Columbia cartoons
Tashlin directed the first film in the series, the 1941 Color Rhapsody short The Fox and the Grapes, based on the Aesop fable of that name. Warner Bros. animation director Chuck Jones later acknowledged this short, which features a series of blackout gags as the Fox repeatedly tries and fails to obtain a bunch of grapes in the possession of the Crow, as one of the inspirations for his popular Road Runner cartoons. [4]
Although Tashlin directed no more films in the series (despite playing a supervisory role on the following two shorts, Woodman, Spare That Tree and Toll Bridge Troubles, prior to his departure), Screen Gems continued producing Fox and the Crow shorts, many of them directed by Bob Wickersham, until the studio closed in 1946. [5] Screen Gems had acquired enough of a backlog of completed films that the "Fox and Crow" series continued through 1949.
By this time, Columbia had signed a distribution deal with a new animation studio, United Productions of America (UPA), to produce three "Fox and the Crow" shorts, Robin Hoodlum (1948), The Magic Fluke (1949), and Punchy De Leon (1950). All three UPA Fox and the Crow cartoons were directed by John Hubley. The first two each received an Academy Award nomination for Animated Short Subject.
An unrelated, six-minute, silent animated short titled The Fox and the Crow, produced by Fables Studio, was released in 1921. [6]
List of shorts
Screen Gems
In 1943, due to the series success, Columbia gave the Fox and the Crow their own series separate from the Color Rhapsodies; it lasted until 1946. All cartoons from Room and bored (1943) to Mysto-fox (1946) belong to this series.
| Film | Direction | Original release date | Series |
|---|
| The Fox and the Grapes | Frank Tashlin | December 5, 1941 | Color Rhapsody |
| Woodman, Spare That Tree | Bob Wickersham | July 2, 1942 | Color Rhapsody |
| Toll Bridge Troubles | November 27, 1942 | Color Rhapsody |
| Slay It With Flowers | January 8, 1943 | Color Rhapsody |
| Plenty Below Zero | May 14, 1943 | Color Rhapsody |
| Tree for Two | June 21, 1943 | Color Rhapsody |
| A-Hunting We Won't Go | August 23, 1943 | Color Rhapsody |
| Room and Bored | September 30, 1943 | Fox and Crow |
| Way Down Yonder in the Corn | November 25, 1943 | Fox and Crow |
| The Dream Kids | January 5, 1944 | Fox and Crow |
| Mr. Moocher | September 8, 1944 | Fox and Crow |
| Be Patient, Patient | October 27, 1944 | Fox and Crow |
| The Egg-Yegg | December 8, 1944 | Fox and Crow |
| Ku-Ku Nuts | March 30, 1945 | Fox and Crow |
| Treasure Jest | Howard Swift | August 30, 1945 | Fox and Crow |
| Phoney Baloney | Bob Wickersham | September 13, 1945 | Fox and Crow |
| Foxy Flatfoots | April 11, 1946 | Fox and Crow |
| Unsure Runts | Howard Swift | May 16, 1946 | Fox and Crow |
| Mysto-Fox | Bob Wickersham | August 29, 1946 | Fox and Crow |
| Tooth or Consequences | Howard Swift | June 5, 1947 | Phantasy |
| Grape Nutty | Alex Lovy | April 14, 1949 | Color Rhapsody |
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