The Fox and the Crow are a pair of

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...

cartoon character In fiction, a character (or speaker, in poetry) is a person or other being in a narrative (such as a novel, play, radio or television series, music, film, or video game). The character may be entirely fictional or based on a real-life person, i ...

s created by

Frank Tashlin Frank Tashlin (born Francis Fredrick von Taschlein, February 19, 1913 – May 5, 1972), also known as Tish Tash and Frank Tash, was an American animator, cartoonist, children's writer, illustrator, screenwriter, and film director. He was best kn ...

for the

Screen Gems Screen Gems is an American brand name used by Sony Pictures' Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group, a subsidiary of Japanese multinational conglomerate, Sony Group Corporation. It has served several different purposes for its parent ...

studio. The characters, the refined but gullible Fauntleroy Fox and the streetwise Crawford Crow, appeared in a series of animated short subjects released by Screen Gems through its parent company,

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

Columbia cartoons

Tashlin directed the first film in the series, the 1941

Color Rhapsody ''Color Rhapsody'' is a series of usually one-shot animated cartoon shorts produced by Charles Mintz's studio Screen Gems for Columbia Pictures. They were launched in 1934, following the phenomenal success of Walt Disney's Technicolor ''Silly Symp ...

short ''The Fox and the Grapes'', based on the

Aesop Aesop ( or ; , ; c. 620–564 BCE) was a Greek fabulist and storyteller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as ''Aesop's Fables''. Although his existence remains unclear and no writings by him survive, numerous tales cre ...

fable of that name.

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

animation director

Chuck Jones Charles Martin Jones (September 21, 1912 – February 22, 2002) was an American animator, director, and painter, best known for his work with Warner Bros. Cartoons on the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of shorts. He wrote, produ ...

later acknowledged this short, which features a series of

blackout gag A blackout gag is a kind of joke in broad, rapid-fire slapstick comedy. The term is derived from burlesque and vaudeville, when the lights were quickly turned off after the punchline of a joke to accentuate it and/or allow for audience laughter. ...

s 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. Although Tashlin directed no more films in the series, Screen Gems continued producing ''Fox and the Crow'' shorts, many of them directed by Bob Wickersham, until the studio closed in 1946. 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 United Productions of America, better known as UPA, was an American animation studio active from the 1940s through the 1970s. Beginning with industrial and World War II training films, UPA eventually produced theatrical shorts for Columbia Picture ...

(UPA), to produce three "Fox and the Crow" shorts, ''Robin Hoodlum'' (1948), ''The Magic Fluke'' (1949), and ''Punchy DeLeon'' (1950). All three UPA ''Fox and the Crow'' cartoons were directed by

John Hubley John Kirkham Hubley (May 21, 1914 – February 21, 1977) was an American animation director, art director, producer and writer known for his work with the United Productions of America , United Productions of America (UPA) and his own independent ...

. The first two each received an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

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.

List of shorts

Screen Gems

UPA

In other media

Comic books

The Fox and the Crow starred in several

talking animal A talking animal or speaking animal is any non-human animal that can produce sounds or gestures resembling those of a human language. Several species or groups of animals have developed forms of communication which superficially resemble verbal ...

comic books A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

published by

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

, from the 1940s well into the 1960s. They starred with other characters in DC's Columbia-licensed talking-animal

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically categ ...

''Real Screen Comics'' (first issue titled ''Real Screen Funnies'') beginning in 1945, then did likewise when DC converted the

superhero A superhero or superheroine is a stock character that typically possesses ''superpowers'', abilities beyond those of ordinary people, and fits the role of the hero, typically using his or her powers to help the world become a better place, ...

title ''Comic Cavalcade'' to a talking-animal series in 1948. The duo received its own title, ''The Fox and the Crow'', which ran 108 issues (Jan. 1952 - March 1968). Until the 1954 demise of ''Comic Cavalcade'', Fox and Crow were cover-featured on three DC titles. They continued on the cover of ''Real Screen Comics'' through its title change to ''TV Screen Cartoons'' from #129-138 (Aug. 1959 - Feb. 1961), the final issue. ''The Fox and the Crow'' itself was renamed ''

Stanley and His Monster Stanley and His Monster was an American comic-book humor feature and later series from DC Comics, about a boy who has a monster as his companion instead of a dog. Created by writer Arnold Drake and artist Win Mortimer, Winslow Mortimer as a backu ...

'' beginning with #109 (May 1968), after the back-up feature, begun in #95 (Jan. 1966), that had taken over in popularity. For the last ten years of its existence, ''The Fox and the Crow'' was written by Cecil Beard, assisted by his wife, Alpine Harper. The illustrator was Jim Davis (b. 1915), although it was generally unsigned.

Feature films

Fauntleroy Fox and Crawford Crow were going to have a cameo in ''

Who Framed Roger Rabbit ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' is a 1988 American live-action/animated comedy mystery film directed by Robert Zemeckis, produced by Frank Marshall and Robert Watts, and loosely adapted by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman from Gary K. Wolf's 1 ...

'', but were later dropped for unknown reasons.

Footnotes

External links

* *
The Columbia Crow's Nest via The Wayback Machine

at

Don Markstein's Toonopedia Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...

Archived
from the original on July 30, 2016. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fox And The Crow, The 1951 comics debuts Fox and the Crow DC Comics titles Fox and the Crow Fox and the Crow Animated duos Comics by Arnold Drake Film characters introduced in 1941 Film series introduced in 1941 Male characters in animation Animated films about foxes Fictional anthropomorphic characters Works based on fables Short films directed by Frank Tashlin Films directed by John Hubley Screen Gems film series