What if Don Bluth stayed at Disney?/The Fox and the Hound

The Fox and the Hound is a 1981 American animated comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Productions and loosely based on the novel of the same name by Daniel P. Mannix. The 24th Disney animated feature film, 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. Directed by Ted Berman, Richard Rich, and Don Bluth in their directorial debut, the film features the voices of Mickey Rooney, Kurt Russell, Pearl Bailey, Jack Albertson, Sandy Duncan, Jeanette Nolan, Pat Buttram, John Fiedler, John McIntire, Dick Bakalyan, Paul Winchell, Keith Mitchell, and Corey Feldman.

The Fox and the Hound was released to theaters on July 10, 1981 to financial success. At the time of release, it was the most expensive animated film produced to date, costing $12 million. It was re-released to theaters on March 25, 1988. A direct-to-video midquel, The Fox and the Hound 2, was released to DVD on December 12, 2006.

Plot
The story begins with a mother fox, with fear in her eyes, and a child in her mouth, running all throughout a forest, passing over a mountain, until she reaches a farm. There she hides her baby next to a fence, quietly says goodbye and runs away. She is shot, and we hear gunshots twice. An owl named Big Mama, along with her two bird friends, a sparrow named Dinky and a woodpecker named Boomer, arrange for him to be adopted by an kindly farmer widow named Widow Tweed. She names him Tod since he reminds her of a toddler. Meanwhile, Widow's neighbor, a hunter named Amos Slade brings home a young hound puppy named Copper and introduces him to his hunting dog Chief. One day, Tod and Copper meet and become friends. Tod and Copper play together every day for the next three days, vowing to remain "friends forever." Amos grows frustrated at Copper for constantly wandering off to play, and places him on a leash to prevent him from wandering off. While playing with Copper at his home, Tod accidentally awakens Chief. Amos and Chief chase him until Amos is confronted by Widow.

After he and Widow have an argument, Amos threatens that he will kill Tod if he catches him on his property again and that he won't miss the next time. As the hunting season comes, Amos takes his two dogs into the wilderness for the interim. Meanwhile, Big Mama explains to Tod that his friendship with Copper cannot continue, as they are natural enemies, but Tod refuses to believe it. As months pass, Tod and Copper reach adulthood. On the night of Copper's return, Tod sneaks over to meet Copper and asks if they are still friends. Copper explains that while he still values Tod as a friend, he is now a hunting dog and things are different. He says that things are now going to be different between them because if Chief wakes up, Tod will be in danger.

Chief awakens and alerts Amos, and as a chase ensues, Copper catches Tod, but decides to let Tod go, then diverts Chief and Amos since he did not want them to kill Tod, who creeps out a woodpile and runs across a high railroad bridge for home, but bumps into Chief, who is blocking his path there. Tod turns back with Chief making his pursuit onto a railroad track on the railroad bridge, but when Tod sees a fast moving train suddenly approach them, bears down on him, and traps him, Tod, being small enough, manages to duck safely underneath the train, while Chief is struck and killed by the train. Infuriated by all this, Copper and Amos blame Tod for Chief's death and swear vengeance to get him if it's the last thing they do. To make matters worse, Amos storms to Widow's house, angrily telling her that Tod killed Chief, and that he plans to get the fox, but Widow manages to block him out. Now Widow realizes that she can't protect Tod forever, so she takes him on a drive through the woods and releases him at a nearby game preserve.

Tod's first night alone in the woods proves disastrous, as he inadvertently trespasses into an irritable old badger's den. A friendly porcupine offers to let him stay with him. That same night, Amos Slade and Copper plan revenge on Tod, by showing a demonstration of Tod stepping into a trap. The next morning, Big Mama comes looking for Tod, and finds Vixey, a beautiful female fox of Tod's age, who is clearly good friends with Big Mama.

Tod wakes up after being pricked by the porcupine's quills, falls, and lands right on the badger's den. The badger scolds Tod once again. Tod tries to apologize but is interrupted when the badger thinks Tod is making up excuses. The porcupine points out that the badger shouldn't be grumpy to a newcomer, to which the badger angrily responds by telling Tod to "go back where you came from". Tod leaves, now more depressed than ever. Big Mama and Vixey arrive and see Tod, who is very sad. As Vixey remarks that he looks downhearted, Big Mama tells her that "he was dropped out here all alone without a friend in the world". As Vixey decides to cheer him up, Big Mama thinks the idea is perfect. Big Mama sets Vixey into the sunlight, just so that she will look as beautiful as possible, and introduces Tod to her.

Tod first tries to impress Vixey by catching a fish, only to fail, causing Vixey to laugh at him. Angry at this, Tod insults Vixey, telling her that she's "a silly, empty-headed female!" Angered, they refuse to speak to each other, but Big Mama intervenes and directs Tod in being himself, and Vixey to give him another chance. They get along very well once Tod admits his lack of survival skills. Vixey is now aware of his inability to survive in the wild and helps him adapt. She allows Tod to stay with her in the forest. The two clearly begin to develop a romantic connection.

