Robert Reynolds
This is one of the shorts in David Hand's Animaland series, which centered around a squirrel named Ginger Nutt and his animal friends (including his girlfriend, another squirrel named Hazel. There will be spoilers below: Ginger Nutt is doing what most males do from time to time-swearing to the love of his life that he'd protect her from anything with his very life. Several of the other animals, being his "friends" hear this and do what "friends" do in such a situation-hatch a plan to scare the daylights out of Ginger and make him look bad in front of Hazel. They take a piece of wood in the shape of a skull and scare Ginger so badly with it that he runs back to his tree.At his home, he begins to fret about his behavior, imaging Hazel's changing moods towards him because he ran, with his imaginings very effectively displayed in an excellent set of sight gags. He resolves to find the monster and run it out of the forest, thus winning back the affections of Hazel, which he's certain he's lost.He goes back out looking for the "monster" and believes he's found it again, but discovers through mere chance just what is up and who's behind everything. Two of the three culprits, upon being found out, immediately run, leaving the ringleader, a crow, to face the music alone.The ending shows Ginger once again attempting to impress Hazel, until his plans come crashing down. But Hazel is a good sport and it all ends well. The surviving Animaland shorts were released on a DVD and are well worth seeing. Recommended.
