Disney Movie Challenge Bonus: The Fox and the Hound 2 (2006)

 Disney Movie Challenge Bonus

The Fox and the Hound 2 (2006)

The Fox and the Hound is a strange movie.  It touches on some deep themes like friendship and the effects societal pressures can have on that friendship.  It was a struggle between the old school animators and the new younger animators.  Now what if we took that same film and tossed out any of the social commentary? You would get a movie like The Fox and the Hound 2.  This is not necessarily a bad thing.  One of the problems with The Fox and the Hound is that it kind of skirts the issues.  It brings them up but never really feels like it deals with them, so the question is why even bring them up to begin with.  The Fox and the Hound 2 feels like the film that the older animators wanted to make.  A fun light hearted film that focuses on the friendship between the fox and the hound.  

Similar to Bambi II the movie takes place during a time jump in the first film.  Both Tod and Copper are still pups and the best of friends.  Copper hasn’t developed his hunting dog instincts yet and thinks he is pretty useless.  But one day a fair comes to town and Copper and Tod find a group of singing dogs called The Singin' Strays.  When Copper starts singing along they realize he has a great talent. When Dixie leaves the band because she feels like she is not appreciated Copper ends up joining the band.  Copper and the band practice to impress a talent scout from the Grand Ole Opry.  Tod, who initially encouraged Copper to join the band, now feels left out when Copper spends all his time with the band and ignores him.  Eventually Tod and Dixie team up to ruin the band. At the end of the day there is reconciliation between Tod and Copper and also the band.  

At the end of the day this takes the original film and boils it down to a simple tale of friendship, jealousy, and reconciliation.  It’s the kind of morality tale you expect in a kids film.  It doesn’t do anything unexpected and from the start you can pretty much predict what will happen.  What actually does work well and keeps the film from feeling to dull is the voice cast.  Reba McEntire and Patrick Swayze play Dixie and Cash, the two lead dogs in the band.  Their interactions are fun and they bring the characters to life in a way that really works.  As for the songs they aren’t too bad.  I’m not a huge fan of country music but the songs really work well in the film.  

Overall: A film that knows exactly what it is trying to do and executes it perfectly.  It tells a tale of friendship that ends with a happy ever after (although we know from the first one that it’s anything but).  Reba McEntire and Patrick Swayze are perfect in their roles and it’s already a good reminder how good a singer Swayze really was.  

Random Facts: 

Director Jim Kammerud also directed other DTV sequels including 101 Dalmations 2: Patches London Adventure, and The Little Mermaid 2: Return to the Sea