The Fox and the Hound
From The Film Guide
| The Fox and the Hound | ||
|---|---|---|
| File:Foxhoundposter.jpg | ||
| Directed by | Ted Berman Richard Rich | |
| Produced by | Ron Miller Art Stevens Wolfgang Reitherman | |
| Written by | Ted Berman Larry Clemmons | |
| Starring | Mickey Rooney Kurt Russell Pearl Bailey Jack Albertson | |
| Music by | Buddy Baker | |
| Distributed by | Walt Disney Pictures Buena Vista Distribution | |
| Release date(s) | July 10, 1981 (USA) | |
| Running time | 83 minutes | |
| Language | English | |
| Followed by | The Fox and the Hound 2 (2006) | |
| IMDb profile | ||
| Looking for more? Try the fan page! | ||
'The Fox and the Hound is a 1981 animated feature produced by Walt Disney Productions, first released to movie theatres in the [[[U.S.]] on July 10, 1981. The twenty-fourth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon, the film is loosely based on the Daniel P. Mannix novel The Fox and the Hound. The film's story is about two unlikely friends, a bloodhound and a red fox, who struggle to preserve their friendship. At the time of release it was the most expensive animated film produced to date, costing $12 million. [1] A direct-to-video "midquel," The Fox and the Hound 2, was released on December 12, 2006.
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[edit] Plot summary
- WARNING: Spoilers follow here.
If you have not seen this film, it is recommended to skip to another section.
A young red fox cub is left orphaned when his mother is shot by a hunter. A kindly owl, named Big Mama, arranges him to be adopted by the compassionate Widow Tweed as a pet on her farm. Tweed names the fox Tod. Meanwhile, Tweed's neighbor, an ill-tempered hunter named Amos Slade, brings home a young hound puppy named Copper. Slade introduces Copper to his experenced hunting dog Chief, who reluctantly cares for him.
[edit] Unlikely Friends
Tod and Copper soon meet and form a fast friendship they feel will last forever. However, Slade grows frustrated after Copper is constantly caught wandering off to play with Tod. After several meetings between Tod and Copper, Slade places Copper on a leash to stop him from wandering off.
Undeterred, Tod decides to play with Copper at his home. Tod's visit to Slade's farm becomes disastrous when he inadvertently awakens Chief, who promptly chases him throughout the farm. Slade enters the pursuit as well, trying to shoot Tod. The pursuit finally ends after Slade begins shooting at Widow Tweed's car, with Tod in tow. A furious Tweed takes Slade's gun out of his hand, shoots his car's radiator. The belligerent Slade makes it clear that he intends to kill Tod at his first opportunity.
For the rest of the summer Tod is limited to the house with Widow Tweed. The matter is shelved for the moment, with hunting season commencing, and Slade takes his dogs into the wilderness for the interim. Meanwhile, Big Mama explains to Tod that his friendship with Copper cannot continue, as they were bred to be enemies. Tod, in his innocence, states that he and Copper are "gonna be friends forever."
Months pass, and Copper becomes an excellent hunting dog. Upon Copper's return, Tod meets him during the night, thinking their friendship unchanged. Copper explains that he is a hunting dog now, and that they can no longer be friends. Their meeting is cut short when Chief awakens and alerts Slade. A chase ensues, but Copper diverts Chief and Slade so that Tod can escape. Unfortunately, Chief manages to maintain the pursuit, which carries onto a railroad track trestle. When a fast-moving train suddenly approaches, Tod is able to duck under the vehicle, but Chief is struck and wounded. Copper swears revenge on Tod for causing the accident.
[edit] Everything has Changed
Realizing that Tod cannot safely stay on her farm now, Tweed leaves him at a nature preserve, which has signs prohibiting hunting. Although Tod has a difficult time adjusting, Big Mama helps by introducing him to a beautiful vixen, named Vixey, and the Todd first tries to impress Vixey by catching a fish, only to fail and insult Vixie. Big Mama directs Tod in being himself, then they hit it off well once Todd admits his lack of knowledge. Vixey is amused greatly by Tod's inability to survive in the wild and helps him adapt.
[edit] Showdown in the Game Reserve
The vengeful Slade and Copper trespass into the preserve to kill Tod with leghold traps and guns. The result is a harrowing chase throughout the forest that climaxes when Slade and Copper inadvertently provoke an attack from a disturbed bear. Against his better judgment, Tod intervenes to save his friend. He fights the much larger bear and ends up luring the bear on to a fallen trunk that breaks and sends the two falling down a waterfall.
Tod survives and meets Copper at shore, who is stunned at Tod's heroism for his sake in spite of current events. However, Slade does not share any gratitude and suddenly appears, still vindictively eager to kill the fox. Copper makes the moral decision of interposing his body in front of Tod and Slade, reluctant to kill his own hound for a petty vendetta against a fox who had just saved their lives, is forced to give up and return home. The fox and hound share one final smile before going their separate ways.
In the final scene, Copper rests in his dog house, he hears Tod's voice of when they were young saying that they would be friends forever. He smiles at this, and falls asleep. The view then backs out to a small hill, where Vixey joins Tod, looking at both houses.
Spoilers end here.
