Sadly, by 1981, Disney had run out of great stories around which to build their animation features. This is a loose adaptation of Daniel Mannix' tale of a fox cub "Tod" who suffers the tragic loss of his father at the hands of mankind and roams the countryside befriending all the animals - including a puppy "Copper" and an old widow - before becoming, himself, a target for the hunters. Necessity leads him to again team up with his now fully grown hunting-hound pal to stay ahead of the pursuing pack and shotgun!. The animation lacks the vibrancy of the studio's earlier hand-crafted work and the story/personalities are all bit pedestrian for me, I'm afraid. It looks good and Mickey Rooney, Corey Feldman, Kurt Russell and the dulcet tones of Jack Albertson (his final role) all light it up a bit but unfortunately the days of this kind of gentle fantasy adventure have long since seen their heyday.

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