Lenny s'ennuie

A rich lady arrives at the P. U. Pet Shop to buy a playmate for her dog Lenny. Dim-witted Lenny is lonely despite being spoiled and he squeezed his previous playmate to death. The rich lady brings home Screwy Squirrel.

This is a Tex Avery cartoon. I'm not a fan of Screwy Squirrel. He's basically Bugs Bunny without the class and I don't like the design. Again he's Bugs Bunny but uglier. As for the Of Mice and Men referencing, I can do without squeezing little animals to death. I get what Tex is going for but the crass tone leaves it feeling ugly.

This short was the last one to feature Screwy Squirrel. His nemesis here is a dog patterned after the character Lenny from Of Mice and Men, which was a device used quite often in cartoons, particularly by Tex Avery (who used the two leads as the pattern for George and Junior as well). Good, if not particularly novel, short, which is probably why Avery stopped-he'd taken Screwy as far as he could and there wasn't much more to do with him. Characters were seldom important to Avery in any case. Well worth tracking down. Recommended.

The last of the Screwy Squirrel cartoons has a rich lady buy Screwy as a playmate for her dimwitted, destructive dog, Lenny -- voiced by Avery. As Lenny tries to play with the squirrel, Screwy invokes a multitude of cartoon gags, wall-breaking and mayhem to try to avoid annihilation.

Avery's kitchen-sink approach to cartoons makes this a tremendously funny cartoon, but he tended to grow bored quickly with series. It's a pity he didn't make any others, but I suppose he knew what he was doing.

This is one of my favorite cartoon. Unlike others I think the screwy squirrel is a very funny character. Tex Avery was a very gifted and talented animator with a dark humor and all his cartoons are excellent. This one is not an exception. Too bad that there are only five cartoons of this crazy character.

A take on Lenny from "Of Mice and Men," the title dog wants a friend. The problem is he is homicidal. He meets his match with Screwy Squirrel who finds every way to torture the big guy. Great Tex Avery vehicle with a nasty twist.