Critic Reviews
65
Metascore
Generally Favorable
positive
9(60%)
mixed
6(40%)
negative
0(0%)
Showing 15 Critic Reviews
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All Reviews
Metascore
Metascore
80
The animation here is better than average, though not quite up to the quality of Disney Studios in its heyday. Still, this film has a lot of heart and is wonderful entertainment for both kids and their parents.
80
Cute, anthropomorphic animals, old-fashioned American rural locales and alternating doses of sentimentality and scares firmly place The Fox and the Hound in the classic Disney mold. [13 July 1981, p.81]
75
The story, from a book by Daniel Mannix, was Disney's best material in a decade or two, the stuff of rending family melodrama on the order of Dumbo or Lady and the Tramp. Unfortunately, the execution is only adequate: the character work relies too much on celebrity voices (as was Disney's habit in the dark 60s) and the whole film has a sketchy, underpopulated feel that hardly represents Disney at the studio's baroque best.
75
The Fox and the Hound is one of those relatively rare Disney animated features that contains a useful lesson for its younger audiences. It's not just cute animals and frightening adventures and a happy ending; it's also a rather thoughtful meditation on how society determines our behavior.
75
Children’s films have often been more unsettling, but few, if any, exceed The Fox and the Hound for quietly bitter honesty. Its modesty is unsurpassed, and thanks to it, we’ve been spared its inclusion in the theme-park side of Disney culture.
75
A wounded and unresolved movie free of the expected Disney cutesiness and complacency.
75
Instead of exploring new territory in the animated art, the film harks back to the tried-and-true Disney formula. The result is sentimental, predictable and totally endearing. [27 July 1981]
70
It's pleasant, and while it's a bit sloppy, I rather enjoy the unclean look of the animation.
70
One of the more homely Disney animated features, neither hip like The Jungle Book nor (pardon the expression) trippy like Fantasia. We're back in that serene Disney woodland where bright flowers dot heavily shaded glades and snow plops off branches like ice-cream.
60
While the backgrounds and animation are wonderful, the film suffers from an intensely depressing middle section, full of heart-stopping chases, damaged friendships and forgettable songs more likely to invoke fidgets than sniffles among the younger contingent in the audience.
