Everyone knows that a fox and a hound cannot be friends. Hounds hunt foxes so hunters can kill foxes. Everyone knows that. Everyone, that is, except for the title characters in Disney’s 1981 release The Fox and the Hound.
This movie is a story about friendship. Tod, an orphaned fox, and Copper, a hound dog, meet and become friends when they are very young. They swear that they will always be friends. However, as they grow older, they find that life doesn’t always allow some friendships to exist.
Until recently, The Fox and the Hound was the only Disney full-length animated feature that I had not seen. In fact, I had intentionally avoided watching the movie. I had heard that the movie was sad and that it did not measure up to the great features that came earlier (Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Bambi) or to the ones that came after (The Little Mermaid and The Lion King). Having now seen the movie several times, I find that I have to agree.
The Fox and the Hound is a pretty deep story, and there’s no happy ending. It focuses on the ups and downs of friendship. In real life, it is very difficult to maintain a friendship forever, and this movie accurately depicts that sort of struggle. In the end, Tod and Copper find that, while they would do anything for each other, they cannot maintain their friendship. While it may be useful for young children to know that this happens, it’s still very sad. I think I would have much preferred the story had allowed the friends to continue being together despite their differences. While it may not have been realistic, it would have given a better message. Friendship requires work. The response to life’s difficulties is not to bow to those who would oppose a friendship.
The Fox and the Hound also contains a distinct environmental message. It is, in many ways, similar to Bambi, The Lion King, and, to some extent, Tarzan. But The Fox and the Hound carries it further. The movie starts with Tod being orphaned when a hunter shoots his mother. The viewer doesn’t see the killing, but the gunshots and the sound effects from off-screen make it impossible for the viewer to not know what happened. Afterwards, Copper’s owner, Amos Slade, is depicted as being a moronic, hotheaded hick with a gun and as someone who kills animals just for the enjoyment of it. Even though I personally abhor guns, I could see that this characterization could be enough to make an NRA member cringe.
There is some comic relief in the characters of Boomer, a woodpecker, and Dinky, a sparrow, who are constantly trying to catch a caterpillar named Squeaks. This offers some lightness to the movie, but the characters aren’t really integrated into the main plot. Still, their slapstick antics are pretty much necessary as the movie would have been far too dramatic and heart wrenching without them.
The animation in The Fox and the Hound is nice, though not the best every produced by Disney. Interestingly enough, new animators that had little or no experience did the majority of the animation on the film. These people were so new that many of them were still taking animation classes at the studio! Still, the animation of the animals is realistic (probably because the animators spent hours viewing some of Disney’s nature films), and the colors are vivid. The backgrounds, for the most part, are static, somewhat muted, and very detailed paintings. While the results are beautiful, I personally don’t find it as pleasing as the animation in features like The Little Mermaid and Mulan.
As usual, Disney did an excellent job with recruiting voice talent. Many of the Disney favorites from the 70’s are used here, including Mickey Rooney (adult Tod) and Kurt Russell (Adult Copper). Pearl Bailey gives a wonderfully warm performance as a kindly owl named Big Mama. Some of the voices are so recognizable, though, that it can make it hard not to say “Oh! That’s Tigger!” when Boomer (Paul Winchell) talks. Overall, though, the voices combined with the vivid animations make the characters lovable.
The music in The Fox and the Hound is, for the most part, forgettable. Pearl Bailey performs a couple of nice numbers, including “Best of Friends” and “Lack of Education”. But there isn’t anything here that will make a person hum the tune later. None of the tunes accompany flashy singing and dancing numbers, which some viewers might appreciate.
The Fox and the Hound is a good film with a good message. But I’m glad that I avoided it (and kept my daughter from seeing it) for as long as I did. Some aspects of it are scary. Many may argue that all Disney animated features have some frightening element to them. However, I can explain to my child that the wicked stepmother in Cinderella does not exist. I can hardly say the same for hunters. I would recommend the film, but only to those who are mature enough to handle the heavy aspects of the plot.
DVD features
The DVD release of The Fox and the Hound contains some nice little extras. First, there’s an animated storybook. This uses many of animations from the movie and is set up to allow the reader to read the story or have it read to him. The DVD also contains a trivia game that tests the viewer’s knowledge of the movie. Most of the questions are pretty easy, once the viewer has seen the movie a couple of times.
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