Squirrel Cartoon Characters: 20 Famous Cartoon Squirrels

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Squirrels are almost too perfect for cartoons. They are quick, expressive and ready to risk everything for a snack. Animators spotted that early, which is why squirrel characters have appeared everywhere from theatrical shorts to cartoon characters of the 90s and 2000s cartoons.

This list covers 20 famous squirrel cartoon characters from television, movies, anime, games and comics. I have also included a squirrel check for each one because, strangely enough, some of the best-known characters here are not actually squirrels.

Quick picks: Sandy Cheeks and Princess Sally Acorn are two of the toughest female characters on the list. Secret Squirrel is the obvious choice for spy fans, while Scrat, Hammy and Squeaks bring the chaos. Rocky is still the definitive flying squirrel cartoon character, and Squirrel Girl covers the superhero category, although she comes with an asterisk.

Classic Cartoon Squirrels

Some of animation’s earliest squirrel stars came from theatrical shorts and the first wave of television cartoons. A few of them still define what people picture when they hear “cartoon squirrel.”

Rocky the Flying Squirrel

Rocky the Flying Squirrel classic squirrel cartoon character

Rocket J. Squirrel, better known as Rocky, is the calm and capable half of the Rocky and Bullwinkle team. He first appeared in Rocky and His Friends in 1959 and usually spends his time trying to keep Bullwinkle focused while Boris and Natasha cause trouble.

  • From: Rocky and His Friends, later The Bullwinkle Show
  • Squirrel check: A genuine flying squirrel
  • Best known for: Staying level-headed while everything around him becomes ridiculous
The voice behind Rocky: June Foray voiced Rocky throughout the original series. She also played Natasha Fatale, which meant she regularly performed on both sides of the conflict.

Secret Squirrel

Secret Squirrel Hanna-Barbera spy squirrel cartoon character

Secret Squirrel is a trench-coated secret agent equipped with gadgets, disguises and a sidekick named Morocco Mole. The character debuted in 1965 as part of The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show, turning spy-movie clichés into short Hanna-Barbera adventures.

  • From: Hanna-Barbera, beginning in 1965
  • Squirrel check: A squirrel in a fedora and trench coat
  • Best known for: Playing a James Bond-style agent in a world of talking animals
The 1990s revival: Secret Squirrel returned in 1993 in Super Secret Secret Squirrel, a recurring segment within 2 Stupid Dogs. That version also introduced Penny, a female squirrel who worked for the Chief.

The Girl Squirrel

The Girl Squirrel from The Sword in the Stone Disney squirrel character

Disney never gives her a proper name, but the young female squirrel from The Sword in the Stone is difficult to forget. After Merlin transforms Wart into a squirrel, she immediately falls for him and tries to protect him from danger.

  • From: The Sword in the Stone, Disney, 1963
  • Squirrel check: A real squirrel within the story
  • Best known for: Turning a playful transformation scene into something unexpectedly sad

Wart cannot explain that he is really human, so the entire relationship is carried by expressions, movement and music. When he changes back, she is left heartbroken. It is only a short part of the movie, but it stayed with me more than several of the film’s larger scenes.

Ginger Nutt

Ginger Nutt red squirrel cartoon character from Animaland

Ginger Nutt is a red squirrel from Animaland, a series of nine British theatrical shorts produced between 1948 and 1950. Ginger starred in the final four films, usually alongside his sweetheart, Hazel Nutt.

  • From: Animaland, Gaumont British Animation
  • Squirrel check: A red squirrel
  • Best known for: Being one of Britain’s early attempts to create a homegrown animated animal star
Behind the series: Animaland was led by David Hand, the former Disney director who had worked on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Bambi. The studio closed in 1950, leaving Ginger with a very small filmography.

Television Cartoon Squirrels

Television gave squirrel characters enough time to become more than one-scene jokes. This section includes scientists, retired cartoon stars, secret agents and resistance leaders.

Sandy Cheeks

Sandy Cheeks female squirrel cartoon character from SpongeBob SquarePants

Sandy Cheeks is a scientist, inventor and martial artist from Texas who lives underwater in an oxygen-filled treedome. Unlike most Bikini Bottom residents, she needs a suit and helmet whenever she leaves home.

  • From: SpongeBob SquarePants, beginning in 1999
  • Squirrel check: Nickelodeon’s official character profile identifies her as a flying squirrel
  • Best known for: Science experiments, karate and refusing to be intimidated by anyone in Bikini Bottom

Sandy works because she is not simply “the smart one.” She can match SpongeBob’s enthusiasm, Patrick’s recklessness and the show’s physical comedy without losing the traits that make her distinct.

More from Bikini Bottom: You can also read our guides to Mr. Krabs and the most memorable SpongeBob villains.

