| Foxy | |
|---|---|
| Merrie Melodies character | |
 Foxy on the Merrie Melodies title card in 1931 | |
| First appearance | Lady, Play Your Mandolin! (1931) |
| Last appearance | Two-Tone Town (1992) |
| Created by | Rudolf Ising |
| Voiced by | Johnny Murray (1931)[1] Rob Paulsen (1992) |
| In-universe information | |
| Species | Fox |
| Gender | Male |
Foxy is ananimatedcartoon character featured in the first three animatedshorts in theMerrie Melodies series, all distributed byWarner Bros. in 1931.[2] He was the creation of animatorRudolf Ising, who had worked forWalt Disney in the 1920s. The character is notable for his resemblance toMickey Mouse, a similar character created by Disney in 1928.
In 1925, Hugh Harman drew images of mice on a portrait ofWalt Disney, a reminder of Disney's fondness for the rodents living at theLaugh-O-Gram Studio inKansas City, Missouri. Disney andUb Iwerks would then use it as inspiration for their creatingMickey Mouse, the character who eventually established Disney as a major figure in Hollywood, also sparking a wave of "clones" at competing studios.[3] Comics historianDon Markstein, callingWarner Bros. animatorRudolf Ising's subsequent Foxy "perhaps the leading Mickey Mouse imitator", observed that:
"Never in animation, before or since, has a character looked more like Mickey Mouse. Smooth out the tiny points that supposedly turned his big, round ears into fox ears, shave the bushiness off of his tail, and they were ringers. Do the same to his girlfriend (unnamed at the time), and she looked exactly likeMinnie [Mouse]. They also acted like Mickey and Minnie did at the time. Despite this lack of originality, Foxy was the first character to originate at Warner (as opposed to being brought in from outside, likeBosko)".[4]
Foxy was the star of the firstMerrie Melodies cartoons Ising directed forproducerLeon Schlesinger (Ising had already helped his partner Hugh Harman create another series, titledLooney Tunes, with the characterBosko). Foxy's first appearance on screen was in August 1931 inLady, Play Your Mandolin![5] This short set in theOld West 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 atrolley.[5] The plot bears some similarities toTrolley Troubles, a 1927Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon to which Harman and Ising contributed.[citation needed] This also marks the first time Foxy's name was mentioned.
On October 3, 1931, a third short,One More Time, was released.[5] This musicalcops-'n'-robbers cartoon would become Foxy's final appearance in the Merrie Melodies series and the character was believed by many to bekilled off in the final scene, as acrow shoots Foxy in the back after he successfully captures a street gang.
Foxy's film career ended abruptly with a phone call by Walt Disney, who asked Ising not to use a character so visually similar to Mickey Mouse.[citation needed] He was then replaced byPiggy, who appeared in the following twoMerrie Melodies cartoons.
At the end of each short, Foxy peeks out from behind abass drum that reads "A MERRIE MELODY", walks and says to the viewer, "So long, folks!", while raising his arm, which would become the sign-off forMerrie Melodies cartoons until the end of 1934.
Upon leaving Warner Bros. two years later, Ising took the rights to Foxy and other characters he and/or Harman conceived (including Piggy andGoopy Geer). Though Harman-Ising eventually found another distributor inMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer, none of their WB-era characters besides Bosko appeared in any more theatrical cartoons. All three Foxy shorts eventually went into thepublic domain.[6]
Foxy appeared along with his girlfriend (here christened "Roxy") and fellow forgotten Warner Bros. progenitorGoopy Geer in "Two-Tone Town", an episode of theanimated seriesTiny Toon Adventures aired on September 28, 1992. The foxes were voiced byRob Paulsen andDesirée Goyette respectively and were redesigned for the episode. Foxy's appearance in this episode is similar to his theatrical version, except that the tear-drop ears are replaced by pointy ones to make him appear more fox-like and less Mickey-like. Also, his shoes lackspats. The three live in a world of black-and-white which is visited by the series' stars,Babs Bunny andBuster Bunny. Buster and Babs, feeling sorry for the old timers left in oblivion, decided to help bring Foxy, Roxy and Goopy alongside Big Bee (based on the bee fromYou're Too Careless With Your Kisses!)[citation needed] back to the limelight. The efforts of the two rabbits work out but results in Buster and Babs being featured in guest appearances while the characters they helped become the new TV sensations.
In May 2025, Roxy was added into the mobile game Looney Tunes World of Mayhem, while Foxy was added later that month. Both characters were added during the game's "Western Takeover" event, and thus use their appearances from "Lady, Play Your Mandolin!".[7]
