The Screwy Truant

1945 film

Wally Maher
Pinto Colvig
Patrick McGeehan
Billy Bletcher
William Hanna

Music byScott BradleyAnimation by

Preston Blair
Ed Love
Ray Abrams

Layouts byClaude SmithColor processTechnicolor

Production
company

MGM cartoon studio

Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Release date

January 13, 1945 (1945-01-13)

^[1]

Running time

7 minutesLanguageEnglish

The Screwy Truant is a 1945 Screwy Squirrel cartoon directed by Tex Avery and released by MGM.^[2]

Summary

The cartoon centers around an adolescent version of Screwy Squirrel, who skips school to go fishing, which causes truant officer Meathead Dog (here seen with a different color palette but otherwise the same) to go around attempting to arrest Screwy, with various failures. At the end, Meathead finally catches Screwy and demands to know why he is not in school. Screwy tells him the reason is because he has measles, much to the horror of Meathead, who has now contracted measles from him.

Voice cast

Wally Maher as Screwy Squirrel (uncredited)
Pinto Colvig as Meathead, Screwy laughing (uncredited)
Patrick McGeehan as Wolf (uncredited)^[3]
Billy Bletcher performing laughing sounds (uncredited)
William Hanna performing screaming sounds (uncredited)

Cameo

Tex Avery's versions of Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf (from Swing Shift Cinderella) make a cameo appearance. In the middle of the cartoon, the two characters interrupt one of Screwy's antics with "Wolfie" chasing Little Red Riding Hood across the screen, only for Screwy to interrupt that action by showing the wolf the title of the cartoon and informing him that he is in the wrong "picture". Swing Shift Cinderella would not premiere until seven months after the release of The Screwy Truant,^[4] so it could be inferred that its script was still being written at the time and Avery wanted to provide theater audiences with a "teaser" for that upcoming short.

Home media releases

The Screwy Truant was released on LaserDisc by MGM Home Entertainment as part of All This and Tex Avery Too! in 1992^[5] and The Compleat Tex Avery in 1993.^[6]^[7] It was released on Blu-ray by Warner Archive Collection as part of Tex Avery Screwball Classics: Volume 1 on February 18, 2020.^[8]

References

^ "Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer—One Reel 1943–44". Harrison's Reports. New York City: C. February 17, 1945. Retrieved 2023-01-27 – via Internet Archive.
^ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 134–135. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7.
^ ""Hello All You Happy Tax Payers": Tex Avery's Voice Stock Company |". CartoonResearch.com. Retrieved 2020-02-12.
^ "Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer—One Reel 1944–45". Harrison's Reports. New York City: C. August 18, 1945. Retrieved 2023-01-27 – via Internet Archive.
^ All This and Tex Avery Too! LaserDisc, ASIN 6302292700
^ The Compleat Tex Avery [Laserdisc, Box Set], ASIN 6302575338
^ Daly, Steve (March 19, 1993). "The Compleat Tex Avery". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2024-07-02.
^ Amidi, Amid (January 21, 2020). "The Tex Avery Blu-Ray Will Be Out February 18. Here's What's on It". Cartoon Brew. Retrieved 2024-07-02.

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to The Screwy Truant.

