Release Date:

February 23, 1952

Main Character(s):

Bugs Bunny

Summary:

Irritated at fox hunters and their enormous pack of dogs for stampeding over his hole, Bugs Bunny decides to confuse the dogs by disguising as a fox, spending most of the cartoon heckling a large dopey dog determined to cut the fox’s tail off.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1193 and was released as a Merrie Melodie.

The cartoon is a reworking of “Of Fox and Hounds” from 12 years earlier. The start of the cartoon is also reused footage from that cartoon with the new animation beginning with the first shot of the massive pack of dogs. One thing that is also similar between the two is that the dopey dog in that cartoon, Willoughby, was based off of Lennie from “Of Mice and Men”. This is also the case with the dopey dog in this cartoon. The Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons even refers to him as “Lennie”.

This is the third usage of the log gag from “All This and Rabbit Stew”. The second usage was in “The Big Snooze”. It would be used for a fourth and final time in Freleng’s “Person to Bunny” (1960).

Oddly, none of the human fox hunters never appear again after they and their horses stampede over Bugs’ hole.

It can be argued that this is a cartoon where Bugs initiates the mayhem, instead of being provoked by it, since the dogs and fox hunters didn’t do anything other than stampede over his hole.

While not credited, this is the last Warner cartoon to have animation by John Carey.

The line, “I’ve seen better heads on a glass of root beer” was reused in McKimson’s “The Honey Mousers” (1956), albeit with the word “root” removed.

This is one of the few Bugs Bunny cartoons to not use the words “Bugs”, “hare”, “rabbit”, “doc”, or “bunny” in the title.

If taken out of context, this is one of the more daring titles Warner Bros. has come up with, since “foxy” can be a sexual term (same could be said about “The Foxy Duckling”). Another instance of a rather bold title is “Stork Naked” (1955), also directed by Freleng, which doesn’t involve any form of nudity, but is still a title I’m very surprised they got away with (I will talk more about that one when we get to it).

Favorite Scene:

Bugs misleads the dopey dog into following train tracks and tells him that if that was the type of tracks he was following, he must’ve been trying to catch a train. Figuring this makes sense, the dopey dog runs into the tunnel and comes out with a lump on his head and hanging onto the smoke box of the train speeding out of the tunnel, bragging that he caught a train all by himself.

What Happens in This One:

At dawn, the lead fox hunter blows his bugle for the dogs to come out, which they do as the fox hunters and their horses start off (reused footage from “Of Fox and Hounds”) before they became one big pack of excited, barking dogs. The dopey dog comes out shortly and just as excited, “Oh, boy! Oh, boy! A fox hunt! We’re going to catch a fox, and cut his tail off!” (animated by Arthur Davis)

Well into the day, Bugs appears out of his hole and ducks down in fright upon seeing the pack of dogs running towards him. He rises back up and is annoyed, “Why, the nerve of them guys!” before having to duck back down again when the hunters and their horses suddenly come through (animated by Virgil Ross). Bugs climbs out of his hole, ranting, “Where do they get that stuff? Fox hunters. Ha! Some sport”. The dopey dog suddenly appears near him and asks while panting, “Say. Say, uh, pardon me, but di-did you see the fox hunters, huh? Which way did they go? Which way did they go?” Bugs informs him while pointing with this thumb towards the distance, “Eh, um, they went that-a-way”. The dopey dog excitedly pushes Bugs out of the way, “Duh, out of my way, rabbit! I’m going to catch a fox and cut this tail off!” (animated by Manuel Perez)

“Oh, yeah?”, Bugs asks to himself, “That’s what HE thinks!” before laughing, “And I thought this was gonna be a dull day” as he puts on a fox costume. “It’s a good thing I saved my last year’s Halloween costume!” He then whistles to get the dog packs’ attention as he gets them to chase after him (animated by Perez). Bugs runs behind a tree, which the pack of dogs fails to notice as they go right past it. After they do, Bugs comes out from behind the tree watching them while munching a carrot, “That ought to keep those canines busy a while!” The dopey dog stops behind him and sees the fox head of the costume facing him, “Oh, uh, pardon me, but, uh, did you see a f-f-”. When Bugs turns around to face him, the dopey dog assumes he wasn’t the “fox” he was just talking to: “Now where did my little friend go? I-I was just talking to him!” Bugs tells us, “This ya gotta see to believe!” Bugs turns his head back around to where the fox head is facing the dopey dog, who is glad: “Oh, there you are! Uh, duh uh, did you see, uh, which way the dogs went?” Briefly shrugging in the middle of the dopey dog talking, Bugs points him forward: “Dogs? Oh yeah, they went that-a-way!” The dopey dog thanks him and runs off (animated by Ross).

