About 12 frames later....
Willoughby isn't fazed, though. He points to the tree he just galloped into and says, very earnestly, “There’s one now.”
This scene is from Of Fox and Hounds (1940), where Tex Avery has decided to turn Bugs Bunny into a fox and Elmer Fudd into a dog. The TV station in my area that ran Warner Bros. cartoons when I was a kid may have broadcast this one more than any other. I like Willoughby (“I ain’t so dumb,” as he and director Tex Avery switch a running gag at the end). Friz Freleng made a Bugs vs fox hunting dog cartoon a few years later. It has its moments but I still like this one.
Dave Monahan and Rich Hogan were Avery’s story team at the time.
This would be the first among many of Avery's cartoons that would allude to Steinbeck's best-known novel. Somehow, Avery figured out that within the dynamic between the characters of Lenny and George lied potential comedy gold waiting to be mined.
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