Fox Pop

Fox Pop is a 1942 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies color cartoon short supervised by Chuck Jones. The short was released on September 5, 1942.

Plot
A man is relaxing inside his cabin, listening to his radio; outside, a red fox is on the prowl. With apparent sinister intent, the animal creeps to the door then springs into the house, but rather than attack the man, he steals the radio, bringing it to a part of the forest where he grabs a nearby ax and starts destroying the radio. Two crows on a tree branch above are confused, and one asks, "What's bitin' you anyhow?", so the fox begins telling them, via flashbacks:

While scrounging for food in trash cans outside the same cabin, the fox overhears an advertisement on the radio for the Sterling Silver Fox Farm saying foxes are in style this year for well-dressed ladies. Badly misinterpreting this message, the fox believes he could be adopted and become the pampered pet of a wealthy, adoring owner, and so rushes to the farm.

At the farm, the fox inserts part of his tail into a fox trap, but as the trap is for silver foxes only, the trapper kicks the fox into a nearby garbage heap. Discovering a can of silver paint there, the fox coats himself with the paint, repeats the ruse, and gets promptly caged by the trapper.

Inside the farm, the faux silver fox is told by an actual silver fox in the next cage over they are all escaping that night. The painted fox laughs and says he is quite happy to stay, and the silver fox states he's "with us, or..." and runs his finger across his throat. Again, the painted fox badly misinterprets this message, believing the silver fox intends to kill him if he does not go along. Nervous and looking for an excuse to stay, he points out his cage is locked and there is no key. For answer, the silver fox bites down hard on the nail file he is holding at an angle that turns it into a perfect copy of the trapper's cage key.

At nine o'clock, the silver foxes escape. The painted fox feigns joy at being set free, but deliberately falls back, re-enters his cage and re-locks the door. Now alone, he notices a tag attached to his cage, reading, "This skin reserved for 'Silver Fox Cape for Mrs. Van Dough'". He finally understands that the radio advertisement was not promoting live fox pets, but coats made from their pelts. His question of how his skin will be removed is then answered when a grinding noise alerts him to the trapper sharpening his ax outside, thus realizing the true meaning of the silver fox's throat-cutting gesture, and is thrown into a panic.

As the trapper approaches the fox's cage, ax in hand, the fox grabs the cage key, unlocks his cage and flees into the woods. Angered, the trapper sends his hunting dogs after him. After a long chase, the fox jumps into a lake and swims to the other side, where he notices the silver paint has washed away. Believing this to be his ticket to safety, he stops the dogs and informs them he is not and never was a silver fox, and therefore no longer have a reason to chase him, but the dogs respond, "Silver Shmilver... as long as you're a fox!" and proceed to beat him up.

The flashback ends and the fox ends his story with "And that's what's bitin' me. That's what!", and in a surprising show of support, the crows drop down and finish destroying the radio.

Release
"Fox Pop" was released on September 5, 1942. It was later reissued as a Blue Ribbon release on September 28, 1946. It has since been made available to the public domain after years of copyright neglect.

Home media
Though Fox Pop has yet to make its way onto any official Looney Tunes / Merrie Melodies Collection DVDs and Blu-rays, the short was released on The Golden Age of Looney Tunes Volume 4 LaserDisc, released on July 14, 1993.