Bugs whistles to get the dopey dog’s attention and has him run back towards him. Holding his fox head, Bugs asks the dopey dog, “Are you sure you know a fox when ya see one?” The dopey dog ecstatically replies, “Duh, boy, oh, boy! Do I know a fox!? Do I know a fox!? Duh, he’s got a little red coat like you got! And he’s got, uh, he’s got pointy ears like you got!” Bugs puts the fox head back on his head and asks the next question for him, “And a bushy tail like I got?” The dopey dog confirms, “Yeah, yeah, that’s a fox alright. That’s a fox. Uh, pardon me, but I gotta go”, and he runs off. Bugs confides to us, “He’ll catch on any minute now” (animated by Davis).

The dopey dog suddenly makes a realization and stops running. “Hey, ya know something? That was the fox all the time!” (animated by Davis) He runs back towards Bugs, who runs into a hollow tree. The dopey dog starts bragging to the dog pack in the distance that he caught the fox, only for Bugs to step out of the tree, without his fox costume on: “What’s up, doc?” Believing he’s lost the fox, the dopey dog walks away, sniffing for the fox. Bugs laughs, “I’ve seen better heads on a glass of root beer!” (animated by Ken Champin)

Back in his fox costume, Bugs uses a stamp pad to stamp phony fox tracks, which the dopey dog follows. The stamped out fox tracks soon lead to train tracks which the dopey dog also follows. Seeing Bugs against the tunnel wall, the dopey dog grabs him and threatens, “Duh, now I got ya, ya little old fox! I’m gonna cut your tail off!” Bugs slaps the dopey dog to make him let go, “Just a minute there, bub! Just what type of tracks was you followin’?” The dopey dog answers, “Uh, duh, train tracks!” Bugs tells him, “Now then, if you’re following TRAIN tracks, you must be trying to catch a train, right?” The dopey dog believes that makes good sense, so Bugs leads him to go into the tunnel if it was a train he was after. The dopey dog excitedly runs in there, with the express train speeding out seconds later. Hanging on to the engine’s smoke box with a lump on his head, the dopey dog excitedly announces, “I done a good thing! I caught a train! All by myself, I caught a train I did!” (animated by Champin)

At this moment, the enormous pack of dogs comes back and chase Bugs into the distance (animated by Champin). Out of breath, Bugs decides, “Those dogs are givin’ me a bad time!”, so he decides to throw himself off the trail by running through a brook to lose his scent, swinging through the trees and landing on a barn. “Then I slide down the drainpipe and I’m-”. Once he lands, he finds all of the dogs confronting him angrily: “-a dead duck”. After they all snarl, Bugs removes his costume head, “Look, fellas, I’m not a fox! I’m a rabbit!” In order for them to have an excuse to chase Bugs, one of the dogs decides, “Okay, boys! Now we’re after rabbit!” (animated by John Carey)

Leaping out of his fox costume in fright (animated by Carey), Bugs leads the dogs through a hollow log where every time they enter, Bugs pushes the log the other way so the dogs end up exiting in mid-air. Eventually, they all fall (animated by Davis). After Bugs watches them crash offscreen, he laughs, “Those dogs might be able to get a fox’s tail, but they’d never get a RABBIT’S tail!” As he’s saying this, he is oblivious to the dopey dog sneaking up behind him with a pair of scissors, only to feel and hear a snip. He looks behind him in time to see that the dopey dog has successfully accomplished his goal and is running off with his tail. Unfazed, Bugs decides, “Well, okay. Just call me ‘Stubby’!” (animated by Ross)

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

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