At the start of this short, a fox is depicted in very effective, sinister silhuoette. He sneaks up on an unspecting farmouse - then rushes inside, snatches the radio away from the farmer, takes it back to the woods and smashes it to pieces with an axe.
A radio rather than the obligatory chicken. Why?
The rest of the cartoon is a flashback. The fox is scavenging outside the hut when he overhears a radio ad for silver fox fur. "This season, every discriminating woman will want a fox around her neck" or somesuch (NB, being disgusted by the fur trade, this presented a few qualms for me). In any case, Fox is smitten with the idea of being adored by a beautiful woman, paints himself silver and does his best to eventually be captured by the silver fox fur farm - then when he realises the truth, makes his getaway.
This toon fails somewhat in a couple of areas, mainly in that the fox isn't that interesting a character, and that, frankly, there aren't enough gags in the middle section. On the other hand it works well in some respects. As an example of a fairly early Chuck Jones cartoon (he had been a director for about 3 years) the beginning is particularly impressive, with the dramatic depiction of the apparently malicious fox quickly turning to comedy in a mind-game that hinted at Jones' latent talent. I feel this toon also shows a bit of a Tex Avery influence (though not in that particular sequence. More in some of the later gags).
Also, the idea of the toon being mostly a flashback was interesting and unusual, though I suppose the writer (whoever he was) deserves more credit for that.
Good but not great, and an interesting look at Chuck Jones before he had 'found his voice'.
BTW if anyone can explain the last 3 or 4 seconds of this film to me, I'm all eyes.
/ 2 reviews)
Reviews for Fox Pop
