What makes a toon fox special enough to get into the Toon Fox Hall of Fame?
Besides being a fox, of course, He has to be... well... foxy! By that I mean, exhibit the traits and stereotypical aspects that humans have placed on foxes: slyness, cunning and trickery. More important, however, these things need to fit the character. A character can be sly and crafty and not be a fox. Also, a toon can be a fox yet do nothing at all to distinguish himself as a fox. He may as well be a human in a fox suit. Lastly, he needs to be funny! Part of being a toon is spreading laughter. A toon fox who acts like a fox, one that acts so true to his species that you cannot imagine him being anything but a fox, and a toon that is a pleasure to watch, hopefully making you at least smile, is a toon worthy of being listed in the Toon Fox Hall of Fame.
These sly fellows stick out in my mind as excellent representations of toon foxdom. These foxes are sly, crafty, and just plain neat to watch, making me proud to be a toon fox. Sadly, most of these foxes only starred in one cartoon, so let them be remembered here by fellow toon foxes everywhere as masters of their cartoon domain!!
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| Easy Peckins Fox | Reginald Fox |
| Easy Peckins, Warner Bros., 1953 | Out-Foxed, MGM, 1940s |
| This guy is my favorite fellow WB toon fox. With his soprano voice, skiddish movement, and slobbering poultry fixation, he is the first fox that ever made me laugh. In his cartoon he is fixated on catching a chicken or two for dinner. The only problem: A large rooster thwarts his every attempt, eventually turning the fox's upper body fur into a coat for his girl hen. "You shouldn't 'a' done it, George." echoed the fox. Darn right. Poor Pecky! | This little fellow spouts a smug English accent, wears a monicle, and is perpetually locked in tea time. He starred with Droopy and a pile of other hounds. The cartoon's plot revolves around the hounds trying to catch the fox. The hounds, of course, were no match for this guy who constantly made their plans backfire, while never spilling his tea. Quite litterally, a fox to a tea. |
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| Sly Fox | Foxey Loxey |
| Fox Terror, Warner Bros., 1957 | Chicken Little, Disney, 1943 |
| Another sneaky fellow intent on capturing some chickens for dinner. In the cartoon he attempts to bypass the barnyard security system (Barnyard Dog) by having Foghorn Leghorn annoy and distract the dog. The fox never does get to the chickens as a little black rooster keeps sounding the bell on him. At the end Foghorn and the dog get wise to the fox and run him out of the yard. | Trapped in the plot of the classic childrens story, this fellow relies on his potent craftyness (and a book on psychology) to win himself a chicken feast. Perhaps his methods are less his own and more dictated by the story itself, but he gets even in the end with a satisfying and well-deserved plot twist. |
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| The pack of foxes |
| The Foxbusters |
| This bunch of foxes are the best darn toony foxes I've ever seen in animation! These brightly colored vulpines are a wonderful mix of foxy-ness and toony-ness, and the series as a whole is actually rather funny, with good humor and funny jabes. Todd is my favorite of the bunch. He's not all there in the head; he's just a fox who is trying to be a nice guy. This series is well worth a watch if you are a toon fox fan. |
Mabye not the slyest, craftiest, or best foxes in the world, I think these toons still contributed positivly to the world of toon foxes:
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| Slyly The Fox | nameless fox |
| Rudolph, The Movie, GoodNews Home Video, 1998 | What Makes Daffy Duck?, Warner Bros., 1948 |
| This guy got in here on his cuteness. Too bad he ended up starring in a children's musical holiday cartoon full of emotional exploration and personal growth lessons and junk like that. Slyly's spunk and devilishness made up for his small stature. But he did have kind of a mean streak in him and preferred fighting or lying to get his way. | This lankey fellow gave Elmer Fudd some competition in catching Daffy Duck. Daffy finally had a worthly adversary! However, this fox didn't do anything particularly foxy in this cartoon, and Daffy was the one to get rid of both by declaring fox season and sending Elmer off after the fox. |
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| J. Worthington Foulfellow (a.k.a. Honest John) | Rusty and the rest of the foxes |
| Pinocchio, Disney, 1940 | Buttons & Rusty a.k.a. The Chucklewood Critters, Late 90's |
| Winner of the "Fox to wear the most clothes" award, we have a fox who is on the virge of joining the countless Disney characters who forgot they are animals and act like humans, ultimatly loosing all animalistic traites. Foulfellow's desires to make a fast buck lead him to con Pinocchio twice, although as John Grant stated: "Foulfellow has a hoped-for plausability that would not deceive the average purchaser of a second-hand car." And, I think this adds some likeableness in Foulfellow. He is not a vicious character, just a simple con-fox who enjoys his beer and can be frightened like anyone else. | Young and spunky Buttons and Rusty go on adventure after adventure. This series contains several oddities, like the foxes know they are foxes, but don't seem to mind being friends with rabbits and mice. All of the characters are cute and fun to watch, but there is rarely a moment where Rusty exhibits any action which is truly "foxy." And many times he and Buttons prefer to mimmick or embrace human practices (like Thanksgiving). He does figure out things quick though, and at one point Buttons does tell Rusty, "Well, you're suppose to be the crafty one. Think of something!" |
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Other Foxes... There are many other cartoons I have watched that star a fox but did not make it to this page. Here's a list of most of them (there are a few more with fox cameos, but I can't remember the titles):
Warner Brothers:
Other Studios: |
...Foxes that didn't make it...I suspect some of you are probably looking for two fellow foxes in here. They are perhaps the most popular Disney foxes: Robin Hood from Disney's Robin Hood, and Todd from Disney's The Fox and The Hound. No, they did not make it into the Toon Fox Hall of Fame, and I shall tell you why.
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In closing I would like to add that this is by no means ALL of the foxes who are worthy enough to be in the Toon Fox Hall of Fame. Others are no doubt out there. This hall of fame consists only of those toon foxes who I have had the pleasure to witness.
Although the fox who played Robin Hood did an excellent job at it and is
truely a handsome fellow, he exibited no vulpine-specific trates whatsoever.
He is simply a toon who happens to be a fox. This is an unfortunate reality
that exists with most anthropomorphisized Disney characters, such as Scrooge
McDuck and Mickey Mouse. These characters act so human that any animaliatic
traites their species may have naturally disolve. When was the last time you
saw Scrooge McDuck do anything that distinguished himself as being a duck?
On the other hand, Todd is indeed a fox, but on a scale of anthropomorphosis
so low as to prohibit him from being anything else. So of course all he can do
is be foxy. He doesn't have to think about, it just comes naturally to him, as
opposed to the hall of famers above who, being anthropomorphic, still act like
foxes.