[edit] Cast
- Mickey Rooney as Tod
- Kurt Russell as Copper
- Pearl Bailey as Big Mama
- Jack Albertson as Amos Slade
- Jeanette Nolan as Widow Tweed
- Pat Buttram as Chief
- Keith Coogan as Young Tod
- Corey Feldman as Young Copper
- Sandy Duncan as Vixey
- Paul Winchell as Boomer
- Richard Bakalyan as Dinky
- John Fiedler as The Porcupine
- John McIntire as The Grumpy Badger
[edit] Supervising animators
[edit] Production
The co-directors for the film were Ted Berman (December 17, 1919 - July 15, 2001), Richard Rich, and Art Stevens.
Berman previously had credits as a character animator for the 1961 feature film One Hundred and One Dalmatians and writer for the 1977 film The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. He would later be co-director for the 1985 film The Black Cauldron.
Adult Tod looks more like Thomas O' Malley and Vixey looks more like Duchess from 1970's The Aristocats.
Rich had been a Disney employee since 1972 but this was his first major assignment. He would also serve as a co-director for The Black Cauldron. He would later found the Rich Animation Studios. Their best known film is arguably the 1994 film The Swan Princess.
Stevens was previously credited as a character animator for the 1953 Peter Pan, the previously mentioned One Hundred and One Dalmatians and the 1973 Robin Hood. He had also previously directed the 1977 film The Rescuers.
The Bear's growl was a recording of Shere Khan's growl from "The Jungle Book".
Don Bluth worked as an animator on this film, but left Disney partway through production, taking several Disney animators with him to start a rival studio which would later produce The Secret of NIMH and several other films.
John Lasseter started out working at Disney on this film and others such as Mickey's Christmas Carol before leaving to join PIXAR in 1986.[2] Under current ownership back with Disney purchasing PIXAR, John is now back where he started.
This film is unusual in that it was the only Disney film during the 1980's not produced in widescreen. Since most films were eventually to be broadcast on television, and since this was a cost-cutting solution for its troubled production schedule, like many other animated films at the time (e.g. The Care Bears Movie]]), the filmmakers did not take the option of widescreen production. Evidence of this is shown in a photograph on the documentary "Passing the Baton", in which a studio projector shows a scene not covering the full 16:9 screen.
Originally, the writers of the film intended for Chief to die when he got hit by the train, to make Copper's revenge against Tod more extreme. However, that idea was scrapped because of the mistakes the Disney crew learned from making Bambi and a similar event in Lady and the Tramp. Like Bambi, Tod's mother is also killed, but she was only on screen for three minutes, unlike Bambi's mother being a major character. Nonetheless some viewers still find the death of Tod's mother to be as shattering as that of Bambi's mother.
[edit] Release history
The Fox and the Hound was released in theatres in 1981 and 1986. It was the last VHS video of the "Classics Collection" in 1994 (it was not included in the "Masterpiece Collection"). It was released on "Gold Collection" DVD in 2000.
On October 10th, 2006, The Fox and the Hound 25th Anniversary Special Edition was released.
[edit] Critical reaction
The Fox and the Hound remains unusual among Disney films in that it (together with 1995's Pocahontas) does not have a traditional happy ending (This is rather disputed, but generally regarded to be the case in spite of the difficulty which comes with trying to judge a "happy ending" objectively).
Although the film was a financial success, the general reaction by film critics to the film was mixed. Many were disappointed that the predominantly young creative staff, many of whom had only recently joined the company, had produced a film that seemed very conservative in both concept and execution. Other critics, like Richard Corliss of Time Magazine, praised the film for its intelligent story about prejudice. He argued the film shows that prejudiced attitudes can poison even the deepest relationships, and the film's bittersweet ending delivers a powerful and important moral message to audiences.
[edit] Trivia
- This movie represented a changing of the guard of the animators creating the film from Walt's Disney's "nine old men" to more recently trained Disney animators. The studio had started an in house animation training program in 1976.[3]
- In the scene where Tod tries to find shelter in the woods during a rainstorm, we see a family of ducks in animation lifted from Disney's 1942 feature Bambi. Also borrowed in the movie are a twice-appearing family of quail (again from Bambi) and a squirrel whose appearance is identical to Wart / Arthur as a squirrel in The Sword in the Stone.
- The last Disney animated feature to begin with the complete opening credits and end with a "The End: Walt Disney Productions" credit, like all previous Disney films after Alice in Wonderland. The next Disney animated feature, The Black Cauldron, was the first to have closing credits.
- The last Disney animated feature to be made with entirely analogue techniques.
- The first Disney animated feature not to use line overlay since The Jungle Book.
- Tim Burton did design work on the film.
[edit] Soundtrack Listing
- "Best of Friends" Music by Richard Johnston, Lyrics by Stan Fidel, Performed by Pearl Bailey
- "Lack of Education" Music and Lyrics by Jim Stafford, Performed by Pearl Bailey
- "A Huntin' Man" Music and Lyrics by Jim Stafford, Performed by Jack Albertson
- "Appreciate The Lady" Music and Lyrics by Jim Stafford, Performed by Pearl Bailey
- "Goodbye May Seem Forever" Music by Richard Rich, Lyrics by Jeffrey Patch, Performed by Jeanette Nolan
[edit] References
[edit] External links
