One of the more heartbreaking films from the Disney Vault is 1981’s The Fox and the Hound. While I do think that this is a good movie, I think the stuff going on behind the scenes is just as interesting as the actual movie. I watched this recently and think that it is still a good movie and it pulls on the heartstrings even more than thought it did as a kid.
How to Download The Fox and the Hound
You can download or stream the film from a digital platform. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice. Check out also other Disney animated films from the 80’s – The Black Cauldron, The Great Mouse Detective, Oliver & Company, and The Little Mermaid.
The Movie Review
I just want to touch on the production of the movie a tad. What makes The Fox and the Hound such a special movie is that this was the last Disney movie to be made with involvement from members of Disney’s Nine Old Men. These guys started with Snow White and worked on most major and minor Disney projects.
The Fox and the Hound saw a changing of the guard. Only a couple of The Nine Old Men were left and a new breed of Disney animators worked on this, including a small role for a young Tum Burton. It is a truly remarkable piece of Disney history and it makes this a real turning point for them. If you look purely at the box office from the early to mid-80s, it was not a change for the best.
I am pretty sure everyone by this point knows the plot of the movie, but let’s get into it anyway. We have a little fox called Tod and a dog called Copper, these two should be fearsome enemies as Copper is there to stop foxes! However, these two youngsters form a lovely little friendship.
There is a lot of pressure for these two to be enemies, not just their natural instincts, but Copper’s elder, Chief. Chief is like Copper’s mentor and one day when he is chasing Tod away, he ends up getting killed. It is a pretty brutal scene if I am being honest and it gets even worse.
It is heartbreaking stuff seeing Copper deal with the death of Chief. However, even worse than that is seeing him filled with anger and hate for Tod and Tod being heartbroken over it. This is one of the most painful scenes in a Disney movie and even as an adult, it is hard to watch.
At its core, I think we have a great movie about friendship and the way friendships can change. In typical Disney fashion, we do have a classic happy ending here, but there is also a little bit of sadness about it too. I think that it is a movie that hits you in the feels when you are a kid, but when you watch it as an adult it hits you in a kind of different way.
While there is no 4K release of The Fox and the Hound, I have the Blu-Ray and they did a great job here as it looks great. I would actually say that the Blu-Ray looks better than the supposed HDR version they have on Disney Plus! This is such a great movie and while it is sad, it is still one that I would say is great to watch with the kids.