Slappy Squirrel

Slappy Squirrel Animaniacs squirrel cartoon character

Slappy Squirrel is a retired cartoon star who has already seen every setup, gag and villain routine imaginable. Instead of being surprised by cartoon logic, she usually recognizes the joke before anyone else and turns it against them.

  • From: Animaniacs, 1993
  • Squirrel check: An elderly grey squirrel
  • Best known for: Treating classic cartoon violence like an old job she has grown tired of

Her shorts are affectionate parodies of golden-age animation, but Slappy is never impressed by the nostalgia around her. Sherri Stoner voiced the character and helped make that dry, irritated delivery the centre of every segment.

Skippy Squirrel

Skippy Squirrel Animaniacs young squirrel cartoon character

Skippy is Slappy’s cheerful nephew and the audience stand-in for many of their adventures. He still finds cartoon life exciting, which gives Slappy someone to explain, protect and occasionally soften around.

  • From: Animaniacs, 1993
  • Squirrel check: A young squirrel and Slappy’s nephew
  • Best known for: Balancing Slappy’s cynicism with genuine excitement
Why the pairing works: Skippy is not there just to ask questions. He reminds us that Slappy does care about someone, even when she acts as though everything annoys her. Our full guide to Skippy Squirrel looks more closely at their relationship.

Squeaks the Squirrel

Squeaks the Squirrel New Looney Tunes squirrel cartoon character

Squeaks joined the Looney Tunes cast in Wabbit in 2015, which was later retitled New Looney Tunes. He appears as one of Bugs Bunny’s recurring friends and companions rather than another character trying to hunt, trap or defeat him.

  • From: Wabbit, later New Looney Tunes
  • Squirrel check: A squirrel created for the modern Looney Tunes lineup
  • Best known for: Communicating through squeaks, chitters and physical comedy

Squeaks does not use conventional dialogue, so Bugs often reacts to or interprets what he is saying. Dee Bradley Baker supplies the character’s vocal sounds, but most of the performance comes through movement and timing.

Chitter

Chitter the squirrel from The Smurfs cartoon character

Chitter is Wild Smurf’s squirrel companion in the later seasons of The Smurfs. He was introduced during the seventh season, when the series revealed that Wild had been lost as an infant and raised in the forest by squirrels.

  • From: The Smurfs, season seven
  • Squirrel check: A woodland squirrel
  • Best known for: Acting as Wild Smurf’s closest animal companion
The family connection: Chitter is described as a descendant of the mother squirrel who helped raise Wild Smurf. That makes him part of Wild’s extended family history rather than a random forest sidekick.

Princess Sally Acorn

Princess Sally Acorn Sonic the Hedgehog squirrel cartoon character

Princess Sally Acorn leads the Freedom Fighters against Doctor Robotnik in the 1993 Sonic the Hedgehog animated series. She is the strategist of the group, while Sonic is usually the one most willing to rush into danger.

  • From: Sonic the Hedgehog, 1993, and the Archie comics
  • Squirrel check: Complicated. Different production materials have described her as a squirrel or a chipmunk
  • Best known for: Leading the resistance and planning missions against Robotnik

The television series never clearly settles Sally’s species. Early material connected her to a squirrel character, while the show’s story bible identified her as a chipmunk. Calling her a squirrel-like Mobian is probably the safest answer.

Why fans still remember her: Sally belongs mainly to the darker Saturday-morning version of Sonic and the Archie comic continuity, not the main game series. For many viewers, she was the character who gave the resistance structure and made Robotnik’s rule feel like a real threat.

Squirrels in Animated Movies

Animated movies have produced some of the most recognizable squirrel characters on this list. One spends his life chasing an acorn, another moves fast enough to stop time, and three of them come from the same nut-store heist.

Scrat

Scrat the sabre toothed squirrel character from Ice Age

Scrat is the nearly silent acorn hunter who appears throughout the five original Blue Sky Ice Age movies. His side stories rarely affect the main plot, but his attempts to bury, retrieve or protect one acorn often cause disasters on a geological scale.

  • From: Ice Age, beginning in 2002
  • Squirrel check: A fictional sabre-toothed squirrel created for the films
  • Best known for: Destroying almost everything around him while chasing an acorn
He finally got it: Scrat failed to keep the acorn throughout the original movies, but Blue Sky artists gave him a happier ending in a 2022 farewell clip called The End. In that short, he finally stops chasing and eats it.

There is also a strange real-world footnote. In 2011, palaeontologists described an extinct mammal called Cronopio dentiacutus. It was not a squirrel, but its long snout and large canine teeth quickly led to comparisons with Scrat.

