Of Fox and Hounds (1940)

Truly Dreadful Film

That was an excellent one.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

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.

Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons.Also have much admiration for Tex Avery, an animation genius whose best cartoons are animated masterpieces and some of the best cartoons ever made from any director anywhere. 'Of Fox and Hounds' (a play on title of 'Of Mice and Men' one thinks) is not quite among his masterpieces but to me it's among his best early efforts. Just to reiterate as has been said many times by me, even when Avery was not at his best he fared much better than many directors at their worst, who could only wish to come close to a director with as many very good to classic cartoons and very few misfires as Avery.It is no surprise that the animation is superb, being rich in colour and detail, the meticulousness is also noticeable. The character designs are fluid and well drawn, if not quite the creative ones of his very best cartoons. Carl Stalling's music is lush and characterful, with clever orchestration and a mastery of not just adding to the action but enhancing it as well (Stalling was a near-unequalled master at this, though Scott Bradley gave him a run for his money).'Of Fox and Hounds' is great fun and never less than amusing, with enough variety to avoid repetition from creeping in. Willoughby is particularly well done of the characters and the bear encounter is a definite highlight. That the fox sounds like an early version of Bugs Bunny didn't bother me at all. The characters carry the cartoon beautifully and the pace is always lively without being so relentless that it feels rushed.Mel Blanc shows once again his unrivalled ability to voice multiple characters and give each of them an individuality rather than giving them all the same personality and voice.In conclusion, excellent cartoon. 10/10 Bethany Cox

. . . 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").

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.