The Fox and The Hound (1981)

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The Fox and The Hound (1981)

7/10

Starring the voice of

Mickey Rooney

Kurt Russell

Jack Albertson

Pearl Bailey

Sandy Duncan

Directed by Ted Berman, Richard Rich and Art Stevens

The animation The Fox and The Hound drifts away from the usual they lived happily ever after tune, which we are used to in the Disney movies before it. The movie not only drifted from the Happily Ever After tune it introduced a matured story, we get to see how two individuals struggle to remain friends, even though the society and their natural instincts kicks against it.

Seeing this movie for the first time, I was expecting the Fox and the Hound to have a grand reunion in the end, but like Bambi who met a girl and everything else fell behind so did the fox. On the other hand the movie also showed something, even we the adults can learn from. When the heat is on you from a friend turned enemy who has chosen to turn his back on your friendship, you don’t have to do the same. It was Christ-like in nature for the fox, who choose not to repay evil with evil.

At the time of its release this 24^th film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series was the most expensive animated film produced to date, costing $12 million, but going on to make over $63 million in the box office.

The Fox and the Hound is based on a novel of the same name by Daniel P. Mannix, published in 1967. The movie story is about two unlikely friends, a red fox named Tod (who was found by and living with an old lady, Widow Tweed), and a hound dog named Copper who was the dog of Widow Tweed's neighbor.

As pups Tod and Copper’s friendship was innocent and enjoyable to both parties, but when they grew Copper was trained to hunt game and Tod had grown, still hoping that his friendship with Copper meant more to Copper than his master's choice of using him (Copper) to hunt game.

Things changed for both parties when Copper's mentor a dog named Chief got hurt while chasing Tod. Copper now hell bent on getting Tod back for his mentor's hurt, he and his master started plotting how they were going to catch and skin Tod.

With a production time spanning over four years, the movie saw the departure of some of Disney’s animators and the introduction of new ones. As the Nine Old Men began the production, which newer and younger animators finished.

The movie had a sequel which was released 15 years after and it was a direct-to-video production.