Fox and the Hound
Plot
Fox and the Hound tells the story of an orphaned baby Fox and hound dog who become best friends until they grow up and realise that society tells them they have to be enemies.
Original Story
Fox and the Hound, the film, was very loosely based on the book of the same name by author Daniel P. Mannix. The only real similarities between the two versions is the names of the characters, almost everything else has been tweaked, or completely changed.
For example Chief and Copper hate each other throughout the book and are both fighting to be there masters favourite and the leader of the pack.
Tod’s adoptive human mother is the one that kills his mother and the brothers and sisters he has had in the book. Tod and Copper are never friends in the film and Tod purposely makes it so that Chief is killed by the train.
I won’t spoil the entire book just encase you want to read it, but be aware, it’s not the happy Disney version.
Film Development
The inspiration for the 24th Disney animated feature came after Woolie Reitherman, the films co-producer and one of the 9 old men, read the original story. It resonated with him because he and his sons once looked after a fox.
Fox and the Hound was meant to go into production a lot earlier than it did, but at the time a lot of animators were leaving the studio because Don Bluth had left the studio to start his own animation studio: Sullivan Bluth Studios, also known as Don Bluth Entertainment. He was responsible for animated films like “The Land Before Time” and “All Dogs go to Heaven”.
There were a few concerns that the film was a little too slow, so to spice things up they were going to introduce two new characters who would be cranes. They even went as far as picking out the voice actors, Phil Harris and Charo, a Spanish singer. Charo came in to perform a live action reference for animation, but ultimately they were never included due to pacing and budget reasons.
The majority of this film was created using the traditional hand drawn animation style that they have been perfecting since the days of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs back in 1937, however this film started to take animation in a new direction by including computer-generated imagery (CGI). You can see it in the scene where Amos Slade tries to catch Tod and Vixey by smoking them out of there hole.
Eventually Disney would only role out CGI films like Tangled and Frozen but back in 1981, the technology was still in its baby stages and it needed small experiments like the one in this film to work out the problems and limitations.
Cast
Tod, the adult fox is voiced by Mickey Rooney, whereas the young fox is voiced by Keith Coogan
In the film Tod is given his name because Widow Tweed calls him a toddler, and then Tod, “Todde” in middle English means Fox.
Copper, the adult hound dog is voiced by Kurt Russell, although they considered Jackie Copper for the role, whereas the young dog is voiced by Corey Feldman.
There was a rumour that Kurt wore his costume for his character in Escape from New York when recording his lines, but this isn’t the case. Escape from New York had finished filming when Kurt was asked to record his lines. Both films were released on the same weekend.
Amos Slade, the owner of Copper, is voiced by Jack Albertson and sadly this would be his last film role as he passed away four months after the film was released due to cancer. Although he does a great job as Amos in this film, to me he will always be Grandpa Jo in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
The role of Widow Tweed, Tod’s adoptive mum was offered to Lilian Gish and Helen Hayes but they both turned down the role, so instead Jeanette Nolan voiced her.
Chief, the elderly dog, is voiced by Pat Buttram who was the sheriff of Nottingham in Disney’s Robin Hood and Napoleon in Aristocats.
Originally, when Chief was hit by the train when trying to catch Tod, he was meant to pass away, and therefore it would have made Coppers anger towards Tod a lot more believable and justifiable, but instead they made it so that he just has a broken leg because they didn’t want another situation like Bambi’s mum.
Big Mama, the owl, is voiced by Pearl Bailey, a Tony award winner American singer and actress. She is the character in the film who performs the beloved “Best of Friends” song which was composed by Richard Johnston and the lyrics were written by Stan Fidel.
Vixey, Tod’s love interest is voiced by Sandy Duncan. The inspiration for the design of Vixey was Maid Marian from Robin Hood. Also, Vixey was so named because a vixen is a female fox.
Vixey was animated by first time animator Tim Burton, the man who would go on to work on projects like The Nightmare Before Christmas, Edward Scissorhands, The Corpse Bride, etc . Being that a cute fox isn’t Tim’s style, he really didn’t enjoy the job of animating her.
Porcupine is voiced by John Fielder who has voiced Piglet in the Winnie the Pooh movies.
Badger is voiced by John McIntire, the real life husband of Widow Tweed’s voice actress Jeanette Nolan. Together they also voiced characters in The Rescuers – Ellie Mae, the swamp muskrat was voiced by Jeanette and John voiced Rufus.
Dinky, the sparrow, is voiced by Richard Bakalyan.
Boomer, the woodpecker is voiced by Paul Winchell, who has also voiced Tigger in many Winnie the Pooh films and Shun Gon, one of the cats in Aristocats.
The bear is voiced by two people. Clarence Nash and Jimmy MacDonald provided all the snarls, growls and roars. There recordings were reused from when Clarence and Jimmy voiced Shere Khan from The Jungle Book and Brutus and Nero, the crocodiles from The Rescuers.
In order to create a bear that was a little more scary than the bears they’ve done in the past, e.g. Winnie the Pooh or Baloo, they looked at the 1976 horror film Grizzly. It’s important to note though that Ollie Johnston, one of the films animators and 9 old men, has stated that he doesn’t believe the bear is a villain. The bear, like the rat in Lady and the Tramp is acting instinctually.
Bits and Bobs
In the opening scene of the film Tod and his mother are on the run from a hunter and pack of dogs, some believe that it could have been Chief and Amos Slade, however this seems unlikely as moments later we see that Chief has been at home while Amos has been collecting Copper.
A direct to video sequel was released in 2006 featuring Tod and Copper before they grew up. It focused on the idea of Copper wanting to leave home to go and join a group of singing dogs. As imagined, it wasn’t one of the better sequels Disney have released.
Come back on Friday 6th July for a blog post all about the saddest Disney and Pixar moments.
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