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The Fox and the Hound
May. 10th, 2020 08:28 pmYou can only watch The Fox and the Hound for the first time once in your life, and that's probably a good thing, because I remember it being a crushing experience. So crushing, in fact, that I never rewatched the movie until today.
I have to admit, I had built up its crushing capacities to such an extent that I was actually a little disappointed not to be emotionally flattened by the movie. Of course, to a large extent this is because I knew what was coming: I went into it knowing that the cute friendship scenes at the beginning were only there to set us up for heartbreak in the end, when Tod and Copper would not be able to continue their friendship.
In fact, the ending is more conciliatory than I remembered: after Tod falls off a waterfall, Copper actually shields Tod with his body so Copper's owner the hunter can't shoot Tod. Shades of Anna sheltering Elsa from Hans's sword in Frozen! And if, like Anna and Elsa, Tod and Copper actually got to reconcile afterward, I might very well have loved the movie when I was a tiny child, but instead they just exchange a smile and then Copper ambles off after his owner, and it seems probably that Tod and Copper shall ne'er meet again.
Tiny!me felt that this was tragic. Tiny!me did not understand why they couldn't continue to be friends - secret friends if necessary! but friends nonetheless! - and found the whole thing heartbreaking.
I have since learned that the whole thing is an allegory for what had been (perhaps still was? the movie was made in 1981) a common situation in the south, where white and black children played together happily when they were small, only for the weight of racist social structures to crush their friendships as they grew up. You have to wonder why anyone thought, "That sounds utterly soul-searing! Let's make it into a children's movie." WHY.
I have to admit, I had built up its crushing capacities to such an extent that I was actually a little disappointed not to be emotionally flattened by the movie. Of course, to a large extent this is because I knew what was coming: I went into it knowing that the cute friendship scenes at the beginning were only there to set us up for heartbreak in the end, when Tod and Copper would not be able to continue their friendship.
In fact, the ending is more conciliatory than I remembered: after Tod falls off a waterfall, Copper actually shields Tod with his body so Copper's owner the hunter can't shoot Tod. Shades of Anna sheltering Elsa from Hans's sword in Frozen! And if, like Anna and Elsa, Tod and Copper actually got to reconcile afterward, I might very well have loved the movie when I was a tiny child, but instead they just exchange a smile and then Copper ambles off after his owner, and it seems probably that Tod and Copper shall ne'er meet again.
Tiny!me felt that this was tragic. Tiny!me did not understand why they couldn't continue to be friends - secret friends if necessary! but friends nonetheless! - and found the whole thing heartbreaking.
I have since learned that the whole thing is an allegory for what had been (perhaps still was? the movie was made in 1981) a common situation in the south, where white and black children played together happily when they were small, only for the weight of racist social structures to crush their friendships as they grew up. You have to wonder why anyone thought, "That sounds utterly soul-searing! Let's make it into a children's movie." WHY.
