The Fox and the Hound
The Fox and the Hound is a 1981 American animated musical buddy drama film produced by Walt Disney Productions and loosely based on the 1967 novel of the same name by Daniel P. Mannix. The 24th Disney animated feature film, the film tells the story of two unlikely friends, a red fox named Tod and a hound dog named Copper, who struggle to preserve their friendship despite their emerging instincts and the surrounding social pressures demanding them to be adversaries. The film was directed by Ted Berman, Richard Rich, and Art Stevens, and features the voices of Mickey Rooney, Kurt Russell, Pearl Bailey, Jack Albertson, Sandy Duncan, Jeanette Nolan, Pat Buttram, Dick Bakalyan, and Paul Winchell.
Production on The Fox and the Hound started in 1977, and the film marked the last involvement of the remaining members of Disney's Nine Old Men, as development was handed over to a new generation of animators following the retirement of the old animators. However, the film's release was delayed by over six months following the abrupt departure of Don Bluth and his team of animators. Further concerns were raised over the handling of the scene in which Chief is hit by a train, which was controversially changed from his death into a non-fatal injury in which he merely suffered a broken leg.
Released to theaters on July 10, 1981 by Buena Vista Distribution, The Fox and the Hound was a financial success, becoming the 14th highest-grossing film of the year. However, the film initially received mixed reviews from critics. The critics praised the animation and voice acting of the film, but believed that the film was not groundbreaking enough. Over time, however, the film became known as an underrated classic, and it was nominated for three awards, of which it won one. At the time of its release, the film was the most expensive animated film produced to date, costing $12 million. It was re-released to theaters on March 25, 1988. A direct-to-video followup, The Fox and the Hound 2, was released to DVD on December 12, 2006.
Plot
After a young red fox is orphaned, Big Mama the owl, Dinky the finch, and Boomer the woodpecker arrange for him to be adopted by a kindly farmer named Widow Tweed. Tweed names him Tod, because he reminds her of a toddler. Meanwhile, her neighbor, a hunter named Amos Slade, brings home a young hound puppy named Copper and introduces him to his hunting dog Chief. One day, Tod and Copper meet and become playmates, vowing to remain "friends forever". Slade grows frustrated at Copper for constantly wandering off to play, and places him on a leash. While playing with Copper outside his doghouse, Tod awakens Chief. Slade and Chief chase Tod until they are stopped by Tweed. After an argument, Slade threatens to kill Tod if he trespasses on his farm again. Hunting season comes and Slade takes his dogs into the wilderness for the interim. Meanwhile, Big Mama, Dinky, and Boomer attempt to explain to Tod that his friendship with Copper will not continue, as they are natural enemies, but Tod naively refuses to believe them, hoping that he and Copper will remain friends forever.As months pass, Tod and Copper both reach adulthood, with Copper having become an experienced hunting dog. On the night of Copper's return, Tod sneaks over to visit him, asking if they can still be friends. Copper, however, says that the days of their friendship are over now that he is a hunting dog. Their conversation awakens Chief, who alerts Slade. In the ensuing chase Copper catches Tod, but lets Tod go and diverts Slade. Chief, however, catches Tod when he attempts an escape on a railroad track, but is struck by an oncoming train and falls into the river below, breaking his leg. Enraged by this, Copper and Slade blame Tod for the accident and vow vengeance. Realizing Tod is no longer safe with her, Tweed leaves him at a game preserve.
Tod's first night alone in the woods proves disastrous, as he inadvertently trespasses into an irritable old badger's den. Thankfully, a friendly porcupine offers Tod shelter. That same night, Slade and Copper plan to poach Tod. The next morning, Big Mama finds Tod and introduces him to her best friend, a female fox named Vixey, who helps Tod adapt to life in the forest. After a botched attempt at fishing, Tod gives an angry rant, and later apologises to Vixey at Big Momma's urging.
Meanwhile, Slade and Copper trespass into the preserve to hunt Tod. As Tod manages to escape Slade's leghold traps, Copper and Slade pursue both foxes. They hide in their burrow while Slade tries trapping them by setting fire to its entrance. The foxes narrowly escape without getting burned as Slade and Copper chase them up the top of a hill until they reach a waterfall. There, Slade and Copper close in for the kill, but a grizzly bear emerges and attacks Slade. Slade trips and falls into one of his own traps, dropping his gun slightly out of reach. Copper attempts to fight the bear but is no match for it. Not willing to let his former friend die, Tod intervenes and fights the bear until they both fall down the waterfall.
With the bear gone, a bewildered Copper approaches Tod as he lies exhausted near the bank of a waterfall-created lake. When Slade appears, Copper positions himself in front of Tod to prevent Slade from shooting him, refusing to move away. Realizing Tod saved both of them from the bear, Slade lowers his gun and leaves with Copper. With their friendship restored, Tod and Copper share one last smile before parting.
At home, Tweed nurses Slade back to health while the dogs rest. Copper, before resting, smiles as he remembers the day when he first met Tod. After leaving the game preserve when Tod sat On a hill, Vixey joins Tod as they look down on the homes of Slade and Tweed.
Voice cast
- Mickey Rooney as Tod, a red fox who was left orphaned after his mother was killed by a hunter. Luckily for him, he is adopted by kindly local farmer Widow Tweed, who takes him in and raises him to adulthood. Young and naive, he befriends the nearby hound puppy Copper, but their friendship is interrupted by the fact that Copper's owner, Amos Slade, hates foxes. When they grow older, they find their friendship divided.
- * Keith Mitchell as Young Tod
- Kurt Russell as Copper, one of Slade's two hunting dogs. He befriends Tod in his youth, but when Tod becomes the cause of Chief's injury, Copper breaks his friendship with Tod and becomes Tod's bitter enemy, wanting to avenge Chief and kill Tod. However, Copper later forgives and protects Tod after the fox saves the hound and his master from a savage bear. Copper is a fast learner through growing up. In his first year of hunting he tops Chief.
- * Corey Feldman as Young Copper
- Pearl Bailey as Big Mama, a kindly owl who recruits the help of Dinky and Boomer in arranging for Widow Tweed to adopt Tod after he is left orphaned at the start of the film. She literally takes Tod under her wing on several occasions, and does her best to warn Tod of the dangers of hanging around with Copper.
- Jack Albertson as Amos Slade, a grouchy, mean-spirited old hunter who is the neighbor of Widow Tweed. He will kill just about anything that is wild, but for some unknown reason he has a special hatred for foxes. He is the owner of Copper and Chief, and throughout most of the film tries to kill Tod. Unlike most of Disney's villains, however, he does not come across as being evil. Instead, he hunts for a living and is motivated by revenge.
- Sandy Duncan as Vixey, a vixen and Big Mama's best friend whom Tod meets and instantly falls in love with after being released into the wild. As she is much more used to the forest, she thus helps Tod adapt to his new life in the game preserve.
- Jeanette Nolan as Widow Tweed, a kindly widow who adopts Tod after his mother is killed, but later abandons him to a game preserve to protect his life.
- Pat Buttram as Chief, Slade's senior hunting dog. He shares his master's philosophy that the only good fox is a dead fox. He undertakes raising Copper like his own son and teaching him everything there is to know about hunting, but is ultimately beaten by the younger dog as Copper turns out to be a fast learner and evolves into a first class hunting dog.
- John Fiedler as The Porcupine, a friendly porcupine residing in the reserve in which Tod is dropped off.
- John McIntire as The Badger, a surly, middle-aged badger residing in the same reserve.
- Dick Bakalyan as Dinky, a finch and best friend of Boomer. He and Boomer help Big Mama arrange for Widow Tweed to adopt Tod, as well as warn Tod of the dangers of hanging around with Copper. They are also seen throughout the film unsuccessfully pursuing a caterpillar named Squeaks that they intend to eat.
- Paul Winchell as Boomer, a woodpecker and Dinky's best friend.
Production
Development
In May 1967, shortly before The Fox and the Hound won the Dutton Animal Book Award, it was reported that Walt Disney Productions had obtained the film rights to the novel. In spring 1977, development began on the project after Wolfgang Reitherman had read the original novel and decided that it would make for a good animated feature as one of his sons had once owned a pet fox years before. The title was initially reported as The Fox and the Hounds, but the filmmakers dropped the plural as the story began to focus more and more on the two leads. Reitherman was the film's original director along with Art Stevens as co-director. A power struggle between the two directors and co-producer Ron Miller broke out between them over key sections of the film with Miller supporting the younger Stevens. Miller instructed Reitherman to surrender reins over the junior personnel, but Reitherman resisted due to a lack of trust in the young animators.In an earlier version of the film, Chief was slated to die as he did in the novel. However, the scene was modified to have Chief survive with a cast on his back paw. Animator Ron Clements, who had briefly transitioned into the story department, protested that "Chief has to die. The picture doesn't work if he just breaks his leg. Copper doesn't have motivation to hate the fox." Likewise, younger members of the story team pleaded with Stevens to have Chief killed. Stevens countered that "Geez, we never killed a main character in a Disney film and we're not starting now!" The younger crew members took the problem to upper management who would also back Stevens. Ollie Johnston's test animation of Chief stomping around the house with his leg in a cast was eventually kept, and Randy Cartwright re-animated the scene where Copper finds Chief's body and had him animate Chief's eyes opening and closing so the audience knew that he was not dead.
