Willoughby (Looney Tunes)

Willoughby is a minor animated cartoon fictional character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes series of cartoons. He is a hound dog who is characterized by his below-average intelligence[1] and overall gullibility.

Willoughby
Willoughby and Bugs Bunny in The Heckling Hare
First appearanceOf Fox and Hounds (1940)
Created byTex Avery
Voiced byTex Avery (1940–1941)
Kent Rogers (1941–1942)
Mel Blanc (1942–1947)
Pinto Colvig (1942)
Tedd Pierce (1944)
Stan Freberg (1952)
In-universe information
SpeciesDog

Willoughby first appeared in the 1940 cartoon Of Fox and Hounds.[2] He was created and voiced by Tex Avery.[3][4] According to Chuck Jones, the character was based on Lennie, from Of Mice and Men (of which the title of Of Fox and Hounds is a knockoff). Critic Steven Hartley described this short as lacking in creativity, originality, excitement, and story construction, particularly compared to Avery's seminal earlier work A Wild Hare.[5]

Willoughby later appears in other Warner Brothers animated shorts, including The Heckling Hare (1941),[6][7] The Crackpot Quail (1941),[8][9] and Nutty News (1942),[10] as the lead dog of a fox hunting party. A fundamentally similar character, Laramore, appears in To Duck or Not to Duck (1943), albeit with a fully brown coat of fur. Willoughby's brief career was essentially over before the end of World War II.

Appearances
  1. Of Fox and Hounds (1940)
  2. The Crackpot Quail (1941)
  3. The Heckling Hare (1941)
  4. Nutty News (1942) (cameo, only black & white appearance)
  5. The Hep Cat (1942) (renamed Rosebud)
  6. Ding Dog Daddy (1942)
  7. An Itch in Time (1943)
  8. To Duck or Not to Duck (1943) (renamed Laramore)
  9. Hare Force (1944) (renamed Sylvester)
  10. A Horse Fly Fleas (1947) (shaped like the Barnyard Dawg)
  11. Foxy by Proxy (1952)

In other media

Willoughby was planned to be made as a cameo in the deleted scene "Acme's Funeral" from the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He also appears with other animated characters scared when Casper appears at the funeral.[11]

References
  1. T. K. Kelly. "Distasteful Toons: the Top 5 Most Offensive Looney Tunes Characters". Top 5. Retrieved November 11, 2015.
  2. Of Fox and Hounds on IMDb
  3. Dave Mackey. "Warner Bros. Cartoon Filmography – 1940 (Of Fox and Hounds)". Dave Mackey Dot Com. Archived from the original on December 15, 2010. Retrieved November 10, 2015.
  4. Eric O. Costello. "Avery, Frederick Bean (Tex) (1908-1980)". Warner Bros. Cartoon Companion. Archived from the original on April 30, 2006. Retrieved November 10, 2015.
  5. Steve Hartley (November 2, 2013). "309. Of Fox and Hounds (1940)". Likely Loonie, Mostly Merrie. Retrieved November 10, 2015.
  6. Steve Hartley (May 29, 2014). "334. The Heckling Hare (1941)". Likely Loonie, Mostly Merrie. Retrieved November 10, 2015.
  7. The Heckling Hare on IMDb
  8. Steve Hartley (March 9, 2014). "317. The Crackpot Quail (1941)". Likely Loonie, Mostly Merrie. Retrieved November 10, 2015.
  9. The Crackpot Quail on IMDb
  10. Nutty News on IMDb
  11. Hill, Jim. "Storyboards reveal what Marvin Acme's funeral in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" would have looked like". jimhillmedia.com. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
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