The next morning, the vengeful Amos and Copper trespass into the preserve to hunt Tod without anyone knowing. Amos finds a shadowy path on the way to a pond, sets up three leg-hold traps along the path, and hides them with leaves. Meanwhile, Tod and Vixey emerge from Vixey's burrow, having spent the night there. They both remark about how happy they are with one another and chase each other into the forest playfully. As they come to the trap-laden path, Vixey becomes worried and refuses to go on, but watches as Tod just shrugs it off. Vixey begs him to be careful as he goes down alone. As he walks, he becomes unsettled. Tod's foot uncovers one of Amos' traps, and as the hunter cocks his shotgun, Tod's ears perk up the noise as he steps backward. Luckily, Tod narrowly escapes the steel traps, turning and running as fast as he can whilst Amos' gunshots ring out, while Copper takes off after Tod and Vixey. Tod buys Vixey more time to escape, then waits for Copper to come closer. As Copper approaches, Tod distracts him, snarling at his former friend. After a brief fight, Tod sprints back to the burrow with Copper behind his tail. Tod safely enters the foxhole, but Copper is too big to follow him inside and begins thrashing and clawing his way into the hole. Tod and Vixey attempt to exit out the other end. They then hurry back inside when they see Amos waiting with his gun. Amos takes a match and some straw and creates a fire in the back way, blocking their escape. He then joins Copper at the front, ready to shoot both foxes. Vixey coughs and tells Tod that they're trapped and that she's scared. Tod tells Vixey that this is their only chance as he and Vixey sprint as fast as they can out the back, narrowly avoiding the flames to Amos' astonishment, putting the hunter into pure shock. Tod and Vixey scale a mountain with a waterfall nearby as Copper and Amos follow them up the top.

As Copper and Amos close in on the two foxes, they inadvertently provoke an attack from a large disturbed sleeping grizzly bear, who they accidentally antagonize. Amos fires one single shot before tripping and getting his foot stuck in one of his own traps and loses his gun, while Copper bravely tries to protect his master, and attacks the bear, but is nearly killed in a very vicious fight. Amos frantically tries to free himself, but is not strong enough for the grip of the trap, which still holds his foot as tight as possible, whilst Copper battles the bear as this very vicious battle continues to go on for a while, and while Copper manages to hold his own for a while until the bear knocks him out when the battle end, the dog is soon overwhelmed. Tod, hearing Copper's yelping echo, looks back and sees the horror of his childhood friend being nearly killed. At the moment in which the bear closes in and is about to kill Copper, Tod intervenes, rescues Copper, and jumps on the bear's back, but continues to battle with the bear, and ends up leading him to an old fallen trunk above the reserve's waterfall. Just as the bear comes close to Tod, he raises his paw and hits the sprinters of the old log, which breaks and sends the two animals both falling down the waterfall with the fallen trunk plummeting down the waterfall with them. The bear is gone, while Tod struggles to shore.

Copper approaches Tod as he lies in the lake below, amazed at his bravery in spite of past events, when Amos appears, having freed his foot from the trap, and is about to fire at the fox. Copper interposes his body in front of Tod and refuses to move away. Realizing that Tod has saved their lives, Amos finally lowers his gun and leaves with Copper, but not before the former adversaries share one last smile before parting. At home, Widow nurses Amos' ankle back to health while Copper, before resting, smiles as he remembers the day when he became friends with Tod. On a hill, Vixey joins Tod as he looks down on the homes of Copper and Widow.

As the movie fades out, a voice-over of young Tod and young Copper affirming their everlasting friendship is heard in the breeze.

Cast

 * Mickey Rooney as Tod
 * Kurt Russell as Copper
 * Pearl Bailey as Big Mama
 * Jack Albertson as Amos Slade
 * Sandy Duncan as Vixey
 * Jeanette Nolan as Widow Tweed
 * Pat Buttram as Chief
 * John Fiedler as The Porcupine
 * John McIntire as The Badger
 * Dick Bakalyan as Dinky
 * Paul Winchell as Boomer
 * Keith Coogan as Young Tod
 * Corey Feldman as Young Copper

Development
Wolfgang Reitherman read the original novel and found it particularly touching because one of his sons had once owned a pet fox years before. He decided that it would make for a good animated feature for which production began in spring 1977. The title was initially reported as The Fox and the Hounds, but the filmmakers dropped the plural as the story began to focus more and more on the two leads. Reitherman was the film's original director along with Art Stevens as co-director. A power struggle between the two directors and co-producer Ron Miller broke out between them over key sections of the film with Miller supporting the younger Stevens. Miller instructed Reitherman to surrender reins over the junior personnel, but Reitherman resisted due to a lack of trust in the young animators.

In an earlier version of the film, Chief was intended to survive with a cast on his back paw. Animator Ron Clements, who had briefly transitioned into the story department, protested that "Chief has to die. The picture doesn't work if he just breaks his leg. Copper doesn't have motivation to hate the fox." Stevens countered that "Geez, we never killed a main character in a Disney film and we're not starting now!" However, younger members of the story team pleaded with Clements to have Chief killed like in the novel. Due to this, Stevens angrilly left Disney and got replaced by character animator Don Bluth, who animated several scenes including of Widow Tweed milking her cow, as co-director after Reitherman and Miller liked his work on the short film The Small One.

Another fight erupted when Reitherman, in thinking the film lacked a strong second act, decided to add a musical sequence of two swooping cranes voiced by Phil Harris and Charo who would sing a silly song titled "Scoobie-Doobie Doobie Doo, Let Your Body Turn Goo" to Tod after he was dropped in the forest. Charo has recorded the song and voice tracks which were storyboarded, and live-action reference footage was shot of her in a sweaty pink leotard. However, the scene was strongly disliked by studio personnel who felt the song was a distraction from the main plot with Bluth stating "Sorry, but we can't let that sequence in the movie. It's basically unrelated to the story." Rich notified studio management and after many story conferences, the scene was removed. Reitherman later walked into Miller's office, slumped in a chair, and said, "I dunno, maybe this is young men's medium." He later moved on to undeveloped projects such as Catfish Bend and died in a car accident in 1985.