Hammy

Hammy the hyperactive squirrel cartoon character from Over the Hedge

Hammy is the hyperactive squirrel from Over the Hedge. He is friendly, easily distracted and already seems to experience the world at twice everyone else’s speed before anyone gives him caffeine.

  • From: Over the Hedge, DreamWorks, 2006
  • Squirrel check: A squirrel
  • Best known for: Talking quickly, losing focus and moving at impossible speed

His most memorable moment comes during the climax, when he drinks an energy drink and moves so quickly that the rest of the world appears frozen. Steve Carell’s performance keeps Hammy enthusiastic rather than irritating, which is a difficult balance for this kind of character.

Surly

Surly the purple squirrel main character from The Nut Job

Surly is the selfish and stubborn lead of The Nut Job. He is banished from Liberty Park after his attempt to steal from a nut cart causes a fire that destroys the animals’ winter food supply.

  • From: The Nut Job, 2014
  • Squirrel check: A stylized purple squirrel
  • Best known for: Planning a nut-store robbery that becomes much larger than expected

Surly begins the movie looking out almost entirely for himself, so much of the story depends on whether he can learn to work with the animals he alienated.

Where the character started: The Nut Job grew out of director Peter Lepeniotis’s 2005 short film Surly Squirrel. Will Arnett voices Surly in the feature.

Andie

Andie the red squirrel character from The Nut Job

Andie is the responsible red squirrel trying to secure food for the entire park community. That puts her in direct conflict with Surly, who initially treats every problem as something he should solve for himself.

  • From: The Nut Job, 2014
  • Squirrel check: A red squirrel
  • Best known for: Keeping the park animals focused on cooperation

Katherine Heigl voices Andie. She is not just Surly’s moral counterweight or possible romantic interest. She takes part in the planning, challenges bad decisions and pushes the group toward a solution that helps everyone.

Grayson

Grayson the grey squirrel character from The Nut Job

Grayson is treated as Liberty Park’s heroic protector, although his confidence is much greater than his judgement. He looks and sounds like the brave leading man, but he is mostly a parody of that role.

  • From: The Nut Job, 2014
  • Squirrel check: A grey squirrel
  • Best known for: Taking credit, striking heroic poses and misunderstanding the situation
Not the real villain: Grayson is foolish and competitive, but he is not the movie’s main antagonist. That role belongs to Raccoon, voiced by Liam Neeson. Brendan Fraser provides Grayson’s voice.

Anime Squirrel Characters

Squirrel characters are less common in anime, but Bannertail: The Story of Gray Squirrel built an entire 26-episode series around them.

Banner

Banner the grey squirrel protagonist of the Bannertail anime

Banner is an orphaned squirrel raised by a farm cat. Because he grows up believing he is a kitten, he enters the forest with very different instincts from the wild squirrels he meets there.

  • From: Bannertail: The Story of Gray Squirrel, Nippon Animation, 1979
  • Squirrel check: A grey squirrel raised as a cat
  • Best known for: Facing danger instead of reacting like the other squirrels expect
About the series: Nippon Animation produced 26 episodes in 1979. The story was adapted from the animal writing of Ernest Thompson Seton and was released under several different titles around the world.

Sue

Sue the wild squirrel character from the Bannertail anime

Sue is one of the first wild squirrels to trust Banner after he reaches the forest. She helps him understand how squirrels live, while Banner’s strange cat-like behaviour keeps surprising her.

  • From: Bannertail: The Story of Gray Squirrel, 1979
  • Squirrel check: A wild grey squirrel
  • Best known for: Helping Banner find a place within his own species

Sue and Banner gradually become more than friends, and the final episode shows them building a family together. Her role is important because she connects Banner’s unusual upbringing with the life he might have had among other squirrels.

Game, Comic and Pokemon Squirrels

These final characters do not all begin in television animation, but they are drawn in a cartoon style and regularly appear on lists of famous squirrel characters.

Conker

Conker the red squirrel cartoon style video game character

Conker began as a cheerful, family-friendly mascot in Diddy Kong Racing and Conker’s Pocket Tales. Rare then rebuilt him as the foul-mouthed, heavy-drinking lead of the adult comedy game Conker’s Bad Fur Day.

  • From: Diddy Kong Racing, 1997; later Conker’s Bad Fur Day, 2001
  • Squirrel check: A red squirrel
  • Best known for: Looking like a children’s mascot while starring in a very adult game

The contrast is the entire joke. Conker still has the round eyes, bright colours and friendly design of a platform-game hero, even while the story surrounds him with drinking, swearing and movie parodies.

His actual debut: Conker first appeared as a racer in Diddy Kong Racing in 1997. Bad Fur Day arrived four years later and completely changed how people saw him. Our guide to animated movies for adults covers a similar gap between cartoon visuals and mature content.