Another fight erupted when Reitherman, in thinking the film lacked a strong second act, decided to add a musical sequence of two swooping cranes voiced by Phil Harris and Charo who would sing a silly song titled "Scoobie-Doobie Doobie Doo, Let Your Body Turn Goo" to Tod after he was dropped in the forest. Charo had recorded the song and voice tracks which were storyboarded, and live-action reference footage was shot of her in a sweaty pink leotard. However, the scene was strongly disliked by studio personnel who felt the song was a distraction from the main plot with Stevens stating "We can't let that sequence in the movie! It's totally out of place!" Stevens notified studio management and after many story conferences, the scene was removed. Reitherman later walked into Stevens's office, slumped in a chair, and said, "I dunno, Art, maybe this is a young man's medium." He later moved on to undeveloped projects such as Catfish Bend and died in a car accident in 1985.
Animation
By late 1978, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, and Cliff Nordberg had completed their animation. Thomas had animated scenes of Tod and Copper using dialogue Larry Clemmons had written and recorded with the child actors. This project would mark the last film to have the involvement of Disney's Nine Old Men who had retired early during production, and animation was turned over the next generation of directors and animators, which included John Lasseter, John Musker, Ron Clements, Glen Keane, Tim Burton, Brad Bird, Henry Selick, Chris Buck, Mike Gabriel, and Mark Dindal, all of whom would finalize the animation and complete the film's production. These animators had moved through the in-house animation training program, and would play an important role in the Disney Renaissance of the 1980s and 1990s.However, the transition between the old guard and the new resulted in arguments over how to handle the film. Reitherman had his own ideas on the designs and layouts that should be used, but the newer team backed Stevens. Animator Don Bluth animated several scenes including of Widow Tweed milking her cow, Abigail, while his team worked on the rest of the sequence, and when Tweed fires at Amos Slade's automobile. Nevertheless, Bluth and the new animators felt that Reitherman was too stern and out of touch, and on his 42nd birthday, September 13, 1979, Bluth, along with Gary Goldman and John Pomeroy, entered Ron Miller's office, and they turned in their resignations. Soon after, 13 more animators followed suit in turning in their resignations. Though Bluth and his team had animated substantial scenes, they asked not to receive screen credit.
With those animators now gone, Miller ordered all of the resigning animators off the studio lot by noon of that same day and would later push the release of The Fox and the Hound from Christmas 1980 to summer 1981. New animators were hired and promoted to fill the ranks. To compensate for the lack of experience of the new animators, much of the quality control would rely upon a corp of veteran assistant animators. Four years after production started, the film was finished with approximately 360,000 drawings, 110,000 painted cels and 1,100 painted backgrounds making up the finished product. A total of 180 people, including 24 animators, worked on the film.
Casting
Early into production, the principal characters such as young Tod and Copper, Big Mama, and Amos Slade had already been cast. The supporting characters were cast by Disney voice regulars including Pat Buttram for Chief, Paul Winchell for Boomer, and Mickey Rooney, who had just finished filming Pete's Dragon, for adult Tod. Jeanette Nolan was the second choice for Widow Tweed after Helen Hayes turned down the part. The last role to be cast was for adult Copper. Jackie Cooper had auditioned for the role, but left the project when he demanded more money than the studio was willing to pay. While filming the Elvis television film, former Disney child actor Kurt Russell was cast following a reading that had impressed the filmmakers, and completed his dialogue in two recording sessions.Soundtrack
The soundtrack album for the film was released in 1981 by Disneyland Records. It contains songs written by Stan Fidel, Jim Stafford, and Jeffrey Patch.Track listing
Release
Home media
The Fox and the Hound was first released on VHS on March 4, 1994 as the last video installment of the Walt Disney Classics collection. The release was placed into moratorium on April 30, 1995. On May 2, 2000, it was released to Region 1 DVD for the first time as part of the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection line. A 25th anniversary special edition DVD was released on October 10, 2006.The Fox and the Hound was released on Blu-ray Disc on August 9, 2011 to commemorate the film's 30th anniversary. The film was released in a 3-disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo pack alongside its direct-to video followup The Fox and the Hound 2 in a 2-movie Collection Edition. Featuring a new digital restoration, the Blu-ray transfer presents the film for the first time in 1.66:1 widescreen and also features 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. The Fox and the Hound 2 is presented in 1.78:1 widescreen and features the same sound as the first film. A DVD-only edition was also released on the same day.
