The Fox and the Hound

The Fox and the Hound is a 1981 American animated feature film loosely based on the Daniel P. Mannix novel of the same name, produced by Walt Disney Productions and released in the United States on July 10, 1981, and it's the 24th film in the Disney Animated Canon. The film tells the story of two unlikely friends, a red fox named Tod and a hound dog named Copper, who struggle to preserve their friendship despite their emerging instincts and the surrounding social pressures demanding them to be adversaries. In the film, the film's protagonists, Tod and Copper, meet when young and become friends. They play together all summer long, however, as they grow up, they become enemies because real hounds hunt foxes for food. The film has been directed by Ted Berman and Richard Rich under the working title Tod and Copper. Daniel Mannix's original novel has had a more realistic story, which has dealt with the quest of a hunter and his dog Copper to shoot Tod after he has killed the hunter's new dog Chief. The novel has been mainly about Tod's life in the woods. While being raised by humans he has not been childhood friends with Copper and none of the animals spoke. The story has been changed to make it more suitable for a family film; instead of a story about the life and death of a fox, it has become a parable about how society determines our roles despite our better impulses.

At the time of release it has been the most expensive animated film produced to date, costing $12 million. The Fox and the Hound has been the last film which was worked on with animation legends like Frank Thomas, and Ollie Johnston, two members of Walt Disney's original "Nine Old Men" who has also worked on this film, with it being the last film for both, as well as the first film for future Disney leaders like Tim Burton (The Nightmare Before Christmas), Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Ratatouille), and Glen Keane, who has animated the bear in this film, and later worked on other animated films like The Little Mermaid (1989) and Beauty and the Beast (1991), in which he designed the beast. It was also the final Disney film to have all the credits in the title sequence as opposed to having end credits and have the words, "The End. A Walt Disney Production" at the end of the film, the last Disney animated film to use the Buena Vista logo, and the last Disney film in which Don Bluth has involved in its production.

Despite originally receiving mixed reviews, the film has developed a low cult following and was nominated for three awards. The film stars the voices of Kurt Russell, Mickey Rooney, Pearl Bailey, Pat Buttram, Sandy Duncan, Richard Bakalyan, Paul Winchell, Jack Albertson, Jeanette Nolan, John Fiedler, John McIntire, Keith Mitchell, and Corey Feldman. A direct-to-video midquel, The Fox and the Hound 2, has been released to DVD on December 12, 2006.