Of Fox and Hounds

Of Fox and Hounds is a 9-minute 1940 Tex Avery film which introduced Willoughby the Dog. Tex Avery did the voice of Willoughby, and Mel Blanc did the George the Fox.

Plot

The film focuses on a sly fox, George, and a dimwitted hound, Willoughby, 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!"

Trivia

• 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.
• This cartoon's original technical credits can be found on Jerry Beck's ORIGINAL TITLES page (albeit being scaled down).
• The crew is credited their respective draft numbers.

Availability

This cartoon is available as an undocumented bonus on disc 1 of the Region 2 PAL 5-DVD set "La collection Tex Avery," published in France in 2010, along with two other bonus Warner Brothers cartoons by him, Dangerous Dan McFoo on Disc 2 and with Aviation Vacation on Disc 4.

External links

• Of Fox and Hounds at IMDb
• Of Fox and Hounds at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Extensive critical analysis of Of Fox and Hounds by Steven Hartley