Pachirisu

Pachirisu the electric squirrel Pokemon character

Pachirisu is an Electric-type Pokemon introduced during the Diamond and Pearl generation. Its white-and-blue body, large tail and electric cheek pouches make the squirrel inspiration impossible to miss.

  • From: Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, 2006
  • Squirrel check: A squirrel-inspired Pokemon officially classified as the EleSquirrel Pokemon
  • Best known for: Becoming an unlikely star of competitive Pokemon
A competitive legend: Se Jun Park won the Masters Division at the 2014 Pokemon World Championships with Pachirisu on his team. The pick stood out because most players did not regard Pachirisu as an obvious championship-level choice.

Squirrel Girl

Squirrel Girl Doreen Green Marvel squirrel superhero character

Doreen Green has a large tail, squirrel-like abilities and the power to communicate with squirrels. She often fights beside them as well, especially her best-known squirrel companion, Tippy-Toe.

  • From: Marvel Comics, first appearing in 1992
  • Squirrel check: Not a squirrel. She is a human superhero with squirrel traits and powers
  • Best known for: Defeating villains who appear far beyond her power level

Squirrel Girl was created by Will Murray and Steve Ditko. In her first appearance, she helped defeat Doctor Doom by sending an army of squirrels after him. Those unlikely victories eventually became a central part of the character and inspired the title The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl.

More Squirrel Cartoon Characters Worth Knowing

A few more characters come up often enough to deserve a mention, even though they do not receive full entries above. Several belong near the chaotic cartoon characters end of the spectrum.

  • Screwy Squirrel: Tex Avery’s aggressive MGM troublemaker starred in five theatrical shorts. His final cartoon, Lonesome Lenny, appears to kill him off before he briefly returns for one last gag. Our full article explains what happened to Screwy Squirrel.
  • Scaredy Squirrel: The anxious and over-prepared star of the Canadian animated series based on Melanie Watt’s picture books.
  • Nutty: The candy-obsessed green squirrel from Happy Tree Friends, a series that looks child-friendly until the violence begins.
  • Penny the Squirrel: A character added during the 1993 Super Secret Secret Squirrel revival.
  • Berri: Conker’s girlfriend, who appeared in both his family-friendly and adult-era games.
A note about chipmunks: Chip and Dale, Alvin, Simon and Theodore are often included on squirrel lists. Chipmunks belong to the squirrel family, so that is not completely unreasonable, but they are a distinct group and I have left them out here on purpose.

Who Is the Most Famous Cartoon Squirrel?

Scrat is probably the most recognizable answer, even though he is a fictional sabre-toothed squirrel rather than a real species. The acorn gag works without dialogue, so people can recognize him even if they have never watched an entire Ice Age movie.

Among characters based on recognizable squirrels, Sandy Cheeks and Rocky are the strongest candidates. Sandy has appeared in SpongeBob SquarePants since 1999, while Rocky has remained one of animation’s best-known flying squirrels since 1959.

Frequently Asked Questions About Squirrel Cartoon Characters

Who is the most famous cartoon squirrel?

Scrat from Ice Age is probably the most recognizable worldwide. Sandy Cheeks and Rocky are stronger answers if the list is limited to characters based on familiar squirrel species.

What kind of squirrel is Sandy Cheeks?

Nickelodeon’s official profile classifies Sandy as a flying squirrel from Texas. She needs an air-filled helmet and suit to survive outside her treedome in Bikini Bottom.

Is Scrat a real type of squirrel?

No. Scrat is a fictional sabre-toothed squirrel created for Ice Age. The prehistoric mammal that was later compared with him was not a squirrel.

Who are the best-known female squirrel cartoon characters?

Sandy Cheeks, Slappy Squirrel, Princess Sally Acorn, Andie, Sue and the unnamed Girl Squirrel from The Sword in the Stone are among the best-known examples. Squirrel Girl is also commonly included, although she is human.

Which cartoon squirrel can fly?

Rocky from Rocky and Bullwinkle is the most famous flying squirrel character. Sandy Cheeks is also officially classified as a flying squirrel, although gliding is not usually the focus of her stories.

Is Squirrel Girl actually a squirrel?

No. Doreen Green is a human superhero with a large tail, squirrel-like physical abilities and the power to communicate with squirrels.

Are there any anime squirrel characters?

Yes. Banner and Sue from Bannertail: The Story of Gray Squirrel are two of the clearest examples.

What colour is Surly from The Nut Job?

Surly is purple. Andie is red, while Grayson is grey.

Squirrels keep getting cast in cartoons because their natural behaviour already looks exaggerated. They are quick, nervous, territorial and willing to cause an unbelievable amount of trouble over food. That describes quite a few of the characters above.

Which squirrel cartoon character did you grow up watching? Let me know in the comments, especially if there is one you think should have made the main list.