Beauty and the Beast (1991)

Beauty and the Beast (Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise, 1991) is an American animated film produced by Walt Disney Pictures. It is Disney's 30th animated feature film. Linda Woolverton wrote the screenplay, Alan Menken composed the music, and Howard Ashman wrote the lyrics. The script is broadly based on the folk tale of the same name by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont.


Danish postcard by Paletti / Euromic, Copenhagen, no. 821522. Image: Disney. Scene from Beauty and the Beast (Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise, 1991).


Danish postcard by Paletti / Euromic, Copenhagen, no. 821520. Image: Disney. Scene from Beauty and the Beast (Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise, 1991).


Danish postcard by Paletti / Euromic, Copenhagen, no. 821530. Image: Disney. Scene from Beauty and the Beast (Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise, 1991).

A cursed prince

In Beauty and the Beast, a young and handsome but very arrogant prince is cursed for his heartlessness after he refuses to allow a sorceress to enter his castle. The prince must continue to live as a hideous beast. The curse can only be broken if he falls in love with someone, and that love is mutual.

If all these conditions are not met before his 21st birthday, the day the last petal falls from the sorceress's magic rose, he will have to live the rest of his life as the Beast. The curse also affects the prince's entire staff; they are transformed into household objects, but retain all their human abilities and characteristics, including the ability to speak.

Belle and her father, the inventor Maurice, live in a small village in the French countryside. Belle is the prettiest girl in the village and loves to spend her time reading. However, both are considered oddballs by the villagers, Belle because she reads so much, and Maurice because of his strange inventions.

Gaston, the strongest and most handsome man in the village, has a crush on Belle, but she is not interested in him. Maurice takes one of his inventions to a trade fair, but gets lost on the way. By chance, he ends up at the Beast's castle.

The enchanted servants welcome him warmly, but the Beast himself wants nothing to do with the intruder. Maurice is locked up in the tower. When her father does not return, Belle goes looking for him and also ends up in the castle. There, she makes a deal with the Beast: she will voluntarily stay with him for the rest of her life if he lets her father go. The Beast agrees.


Danish postcard by Paletti / Euromic, Copenhagen, no. 821531. Image: Disney. Scene from Beauty and the Beast (Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise, 1991).


American postcard by Chronicle Books from The Disney Animation Postcard Box, 2023. Image: Disney. Scene from Beauty and the Beast (Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise, 1991). Caption: Gaston with LeFou.


British postcard by The Art Group Ltd, no. 8835. Image: Disney. Still for Beauty and the Beast (1991). Caption: Belle and the Beast befriend the birds.

Drawings of stained glass windows depicting the story

'Beauty and the Beast' was one of the fairy tales chosen by Walt Disney for a possible film adaptation after the success of his very first feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (David Hand, a.o., 1937). Attempts to turn the story into a film had already been made in the 1930s and 1940s, but were ultimately abandoned because it would be too difficult with the resources available at the time. Moreover, Disney was discouraged from making the film after Jean Cocteau released a film adaptation of this story, La Belle et la Bête (Jean Cocteau, René Clément, 1946), starring Josette Day and Jean Marais.

After the success of The Little Mermaid (Ron Clements, John Musker, 1989), The Walt Disney Company revived its plans for Beauty and the Beast. The original screenplay that had already been written was rejected because the producers felt that the story would not be successful. Howard Ashman, Alan Menken, and Don Hahn were now put on the project. Hahn invited directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale to direct the film.

Ashman and Menken worked closely with the writers to create a ‘Broadway-style’ film. Because there were only two main characters in the original story, a lot of new characters were added, such as the Beast's staff and Gaston. The opening scene of the film, which tells the backstory of how the prince was enchanted, consists of drawings of stained glass windows depicting the story, a technique that is unusual in Disney films. This was done to preserve the traditional atmosphere of Disney films based on fairy tales without having to draw a book, which had been done so often in the past. In the final script, some of the original scenes were omitted. For example, Belle's stay in the Beast's library was initially much longer, and she would have met even more new characters, such as castle residents transformed into objects, in that scene.

According to Alan Menken, the opening song 'Belle' was the first song he and Ashman wrote for the film. The song ‘Be Our Guest’ was originally intended for the scene in which Maurice enters the castle and is welcomed by the staff. However, Bruce Woodside felt the song was more suitable for Belle, as she is one of the central characters in the story. ‘Human Again’, a song that did not make it into the original version of the film, was added to the film for the 2002 special edition. All the songs in the film were among the last complete works for a film by Howard Ashman, who had also written the lyrics for The Little Mermaid (Ron Clements, John Musker, 1989) and several for Aladdin (Ron Clements, John Musker, 1992). Ashman died six months before Beauty and the Beast was released. A tribute to him is included at the end of the film.

Beauty and the Beast (Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise, 1991) was a huge success and received positive reviews from almost all quarters. When it was originally released in 1991, Disney's film grossed $145 million in the United States and $403 million worldwide. This made it the third most successful film of 1991, after Terminator 2: Judgment Day (James Cameron, 1991) and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (Kevin Reynolds, 1991).


American postcard by Disney MGM Studios in The Art of Disney Animation series, no. ST-8. Image: Disney. Artist working on Beauty and the Beast (Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise, 1991). Caption: Guests take a guided tour through an active animation studio where artists are working on the next animated film. Sent by mail in 2002.


French postcard by MD. Image: Disney. Still for Beauty and the Beast (Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise, 1991). The French title is La Belle et la Bête.


American postcard by Disney Materials, 2006. Image: Disney. Still for Beauty and the Beast (1991). Caption: This is the evening the Beast has awaited, but can he tell Belle his love? He knows his heart, but does she yet know her own? These lovers are as uncertain as they are hopeful - emotions and a tale "as old as time".

Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch and English) and IMDb.

Brigitte Bardot (1934-2025)

French actress Brigitte Bardot (1934) died today, 28 December 2025, at the age of 91. In the 1950s, she was the sex kitten of the European film industry. BB starred in 48 films, performed in numerous musical shows, and recorded 80 songs. After her retirement in 1973, she established herself as an animal rights activist and made vegetarianism sexy.


Vintage postcard, no. O2. Photo: Sam Lévin.


Dutch postcard printed by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V. Rotterdam. Brigitte Bardot in Doctor at Sea (Ralph Thomas, 1955).


French postcard by Edition P.I., Paris, no. CK 292. Photo: Yousuf Karsh / Camera Press / Ufa. Publicity still for La femme et le pantin/A Woman Like Satan (Julien Duvivier, 1959).


Italian postcard by Rotalcolor, Milano, no. 45.


German postcard by Kruger, no. 902/137. Photo: Herbert Fried / Ufa.


French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 379. Photo: Sam Lévin.


German postcard by Krüger/Ufa, no. 902/87. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Massive media attention

Brigitte Bardot was born in Paris in 1934. Her father, Louis Bardot, had an engineering degree and worked with his father in the family business. Her mother, Ann-Marie Mucel, was 14 years younger than Brigitte's father and they married in 1933.

Brigitte's mother encouraged her daughter to take up music and dance. At the age of 13, she entered the Conservatoire Nationale de Danse to study ballet. By the time she was 15, Brigitte was trying a modelling career and found herself in May 1949 on the cover of the French magazine Elle.

Her incredible beauty was readily apparent, Brigitte was noticed by Roger Vadim, then an assistant to the film director Marc Allegrét. Vadim was infatuated with Bardot and encouraged her to start working as a film actress.

BB was 18 when she debuted in the comedy Le Trou Normand / Crazy for Love (Jean Boyer, 1952). In the same year, she married Vadim. Brigitte wanted to marry him when she was 17, but her parents quashed any marriage plans until she turned 18. In April 1953 she attended the Cannes Film Festival where she received massive media attention. She soon was every man's idea of the girl he'd like to meet in Paris.

From 1952 to 1956 she appeared in seventeen films. Her films were generally lightweight romantic dramas in which she was cast as an ingénue or siren, often with an element of undress. In 1953, she made her first US production, Un acte d'amour / Act of Love (Anatole Litvak, 1953) with Kirk Douglas, but she continued to make films in France.


