Creator Tex Avery based Willoughby on the character Lennie from John Steinbeck's 1937 novella Of Mice and Men.

[2][3] 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).

[citation needed] 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.

[4] Willoughby later appears in other Warner Brothers animated shorts, including The Crackpot Quail (1941),[5] The Heckling Hare (1941),[6] and Nutty News (1942), as the lead dog of a fox hunting party.

Willoughby was planned to be made as a cameo in the deleted scene "Acme's Funeral" from the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit.