The Fox and the Hound (film)

''The Fox and the Hound'' is a 1981 American animated 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 the unlikely friendship between a red fox named Tod and a hound dog named Copper. The two friends struggle to preserve their friendship despite their emerging instincts and the surrounding social pressures demanding them to be adversaries, as they are enemies by nature. After Chief, Copper's mentor and guardian who is owned by the same hunter who owns Copper, is hit by a train while chasing Tod and seemingly almost dies, Copper assumes his role as a hunting dog and vows vengeance against Tod. Eventually, the two former friends fight each other, but in the end, Copper saves Tod after Tod saves Copper and his owner from a bear.

The film was directed by Ted Berman, Richard Rich, and Art Stevens, marking the directorial debuts of Berman and Rich. It was produced by Ron Miller, Wolfgang Reitherman, and Art Stevens. The ensemble voice cast consists of Mickey Rooney and Kurt Russell as Tod and Copper, respectively, with Pearl Bailey, Jack Albertson, Sandy Duncan, Jeanette Nolan, Pat Buttram, John Fiedler, John McIntire, Dick Bakalyan, Paul Winchell, Keith Mitchell, and Corey Feldman providing the voices of the other characters of the film. Mitchell and Feldman in particular voiced the young Tod and the young Copper. The instrumental musical score to the film was composed and conducted by Buddy Baker, with Walter Sheets performing the orchestration.

Walt Disney Productions first obtained the film rights to the novel by Daniel P. Mannix in 1967; however, actual development on the film would not occur until spring 1977. ''The Fox and the Hound'' marked the last involvement of the remaining members of Disney's Nine Old Men, which included Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. Though the old animators had involvement in early development of the film, the film was ultimately handed over to a new generation of animators following the retirement of the old animators. As such, it was the first film for future directors including Tim Burton, Brad Bird, and John Lasseter. During production, 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 originally planned to result in Chief dying. After debating the handling of the scene, the filmmakers decided to change the death into a non-fatal injury by which he merely suffers a broken leg.

''The Fox and the Hound'' was released to theaters on July 10, 1981, by Buena Vista Distribution. The film was a financial success, becoming the 14th highest-grossing film of the year and earning $39.9 million in the United States. However, it received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the animation and voice acting of the film, but believed that the film was not groundbreaking enough. It was nominated for three awards, of which it won one. At the time of its release, it was the most expensive animated film produced to date, costing $12 million. It was re-released to theaters on March 25, 1988. An intermediate follow-up, ''The Fox and the Hound 2'', was released directly-to-DVD on December 12, 2006.

Plot

After a young red fox is orphaned, Big Mama the owl and her friends, Dinky the finch and Boomer the woodpecker, arrange for him to be adopted by kindly farmer Widow Tweed, who names him Tod. Meanwhile, her neighbor, hunter Amos Slade, brings home a young hound puppy named Copper and introduces him to his hunting dog Chief, who is at first annoyed by him, but then learns to love him. One day, Tod and Copper meet and become best friends, pledging eternal friendship. Amos grows frustrated at Copper for constantly wandering off to play, and places him on a leash. While playing with Copper outside his barrel, Tod accidentally awakens Chief. Amos and Chief chase Tod until they are stopped by Tweed. After an argument, Amos threatens to kill Tod if the fox trespasses on his farm again. Hunting season comes and Amos takes his dogs into the wilderness for the interim. Meanwhile, Big Mama, Dinky, and Boomer attempt to explain to Tod that Copper will soon become his enemy. However, Tod naively insists that he and Copper will remain friends forever.

The following spring, Tod and Copper reach adulthood. Copper returns as an expert hunting dog, who is expected to track down foxes. Late at night, Tod sneaks over to visit Copper. Their conversation awakens Chief, who alerts Amos. A chase ensues and Copper catches Tod, but lets Tod go while diverting Amos. Chief catches Tod as he attempts an escape on a railroad track, but an oncoming train strikes Chief, resulting in him falling into the river below and breaking his leg. Enraged by this, Copper and Amos blame Tod for the accident and vow vengeance. Realizing Tod is no longer safe with her, Tweed leaves him at a game reserve. After a disastrous night on his own in the woods, Big Mama introduces Tod to Vixey, a female fox who helps Tod adapt to life in the forest.

Amos and Copper trespass into the reserve and hunt the two foxes. The chase climaxes when Amos and Copper inadvertently provoke an attack from a giant bear. Amos trips and falls into one of his own traps, dropping his gun slightly out of reach. Copper violently fights the bear, but is almost killed by the vicious animal. Tod comes to Copper's rescue and battles the bear until they both fall down a waterfall. As Copper approaches Tod as he lies wounded in the lake below, Amos appears, ready to shoot Tod. Copper positions himself in front of Tod to prevent Amos from shooting him, refusing to move away. Amos, understanding Tod had saved their lives, lowers his gun and leaves with Copper. Tod and Copper reconcile their friendship and share one last smile before parting. At home, Tweed nurses Amos back to health, much to his humiliation. As he lies down to take a nap, Copper smiles as he remembers the day when he first met Tod. At the same moment, Vixey joins Tod on top of a hill as they both look down on Copper and Tod's former home.

Voice cast

* Mickey Rooney as Tod
** Keith Mitchell as Young Tod
* Kurt Russell as Copper
** Corey Feldman as Young Copper
* Pearl Bailey as Big Mama
* Jack Albertson as Amos Slade
* Sandy Duncan as Vixey
* Jeanette Nolan as Widow Tweed
* Pat Buttram as Chief
* John Fiedler as The Porcupine
* John McIntire as The Badger
* Dick Bakalyan as Dinky
* Paul Winchell as Boomer
* Jack Angel as Squeeks the Caterpillar (uncredited)

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 over key sections of the film with Miller supporting the younger Stevens. Miller instructed Reitherman to surrender reins over to 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: "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, "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. These characters would sing a silly song titled "Scoobie-Doobie Doobie Doo, Let Your Body Turn to Goo" to Tod after he was dropped in the forest. Charo had recorded the song and several voice tracks which were storyboarded, and live-action reference footage was shot of her wearing 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''.

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 to 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 network 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