"The Fox and the Hound" is an American cartoon movie from 1981, so it is almost 45 years old now or maybe even older depending on when you get here to read this review of mine. At slightly over 80 minutes, it is not a long film by any means, but Disney movies back then were always around that duration. You find three writers and three directors, including one person that worked in both fields, so a total of five people in the most important positions, which is definitely a lot for a relatively short film. One of those is Daniel P. Mannix who wrote the book that the film is based on. Anyway, the four people I saw the birthdates from were all already fairly old when they made this movie, in their 60s or even 70s. This includes Mannix, Berman, Stevens and Clemmons. I cannot find a date for Richard Rich. Nice name though. Most of them worked on some of the older Disney classics as well and their experience really shows. I adored the watch here. Or rewatch I should say because it was not the first time I watched this film, but the last/previous time happened a long time ago, so I was glad to give this another go here on the occasion of a Disney retrospective where literally every cartoon/animated full feature from the company was shown again. A bit of a pity there were not even ten people in my sitting and it was one of only two screenings for this movie. I am kinda proud that the only awards win (according to imdb) came from my country, namely the Golden Screen or Goldene Leinwand that was given to films that manage to surpass a really high amount of people who come and see the film. If you have come across this film as a young human, then there is probably no way you will not appreciate it as an adult either. I also found it kinda funny that one person working on the music for the movie here was named Sheets.
So yeah, the version I watched was in English with German subtitles and maybe this is a reason why they were not more parents with children in the audience yesterday. I liked it that way though and this also has to do with the original voice cast. The two big names are the ones that give their voices to the title characters and that would be Mickey Rooney and Kurt Russell. The former is not with us anymore for a decade now, but at the age of 60 he was also older already than you would have thought when he gave the fox his voice. He would be over 100 now. Kurt Russell, who voiced the hound, was only 30 and he is still here and hopefully will be for many years. Other than those two, you will also for example find the original voice of Tigger from Winnie the Pooh. It all stays in the Disney family I guess. There is one interesting thing to say about the title because the German title is "Cap & Capper", which are the names of the two characters and this change surely has to do with the fact that the fox is called Tod (with one d) in the original and this is the German word for "death". Unlucky coincidence. So they went with a little play on words to make the two have almost the same name, which can be a bit confusing when watching an original-language version with subtitles, but you get used to it. I guess they did not go with Cop and Copper because of "cop" being the word for a police officer? I am not sure how familiar German audiences were with this in the early 1980s, but overall they surely did the right thing if you look at the aforementioned commercial success this film had in my country. By the way, they also changed Vixey to Trixi or so, but I have no explanation for that other than Trixi just being a more common name in German(y), even if it takes away the vixen-fox connection. Oh and I almost forgot: Corey Feldman is also part of this film as he lends his voice to the very young Copper.
The animal characters were all pretty memorable and not only the two main characters. Take the smart owl who is a bit of a mentor to Tod and not only comes up with a plan on how the baby fox finds a new mother, but also makes sure he stays with his fox girlfriend in the end after they have an argument. There are two other birds that are constantly chasing a caterpillar and those are in it for the comedy exclusively and to help the owl of course. I hope nobody will ever deem the owl a racist depiction or anything. Political correctness is getting too much in the way of creativity already with all kinds of other films and I hope this one never gets touched. Okay, I will just go on about the story now and some inclusions and do some brainstorming: The bear was oh so scary towards the end, but this fight there and Tod interfering to save Copper's life was a true highlight, even if the real emotional highlight then was the hunter pulling his gun and Copper getting in the way to protect his friend. It is one scene where the animals do not talk, but they do not have to in order to create the biggest emotional impact. You will not not sob. At the very start, the death of the fox's mother was also pretty sad, even if we do not see what happens, only hear. Luckily the owl was nearby to witness it all. I also really liked the other dog, Chief was his name, and even if he is a loyal fox hunter, he is not an antagonist I would say. He just does what he is trained to do. Just like Copper basically. I was worried that Chief died there in one scene, but I guess they let him live because they would not want Tod to be responsible for the death of another (animal) character. I was surely relieved though when Copper said that Tod "almost killed Chief". In a way, this injured Chief even brought some comedy then and you totally had to hate his owner when he says something along the lines of how he would break the canine's other leg too, but yeah the man gets his fair share at the end too and Chief reflecting and making a (for us) funny connection between his suffering from earlier and his owner's current injury was totally worth it.
