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Foxy (cartoon character)
Encyclopedia
Foxy is an animated
cartoon
character
featured in three 1931
animated shorts
in the Merrie Melodies
series distributed by Warner Bros.
He was the creation of animator Rudolf Ising
, who had worked for Walt Disney
in the 1920s.
would then use it as the basis for their creation of Mickey Mouse
, the character who eventually became Disney's most popular. Knowing that Disney and Iwerks had capitalize on their little idea, Harman and Ising figured it was only fair that they should conceive a character based on a similar mold, thus leading to the birth of Foxy.
for producer
Leon Schlesinger
. (Ising had already helped his partner Hugh Harman create another series, titled Looney Tunes
, with the character Bosko
.) Foxy's first appearance on screen was on August 1931 in "Lady, Play Your Mandolin!
". This old-western themed short features Foxy developing affection for the tavern singer who would become his girlfriend.
Foxy and his then-nameless girlfriend would appear in another cartoon that same year: "Smile, Darn Ya, Smile!
" (September 5, 1931), a musical set on a trolley
. The plot bares some similarities to Trolley Troubles
, a 1928 Oswald Rabbit cartoon which Harman and Ising contributed on. This also marks the first time Foxy's name was mentioned
Nearly a month later, a third short called "One More Time
" (October 3, 1931) was released. This musical cops-'n'-robbers
themed cartoon would become Foxy's final appearance in the Merrie Melodies series.
At the end of each short, Foxy comes out from behind a bass drum
and says to the viewers "So long, folks!" This closing act would later be assumed by Porky Pig but with a different line. Although all three shorts use sound, the voice actors aren't credited and were never revealed.
Upon leaving Warner Bros. two years later, Ising took and kept with him the rights to Foxy and two other characters he conceived. Though Ising got a job at another studio, none of the characters he recently featured made anymore theatrical appearances. All three Foxy shorts would end up in the public domain after several years.
aired on September 28, 1992. The three live in a world of black-and-white which is visited by the series' stars, Babs Bunny and Buster Bunny. Feeling sorry for the old timers left in oblivion, Babs and Buster decided to help bring Foxy, Roxy and Goopy back to the limelight. The efforts of the two rabbits worked out but doing so resulted in an exchanged of scenarios: Buster and Babs end up being featured in an old theather while the three characters they helped became the new TV sensation.
The series animators significantly redesigned the foxes for this episode, making them less like their original versions. These changes are:
In the Tiny Toons episode, Foxy was voiced by Rob Paulsen
and Roxy was voiced by B.J. Ward.
". In the episode "The Good old Days", Timmy, his grandpa, Pappy, Cosmo and Wanda enter the world of old cartoons. Cosmo and Wanda disguise themselves as foxes, which may have been a spoof of Mickey and Minnie, but may have been a reference to Foxy and Roxy.
In "Animaniacs
", in the debut episode "De-Zantisated", when "Yakko, Wakko, and Dot
" first meet Hello Nurse, Yakko and Wakko have wolf faces that look similar to Foxy's face in his Tiny Toons guest appearance.
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
cartoon
Cartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
character
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
featured in three 1931
1931 in film
-Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:*Best Picture: Cimarron - MGM*Best Actor: Lionel Barrymore - A Free Soul*Best Actor: Wallace Beery - The Champ*Best Actor: Fredric March - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde...
animated shorts
Short subject
A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...
in the Merrie Melodies
Merrie Melodies
Merrie Melodies is the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures between 1931 and 1969.Originally produced by Harman-Ising Pictures, Merrie Melodies were produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions from 1933 to 1944. Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros. in 1944,...
series distributed by Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
He was the creation of animator Rudolf Ising
Harman and Ising
Hugh Harman and Rudolf "Rudy" Ising were an American animation team best known for founding the Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animation studios...
, who had worked for Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
in the 1920s.
Concept and creation
In 1925, Hugh Harman drew images of mice on a portrait of Walt Disney. Disney and Ub IwerksUb Iwerks
Ub Iwerks, A.S.C. was a two-time Academy Award winning American animator, cartoonist, character designer, inventor, creator of Mickey Mouse, and special effects technician, who was famous for his work for Walt Disney....
would then use it as the basis for their creation of Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at The Walt Disney Studio. Mickey is an anthropomorphic black mouse and typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves...
, the character who eventually became Disney's most popular. Knowing that Disney and Iwerks had capitalize on their little idea, Harman and Ising figured it was only fair that they should conceive a character based on a similar mold, thus leading to the birth of Foxy.
There's more to than meets the eye
Though Foxy bears a strong resemblance with his Disney counterpart, he and Mickey still have a considerable number of differences. Foxy's persona is composed of tear-drop ears, a baritone voice, shoes with a more complex design, a bushy tail, and a more enthusiastic character. Mickey has circle ears, a falsetto voice (he was originally baritone), plain shoes, a much thinner tail, and is mild-mannered.Merrie Melodies
Foxy was the star of the first Merrie Melodies cartoons Ising directedFilm director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
for producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
Leon Schlesinger
Leon Schlesinger
Leon Schlesinger was an American film producer, most noted for founding Leon Schlesinger Productions, which later became the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio, during the golden age of Hollywood animation.-Early life and career:...
. (Ising had already helped his partner Hugh Harman create another series, titled Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
, with the character Bosko
Bosko
Bosko is an animated cartoon character created by animators Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising. Bosko is the first recurring character in Leon Schlesinger's cartoon series, and is the star of over three dozen Looney Tunes shorts released by Warner Bros...
.) Foxy's first appearance on screen was on August 1931 in "Lady, Play Your Mandolin!
Lady, Play Your Mandolin!
