Arthur as a squirrel and a bird with her cheeps from Bambi can be seen during the storm scene after Widow brings Tod to the wildlife preservation area. When I first saw this, I immediately remembered the bird and the cheeps from Bambi.

Believe it or not, there actually was CGI in this, but only for a scene in the burrow. It wouldn’t be until the Great Mouse Detective when the use of CGI really took off.

This was the last animated Disney movie to not have credits at the end.

Sandy Duncan, voice of Vixey, guest starred on the Muppet Show. She also appeared on Barney and Friends (why…?)

Kurt Russell, voice of adult Copper, was in Escape from New York, also released in 1981. Lois from Family Guy mentioned something else he was in but I don’t remember what it was.

When first released, a documentary titled Once Upon a Mouse, showcasing last 60ish years of Walt Disney Productions, preceded the Fox and the Hound (incorrectly calling it the 20th Disney movie). Parts of it (most notably the montage at the end) were used on the Limited Gold Editions of classic Disney cartoons in 1984. I know this shit because I own a few of them.

The bear bleeds after getting shot by Amos.

Those bear traps suck! Amos getting caught in one of them proves how poorly designed they are!

Kind of odd that Chief only got a broken leg in that scuffle. I know it’s Disney and they got their own rules, but sometimes those rules can be damaging.

I consider this the semifinal classic Disney era movie. The last one is the Black Cauldron, which was the last one to mention Walt Disney Productions.

Given the audio quality, I mistook this for coming out around the same time as the Rescuers.

Widow probably would’ve been better off filing a restraining order against Amos instead of having to give Tod up.

Like the Rescuers, this starts out pretty dark with Tod’s mother getting murdered.

I can somewhat understand why Tod would save Copper from the bear despite that he considers him an enemy, but Amos? I wonder if some of his actions were to keep Amos alive to him getting busted by the authorities. But then again Amos realized that Tod saved Copper and himself as well, so it wasn’t much of a big deal.

1. This movie challenges social science in a good way.
2. Great assortment of cast members, including Jack Albertson, Kurt Russell, Mickey Rooney, and Pearl Bailey.
3. The pacing stays reasonable, slowing down when something serious is about to happen.
4. Unlike in Bambi, adult Tod and Copper have just as much run time (actually somewhat more) than their younger counterparts.
5. Two lessons this movie teaches: Blaming others doesn’t work and getting obsessed with committing murder leads to trouble.
6. Great animation, but if you’ve seen any of my other Disney reviews that’s not a shock.
7. The ending is good; we see Amos find out that Tod saved him and Copper. Copper realizes that the train incident was truly an accident and had enough of Amos’s hostility.

1. I don’t like the scene where Widow frees Tod. They didn’t have to make it that depressing – oh it is. If you can stomach through it without drinking a six pack of Icehouse afterwards, good on you.
2. The audio quality is bad for 1981 and it’s because Disney continued to use RCA Photophone for the audio instead of Dolby System. Pete’s Dragon already used that audio system, so why not here? I wouldn’t give grief for it but Raiders of the Lost Ark used Dolby System and Tron which came out the year afterwards used it as well. Just saying.