Dutch postcard by Hercules, Haarlem, no. 20. Brigitte Bardot in Manina, la fille sans voiles / The Girl in the Bikini (Willy Rozier, 1952).


Vintage postcard, no. 2043. Brigitte Bardot on the set of Doctor at Sea (Ralph Thomas, 1955).


German postcard by Krüger. Photo: Cornel Lucas, 1955. Publicity still for Doctor at Sea (Ralph Thomas, 1955).


Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 3066. Photo: publicity still for La lumière d'en face / Female and the Flesh (Georges Lacombe, 1955).


Swiss-German-British postcard by News Productions, Baulmes / Filmwelt Berlin, Bakede / News Productions, Stroud, no. 56501. Photo: Collection Cinémathèque Suisse, Lausanne.Brigitte Bardot and Yves Robert in Les Grandes Manoeuvres / Summer Manoeuvres (René Clair, 1955), produced by Filmsonor and Rizzoli Films.

Immoral teenager

Roger Vadim was not content with the light fare his wife was offered. He felt Brigitte Bardot was being undersold. Looking for something more like an art film to push her as a serious actress, he showcased her in Et Dieu créa la femme / ...And God Created Woman (Roger Vadim, 1956). This film, about an immoral teenager in a respectable small-town setting, was a smash success on both sides of the Atlantic.

Craig Butler at AllMovie: "It's easy enough to say that ...And God Created Woman is much more important for its historical significance than for its actual quality as a film, and that's true to an extent. Woman's immense popularity, due to its willingness to directly embrace an exploration of sex as well as its willingness to show a degree of nudity that was remarkably daring for its day, demonstrated that audiences were willing to view subject matter that was considered too racy for the average moviegoer.

This had both positive (freedom to explore, especially for the French filmmakers of the time) and negative (freedom to exploit) consequences, but its impact is undeniable. It's also true that Woman is not a great work of art, not with a story that is ultimately rather thin, some painful dialogue, and an attitude toward its characters and their sexuality that is unclear and inconsistent.

Yet Woman is still fascinating, due in no small part to the presence of Brigitte Bardot in the role that made her an international star and sex symbol. She's not demonstrating great acting here, although her performance is actually good and much better than necessary, and her legendary mambo scene at the climax is nothing short of sensational."

During the shooting of Et Dieu créa la femme / And God Created Woman (Roger Vadim, 1956), directed by her husband, Brigitte Bardot had an affair with her co-star Jean-Louis Trintignant, who at that time was married to French actress Stéphane Audran. Her divorce from Vadim followed, but they remained friends and collaborated in later work.


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam. sent by mail in 1963. Brigitte Bardot in Et Dieu... créa la femme / ...And God Created Woman (Roger Vadim, 1956).


Swiss postcard by News Productions, Baulmes / CVB Publishers, Grandson, no. 56783 Photo: Collection Cinémathèque Suisse, Lausanne. Jean-Louis Trintignant and Brigitte Bardot in Et Dieu... créa la femme / And God Created Woman (Roger Vadim, 1956).


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 1.975, 1963. Photo: publicity still for En effeuillant la marguerite / Plucking the Daisy (Marc Allégret, 1956).


West German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin-Charlottenburg, no. S 780. Photo: Union Film, Den Haag. Brigitte Bardot in Mio figlio Nerone / Nero's Mistress(Steno, 1956).


French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 599. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Sensuality and slight immorality

Et Dieu créa la femme / ...And God Created Woman (Roger Vadim, 1956) helped Brigitte Bardot's international status. The film took the USA by storm, her explosive sexuality being unlike anything seen in the States since the days of the 'flapper' in the 1920s.

It gave rise to the phrase 'sex kitten' and fascination of her in America consisted of magazine photographs and dubbed over French films - good, bad or indifferent, her films drew audiences - mainly men - into theatres like lemmings.

