FOX AND THE HOUND, THE - DVD review

The Disney animation department had some rough years in the sixties and seventies, only beginning to return to form in the early eighties. "The Fox and the Hound" from 1981 is among the animated films that brought about the turnaround. For this viewer, it was not quite as much the turnaround as I would have hoped, but at least the movie's first half and most of its artwork looks good.

The story idea for the movie has promise. You take two animals that generally show animosity toward one another and show how, if others don't teach them to hate, they can get along with one another. It's a timely message for any age, and the movie is a sweet parable about, on the one hand, the natural power of love and, on the other, the teaching of bigotry. The Disney folks could have done it with dogs and cats, but that might have been too obvious. Instead, they chose a fox and a hound, traditional enemies, the one hunted by the other. But think about it: Is a hound born to loathe and kill a fox? I doubt it; no more so than any one group of people is born to detest another. It's learning that gets in the way. The world teaches the fox and the hound their prejudices, just as many parents raise their children to despise people of other races, religions, ethnicities, or social backgrounds. So, you can't fault "The Fox and the Hound" for its message of tolerance, acceptance, and understanding. It is the movie's particulars--its routine characters and story line, its oversimplifications, and its syrupy sentiment--that bog it down for this adult.

The story involves a fox pup (or kit) and a hound pup growing up as best friends. A kindly owl, Big Mama (Pearl Bailey), helps a young fox find a new home when hunters kill his mother; it's the home of Widow Tweed (Jeanette Nolan), an elderly lady living alone on a farm in the woods. The widow adopts the fox as a pet, much to the chagrin of her neighbor, a crotchety old hunter named Amos Slade (Jack Albertson), who lives on an adjacent farm. At the same time the widow takes in the stray fox, Slade brings home a hound pup to train as a hunting dog. The widow names her new pet fox Tod, short for toddler, and the hunter names his new hunting hound Copper. The thing is, the animals are too young to know yet that they are supposed to be hunter and hunted, so when they first meet, they become the best of friends. The first part of the story involves their fun and games together as youngsters; the second part of the story has them growing up and discovering their true paths in life.

The filmmakers based the plot and characters on those in a book by Daniel P. Mannix; and Ted Berman ("The Black Cauldren") and Richard Rich ("The Black Cauldren," "The Swan Princess"), and Art Stevens ("The Rescuers") directed. If the film seems to change tone from time to time, perhaps its having three directors helps explains things. For instance, there is the main story of the young fox and hound friendship; there is a subplot involving two birds trying to catch a caterpillar; there is a love interest for Tod as he gets older; and at the end, there is a lengthy episode that gets rather ugly. For a simple story lasting only eighty-three minutes, that's a lot of mood shifts.

The best things about the film are the animation and the voice characterizations. The artwork is mostly a throwback to old-time Disney, watercolor pastel backgrounds of intense beauty and detail. Although the artists still draw many objects in the blocky, jagged, stylized manner popularized in the late fifties--the farmhouses and the automobiles, for example--they draw the animals well, with good facial expression. Interestingly, the animals show up better than the humans do, the widow and the hunter rather lacking in individual personality. Slade, the hunter, looks like a stereotypical old codger, and the widow looks like a typical Disney old lady. Fortunately, their voices do more for them than the animators did. Albertson and Nolan are quite good at infusing their cartoon characters with life.

Keith Coogan and Corey Feldman as the young Tod and young Copper are quite good, too, investing the animals with much youthful zest, enthusiasm, and naïveté. Oddly, though, when they grow a little older and Mickey Rooney and Kurt Russell assume their voices, they seem to lose some of that pungent flavor. Unless I had read the credits, I doubt that I would have recognized either Rooney's or Russell's voice.

It's hard to miss Pearl Bailey's voice, though; she and Paul Winchell as Boomer, a goofy woodpecker, and Pat Buttram as Chief, an aging hunting dog, are the vocal stars of the show. Their voices are so distinctive, they make the cartoon figures jump to our attention. Others, like Sandy Duncan as Vixey, John McIntyre as Grumpy Badger, and Richard Bakalyan as Dinky don't fare quite as well but are OK in their roles.

