The Fox and the Hound (1981) |
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The Fox and the Hound (1981) |
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| BUY IT |
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Animation |
Featurette-Passing the Baton Gallery-Scrapbook Karaoke-"The Best Of Friends" Singalong Featurette-Cartoon "Wonder Dog" Storybook-New Best Friends |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 1981 | ||
| Running Time | 79:18 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | RSDL (61:06) | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Language Select Then Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 2,4 | Directed By |
Ted Berman Richard Rich Art Stevens |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Walt Disney Studios Home Ent. |
Starring |
Mickey Rooney Kurt Russell Pearl Bailey Jack Albertson Sandy Duncan Jeanette Nolan Pat Buttram Keith Coogan Corey Feldman |
| Case | Amaray-Transparent | ||
| RPI | $29.95 | Music | Buddy Baker |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | Full Frame |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Portuguese Dolby Digital 2.0  (192Kb/s)Hebrew Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | None | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement | No | ||
| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 1.75:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles |
English English for the Hearing Impaired Spanish Portuguese Hebrew Greek |
Smoking | No |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
The Fox and the Hound is an animated feature from Disney about an orphaned fox and a small hound dog.
Tod is a young fox cub who is taken in by a widow after he is orphaned by a local hunter. Living in the farm next door is a young hound dog called Copper and the two young animals become close friends. As winter approaches Copper's owner takes him away to learn how to become a successful hunting dog. While away for the winter both animals grow up and their relationship will be permanently changed as they learn that they should be natural enemies. When they are reunited in the summer the pair has to work hard to keep their promise to remain friends forever.
This film was the twenty-fourth animated feature from Disney and was a turning point when many of the studio's original animators passed the work to a new generation. The movie concentrates upon the themes of friendship, loyalty and stereotypes and is a worthwhile addition to any collection of Disney animated titles.
The full frame transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.
The transfer varies in sharpness with some scenes appearing quite soft and others notably sharper. These variations in sharpness appear to be due to the original source material, and are not a fault of the transfer. During the small number of dark scenes in the transfer a relatively low level of shadow detail is displayed, but this again appears to be due to the source material and is only minimally distracting.
The colours displayed during the transfer always appears to be slightly muted, as is commonly seen in animation of this age.
A series of very minor MPEG artefacts may be seen at 23:47 but these are not disturbing.
A single minor instance of aliasing may be seen at 44:41 and this is not annoying.
There are a number of small film artefacts. Some examples of these can be seen at 4:04, 4:12, 5:13 and 5:46, but these are all very minor and are never distracting.
Six sets of white subtitles are included on the disc. I extensively sampled both English streams and found them to be consistently accurate and easy to read.
The layer change occurs at 61:06 at a scene change, part way through chapter 16. It is not disruptive.
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| Film-To-Video Artefacts | |
| Film Artefacts | |
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The dialogue is always clear and easy to understand.
As this is an animated feature there are the expected obvious problems with audio sync for each soundtrack. No dropouts were detected at any stage during the transfer.
The orchestral score by Buddy Baker works well and always suits the onscreen action. This score is also supplemented by a number of musical numbers including the main theme song "Best of Friends" performed by Pearl Bailey.
The surround and LFE channels are used very minimally during the transfer and they never draw attention to themselves.
| Dialogue | |
| Audio Sync | |
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The animated menu is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.
This interesting featurette examines how the film became a turning point in the history of Disney animation, as it was the final film for a number of important original animators from the studio. This featurette is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.
This is a collection of fifty-two different images of production art, design sketches, posters, merchandise and behind the scenes shots. These images are presented in a scrapbook layout with multiple pictures per page. Each picture may be selected to see a full size version of the image.
This is a version of the main theme song from the film, The Best Of Friends, with karaoke like on-screen lyrics. This song is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.
This is a cartoon featuring Pluto as he tries to gain the attention of a passing female dog. The cartoon is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.
The extra allows viewers to read a short 10 page story featuring characters from the main feature. Viewers are given the choice of either reading along with a narrator or reading the story at their own pace. This extra is presented with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on:
The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on:
The R4 version does include the 5.1 remix for the film but as this is heavily front focused I do not feel that it would be significantly different to the R1 2.0 surround track. As the R4 release includes the short but interesting Passing the Baton featurette and a small number of additional extras it would be my version of choice.
The Fox and the Hound is a classic feature that will be a welcome addition to any collection of Disney animated titles.
The video transfer contains a small number of artefacts that are never significantly distracting.
The front-focused 5.1 soundtrack is suitable for the material presented.
The small collection of extras is highlighted by the short but interesting Passing the Baton featurette.
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| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Toshiba 2109, using S-Video output |
| Display | Sony KP-E41SN11. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
| Amplification | Front left/right: ME75b; Center: DA50ES; rear left/right: DA50ES; subwoofer: NAD 2600 (Bridged) |
| Speakers | Front left/right: VAF DC-X; Center: VAF DC-6; rear left/right: VAF DC-7; subwoofer: Custom NHT-1259 |