking out of the nuthouse and attacking Meathead. Motive, story, what did it matter? It's funny, isn't it?

The best of the Screwy Squirrel series, Happy Go Nutty has the most coherent storyline as well as some of the best gags of the series.

Screwy Squirrel has been incarcerated in Moron Manor, a mental hospital with four buildings of very appropriate shape. Screwy breaks out (which isn't hard but which is done with typical Tex Avery flair) and explains that they think he's crazy - because he is, as he demonstrates in hilarious manner.

Meathead, the dog assigned to chase escaping patients, gets word of Screwy's escape (how he gets word is another of Avery's best gags) and the chase is on, complete with news headline of the dumb dog who falls for a corny old gag, commando stuff, the explosive apple (PC alert; Meathead's reaction after it blows has been wrongly cut out of modern airings of the cartoon), the telephone (you don't say!), and even a soda break, before the short's end pops up unexpectedly, and Screwy learns just what the legacy of Moron Manor really is.