Lady, Play Your Mandolin! was the first Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon, directed by Rudolf Ising of Harman and Ising. It was originally released in August 1931.-Overview:...
". This old-western themed short features Foxy developing affection for the tavern singer who would become his girlfriend.
Foxy and his then-nameless girlfriend would appear in another cartoon that same year: "Smile, Darn Ya, Smile!
Smile, Darn Ya, Smile!
Smile, Darn Ya, Smile! is a Merrie Melodies cartoon short , and also the title of the song performed in the cartoon. This is one of the only three Merrie Melodies cartoons to star Foxy; the other two are Lady, Play Your Mandolin! and One More Time...
" (September 5, 1931), a musical set on a trolley
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
. The plot bares some similarities to Trolley Troubles
Trolley Troubles
Trolley Troubles is a 1927 animated short subject film, produced and directed by Walt Disney. The cartoon is noted for being the first appearance of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a character that Disney and Ub Iwerks created for Universal Pictures and Charles B. Mintz...
, a 1928 Oswald Rabbit cartoon which Harman and Ising contributed on. This also marks the first time Foxy's name was mentioned
Nearly a month later, a third short called "One More Time
One More Time (cartoon)
One More Time is a 1931 black-and-white Merrie Melodies cartoon short produced by Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising and animated by Friz Freleng and Paul J. Smith. It stars Foxy as a Prohibition-era cop dealing with various miscreants. This was the last Foxy cartoon...
" (October 3, 1931) was released. This musical cops-'n'-robbers
Cops and Robbers
-Film:*Cops and Robbers , a 1951 Italian film*Cops and Robbers , a 1973 film starring Cliff Gorman and Joseph Bologna-Music:...
themed cartoon would become Foxy's final appearance in the Merrie Melodies series.
At the end of each short, Foxy comes out from behind a bass drum
Bass drum
Bass drums are percussion instruments that can vary in size and are used in several musical genres. Three major types of bass drums can be distinguished. The type usually seen or heard in orchestral, ensemble or concert band music is the orchestral, or concert bass drum . It is the largest drum of...
and says to the viewers "So long, folks!" This closing act would later be assumed by Porky Pig but with a different line. Although all three shorts use sound, the voice actors aren't credited and were never revealed.
Upon leaving Warner Bros. two years later, Ising took and kept with him the rights to Foxy and two other characters he conceived. Though Ising got a job at another studio, none of the characters he recently featured made anymore theatrical appearances. All three Foxy shorts would end up in the public domain after several years.
Later appearances
After more than six decades of absence, Foxy would hit the screen one last time. He appeared along with his girlfriend (here christened "Roxy") and fellow forgotten Warner Bros. progenitor Goopy Geer in "Two-Tone Town", an episode of the animated series Tiny Toon AdventuresTiny Toon Adventures
Steven Spielberg Presents Tiny Toon Adventures, usually referred to as Tiny Toon Adventures or simply Tiny Toons, is an American animated television series created by Tom Ruegger and produced by Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation. It began production as a result of Warner Bros....
aired on September 28, 1992. The three live in a world of black-and-white which is visited by the series' stars, Babs Bunny and Buster Bunny. Feeling sorry for the old timers left in oblivion, Babs and Buster decided to help bring Foxy, Roxy and Goopy back to the limelight. The efforts of the two rabbits worked out but doing so resulted in an exchanged of scenarios: Buster and Babs end up being featured in an old theather while the three characters they helped became the new TV sensation.
The series animators significantly redesigned the foxes for this episode, making them less like their original versions. These changes are:
- Foxy wearing plain shoes rather than the sophisticatedly designed ones he had in the Merrie Melodies period.
- Roxy wearing pumps that fit instead of oversized.
- More fur protruding from their cheeks.
- Having triangular ears rather than teardrop shaped.
- Having slightly smaller eyes.
- White portions on the tip of their tails instead of all black.
In the Tiny Toons episode, Foxy was voiced by Rob Paulsen
Rob Paulsen
Robert Fredrick "Rob" Paulsen III , sometimes credited as Rob Paulson, is an American voice actor, best known as the voice behind Raphael from the 1987 cartoon of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Yakko Warner and Dr...
and Roxy was voiced by B.J. Ward.
Parodies and references
The only parody of Foxy and Roxy may have been in "The Fairly OddParentsThe Fairly OddParents
The Fairly OddParents is an American-Canadian animated television series created by Butch Hartman about the adventures of Timmy Turner, who is granted fairy godparents named Cosmo and Wanda. The series started out as cartoon segments that ran from September 4, 1998 to March 23, 2001 on Oh Yeah!...
". In the episode "The Good old Days", Timmy, his grandpa, Pappy, Cosmo and Wanda enter the world of old cartoons. Cosmo and Wanda disguise themselves as foxes, which may have been a spoof of Mickey and Minnie, but may have been a reference to Foxy and Roxy.
In "Animaniacs
Animaniacs
Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs, usually referred to as simply Animaniacs, is an American animated series, distributed by Warner Bros. Television and produced by Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation. The cartoon was the second animated series produced by the collaboration of Steven...
", in the debut episode "De-Zantisated", when "Yakko, Wakko, and Dot
Yakko, Wakko, and Dot
Yakko, Wakko and Dot Warner, also known as "The Warner Brothers " or "The Warner Siblings", or just simply "The Warners", are the three titular cartoon characters featured on the animated series Animaniacs. The trio of red-nosed Warner siblings were considered to be the stars of the ensemble of...
" first meet Hello Nurse, Yakko and Wakko have wolf faces that look similar to Foxy's face in his Tiny Toons guest appearance.
External links
- Foxy and Roxy profile at Bosko.ToonZone.net