I had never seen that before actually. it was a little odd but interesting. I always find it amusing how accepted and normal cigarettes were back then.

Yeah, they were pretty ignorant about emphysema and other diseases linked to smoking back in the late 40's. People still got sick and died from them back then, too -- but they didn't really know the reason why!

Still, the gag with the "one-crow band" somehow managing to light the fox's cigarette during his performance is one of the best gags in the whole cartoon.

Actually, this one had a decent Aesop to it: if you get your big break, don't forget the friends who stuck by your side to get you that far.

Had Mr. Fox done so, he wouldn't have ended up in that fix.

Magical Maestro, on the other paw, was insanely funny. It was a bunch of sight gags hung around a VERY loose plot, Tex Avery at his best. Politically incorrect as they are these days, the blackface routine (especially when the critic drops an ANVIL on him) and Hawaiian War Chant gags were priceless.

Did you notice that the fox was referred to as "Foxini" after he became a famous conductor, and that the opera-singing dog is called "Poochini" in the other short?

Tex may have made a funnier cartoon, but I daresay "Maestro" would never have been made at all if "Fluke" had not inspired Tex to make it.

Yes, I did notice the Foxini/Poochini connection. And I originally got introduced to Magical Maestro because my father (an opera singer himself) thought that it was hysterical.

But I really appreciate you posting a link to Fluke. Maestro's definitely based off it, but otherwise the two cartoons are apples and oranges; both have their strengths and both are awesome.

Hey great stuff. I hadn't seen this one before. The fox got what was coming to him. ;)

Yep, and I think he realized it at the very end, judging by his sheepish expression.

(Either that, or he was just punch drunk from all the knocks he'd taken.)

Glad you liked it!

I'm not sure I had seen this one, but I'm not the biggest fan of the really wacky gags in the other, so I'll agree that I like this one a bit more =D

I have an odd memory of your grandfather telling me about this cartoon, way back before I saw it myself. He described almost the entire plot, and when he got to the part about the Crow showing up near the end to finish the music, he started to get all emotional ... I think he imagined it was a more touching reunion that it actually was -- he didn't seem to recall that the Crow walked all over the Fox and whomped him with the drum.

When I finally saw the cartoon for the first time myself, I didn't have the heart to tell him that the ending was different from what he had told me. I'd rather let him enjoy his alternate ending.

I suppose it would have been more touching if the trampling hadn't ensued hahaha.