Reception
Critical reception
Contemporary reviews
of The New York Times claimed that the film "breaks no new ground whatsoever", while describing it as "a pretty, relentlessly cheery, old-fashioned sort of Disney cartoon feature, chock-full of bouncy songs of an upbeatness that is stickier than Krazy-Glue and played by animals more anthropomorphic than the humans that occasionally appear." Finally, he said that, "Like all Disney features, The Fox and the Hound is rather overstuffed with whimsy and folksy dialogue. It also possesses a climax that could very well scare the daylights out of the smaller tykes in the audience, though all ends well. Parents who don't relish chaperoning their tykes to see the movie, but find they must anyway, can take heart in the knowledge that the running time is 83 minutes. That's about as short as you can get these days." Sheila Benson of the Los Angeles Times praised the animation, but criticized the story for playing it too safe. She acknowledged that the writers were "protecting us from important stuff: from rage, from pain, from loss. By these lies, done for our own good, of course, they also limit the growth that is possible." Newsweek stated that "Adults may wince at some of the sticky-sweet songs, but the movie is not intended for grownups."Richard Corliss of Time praised the film for an intelligent story about prejudice. He argued that the film shows that biased attitudes can poison even the deepest relationships, and the film's bittersweet ending delivers a powerful and important moral message to audiences. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times also praised the film, saying that "for all of its familiar qualities, this movie marks something of a departure for the Disney studio, and its movement is in an interesting direction. The Fox and the Hound is one of those relatively rare Disney animated features that contains a useful lesson for its younger audiences. It's not just cute animals and frightening adventures and a happy ending; it's also a rather thoughtful meditation on how society determines our behavior."
Reflective reviews
TV Guide gave the film four out of five stars, saying that "The animation here is better than average, though not quite up to the quality of Disney Studios in its heyday. Still, this film has a lot of "heart" and is wonderful entertainment for both kids and their parents. Listen for a number of favorites among the voices." Michael Scheinfeld of Common Sense Media gave the film's quality a rating of 4 out of 5 stars, stating that the film "develops into a thoughtful examination of friendship and includes some mature themes, especially loss."In The Animated Movie Guide, Jerry Beck considered the film "average", though he praises the voice work of Pearl Bailey as Big Mama, and the extreme dedication to detail shown by animator Glen Keane in crafting the fight scene between Copper, Tod, and the bear. In his book The Disney Films, Leonard Maltin also notes that the fight scene between Copper, Tod, and the bear received great praise in the animation world. However, Maltin felt the film relied too much on "formula cuteness, formula comedy relief, and even formula characterizations". Overall, he considered the film "charming" stating that it is "warm, and brimming with personable characters" and that it "approaches the old Disney magic at times." Craig Butler from All Movie Guide stated that the film was a "warm and amusing, if slightly dull, entry in the Disney animated canon." He also called it "conventional and generally predictable" with problems in pacing. However, he praised the film's climax and animation, as well as the ending. His final remark is that "Two of the directors, Richard Rich and Ted Berman, would next direct The Black Cauldron, a less successful but more ambitious project."
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that the film received a 70% approval rating with an average rating of 6.48/10 based on 27 reviews. The website's consensus states that "The Fox and the Hound is a likeable, charming, unassuming effort that manages to transcend its thin, predictable plot". Metacritic gave the film a score of 65 based on 15 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Box office
In its original release, The Fox and the Hound grossed $39.9 million in domestic grosses, the highest for an animated film at the time from its initial release. Its distributor rentals were reported to be $14.2 million while its international rentals totaled $43 million. The film was re-released theatrically on March 25, 1988, where it grossed $23.5 million. The Fox and the Hound has had a lifetime gross of $63.5 million across its original release and reissue.Accolades
The film was awarded a Golden Screen Award in 1982. In the same year, it was also nominated for a Young Artist Award and the Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film.| Year | Ceremony | Award | Result |
| 1982 | 9th Saturn Awards | Best Fantasy Film | |
| 1982 | 1982 Golden Screen Awards | ||
| 1982 | 5th Youth in Film Awards | Best Motion Picture - Fantasy or Comedy - Family Enjoyment |
Comic adaptations
As well as adaptations of the film itself, comic strips featuring the characters also appeared in stories unconnected to the film. Examples include The Lost Fawn, in which Copper uses his sense of smell to help Tod find a fawn who has gone astray; The Chase, in which Copper must safeguard a sleepwalking Chief; and Feathered Friends, in which the birds Dinky and Boomer have to go to desperate lengths to save one of Widow Tweed's chickens from a wolf.A comic adaptation of the film, drawn by Richard Moore, was published in newspapers as part of Disney's Treasury of Classic Tales. A comic-book titled The Fox and the Hound followed, with new adventures of the characters. Since 1981 and up to 2007, a few Fox and the Hound Disney comics stories were produced in Italy, Netherlands, Brazil, France, and the United States.