I wish I could say the songs were OK, too, but I found them thoroughly unimpressive. "Best of Friends" is probably the best of the lot, but that's not saying much. Even after seeing this movie several times, I can't remember anything about the tunes or lyrics of "Lack of Education," "A Huntin' Man," "Appreciate the Lady," or "Goodbye May Seem Forever."

Yes, "The Fox and the Hound" is very sweet and no doubt a delight for children, but I found it quite slow and tedious. Not only do the filmmakers oversimplify its story, making its characters innocuous and its spirits changeable, it is often gushy and sentimental, trying too hard, too consciously, to tug at our heartstrings. Then, in the final sequence, it tries too much to be exciting, even scary. Of course, it's Disney, so expect a happy ending. Buddies are buddies, after all.

Video:
Have we gone back in time ten years? Is this the beginning of the DVD era all over again, when studios were still trying to decide if the public wanted their late-model movies in the original widescreen of their theatrical release or in a fullscreen pan-and-scan that would fill up a standard television? As more and more people bought widescreen TVs, I thought that question had been settled long ago. But here it is 2006, and the Disney studios are giving us a movie in 1.33:1 that was shown in theaters at 1.75:1. I dunno.

The Internet Movie Database says the original camera negative was 1.66:1 for an intended ratio of, as I say, 1.75:1. Maybe the IMDb is wrong. But I doubt it. It doesn't look like it. The sides appear clipped.

What's more, there is no mention on the keep case that Disney restored or remastered the movie for this 25th Anniversary Edition, so I'm going to have to assume that we're getting pretty much the same transfer Disney used some years ago for its regular edition. The video engineers transferred the picture to disc at a high bit rate, but there are still some scenes, especially at the beginning of the film, that are a touch soft, the Technicolor a tad faded, compared to Disney's best DVDs. Still and all, when it's good, the image is sharp and bright, with very few indications of age and only hint of a fine grain. I cannot understand that picture size, though. Maybe they were just being cheap, or they figured this was a kids' movie and children wouldn't care.

Audio:
The sound is pretty nondescript, actually. The Dolby Digital 5.1 sonics seem more like two-channel stereo most of the time, there is so little surround activity. There is a also a small degree of edgy hardness to the music. Otherwise, it's fine, if somewhat limited in frequency extremes and dynamic range.

Extras:
In honor of the movie's twenty-five anniversary, the Disney folks have included a few more bonus materials than they did on their previous edition, most of the extras geared to the younger set, as one might imagine. Things begin with a sing-along, "The Best of Friends," with printed captions to, uh, sing along. Next, there's a "Forest Friendship" game, which you can play either in a "Find the Friends" or "Find and Match" mode. Either way, it's a sort of "Hide-and-Seek" affair. After that is a DVD storybook, "New Best Friends," where children can either read along with a narrator or read it for themselves. Moving on, we find "Passing the Baton," a six-minute featurette about the old line of Disney's animators handing the reins to a new, younger group of artists; and "The Fox and the Hound" art gallery. Finally, there are two classic Disney cartoons, about eight minutes each: "Lend a Paw," with Mickey and Pluto, and "Lambert the Sheepish Lion."

Accompanying the movie we also find twenty scene selections and a chapter insert; Sneak Peeks at ten other Disney titles; English, French, and Spanish spoken languages; and English captions for the hearing impaired. A beautifully embossed and illustrated slipcover completes the package.

Parting Shots:
I can't say I've ever been too taken by "The Fox and the Hound." Although it was a pleasant return to the old days, trying to emulate some of the magic of a film like "Lady and the Tramp," Disney so clearly aimed it at children that as an adult I've always had a hard time sitting through it. If you have very young children in your family, you might consider "The Fox and the Hound"; but you might want to warn them in advance about the movie's climactic chase sequence and fight scenes, and you might also want to discuss with them afterwards the implications of the film's message.

Why am I still bothered by that screen size?