Fox Pop

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Airdate:
5 September 1942 Blue Ribbon reissue: 28 September 1946

Series:

Merrie Melodies

MPAA Number:	Production Number:
8065	721

Starring:

Fox

Crew

Voice Characterizations:

Mel Blanc (uncredited)
Robert C. Bruce (uncredited)
Tedd Pierce (uncredited)^[1]

Animated By:

Phil DeLara^[2]
Robert Cannon (uncredited)
Ken Harris (uncredited)
Rudy Larriva (uncredited)
Ben Washam (uncredited)
Lloyd Vaughan (uncredited)

Layout Artist:

John McGrew (uncredited)

Background Artist:

Gene Fleury (uncredited)

Film Editor:

Treg Brown (uncredited)

Musician:

Carl W. Stalling

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Fox Pop is a 1942 Merrie Melodies short directed by Chuck Jones.

Title[]

The title is a play on "vox pop," short for vox populi, the voice of the people, which refers to short interviews among the wide public.

Plot[]

A fox makes a monumental error when he hears that silver foxes are highly prized, not realizing that only the skin is prized, not the fox it's attached to, after hearing a commercial on the radio in a cabin while foraging in the trash alley. After an awful experience at the fox farm, the fox secretly steals the radio from the cabin (without being noticed by the owner), grabs an axe and destroys it. Two crows who see his actions at first think the fox is crazy until the fox tells the whole story. The crows, understanding what the fox has been through, proceed to join the fox in destroying the radio.

Caricatures[]

Transcript[]

Main article: Fox Pop/Transcript

Availability[]

Streaming[]

Notes[]

In real life, silver foxes are melanistic forms of actual red foxes, and they have a darker grey fur as opposed to this cartoon which depicted silver foxes with genuine silver-colored fur.
The Sterling Silver Fox Farm's name refers to "sterling silver", which means silver of 92.5% purity.
Four of the fox's many misinterpreted visualizations of how foxes are all the rage in the United States mentioned on the radio are the following (in order of appearance):
- "...On 5th Avenue,": The fox visualizes himself being surrounded by smartly-dressed high-class foxes like himself on 5th Avenue.
- "...On Hollywood Boulevard,": The fox visualizes himself passing by a cafe filled with famous movie celebrities of the time such as Edward G Robinson and Greta Garbo (These celebrities in the background were caricatured very closely to the ones previously seen in Tex Avery's "Hollywood Steps Out" the previous year).
- "...Yes, and even Miami.": The fox visualizes himself surrounded on Miami Beach with a group of swimsuit-clad women.
- "The discriminating woman everywhere will insist to have a genuine fox around her neck": The fox visualizes himself kissing a woman who loves to have a living fox around her neck.
  - In the third visualization, some of the swimsuit-clad women the fox are wearing two-piece bikini-type swimsuits. While these kinds of midriff-baring swimwear were not made famous until at least in 1946, at the time of this cartoon's release, vast rationing of clothing fabrics due to World War II resulted in these much skimpier women's swimwear in the United States.^[3]
The Sterling Silver Fox Farm farmer has a French-accented voice similar to that of Chuck Jones' famous creation Pepé Le Pew who would debut later in 1945.
When the fox unsuccessfully tries to pantomime a cut throat after being persuaded by a larger fellow silver fox (voiced by Tedd Pierce) to escape for the first time, a small part of the very end of 1941-1955 Merrie Melodies ending music cue is briefly playing in the background.
The cartoon fell into the public domain in 1971 when United Artists, the successor to AAP, failed to renew the copyright in time.
The original titles had the song "Tica Ti-Tica Ta" playing over them.^[4]
The dubbed version is on the DVD Kings Row, but the unrestored a.a.p. version is on LaserDisc (and also airs on Cartoon Network and Boomerang in Latin America and Tooncast).
The EU dubbed version has the wrong dubbed ending card. The same thing happens on the EU prints of "Hobo Gadget Band", "I Only Have Eyes for You", and "A Feud There Was". The USA dubbed version, however, retains the 1947-1948 MM dubbed ending card, while the European dubbed version uses the 1937-38 MM dubbed ending card and also replaces the original ending music with the 1938-41 rendition of MWRA ^[5].
- As the HBO Max restoration uses the EU dubbed soundtrack, the 1938-41 ending theme plays on top of the original reissue ending titles.
In Fear of the Dark (2003), Ryan is watching the cartoon on television.
In The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005), Lou Ann is watching this on television.