![]() ![]() ‘Of Fox and Hounds’ may be no classic, it’s an important entry in the evolution of Tex Avery’s films, the Warner Bros. Avery clearly was still experimenting with timing, and in this cartoon in particular he juxtaposes slow scenes to lightning fast action, especially in the parts featuring the bear. ![]() Unfortunately, the cartoon is a little too slow to be an all time winner. The cartoon also features remarkable oil paintings that provide great realistic backgrounds in the best academic tradition, which make all the nonsense staged in front of it more believable. It opens with a very realistic image of a hunter, followed by a beautiful shot of horses and hounds silhouetted against the morning sun. ‘Of Fox and Hounds’ features high production values. Willoughby’s “Which way did he go, George? Which way did he go?” would become a catch phrase, and was also used by Lenny in that latter cartoon. At MGM Avery would more or less return to the character in ‘Lonesome Lenny’ (1946). Luckily not, for his all too late insights, which he shares with the audience, absolutely form the character’s main attraction. In his next cartoon Willoughby would become less fat, but not smarter. In all, he would star in seven cartoons, the last one being Friz Freleng’s ‘Hare Force’ (1944). Willoughby, on the other hand, would encounter the hare himself in his next cartoon, ‘The Heckling Hare’, and another variation on this character type in ‘The Crackpot Quail’ (both 1941). The fox is a clear variation on the wise guy type Avery introduced with Bugs Bunny in ‘ A Wild Hare‘ four months earlier, without adding anything new, and he was never seen again. Worse, the fox makes him fall for the same gag twice, in an extraordinarily long gag, which Avery plays out full. In this cartoon he’s a rather fat hunting dog too dumb to recognize a fox when he sees one. ‘Of Fox and Hounds’ introduces Willoughby, that dumb dog that was the first of many cartoon parodies on Lon Chaney jr.’s portrayal of Lennie Small in the movie ‘Of Mice and Men’ (1939). ![]()
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