BB appeared in light comedies like Doctor at Large (Ralph Thomas, 1957) - the third of the British 'Doctor' series starring Dirk Bogarde - and Une Parisienne / La Parisienne (Michel Boisrond, 1957) which suited her acting skills best. However, she was a sensation in the crime drama En cas de malheur/Love is My Profession (Claude Autant-Lara, 1958).

Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "This Brigitte Bardot vehicle ran into stiff opposition from the Catholic Legion of Decency, severely limiting its U.S. distribution. Bardot plays a nubile small-time thief named Yvette, who becomes the mistress of influential defence attorney Andre (Jean Gabin). Though Andre is able to shower Yvette with jewels and furs, he cannot "buy" her heart, and thus it is that it belongs to handsome young student Mazzetti (Franco Interlenghi). Alas, Yvette is no judge of human nature: attractive though Mazzetti can be, he has a dangerous and deadly side. En Cas de Malheur contains a nude scene that has since been reprinted in freeze-frame form innumerable times by both film-history books and girlie magazines."

Photographer Sam Lévin's photos contributed considerably to her image of sensuality and slight immorality. One of Lévin's pictures shows Brigitte, dressed in a white corset. It is said that around 1960 postcards with this photograph outsold in Paris those of the Eiffel Tower.


Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 3944. Photo: Pathé / N.V. City film, Den Haag. Brigitte Bardot in La femme et le pantin / The Female (Julien Duvivier, 1958).


Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 3948. Photo: Pathé / N.V. City film, Den Haag. Brigitte Bardot in La femme et le pantin / The Female (Julien Duvivier, 1958).


German postcard by ISV, no. H 88. Photo: Peter Basch. Publicity still for Les bijoutiers du clair de lune / The night heaven fell (Roger Vadim, 1958).


Dutch postcard by Hercules, Haarlem, no. 1069. Photo: Brigitte Bardot in Les bijoutiers du clair de lune / The Night Heaven Fell (Roger Vadim, 1958).


German postcard, no. 1. Photo: Unifrance-Film. Publicity still for En cas de malheur / Love is my Profession (Claude Autant-Lara, 1958).

Preying paparazzi

Brigitte Bardot divorced Vadim in 1957 and in 1959 she married actor Jacques Charrier, with whom she starred in Babette s'en va-t-en guerre/Babette Goes to War (Christian-Jaque, 1959). The paparazzi preyed upon her marriage, while she and her husband clashed over the direction of her career.

Her films became more substantial, but this brought a heavy pressure of dual celebrity as she sought critical acclaim while remaining a glamour model for most of the world. Vie privée / Private Life (1962), directed by Louis Malle has more than an element of autobiography in it.

James Travers at French Films: "Brigitte Bardot hadn’t quite reached the high point of her career when she agreed to make this film with high-profile New Wave film director Louis Malle. Even so, the pressure of being a living icon was obviously beginning to get to France’s sex goddess and Vie privée is as much an attempt by Bardot to come to terms with her celebrity as anything else.

Malle is clearly fascinated by Bardot and the documentary approach he adopts for this film reinforces the impression that it is more a biography of the actress than a work of fiction. Of course, it’s not entirely biographical, but the story is remarkably close to Bardot’s own life and comes pretty close to predicting how her career would end."

The scene in which, returning to her apartment, Bardot's character is harangued in the elevator by a middle-aged cleaning lady calling her offensive names, was based on an actual incident, and is a resonant image of celebrity in the mid-20th century. Soon afterwards Bardot withdrew to the seclusion of Southern France.


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 4518. Photo: Paul Apoteker / Unifrance Film / Ufa. BB with Jacques Charrier in Babette s'en va-t-en guerre / Babette Goes to War (Christian-Jaque, 1959).


Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 3655. Photo: Columbia. Brigitte Bardot in Babette s'en va-t-en guerre / Babette Goes to War (Christian-Jaque, 1959).


French postcard by Editions P.I. Paris, no. 1042, presented by Les Carbones Korès 'Carboplane'. Photo: Francos-Films. Publicity still for Voulez-vous danser avec moi? / Come dance with me (Michel Boisrond, 1959).


Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 4332. Sent by mail in 1960. Photo: still from Voulez-vous danser avec moi? / Come Dance with Me! (Michel Boisrond, 1959).


Dutch postcard, no. 752. Photo: still from La Bride sur le Cou / Please Not Now! (Jean Aurel, Jack Dunn Trop, Roger Vadim, 1961).

Harley Davidson

Brigitte Bardot's other husbands were German millionaire playboy Gunter Sachs and right-wing politician Bernard d'Ormale. She is reputed to have had relationships with many other men including Samy Frey, her co-star in La Vérité / The Truth (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1960), and musicians Serge Gainsbourg and Sacha Distel.

In 1963, Brigitte Bardot starred in Jean-Luc Godard's critically acclaimed film Le Mépris / Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963) opposite Michel Piccoli.

She was also featured along with such notable actors as Alain Delon in Amours célèbres / Famous Love Affairs (Michel Boisrond, 1961) and Histoires extraordinaires / Tales of Mystery (Louis Malle, 1968), Jeanne Moreau in Viva Maria! (Louis Malle, 1965), Sean Connery in Shalako (Edward Dmytryk, 1968), and Claudia Cardinale in Les Pétroleuses / Petroleum Girls (Christian-Jaque, 1971).

She participated in various musical shows and recorded many popular songs in the 1960s and 1970s, mostly in collaboration with Serge Gainsbourg, Bob Zagury and Sacha Distel, including 'Harley Davidson', 'Le Soleil De Ma Vie' (the cover of Stevie Wonder's 'You Are the Sunshine of My Life') and the notorious 'Je t'aime... moi non plus'.


Big German postcard by ISV.


Dutch postcard, no. 752. Photo: still from La Bride sur le Cou / Please Not Now! (Jean Aurel, Jack Dunn Trop, Roger Vadim, 1961).


Dutch postcard by Uitgeverij Takken, Utrecht, no. AX 4903. Photo: Dalmas. Brigitte Bardot plays the guitar in the TV show Happy New Year Brigitte, which aired on the evening of 31 December 1961.


Czech postcard by Pressfoto, Praha (Prague). Photo: publicity still for Vie privée / A Very Private Affair (Louis Malle, 1962). Collection: Carla Bosch.


French postcard in the Collection Cinéma series by Editions Art & Scène, Paris, no. CF 101, 1996. Brigitte Bardot and Michel Piccoli in Le Mépris (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963).

Racial hatred

Brigitte Bardot’s film career showed a steady decline in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 1973 just before her fortieth birthday, she announced her retirement.

She chose to use her fame to promote animal rights. In 1976 she established the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the Welfare and Protection of Animals. She became a vegetarian and raised three million French francs to fund the foundation by auctioning off jewellery and many personal belongings. For this work, she was awarded the Légion d’honneur in 1984.

During the 1990s she became also outspoken in her criticism of immigration, interracial relationships, Islam in France and homosexuality. Her husband Bernard d'Ormal was a former adviser of the far-right Front National party. Bardot has been convicted five times for 'inciting racial hatred'.

More fun is that Bardot is recognised for popularising bikini swimwear, in such early films as Manina / Woman without a Veil (Willy Rozier, 1952), in her appearances at Cannes and in many photo shoots. Bardot also brought into fashion the 'choucroute' ('Sauerkraut') hairstyle (a sort of beehive hairstyle) and gingham clothes after wearing a checkered pink dress, designed by Jacques Esterel, at her wedding to Charrier. The fashions of the 1960s looked effortlessly right and spontaneous on her.

Time Magazine: "She was the princess of pout, the countess of come hither. Brigitte Bardot exuded a carefree, naïve sexuality that brought a whole new audience to French films."


Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1435. Photo: Cineriz.


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 1005. Photo: Ufa.


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 5368. Caption: Brigitte Bardot with her baby.


Yugoslavian postcard by NPO, no. G18. Photo: Sam Lévin.


French postcard by Editions Lyna, Paris, no. 2104. Caption: Tu deviens reponsable pour toujours de ce que tu as apprivoisé. Antoine de St-Exupéry.

