My cold dead heart will always be warmed by the antics of the Fox and the Crow, the character team the Columbia cartoon studio accidentally got right. About half of them are forgettable, but ones like Mysto Fox (unfortunately I’ve only ever seen B/W prints of this one circulating; I’m sure a splicey Kodachrome or Tech print is out there in some OCD case’s basement) are in the other half that are either just good or great. Frank Graham’s voice work plays a huge part in these characters’ appeal, and they are probably the most under-appreciated performances in cartoon history. Columbia cartoons can be called lots of things, but derivative isn’t one of them. How many other cartoons ended like this?
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And yeah, that totally kicked Presto‘s derivative ass.
“And yeah, that totally kicked Presto’s derivative ass.”
Amen to both that, and the fact that Fox & Crow kick major arse. The fox’s voice is beautifully hilarious.
“Mysto Fox” is the one F&C short I hadn’t seen. Thanks for sharing, those two always crack me up.
The characters also are a lot better defined here than they are in “The Magic Fluke”, where the UPA crew kind of keeps the old Crow-harassing-Fox dynamic … but then again, they don’t.
Frank Graham was definitely one of the most under-appreciated voice actors during the Golden Age of theatrical animation. While I enjoyed Mel Blanc’s voice work in “The Fox & The Grapes”, it was Graham who gave these two characters their true vocal identities. It is criminal that he was never given screen credit for his contribution to this series!
I would love to see this one in Technicolor someday before I draw my last breath!
The staging and the pacing and the music are all fantastic. Everything really accelerates all the way to the end! Thanks a lot for sharing this cartoon!
Thanks for sharing this. Haven’t seen this particular Fox and Crow entry yet. I think it won’t be amongst my favourites, but it’s still a very good cartoon. If nothing else, the two characters are always funny, and I truly like Graham’s voice.
My biggest favourite in the series must be “Woodman Spare That Tree”. It’s just too hysterical.
“And yeah, that totally kicked Presto’s derivative ass.”
Couldn’t resist, could you?
It just goes to show how if only they’d gotten the encouragement and support they needed from the corporate headquarters, Columbia animations “coulda been a contender” with this series.
This cartoon features a very inside joke regarding Mel Blanc. Whenever the crow finishes his “imitation” he has to spit out the carrot- just like Mel had to whenever he recorded Bugs’ voice, because he was allergic to carrots!
This was really good! Nice to see the fox win!