An orphaned Fox kit is discovered by caring owl Big Mama (Pearl Bailey) after his mother is killed by a hunter. Taking pity on the Fox, Big Mama brings him to the attention of Widow Tweed (Jeanette Nolan) who adopts the Fox and names him Tod (Keith Mitchell: child, Mickey Rooney: adult). Meanwhile Tweed's hunter neighbor Amos Slade (Jack Albertson) brings home a hound pup named Copper (Corey Feldman: child, Kurt Russell: adult) to be raised as a hunting dog with older dog Chief (Pat Butram) as Coppper's mentor. Eventually Copper and Tod meet and form a friendship in spite of their roles as hunter and prey as well as Amos' strong dislike of Tod. As time goes on, the two find themselves at further odds because of their defined roles.
The Fox and the Hound is an adaptation of the 1967 novel of the same name by Daniel P. Mannix. While Disney had bought the novel's rights shortly after publication, no development began until 1977 when Wolfgang Reitherman determined it would be a good foundation for an animated feature. The movie's noted for its power struggle between Disney's "old guard" and "new guard" with Reitherman leaving as director early on, the film being the last production involving Disney's Nine Old Man, featuring work from future directors such as Tim Burton and Brad Bird, and also being the final Disney project Don Bluth worked on before he and his team quit partway through production to work on Bluth's independently funded Secret of NIMH. After the very middle middling to okay efforts of Disney animation that followed One Hundred and One Dalmatians, The Fox and the Hound does try to reach for the aspirations of golden age Disney projects such as Bambi, but falls somewhat short due to certain creative choices.
From the eerily quiet opening that ratches up the intensity when a Fox mother and her Kit are chased through the woods, the movie feels like it's trying to harken back to classic Disney stories that had that rough natural edge to them like Old Yeller or Bambi. The movie does a good job of setting up the characters of Tod and Copper with Tod's guardian Widow Tweed fostering Tod's sense of naïve but good natured mischief, while Amos Slade and Chief foster Copper's obedience, drive, and determination that serves as the wedge between these two characters that deepens as the story progresses. The animation feels a lot smoother than the previous 10 years' worth of Disney of Disney animated films with the rough sketchy style seen from One Hundred and One Dalmatians onward considerably more fluid with softer colors and edges that we'd not seen since Sleeping Beauty. Some sequences have Don Bluth's signature on them, particularly a bear attack in the climax that's animated with similar intensity to Dragon the Cat from secret of NIMH or the sharp tooth from Land Before Time. Unfortunately the movie loses some credibility as it approaches the third act as due to a mandate by Art Stevens, a character who should've died is only mildly wounded and this ends up undermining key scenes in the climax because despite him not being dead, the characters motivated to their actions act like they're dead with only a few tacked on scenes that only serve to undermine the emotional power.
The Fox and the Hound aspires to the same level as its forerunners released in the creative heyday of Disney, but unfortunately it stumbles in the third act and doesn't really recover from it. There's some solid animation on display that's truly a sight to behold and the story does hit the right points of emotional resonance most of the time, but what should have been great ends up as merely good.
The Fox and the Hound is an adaptation of the 1967 novel of the same name by Daniel P. Mannix. While Disney had bought the novel's rights shortly after publication, no development began until 1977 when Wolfgang Reitherman determined it would be a good foundation for an animated feature. The movie's noted for its power struggle between Disney's "old guard" and "new guard" with Reitherman leaving as director early on, the film being the last production involving Disney's Nine Old Man, featuring work from future directors such as Tim Burton and Brad Bird, and also being the final Disney project Don Bluth worked on before he and his team quit partway through production to work on Bluth's independently funded Secret of NIMH. After the very middle middling to okay efforts of Disney animation that followed One Hundred and One Dalmatians, The Fox and the Hound does try to reach for the aspirations of golden age Disney projects such as Bambi, but falls somewhat short due to certain creative choices.
From the eerily quiet opening that ratches up the intensity when a Fox mother and her Kit are chased through the woods, the movie feels like it's trying to harken back to classic Disney stories that had that rough natural edge to them like Old Yeller or Bambi. The movie does a good job of setting up the characters of Tod and Copper with Tod's guardian Widow Tweed fostering Tod's sense of naïve but good natured mischief, while Amos Slade and Chief foster Copper's obedience, drive, and determination that serves as the wedge between these two characters that deepens as the story progresses. The animation feels a lot smoother than the previous 10 years' worth of Disney of Disney animated films with the rough sketchy style seen from One Hundred and One Dalmatians onward considerably more fluid with softer colors and edges that we'd not seen since Sleeping Beauty. Some sequences have Don Bluth's signature on them, particularly a bear attack in the climax that's animated with similar intensity to Dragon the Cat from secret of NIMH or the sharp tooth from Land Before Time. Unfortunately the movie loses some credibility as it approaches the third act as due to a mandate by Art Stevens, a character who should've died is only mildly wounded and this ends up undermining key scenes in the climax because despite him not being dead, the characters motivated to their actions act like they're dead with only a few tacked on scenes that only serve to undermine the emotional power.
The Fox and the Hound aspires to the same level as its forerunners released in the creative heyday of Disney, but unfortunately it stumbles in the third act and doesn't really recover from it. There's some solid animation on display that's truly a sight to behold and the story does hit the right points of emotional resonance most of the time, but what should have been great ends up as merely good.