The Hound That Thought He Was a Raccoon

The Hound that thought he was a Raccoon(1960): a Disney nature film. When you take away the color, sound and length of a film and it's still fun to watch- that certainly passes the test! The version viewed was just that as well as being in the Super 8mm format with intertitles and clocking in at 11 minutes. Poster with credit re-arrangement on film box cover. Rutherfor G. Montgomery, who wrote the story, had written many animal adventure stories such as The Golden Stallion and the Wolf Dog, + Carcajou the Wolverine. The simple story here of 2 unlikely animal friends and their adventures and loyalty to each other could have been abridged to 5 minutes and still been fine and make sense. The raccoon, Weecha comes off here as the smarter of the 2 with the hound, Nubbin as the bodyguard type. All of the action takes place outdoors and there is plenty of action. The filming locations are ideal. The human character, Farmer Jeff, shown briefly, is friend to Nubbin but not to Weecha. So Nubbin has a loyalty problem. The original film has a running time of 47 minutes which is very consistent with other Disney nature films. Shown on TV in a 60 minute time slot with commercials and it could be considered a feature, otherwise as a featurette. This film was also available in a 16mm format as late as 1987. Rental cost in 1974 was $20 and 13 years later, $35! Also seen on television as an episode of The Magical World of Disney in 1964. No doubt the Disney short films get much less attention in current times. The repeatable factor for this nature flick is excellent.

Standard, vastly enjoyable fun from Disney's Tru-Life Adventures, concerning a hound and a coon dog.

Rex Allen narrates in his Good Old Boy voice and the photography and animal tricks are up to standard. Although by this point, it was no surprise to anyone that the Disney series was staged with trained animal, more than half a century later, this is still highly watchable for young and old alike -- although those of middle years may be too sophisticated to admit to any pleasure in these matters.

The music is by Bill Lava, who is best remembered these days for his music from Looney Tunes in the 1960s and DePatie-Freleng later on. Given a budget and an orchestra, he offers the listener good accompaniment.