Speaking of the two protagonists again, they were surely right when telling each other how much they had grown when the hound returns after his hunting training. All those furs there were pretty sad though. There may have been foxes included too. By the way, if we ignore the face for a second, the hound really reminded me of Pluto in terms of color and anatomy. Oh and if we look at the minor characters again, there is also an interesting depiction of a badger. He was not seen a lot, but still made a bit of an entertaining impact for me in the last third of the film. It is difficult for me to find flaws with this movie, not only because of the youth connection as I remember that I had a sticker album back then, but also because there aren't really (m)any. Maybe the strong ending makes you forget that here and there the film was a bit mediocre early on and probably really should not have run for over 1.5 hours, but it is all good. The change happening in the main antagonist's mind in terms of eventually letting the fox live was also debatable. I mean he entered a safety zone for animals where he was not allowed to shoot anything, in order to kill the fox instead of simply forgetting about him, but yeah. His life was at risk there because of the bear and his hound's life too, so probably the man was not 100% mean-spirited. Same can be said about the pretty much final shot then when he is even bonding a bit with the fox owner, something you never would have expected earlier with how the two were going against each other or especially how the man is attacking the woman and almost shooting her dead on one occasion, even if she was not the target. But for every slightly sub-par inclusion, there are three or four that are really nice. The music is good too, also the threatening music when we are shown the deadly fox trap for example, but also the harmless music on many other occasions.
I also really liked how they jumped from autumn to spring or so when the hound was absent with his owner and returns a big dog and the fox has grown too obviously. There they just showed us the changing seasons for a moment. During other segments, the hound is also absent, but there the reason is that the story focus is on the fox and the big example there is of course when the fox meets another fox, a female. I kinda would have thought that maybe at the end we see young foxes even, but with the last shot the film is giving a happy ending, but not going too much over the top. That would be for the sequel. We also do not see the two reunited again and playing like fox and hound, which you could have expected. Instead, you hear a voiceover from the two back when they were kids still and just had all the joy in the world together. It was probably better and more effective this way even. Such a touching movie. The moment when the hound has to leave the fun in the water with his new friend was cute, really nice depiction of how you as a child do not want to go home again, even if it is late and you wanna keep playing with your friends. The first meeting between the two was also great when the hound could smell the fox, but did not realize right away it was him. Before the end of my review, let me mention just a couple moments when the film felt sad. This included the scene in which the dog was all tied up and could not leave to play with the fox when they were still kids and there's two occasions when the fox is pretty sad too: First would be when the hound, now a grown-up, tells him things have changed and they cannot be friends anymore and second would be when the widow leaves him behind to protect him from the hunter. That was a touching moment too. I also really, really liked the words from the widow in the car there. Anybody who thinks that they are too old for Disney classics, I dare them to watch this one. If they really feel nothing here, I feel bad for them. Big thumbs-up and I highly recommend "The Fox and the Hound". It's a wonderful film and just gets better and better the longer it goes. Beautiful imagery and so much heart!
So yeah, the version I watched was in English with German subtitles and maybe this is a reason why they were not more parents with children in the audience yesterday. I liked it that way though and this also has to do with the original voice cast. The two big names are the ones that give their voices to the title characters and that would be Mickey Rooney and Kurt Russell. The former is not with us anymore for a decade now, but at the age of 60 he was also older already than you would have thought when he gave the fox his voice. He would be over 100 now. Kurt Russell, who voiced the hound, was only 30 and he is still here and hopefully will be for many years. Other than those two, you will also for example find the original voice of Tigger from Winnie the Pooh. It all stays in the Disney family I guess. There is one interesting thing to say about the title because the German title is "Cap & Capper", which are the names of the two characters and this change surely has to do with the fact that the fox is called Tod (with one d) in the original and this is the German word for "death". Unlucky coincidence. So they went with a little play on words to make the two have almost the same name, which can be a bit confusing when watching an original-language version with subtitles, but you get used to it. I guess they did not go with Cop and Copper because of "cop" being the word for a police officer? I am not sure how familiar German audiences were with this in the early 1980s, but overall they surely did the right thing if you look at the aforementioned commercial success this film had in my country. By the way, they also changed Vixey to Trixi or so, but I have no explanation for that other than Trixi just being a more common name in German(y), even if it takes away the vixen-fox connection. Oh and I almost forgot: Corey Feldman is also part of this film as he lends his voice to the very young Copper.
