Of Fox and Hounds

Deprecated

We have moved to portable infoboxes using the new Template:Shorts

Please do not use this template anymore. It is left here for reference purposes.

Of Fox and Hounds

[[File: Original Reissue |280px]]

Directed By: Tex Avery Produced By: Leon Schlesinger Henry Binder (uncredited) Released: December 7, 1940 Series: Merrie Melodies Story: Animation: Charles McKimson Robert McKimson (uncredited) Virgil Ross (uncredited) Rod Scribner (uncredited) Layouts: Backgrounds: John Didrik Johnsen (uncredited) Film Editor: Treg Brown (uncredited) Voiced By: Mel Blanc (uncredited) Tex Avery (uncredited) Music: Carl W. Stalling Starring: Willoughby George the Fox Preceded By: Porky's Hired Hand Succeeded By: The Timid Toreador Of Fox and Hounds

Of Fox and Hounds is a 1940 Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Tex Avery.

Plot

The film focuses on a sly fox, George (voiced by Mel Blanc), and a dimwitted hound, Willoughby (voiced by Tex Avery), who repeatedly asks George where the fox went, never suspecting that his "friend" George is the fox. Invariably, George the Fox tells Willoughby that the fox in on the other side of a rail fence, which is actually at the edge of a steep cliff. Willoughby's line, "Which way did he go, George? Which way did he go?" long ago became a catchphrase, as did "Thanks a lot, George, thanks a lot!"

Availability

• VHS - Looney Tunes: The Collectors Edition Volume 10: Canine Corps (1995 Turner dubbed version)

Notes

• George the Fox has a voice and personality very similar to Bugs Bunny, who starred in his first cartoon in recognizable form that same year ("A Wild Hare", also directed by Tex Avery.)
• The animated film is significant in that it is Tex Avery's first usage of characters based around George and Lenny of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men.
• Willoughby first appeared with white & brown fur in this film. Starting from The Crackpot Quail, his fur is 100% brown and he is voiced by Kent Rogers instead of Tex Avery.
• A scene where a fox (George) saves a hound (Willoughby) from the bear is similar to the Disney film The Fox and the Hound, except the cartoon was released 41 years before The Fox and the Hound.
• The cartoon was reissued again in the 1953-54 season, previously reissued in the 1943-44 season.

Gallery