The Fox and the Hound

Looking back as child having watched this film, it never struck me for anything more than fuzzy/singing/talking animals that pandered to all my childish wants and needs. After all, that's why you watched Disney movies as a kid, right? It's just what you did in your childhood.

Now, watching it again, about to embark on adulthood and all that it entails, it really moved me. How Todd and Copper, a young fox and a hound were the best of friends. Todd having been taken in by a kindly old women and nursed backed to health while right next door, Copper, owned by a mean and bitter old hunter, is being groomed as hunting dog.

Yet, like children, they don't judge. They don't know about the differences between each other and they don't care. They just want to play hide and seek. It is when they grow older that they realize that it was never meant to be. How sometimes societal rules can stamp out the most innocent of ventures. Much like becoming an adult, reality sets in. Life is unfair.

It's a truly beautiful movie, for it's simplistic yet universal message and unlike the vast library of previous Disney inventions, as stated before, it lacks the happy ending. The proverbial feel good formula that is the frame work for all Disney movies. It's because of it's bittersweet delivery and surprising realism, that it's become a lifeline to my childhood that I will carry with me for as long as I live.