Another installment in the Disney Masterpiece Collection, “The Fox and the Hound” is the story of Tod, a little orphaned fox kit who is discovered by Big Mama (voiced by Pearl Bailey), an oversized maternal owl. She helps Tod attract the attention of Widow Tweed,a kindly woman who takes an immediate shine to him and bottle feeds him to full health. Once he’s back on his feet, he begins to explore, to stumble upon Copper, the new hound dog pup brought home by Amos Slade, the grumpy and trigger-happy hunter next door. Tod and Copper form a fast friendship and play together all day, only to be told that foxes and hounds are natural enemies and should not play together.
Copper goes on a hunting trip with Amos and comes home a seasoned hunting dog. Amos has taken a dislike to Tod and vowed to get him if he ever returned to Amos’s property, so when Tod (now voiced by Mickey Rooney) sneaks over to welcome Copper back, Amos is all over it and sets the hounds loose, literally. And when Chief, Amos’s old dog and Copper’s mentor, is injured while chasing Tod, that just adds fuel to the fire. Now Copper (voiced by Kurt Russell) hates Tod as well, and is determined to help the hunter snare him.
The widow knows what she must do. Driving Tod to a protected area of the forest, she lets him go. Big Mama goes along to watch over him, and introduces him to Vixie, a cute little girl fox voiced by Sandy Duncan. They hit it off pretty well and Tod thinks he can adjust to life in the forest, until Amos and Copper come after him.
This movie is a perfect example of why it’s dangerous to anthropomorphize animals. When children start seeing animals as being just like humans, and then they see those animals struggling to survive in the wilderness (which is the natural order of things) it brings the terror level up. There are several extremely violent scenes in this movie that portray the everyday goings on of a forest, but when we’ve seen the animals talk, we’re hard put to separate the reality from the fantasy. I didn’t particularly care for this film. The hunter’s levels of anger seemed too high given the provocation, and the feelings of hatred he radiated were frightening even to me as an adult. Again, I know there are many that have enjoyed this film, so it’s one you should evaluate for yourself, but I would recommend watching it before your children see it, in case they find themselves afraid.
This movie is rated G.
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