The Fox and the Hound

Banal, badly executed and oddly redneck. Again we have the weirdly anachronistic setting--this film was made in the eighties, for Christ’s sake--featuring cars that Henry Ford designed and old-timey language, none of which serves any real purpose to the story. This movie's tale could easily have been made contemporary without any loss of its character. The songs are bleh; the score often reminds one of detective shows from the old CBS late movie. The subplot of birds--annoying birds--trying to catch a worm only acts to insert clumsy and unwelcome slapstick into the proceedings. In fact the film’s tone is all over the place, from maudlin to menacing to ridiculous, and mostly just too goofy and unserious to make the central relationship have any real gravity for any viewer besides very young children. At least the visuals--backgrounds in particular; the studio never lost its touch in presenting nature--look relatively impressive. What I can’t get over is the hillbilly angle; I hear fox and hound, and I think England … not Tennessee (or wherever this is supposedly set). The setting choice is odd and jarring and really quite dumb. I guess you can just about say that about the whole thing. This film, ultimately, may represent the nadir of the Disney studio's fortunes.