Fox and Cat

Fox and Cat
GENERAL
Pinocchio
Character	Fox
Character	Cat
Canonical?	Fanon
Status of Relationship	Partners in Crime
IN FANDOM
Type (?)	Slash
Also Known As	Cat and Fox

3

Fox and Cat is the slash ship between Fox (aka John Worthington Foulfellow) and Cat (aka Gideon) from the Pinocchio fandom.

Canon

Fox and Cat are a pair of mischievious con men who usually spend the story trying to trick Pinocchio, being antagonists in the story.

The Adventures of Pinocchio

Pinocchio encounters the two after leaving Mangiafuoco's theatre with five gold sequins, whereupon the Fox claims to know Pinocchio's father Mister Geppetto and proposes to Pinocchio to visit the Land of Barn Owls (Paese dei Barbagianni) and thence to a 'Field of Miracles' (Il campo dei Miracoli), where coins can be grown into a money-producing tree. A white blackbird warns Pinocchio against these lies, but is eaten by the Cat. The Fox covers up this action by claiming that the blackbird talks too much. The pair lead Pinocchio to the Red Crayfish Inn (Osteria del Gambero Rosso), where they eat a large meal and ask to be awoken at midnight.

Two hours before the set time, the pair abandon Pinocchio to pay for the meal with one of his sequins, and have the innkeeper leave a message for Pinocchio that the Cat's eldest kitten had fallen ill, and that they would meet Pinocchio at the Field of Miracles later. When Pinocchio leaves the inn, the two attack him in the guise of murderers and in the ensuing struggle, Pinocchio bites off the Cat's paw. The murderers then hang Pinocchio from a tree, which he escapes with the assistance of The Fairy with Turquoise Hair, who enlisted a falcon to cut him down.

The next day, Pinocchio encounters the pair again, unaware they are the murderers who tried to hang him. When Pinocchio notices the Cat's paw in a sling, the Fox claims that the Cat cut it off to feed a starving wolf. They lead Pinocchio to the town of Catchfools (Acchiappacitrulli), where the coins are soon buried. In Pinocchio's absence, the pair dig up the sequins and escape. Pinocchio learns of this from a parrot, who mocks him for falling for their tricks.

Near the end of the book, Pinocchio encounters the Fox and the Cat again when looking for a place for Geppetto to recover. But this time, the pair have become impoverished, whereas the Fox is now truly lame, nearly hairless, and tailless (the Fox had to chop off his own tail because he sold it to buy food), and the Cat became truly blind. They plead for food or money, but are rebuffed by Pinocchio while stating that their misfortunes have served them right for their wickedness. He then leaves, all the while saying goodbye to his 'false friends'.

Pinocchio (1940)

In the Disney adaptation, the Fox and the Cat are given proper names, "Honest" John and Gideon respectively. They first appear in the movie walking through the streets of Pinocchio's hometown, looking for a poor child to scam. They settle on Pinocchio after seeing him get off track on his way to school. Gideon initially tries to approach him with a flower in his hand, but John yanks him out of sight. They put themselves in his way, but John notices Gideon's mallet, takes it and hits him with it, telling him not to be crude. He tells him to let him handle this and puts his cane in Pinocchio's path while pretending to talk to Gideon, letting the poor boy trip. They help him up and dust him off to earn his trust. As Gideon tries to rob Pinocchio, John hits him with his cane and holds Pinocchio's book, charming him by calling him a "scholar", though he clearly couldn't care less about the book or Pinocchio's plans to go to school. He tells him that he has the chance to become an actor and they both lead him off his way to the theatre. On their way, John sings a ditty over how great it would be to be an actor.

