Now its pretty obvious we all here in the fur fandom know of Disney's 1973 Animated feature showing the legendary vigilante thief as a sexy red fox. Probably the majority of the fandom can attest to this foxy interpretation as the basis for their love of all things furry. Yes, its true that there are other animal kingdom versions of Robin Hood, Loony Tunes's Robin Hood Daffy for example, and Tom and Jerry's take on the hero, but Disneys take seems to be the one everyone loves the most. And why not? I mean a fox works perfect for him. Hes clever, sly, drop dead sexy, you name it. Yet What many people may not know is that Disney was NOT the first to foxy Robin Hood.

Back in the 40s Columbia Pictures decided to take a jab at the cartoon world to try and swing with the established crowd of Disney, Warner Brothers and fledgling Hanna Barbara, with their Screen Gems company as well as the later United Productions of America (of Mr. Magoo, Gerald McBoomboom fame and one of the results of the 1941 Disney strike). The most popular cartoons to come from Screen Gems was the Fox and The Crow series of shorts featuring the refined but gullible Fauntleroy Fox and the streetwise Crawford Crow. In 1948 UPA, having taken the Fox and Crow reigns from Screen Gems, created a short called Robin Hoodlum which featured Flaunteroy as, you guessed it, Robin Hood and Crawford as the Sherriff of Nottingham...



As you can see its obvious this was never going to be as memorable as the Disney movie, but its interesting that someone else beat Disney to the fox-punch, especially 25 years before. It bring to question whether or not Disney knew about the short. Considering UPA was founded mostly by ex-Disney employees, perhaps the 73 movie was Disney's way of saying "watch and learn from the master".

Honestly i like the Fox and cCrow series. I think both characters are insanely cute, in the paw department too.