Of Fox and Hounds (1940)

For some reason, Avery took an interest in the character Lenny from the Steinbeck novel "Of Mice And Men". This short was the first of many parodies that Avery would do of the story at WB and MGM in later years.The premise echos the backstory of George and Lenny from the novel as described by George. Here they are a fox and a hound respectively. Avery builds on the prey outsmarting the hunter formula using this aspect of the novel.Fans have made comparisons with the fox and Bugs Bunny. Avery himself opined that what you do with a character is more important than the character itself. Avery applied this philosophy in this short and THE CRACKPOT QUAIL, which featured characters in vogue with Bugs and the Lenny expy, named Willoughby.What prevents this short from being excellent is that it drags on. The running time is over nine minutes. Avery could have made it funnier by making the gags more concise. Willoughby made a few more appearances with a slimmer design. Avery would revisit the Of Mice And Men story at MGM years later with the George abd Junior bears.

. . . in the mouth of a Fox named "George" during OF FOX AND HOUNDS. Since this is an offering of Warner Bros., it is of course incumbent upon viewers to follow star director Chuck Jones' advice and try to decipher embedded warnings for America here, Then and Now. Unfortunately, this brief cartoon outing is Helmed by Tex Avery, usually pretty tone deaf to the Intimations of the Future that rolled out from his fellow Looney Tunes directors like Exxon Valdez oil off a penguin's back (which is one of the reasons why a chagrined and more mercenary Avery soon defected to the Corrupt Capitalists running the MGM film studio). However, despite himself, Avery puts across a bleak picture for America's Posterity by focusing here on a fox who dresses up as Willoughby the Hound's fellow law enforcement functionary. Certainly this presages Coretta Scott King's warning that America would be doomed the day that Beauregard Sessions was allowed to doff his KKK Imperial Wizard Robe to become the USA's so-called Attorney General. Therefore, Looney Tunes fans can feel free to reluctantly give Avery a smidgen of respect for hinting at a day when Lucifer's Interchangeable Three C's would emerge like Gog and Magog from the Miasma of the Washington, DC swamps: Conservatism, Communism, and Capitalism (and as it says somewhere in the Bible, "of these three, Corrupt Job-Killing Capitalism is by far the worse").

Actually more than the fox I think. And the fox likes him too I guess as he helps him when the bear threatens him. This is a 9-minute cartoon from 75 years ago, a bit longer than usual, and it features the talents of Tex Avery and Mel Blanc, two of the biggest names in cartoon movies a long time ago. You could probably say that many of the jokes were not too new or refreshing, but if you look at the year 1940, you will see that this was made very early already, so you could also say that other cartoons copied the jokes from this one. I felt that "Of Fox and Hounds" was a pretty decent watch and I would have loved to see Willoughby in more cartoons, but I think he is not among the more prolific careers from back in the day. The only somewhat negative thing I can think of is that the Fox really reminds me of a 100% copy of Bugs Bunny, but that may also be due to Blanc's voice. Still a very entertaining 9 minutes and I also liked how Willoughby kept talking to the audience all the time, also at the ending with the funny pillow scene. Good stuff. Recommended.

Tex Avery was fond of using Of Mice and Men, or at least the characters of Lenny and George, as the starting pont for his characters in his cartoons. The title of this one is a play on Steinbeck's title and Willoughby is basically Lenny. The prize bit in a very good short is Willoughby's first encounter with a very puzzled bear! Well worth seeking out. Recommended.