Foulfellow and Gideon are a pair of animated characters who appear in the 1940 Disney animated film Pinocchio.
Foulfellow and Gideon are Pinocchio's adversaries during the film. Although they are arguably not evil, they are without a doubt unscrupulous, living as confidence tricksters and not being too fussy about how low they stoop to get a quick buck. They are also shown smoking cigars, drinking beer, and are responsible for many of the problems that Pinocchio runs into during the story, such as skipping school to be an actor and going off to Pleasure Island when he should have been returning to his father Gepetto. They embody the idea of temptation that Jiminy Cricket warns Pinocchio about early on.
Foulfellow the Fox[]
Foulfellow the Fox (voiced by Walter Catlett), is an anthropomorphic sly fox. He is dressed in a ragged overcoat and top hat and walks with a cane. In the film, he sings the song "Hi-Diddle-De-Dee (An Actor's Life for Me)" with Pinocchio. He is also known as J. Worthington Foulfellow or Honest John. His full name is likely John Worthington Foulfellow. Despite his cleverness and aristocratic mannerisms, it is heavily implied that he lacks education, since he can neither spell nor read.
The rakish Foulfellow sells Pinocchio to the evil gypsy showman Stromboli, under the pretense of getting him involved in showbusiness, and later in the movie tricks Pinocchio into going to Pleasure Island, where the wayward boys' desires for excess lead them to literally make jackasses of themselves.
Gideon the Cat[]
Gideon the Cat (voiced by Mel Blanc), is an anthropomorphic crafty cat who is Foulfellow the Fox's sidekick.
Comparisons to the novel[]
In the original novel by Carlo Collodi, these characters are simply referred to as the Fox and the Cat. They do not sell Pinocchio to the puppeteer, nor do they entice him to go to Pleasure Island (or Land of the Toys as it's called in the book) or have any connection with the Coachman. They do, however, swindle him out of 5 gold pieces, by telling him that by burying his gold in the Land of the Simple Simons, it will produce a plant that will multiply his gold pieces by the thousands. Before they try to trick Pinocchio into burying his gold, however, they try to waylay him in a forest (disguised as assassins) and wrest the gold from his possession. They are unsuccessful in this attempt, however, as Pinocchio hides the gold under his tongue and they are unable to open his mouth; so the pair hang Pinocchio and leave him to die. Pinocchio is then rescued by the Blue Fairy but he is not able to figure out that the two assassins are also the Fox and the Cat, and they are later able to trick him into burying his gold.
They are later seen towards the end of the book, in desperate poverty, the fox even having sold his tail to buy something to eat. They entreat Pinocchio for aid but he shuns them. This is a bit of a contrast to the film, where none of the evil-doers are shown to receive punishment for their crimes.