The Screwy Truant at IMDb

Films directed by Tex Avery

Short subjects

Walter Lantz	Towne Hall Follies (1935) The Quail Hunt (1935) I'm Cold (1954) Crazy Mixed Up Pup (1955) The Legend of Rockabye Point (1955) Sh-h-h-h-h-h (1955)
Warner Bros.	Gold Diggers of '49 (1935) Plane Dippy (1936) Page Miss Glory (1936) The Blow Out (1936) I'd Love to Take Orders from You (1936) I Love to Singa (1936) Porky the Rain Maker (1936) The Village Smithy (1936) Milk and Money (1936) Don't Look Now (1936) Porky the Wrestler (1937) Picador Porky (1937) I Only Have Eyes for You (1937) Porky's Duck Hunt (1937) Uncle Tom's Bungalow (1937) Ain't We Got Fun (1937) Egghead Rides Again (1937) A Sunbonnet Blue (1937) Porky's Garden (1937) I Wanna Be a Sailor (1937) Little Red Walking Hood (1937) Daffy Duck & Egghead (1938) The Sneezing Weasel (1938) The Penguin Parade (1938) The Isle of Pingo Pongo (1938) Cinderella Meets Fella (1938) A Feud There Was (1938) Johnny Smith and Poker-Huntas (1938) Daffy Duck in Hollywood (1938) The Mice Will Play (1938) Hamateur Night (1939) A Day at the Zoo (1939) Thugs with Dirty Mugs (1939) Believe It or Else (1939) Dangerous Dan McFoo (1939) Detouring America (1939) Land of the Midnight Fun (1939) Fresh Fish (1939) Screwball Football (1939) The Early Worm Gets the Bird (1940) Cross-Country Detours (1940) The Bear's Tale (1940) A Gander at Mother Goose (1940) Circus Today (1940) A Wild Hare (1940) Ceiling Hero (1940) Wacky Wild Life (1940) Of Fox and Hounds (1940) Holiday Highlights (1940) The Crackpot Quail (1941) The Haunted Mouse (1941) Tortoise Beats Hare (1941) Hollywood Steps Out (1941) Porky's Preview (1941) The Heckling Hare (1941) Aviation Vacation (1941) All This and Rabbit Stew (1941) The Bug Parade (1941) The Cagey Canary (1941) Wabbit Twouble (1941) Aloha Hooey (1942) Crazy Cruise (1942)
Paramount Pictures	Down on the Farm (1941) In a Pet Shop (1941) In the Zoo (1941)
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer	Blitz Wolf (1942) The Early Bird Dood It! (1942) Dumb-Hounded (1943) Red Hot Riding Hood (1943) Who Killed Who? (1943) One Ham's Family (1943) What's Buzzin' Buzzard (1943) Screwy Squirrel (1944) Batty Baseball (1944) Happy-Go-Nutty (1944) Big Heel-Watha (1944) The Screwy Truant (1945) The Shooting of Dan McGoo (1945) Jerky Turkey (1945) Swing Shift Cinderella (1945) Wild and Woolfy (1945) Lonesome Lenny (1946) The Hick Chick (1946) Northwest Hounded Police (1946) Henpecked Hoboes (1946) Hound Hunters (1947) Red Hot Rangers (1947) Uncle Tom's Cabaña (1947) Slap Happy Lion (1947) King-Size Canary (1947) What Price Fleadom (1948) Little 'Tinker (1948) Half-Pint Pygmy (1948) Lucky Ducky (1948) The Cat That Hated People (1948) Bad Luck Blackie (1949) Señor Droopy (1949) The House of Tomorrow (1949) Doggone Tired (1949) Wags to Riches (1949) Little Rural Riding Hood (1949) Out-Foxed (1949) The Counterfeit Cat (1949) Ventriloquist Cat (1950) The Cuckoo Clock (1950) Garden Gopher (1950) The Chump Champ (1950) The Peachy Cobbler (1950) Cock-a-Doodle Dog (1951) Daredevil Droopy (1951) Droopy's Good Deed (1951) Symphony in Slang (1951) Car of Tomorrow (1951) Droopy's Double Trouble (1951) Magical Maestro (1952) One Cab's Family (1952) Rock-a-Bye Bear (1952) Little Johnny Jet (1953) The T.V. of Tomorrow (1953) The Three Little Pups (1953) Drag-a-Long Droopy (1954) Billy Boy (1954) Homesteader Droopy (1954) The Farm of Tomorrow (1954) The Flea Circus (1954) Dixieland Droopy (1954) Field and Scream (1955) The First Bad Man (1955) Deputy Droopy (1955) Cellbound (1955) Millionaire Droopy (1956) Cat's Meow (1957)