Sources: Denny Jackson (IMDb), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Craig Butler (AllMovie), James Travers (French Films), French Films, Wikipedia and IMDb.

11 years ago we celebrated her 80th birthday with a Happy Birthday post with 28 of our favourite BB postcards. Check it out and visit the Brigitte Bardot group at Flickr!

The Fox and the Hound (1981)

Walt Disney's animated classic The Fox and the Hound (Ted Berman, Richard Rich, Art Stevens, 1981) is a beautiful film about friendship and the complexities of conflicting loyalties. It was Disney's 24th animated feature, and we think it's an underrated classic.


Italian postcard by Grafiche Biondetti, Verona, no. 128/2. Image: Walt Disney Productions, 1980. Photo: publicity still for The Fox and the Hound (Ted Berman, Richard Rich, Art Stevens, 1981).


Belgian postcard by Edicorna. Image: Walt Disney Productions, 1980. Image: publicity still for The Fox and the Hound (Ted Berman, Richard Rich, Art Stevens, 1981).


French postcard by Editions G. Ricard, Paris, no. WD 12/57. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Photo: publicity still for The Fox and the Hound (Ted Berman, Richard Rich, Art Stevens, 1981). The French film title is Rox et Rouky.

Two old comrades forced to become enemies

The Fox and the Hound (Ted Berman, Richard Rich, Art Stevens, 1981), based on the book by Daniel P. Mannix, is about Tod and Copper, an adopted red fox and a to-be hunting hound. It was produced by Ron Miller, Wolfgang Reitherman, and Art Stevens.

After a young red fox is orphaned, Big Mama the owl and her friends, Dinky the sparrow and Boomer the woodpecker, arrange for him to be adopted by a kindly farmer named Widow Tweed, who names him Tod. The kindly old widow nurses Tod back to health.

Right next door, bitter old hunter Amos Slade brings home a young hound puppy named Copper to be groomed as a hunting dog. He introduces him to his old hunting dog, Chief, who is at first annoyed by him but then learns to love him. One day, Tod and Copper meet, and the two pups become inseparable playmates, pledging eternal friendship.

Amos grows frustrated at Copper for constantly wandering off to play and places him on a leash. While playing with Copper outside his barrel, Tod accidentally awakens Chief. Amos and Chief chase him until they are stopped by Tweed. After an argument, Amos threatens to kill Tod if he trespasses on his property again. Hunting season comes, and Amos takes Chief and Copper into the wilderness for the interim. Meanwhile, Big Mama, Dinky, and Boomer attempt to explain to Tod that Copper will soon become his enemy. However, he naively insists that they will remain friends forever.

The following spring, Tod and Copper reach adulthood. Copper returns as an expert hunting dog who is expected to track down foxes. Late at night, Tod sneaks over to visit him. Their conversation awakens Chief, who alerts Amos. A chase ensues, and Copper catches Tod but lets him go while diverting Amos. Chief catches Tod as he attempts an escape on a railroad track, but an oncoming train strikes him, resulting in him falling into the river below and breaking his leg. Enraged by this, Copper and Amos blame Tod for the accident and vow vengeance. Realising Tod is no longer safe with her, Tweed leaves him at a game reserve. After a disastrous night on his own in the woods, Big Mama introduces him to Vixey, a female fox who helps him adapt to life there.


Italian postcard by Grafiche Biondetti, Verona, no. 128/1. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for The Fox and the Hound (Ted Berman, Richard Rich, Art Stevens, 1981).


Belgian postcard by Edicorna, 1980. Photo: Walt Disney Productions. Image: publicity still for The Fox and the Hound (Ted Berman, Richard Rich, Art Stevens, 1981). Sent by mail in 1986.


Belgian postcard by Edicorna. Image: Walt Disney Productions, 1980. Image: publicity still for The Fox and the Hound (Ted Berman, Richard Rich, Art Stevens, 1981).

A charming film that is vastly underrated

The Fox and the Hound (Ted Berman, Richard Rich, Art Stevens, 1981) lacks the proverbial Disney happy ending and feel-good formula that is the framework for most Disney films. Thanks to its bittersweet delivery and surprising realism, The Fox and the Hound is one of the better Disney productions after the death of Walt Disney.

Walt Disney Productions first obtained the film rights to the novel by Daniel P. Mannix in 1967. Ten years later, actual development on the film would start in spring 1977. It marked the last involvement of the remaining members of Disney's Nine Old Men, which included Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. Though they had involvement in the early development of the film, it was ultimately handed over to a new generation of animators following the retirement of the old animators. As such, it was the first film for future directors, including Tim Burton, John Musker, Henry Selick, Brad Bird, and John Lasseter.

The production of the film was troubled. Halfway through production, Don Bluth left Disney, taking many of Disney's best animators with him. Other animators resigned or passed away, and some drawings were stolen. New animators were hired and promoted to fill the ranks. To compensate for the lack of experience of the new animators, much of the quality control would rely upon a network of veteran assistant animators. Further concerns were raised over the handling of the scene in which Chief is hit by a train, which was originally planned to result in his death. After debating the handling of the scene, the filmmakers decided to change the death into a non-fatal injury, by which he merely suffers a broken leg. The film's release was delayed from Christmas 1980 to summer 1981. Though Bluth and his team had animated substantial scenes, they asked not to receive screen credit.

Four years after production started, the film was released to cinemas by Buena Vista Distribution. The American voice actors are remarkable. Keith Mitchell and Corey Feldman provided the voices of Young Tod and Young Copper. Pearl Bailey was the kind-hearted teacher to Tod, Big Mama. Jeanette Nolan was the second choice for Widow Tweed after Helen Hayes turned down the role. An odd choice was Mickey Rooney for Tod. Eli Copperman at IMDb: "But he's able to come off as brash and young as ever in his sly role, and Kurt Russell gives off a brooding yet innocent presence of Copper maturing in his later years." At the time of its release, it was the most expensive animated film produced to date, costing $12 million. The Fox and the Hound (Ted Berman, Richard Rich, Art Stevens, 1981) was a financial success, earning $39.9 million domestically. It was nominated for three awards, of which it won one. It was re-released to theatres in 1988. An intermediate follow-up, The Fox and the Hound 2 (Jim Kammerud, 2006), was released directly-to-DVD.

At the time, reviews were mixed, but at IMDb, the reviewers are more positive. Eli Copperman at IMDb: "The Fox and the Hound feels like a fascinating case study of the Disney studio getting itself back up on its feet after the death of its founder. While it might not have been as strong in its execution as its concept, it does at least have its moments of impact that understandably resonated with its own generation." Bethany Cox at IMDb: "I found the ending when Copper saves Tod's life and vice versa very moving, as well as the scenes in the forest - Widow Tweed taking leave of Tod is a real tearjerker. It did actually show that friendship isn't always forever, which is true to some extent, but loyalty is. I have heard complaints about Boomer and his friends slowing the film down, but I honestly thought their antics were really funny and actually added to the charm that the film already had. This was one of my favourites, and still moves me, but in conclusion to me now, it is a charming film that is vastly underrated." We agree, this is an underrated classic.


Italian postcard by Grafiche Biondetti, Verona. Photo: Walt Disney Productions. Image: publicity still for The Fox and the Hound (Ted Berman, Richard Rich, Art Stevens, 1981).


French postcard by Editions G. Picard, Paris, no. WD 12/59. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Photo: publicity still for The Fox and the Hound (Ted Berman, Richard Rich, Art Stevens, 1981). The French title was Rox et Rouky.


French postcard by Editions G. Picard, Paris, no. WD 13/62. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Photo: publicity still for The Fox and the Hound (Ted Berman, Richard Rich, Art Stevens, 1981). The French title is Rox et Rouky.


Italian postcard by Grafiche Biondetti, Verona, no. 128/3. Image: Disney. Image: publicity still for The Fox and the Hound (Ted Berman, Richard Rich, Art Stevens, 1981).

Sources: Eli Copperman (IMDb), Bethany Cox (IMDb), Wikipedia (English and Dutch) and IMDb.