The animal characters were all pretty memorable and not only the two main characters. Take the smart owl who is a bit of a mentor to Tod and not only comes up with a plan on how the baby fox finds a new mother, but also makes sure he stays with his fox girlfriend in the end after they have an argument. There are two other birds that are constantly chasing a caterpillar and those are in it for the comedy exclusively and to help the owl of course. I hope nobody will ever deem the owl a racist depiction or anything. Political correctness is getting too much in the way of creativity already with all kinds of other films and I hope this one never gets touched. Okay, I will just go on about the story now and some inclusions and do some brainstorming: The bear was oh so scary towards the end, but this fight there and Tod interfering to save Copper's life was a true highlight, even if the real emotional highlight then was the hunter pulling his gun and Copper getting in the way to protect his friend. It is one scene where the animals do not talk, but they do not have to in order to create the biggest emotional impact. You will not not sob. At the very start, the death of the fox's mother was also pretty sad, even if we do not see what happens, only hear. Luckily the owl was nearby to witness it all. I also really liked the other dog, Chief was his name, and even if he is a loyal fox hunter, he is not an antagonist I would say. He just does what he is trained to do. Just like Copper basically. I was worried that Chief died there in one scene, but I guess they let him live because they would not want Tod to be responsible for the death of another (animal) character. I was surely relieved though when Copper said that Tod "almost killed Chief". In a way, this injured Chief even brought some comedy then and you totally had to hate his owner when he says something along the lines of how he would break the canine's other leg too, but yeah the man gets his fair share at the end too and Chief reflecting and making a (for us) funny connection between his suffering from earlier and his owner's current injury was totally worth it.
Speaking of the two protagonists again, they were surely right when telling each other how much they had grown when the hound returns after his hunting training. All those furs there were pretty sad though. There may have been foxes included too. By the way, if we ignore the face for a second, the hound really reminded me of Pluto in terms of color and anatomy. Oh and if we look at the minor characters again, there is also an interesting depiction of a badger. He was not seen a lot, but still made a bit of an entertaining impact for me in the last third of the film. It is difficult for me to find flaws with this movie, not only because of the youth connection as I remember that I had a sticker album back then, but also because there aren't really (m)any. Maybe the strong ending makes you forget that here and there the film was a bit mediocre early on and probably really should not have run for over 1.5 hours, but it is all good. The change happening in the main antagonist's mind in terms of eventually letting the fox live was also debatable. I mean he entered a safety zone for animals where he was not allowed to shoot anything, in order to kill the fox instead of simply forgetting about him, but yeah. His life was at risk there because of the bear and his hound's life too, so probably the man was not 100% mean-spirited. Same can be said about the pretty much final shot then when he is even bonding a bit with the fox owner, something you never would have expected earlier with how the two were going against each other or especially how the man is attacking the woman and almost shooting her dead on one occasion, even if she was not the target. But for every slightly sub-par inclusion, there are three or four that are really nice. The music is good too, also the threatening music when we are shown the deadly fox trap for example, but also the harmless music on many other occasions.
I also really liked how they jumped from autumn to spring or so when the hound was absent with his owner and returns a big dog and the fox has grown too obviously. There they just showed us the changing seasons for a moment. During other segments, the hound is also absent, but there the reason is that the story focus is on the fox and the big example there is of course when the fox meets another fox, a female. I kinda would have thought that maybe at the end we see young foxes even, but with the last shot the film is giving a happy ending, but not going too much over the top. That would be for the sequel. We also do not see the two reunited again and playing like fox and hound, which you could have expected. Instead, you hear a voiceover from the two back when they were kids still and just had all the joy in the world together. It was probably better and more effective this way even. Such a touching movie. The moment when the hound has to leave the fun in the water with his new friend was cute, really nice depiction of how you as a child do not want to go home again, even if it is late and you wanna keep playing with your friends. The first meeting between the two was also great when the hound could smell the fox, but did not realize right away it was him. Before the end of my review, let me mention just a couple moments when the film felt sad. This included the scene in which the dog was all tied up and could not leave to play with the fox when they were still kids and there's two occasions when the fox is pretty sad too: First would be when the hound, now a grown-up, tells him things have changed and they cannot be friends anymore and second would be when the widow leaves him behind to protect him from the hunter. That was a touching moment too. I also really, really liked the words from the widow in the car there. Anybody who thinks that they are too old for Disney classics, I dare them to watch this one. If they really feel nothing here, I feel bad for them. Big thumbs-up and I highly recommend "The Fox and the Hound". It's a wonderful film and just gets better and better the longer it goes. Beautiful imagery and so much heart!
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