But on their way, they are spotted by Jiminy Cricket, who sneaks into John's hat. Jiminy whistles, alerting the two crooks, but Pinocchio points out the cricket in his hat. Though Honest John thinks Pinocchio is seeing things, Gideon sees the cricket quite well and uses his mallet to try to crush the bug. However, Jiminy jumps out of the way, leading to Gideon hitting his parter by accident. Jiminy tells Pinocchio to go to school, refusing John's offer while he's distracted. But it doesn't take long for John to regain composure and for him and Gideon to catch up to the boy. When Pinocchio is presented with a choice of going to school like Jiminy said or becoming an actor like John and Gideon want him to, he doesn't even think twice before picking the latter. Once they make it to puppetmaster Stromboli, Honest John and Gideon present Pinocchio as their property and sell him to the puppeteer.

It is later revealed that Honest John and Gideon scam people to collect pay for their master, a mysterious man only known as "Coachman". Meeting up with him at an Inn called the "Red Lobster", he tells them of his new plan: He sends the two of them off to offer misbehaving boys the chance to go to "Pleasure Island". As Honest John and Gideon lean in to listen what will happen to the boys, Honest John panics and fears what would happen to them should anyone find out. The Coachman reassures them, there's no chance of them coming back "as boys". Though both of them are terrified of the Coachman, they agree to his requests to bring a carriage full of boys after being promised a handsome reward. So they run into Pinocchio's way again just as he escaped the clutches of Stromboli. Pinocchio tells his "friends" just how awful Stromboli was to him and they pretend to be sympathetic, telling him he needs a "vacation" to Pleasure Island. Pinocchio declines their "ticket", a simple, yet symbolic Ace of Spades, but they won't take no for an answer and practically carry him to the Coachman's wagon.

After Pinocchio's venture to and escape from Pleasure Island, they never appear again in the original Disney movie, the rest of the conflict is about Pinocchio saving his father, which they have nothing to do with. But since Geppetto learned of Pinocchio's location on Pleasure Island and set sail to save him before being swallowed by Monstro the whale, and the only people who knew that were Honest John and Gideon, seems implied that the two crooks got caught (not surprising since the two loudly spoke and sung a song about Pleasure Island in town in late evening while taking Pinocchio to the coach at the crossroads).

Moments

• In the 1940 movie, Gideon presses his ear onto John's as the latter listens to the Coachman's plan.
• In the 2022 movie, Gideon himself seemingly carved "G+HJ" inside a heart on his trusty mallet.

Fanon

Though the ship is not very popular, many fans wholeheartedly believe that John and Gideon are gay.

The heart carving in the Disney remake is considered evidence that at least Gideon feels that way about John. Many have compared it to the canonizing of GaFou, with Gideon being a goofy sidekick to John, much like LeFou is to Gaston.

Fandom

FAN FICTION

Cat/Fox tag on AO3

TUMBLR

Fox and Cat tag on Tumblr

Honest John x Gideon tag on Tumblr

Trivia

• In the Disney movie, Honest John often refers to Gideon as "Giddy".
• Ernesto Foulworth and Gino (who were first known as Fellow Honest and Gidel on the Japanese server) from the Twisted Wonderland event, Stage in Playful Land are modelled after Honest John and Gideon. They wear the same style of clothes as them and have ears of those type of animals, making them look like Beastmen versions of the two. Unlike Honest John and Gideon, however, Fellow Honest and Gidel are brothers. Even though they don't look like it, with Fellow being a fox beastman and Gidel is a cat beastman.
  • There is also a golden status on Disney's taken of the Fox and the Cat in Playful Land. With John and Giddy revered as historic figures, like the Great Seven are in the game's universe and lore. This has the two Pinocchio characters be addressed as "The Friendly Fox and The Good Natured Cat" in the game.
• In Lies of P, the dark video game retelling of Pinocchio, the Fox and the Cat are presented as humans who are sister and brother, while wearing a fox and black cat Stalker masks. Hence their "Red Fox" and "Black Cat" titles.
  • The two are shown to care for one another, with Red Fox looking after her younger brother in a apocalyptic world and trying to find a cure for his fading sight. When he was killed trying to keep the humanoid Pinocchio protagonist from reaching his sister, she seeks to avenge his death.
  • Like the con men characters they are based on, the two work for money, no matter who they find themselves working for and are even willing to steal it in order to survive. As well as them offering a puppet their friendship.

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