24 – The Fox and the Hound
Disney has tried making movies about
relationships before with varied results. Lady and the Tramp
successfully dealt with a
romantic relationship between two dogs from different worlds while
The Aristocats had a
similar theme that, I think, didn't work. This movie, 1981's The
Fox and the Hound, tries
exploring a different kind of relationship. One of a young fox who
becomes friends with a dog who should, and one day might, be his
enemy.
The fox in this
story is Tod who was orphaned at a young age and taken in by the kind
Widow Tweed. He's very curious about the world about him, adventurous
and very friendly. I liked Tod. We connect with him pretty quickly as
we see the sad situation that gets him orphaned and we also spend a
good amount of the beginning of the movie getting to know him.
There's definitely a reason he's mentioned first in the title as he
is definitely the main character of the story. We spend the most time
with him and the story is ultimately about his relationships. Widow
Tweed is also a pretty good character. She is incredibly kind and
takes in Tod without question. She is very protective of him and
isn't afraid of fighting for him if she needs to. Despite that, she
doesn't really show up too much in the movie, especially near the
end.
The dog that Tod
ends up meeting is a young hound dog named Copper. He is similarly
curious about the world and aspires to be a good hunting dog in the
beginning of the movie. He looks up to the older dog Chief he lives
with but can't help running off to play with Tod. When they meet they
become instant friends. I really liked that scene. They seem to hit
it off very quickly but it doesn't seem too forced. We don't actually
see them play very long before Copper is tied up to stay home but
they manage to make a promise to be friends forever.
Copper is owned by
Amos Slade, a hunter with a crazy temper. Amos also owns Chief and
gives Chief the responsibility of taking care and raising Copper to
be a good hunting dog. Chief and Amos get off to a bad start with
their relationship with Tod when they find him on their property and
think he's trying to kill his chickens. While Amos and Chief aren't
really villains, they definitely have an antagonistic relationship
with Tod. Amos later takes Chief and Copper away for hunting season
where Copper learns to hunt and grows up. There are some scenes where
Chief seems a bit jealous of Copper but nothing really comes of it.
Of course, this
wouldn't be a Disney movie without a ton of other side characters.
This movie actually does pretty well with not introducing too many
characters but there are definitely some that weren't really needed.
There's Big Mama who introduces Tod to Widow Tweed and tries to teach
Tod about the world. She's a bit of a strangely inconsistent
character in that in the beginning of the movie she acts happy that
Tod has met Copper but she later goes to warn Tod that they can't be
friends forever. It's a bit of a small detail but that sort of thing
kind of bothers me. Then there are Dinky and Boomer who are two birds
that try to chase after a caterpillar. Their only real connection to
the movie is that they help a bit in the beginning with Tod but they
aren't really necessary. Their scenes really only serve to be a break
from the action with some humor but I really wish they had more to do
with the story. Finally, there's Vixey, a young girl fox that Big
Mama introduces to Tod. She's an ok character but it's definitely
interesting to see Tod in a different kind of relationship. She
doesn't get a lot of character development and she's introduced very
late so I feel like there was some lost opportunity there.
As for
the rest of the movie, I have to say I didn't really like the music.
Some of the background music is pretty good while some of it is just
boring and some can border on annoying. The songs aren't really any
better. I can't say that any of them are really very memorable. The
animation has definitely taken a step up from The Rescuers,
however. They also do a much better job on the action scenes in this
movie. One scene, in particular, near the end was very tense with Tod
and Vixey trying to escape Amos.
Ultimately, I think
this movie is about relationships. We see Tod and Copper meet and
become friends before the world they live in forces them to become
enemies. We also see Tod's relationship with Widow Tweed who is very
much like a mother to him. Finally, there's Tod and Vixey as Tod
learns about romantic relationships. While the relationship between
Tod and Copper takes center stage, I don't think that any of those
relationships were explored quite enough. There's a nice scene in the
beginning where Tod and Widow Tweed interact and a very sad one later
when she has to let him go but Tod seems almost unaffected by it.
Tod and Vixey definitely don't win any awards for best couple in a
Disney movie. They should have handled that one a bit more like Bambi
and Faline. More importantly than either of those, they really should
have given more focus to Tod and Copper. They only really have a few
scenes together in the beginning and the end. I would have liked to
see more conflict there. On top of all that, they also could have
made more of a comment on Chief and Copper's relationship, or at
least gotten rid of those moments where Chief was jealous of Copper.
Overall,
the movie is definitely better than The Rescuers. They
had some problems with where their focus should have been but they
still did a good job convincing me of Tod and Copper's relationship.
The movie definitely has it's rough patches but it really has some
great ideas and succeeds in conveying at least some of them.
24 down. 29 to go.
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