The Fox and The Hound was a Disney theatrical release back in 1981, which actually took about 4 years in production before it made its debut. The film was a smashing success, and has lived on as a top seller in VHS and now DVD sales for Disney. The story itself is a simple one that we have seen before, where two childhood friends grow up in different surroundings and change from who they once were. The innovation to that story, is that the two main characters of this film are a red fox and a hound dog. Tod the fox lost his mother to hunters, and has been raised and taken care of by a nice lady living on the edge of the woods, unwittingly assisted by an owl and two birds. In true Disney fashion, Tod gets an original up-bringing, and for all intents and purposes is a house-broken fox.

When the neighbor brings home a new dog, Tod strikes up an immediate friendship with the bumbling hound dog. Copper the dog brings further innocence to the story, and soon the Fox and the Hound are best of friends. The run through the woods together, they go swimming, and their favorite thing to do is wrestle. Not knowing their expected roles in the whole scheme of things, this unlikely duo finds that their friendship is more important than anything else. Indeed, much of the story is used to show how deep this friendship has gone, and soon they are bucking the odds to hang out with each other. The problems though, start to arise when Copper's master takes him on a long hunting trip to teach him the ways of being a hound dog. Both fox and hound begin to grow up while being separated, and the drama of the story revolves around whether they will change.

At the heart of this fun cartoon is a deep story about how two childhood animal friends deal with growing up and how the real world can be difficult on even the best of friendships. They grow up not knowing that they are supposed to be enemies, and from that provides a story and a message that maybe friendship can overcome anything. The story does a lot to explore that dynamic, and there are many different exciting moments that will try this relationship, but the hope for any audience member is that it is going to work out in the end. I for one though, am not going to blow that plot device for those who have not seen this film as of yet.

As far as Disney pictures go, I would have to say that this is one of the top tier of the Disney cartoons in regards to messages. This isn't a preachy film, but rather one that puts its characters into positions where the can choose to fall into the stereotypes or stand up for themselves. 26 years after it was first released, the picture does seem a little dated now, and with the leaps that computer animated films as well as animation in general have come a long way to improve upon the production values of this story. If you can set that aside, and enjoy this cute story about a fox and a hound, you may come away quite happy with the result. There are moments that could be scary for a young audience, so be weary of that, but the heart of the story is truly one that any kid could enjoy. I give this one my recommendation and stamp of approval.










Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS