Fox & the Hound 2 Posted by CK-Auctions

Welcome to yet another edition of "Disney Direct-to-Video Animated Sequel Theater". Here, we can freely discuss Disney's practice of releasing sequels to their theatrical animated films which go directly to video. The first example of this which I can recall was 1994's The Return of Jafar, which I often refer to as "The longest 66-minute movie ever made." Since that time, many such movies have been released, ranging from awful (the aforementioned The Return of Jafar) to the fairly decent (The Little Mermaid II and Pocahontas II). The latest entry into this genre is The Fox and the Hound 2, which has just hit DVD.

In case you're unfamiliar with the original 1981 film The Fox and the Hound, it dealt with a hound puppy, Copper, who befriended a young fox, Tod. However, as they matured, their relationship grew strained as Copper was being trained to hunt foxes. The Fox and the Hound 2 apparently takes place sometime in the middle of the original film, as Copper and Tod are still young.

The Fox and the Hound 2 is an odd entry into the direct-to-video animated sequel genre and at 69-minutes, it feels more like an episode of a TV show than a feature-length movie. For starters, making a sequel to The Fox and the Hound seems like an unusual choice. I realize that the film has its fans, but it's certainly not the most well-known Disney theatrical film. The story isn't incredibly deep, but there's little character introduction at the beginning and the movie seems to assume that we've seen the original movie.

And then we have the overall makeup of this film. The Fox and the Hound dealt with the relationship between the two animals and placed a great emphasis on animal instincts and life in the country. Thus, the shift to singing animals in a carnival is quite jarring. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's not what I was expecting from a sequel to The Fox and the Hound. When the story reaches the carnival, the movie turns into a musical and there are several musical sequences, both with the dogs performing and musical montages. As someone who does not enjoy country music, I found the songs to be annoying. The introduction of Cash and Dixie really takes the focus off of Tod and Copper, giving one the sense that the filmmakers didn't have a full "Tod and Copper" story in mind and felt the need to bring in more characters. There is an attempt to create tension between Tod and Copper and further explore their relationship, but there's also no sense of urgency to the story, thus most viewers will be ambivalent about the outcome.

Those oddities aside, The Fox and the Hound 2 does have some good points. The animation looks very good and doesn't have the slightly cheap feeling which has tainted some of the other entries into the sequel group. The backgrounds look great and the characters have a nice amount of detail. The story focuses on friendship, loyalty, and following ones dreams, and aside from a character who brandishes a gun, there is no objectionable material. The voice acting is fine and in addition to the voices mentioned above, Vicki Lawrence and Stephen Root also lend their vocal talents to the movie.

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Posted by CK-Auctions

Good Time Upbeat Little Film

For the last decade or so, Disney has made a practice of releasing direct to video, movies centered around classic characters that originally appeared in theatrical films. Some of these films failed to capture the magic of the original, lacking in quality and appearing to serve only as a cash-cow for the Disney empire....while others were average novelties that neither helped nor hindered the storyline of the original film. A few however, did manage to pull off a good second story, but those...in my honest opinion are few and far between. So for the most part, I have only dabbled in watching these Disney "Sequels", "Midquels", and "New Adventures"...fearing they would take away from the magic of the firsts. So understandably I was apprehensive when a second "Fox and the Hound" was announced. But due to the fact the the original 1981 film is my favorite Disney animated film, I had to take the plunge.
This film is more of a "midquel" story. In the first film, very little day to day goings on between Tod and Copper as childhood friends were shown...their friendship was assumed. Most of the story was centered around other characters questioning their relationship, and what took place after Copper returned from the training hunt. With the second film, the whole story takes place over a few days while their active friendship took place over an entire Summer. so it can easilly be conceived that what happened could have fit within the first film. In addition, more details of their friendship can be observed.
The story itself centers around the county fair coming to town and Tod, Copper, Amos, Chief, and Widow Tweed all partaking in the fun. When Copper is invited to join a bluegrass band after being spotted singing along in the crowd, Tod is slightly snubbed by his best friend. At the same time, the viewers are introduced to the singing group themselves and see the internal strife and stress that they are experiencing "on the road". The story runs its course and a happy ending ensues.
What makes this story so suprisingly good are quite a few things:
*The music is fun....even if you don't like country or bluegrass music, the songs help form an integral part of the story and how it takes place in the country, at a country fair, patronized by country folks both canine and human.
*The characters are great....how can one not like Tod and Copper? Having fun at the fair, poor Copper hurling his lunch on the carnival rides, and how well they interact as friends. The Singin' Strays are way too cool.....and how can one not like REBA!! The poor talent scout....he took a beating at the hands of that little redhead girl. And Chief, Amos Slade, and Widow Tweed. They serve as comic relief in this story, engaging in slapstick antics, as well as the running gag of oneupmanship in the state fair competitions (Chief's consistantly in 4th place in just about every contest)
*The cast does a great job as voice artists,they all sound accurate to the characters in the first film. The new charcater have the charm to entertain both kids and adults.*The animation is top notch! The scene atop the ferris wheel with Cash and Copper watching the fireworks is eye candy at its best. As for the state fair scenes, you can almost smell the oil and grease from the rides, fried dough and cotton candy.
In short, this is a fun story that plays great on its own, only enhancing the bittersweetness of the first story even more.

The Fox and The Hound 2 DVD

This film is another first class Disney family film, with a unique blend of humor, country music, and excitement. The irresistible twosome of Tod and Copper getting into mischief and a true test of their friendship when Copper gets a chance to join a mismatch of characters in a circus singing group. The voice talents and country music combines to makes this an excellent movie for all ages.

fox and the hound 2

My kids loved the singing in this one. This story is kind of a middle of the story, not a continuation of the first movie. Tod and Copper are still the rascals they were in the first movie. Copper gets a chance to be a star in a singing dog band and Tod gets left out. The real show stoppers in this movie are the songs written and sung by some of the best artists in Nashville. We actually bought the soundtrack before we bought the movie.
The main theme of this movie is that friendship is the most important thing, no matter what.

FOX AND THE HOUND 2 DVD

Bought this because we had Fox and The Hound #1 and loved it so much...my kids and g. kids watched it more than once definitely - I wanted to get #2 because of this and they LOVE this one also... and especially the music by Reba
McEntire and the others.... they think the little hounds are actually singing - and they sit real still for this movie. I love watching it myself !!
So glad I have it in my collection of movies.