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This article is about the character in The Fox and the Hound. For the Silly Symphonies character, see Bear.

The Bear is an antagonist who appears in the climax of Disney's 1981 animated feature film The Fox and the Hound. He does not have tolerance for intruders or trespassers, attacking and killing anyone who enters his territory.

Background[]

Physical appearance[]

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Model sheet

The bear is a gigantic and burly animal with black fur and red eyes. He is likely a melanistic Kodiak bear. He seems to be stocky than muscular.

Personality[]

The bear is portrayed as an ordinary bear albeit slightly more territorial. He does not tolerate trespassers, and if they cross into his territory or attack him in any way, he will not hesitate to kill them. However, he is not necessarily evil as he is a simple creature defending his territory. When encountering Amos Slade and Copper, he merely tried to scare them away and did not attack until after being shot by Amos.

Role in the film[]

The bear first appears after being accidentally awakened by Amos and Copper, who are looking for Tod and Vixey, only to stumble upon the territory of the wrathful animal, who awakens and looms over them as a warning that Amos and Copper are in his territory and should leave immediately. Amos, with a look of fear on his face, and with shaky hands, panics by raising his gun, and fires at the beast to hopefully kill him, but only grazes the bear’s shoulder to just only hurt him, provoking him further. The bear becomes enraged and growls, lumbering onward, and lunges forward toward the alarmed hunter. Amos struggles to reload his gun (dropping some ammo) - and tries to shoot the bear again, but fails when the bear swipes at him, causing the hunter to drop his gun and tumble down the slope of a hillside, but fall lose from his gun landing on a small tree sapling as the bear continues pursuit to chase after the frightened hunter.

While trying to escape from the bear, Amos looks up, gasps at the bear coming, and gets up, but fearfully starts walking backward to flee from the bear, and ends up getting his foot caught in one of his own steel traps while his gun has landed on a small tree, slightly out of his reach. Furious that Amos and Copper are not leaving his territory, the bear continues to encroach in on the injured, defenseless, and terrified hunter. As the bear reaches Amos, Copper fearlessly lunges at the bear to protect his injured master. He bites into the bear's neck and slashes him in the snout. But despite being smaller and more agile, Copper is no match for the giant bear as he swats the dog, and Copper is soon easily overpowered and beaten up in a very violent and brutal fight. Not too far away, Tod hears Copper's yelping echo, turns around, and is horrified to see his childhood friend nearly getting killed.

Against his better judgment, Tod quickly runs back to save his friend. As the colossal bear prepares for a final blow on the wounded Copper, Tod leaps onto the bear's back and bites his ear, pulling with all his might, which allows the beast to turn his attention to him. The Bear becomes more distracted by Tod, but tosses him off his back, then chases him up the cliff. Biting and scratching wildly, Tod manages to lead the bear away from Amos and Copper, as the bear follows him further and further. As Tod reaches the top of the cliff, the bear slaps him to the cliff's edge, then lumbers toward him. Tod leaps at the bear again and bites into his snout and neck, but the fed up bear then swats Tod with his paw, sending him onto an old log bridge protruding high above a tall raging waterfall. While Tod hangs on for dear life, the bear climbs onto the fallen trunk, which sags under his immense weight. Upon reaching Tod, the bear then raises his paw in an attempt to deliver the final blow, but fails when he then accidentally breaks the log, sending both of them plummeting down the reserve's waterfall several dozen meters below. Tod survives, but the bear is not seen afterwards.

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • The bear's roars, snarls, and growls are the same as Maleficent in Dragon form from Sleeping Beauty, Brutus and Nero from The Rescuers, and Shere Khan from The Jungle Book.
  • When Amos shoots the bear in the shoulder, blood is shown when he howls in pain. When Copper bites the bear on the muzzle, blood is shown on the right side as well to anger him even more. This is one of the film's controversial points.
  • Due to the color of his fur, the bear is often presumed to be an American black bear. But judging by his size and aggressive behavior toward trespassers and the visible shoulder hump, he is a grizzly with, for some reason, black fur (probably a melanistic grizzly bear).
  • The bear is the only forest animal character in the film without a spoken dialogue.


v - e - d
The fox and the hound logo
Media
The Fox and the Hound (video/soundtrack) • The Fox and the Hound 2 (video/soundtrack) • House of Mouse
Disney Parks
Entertainment: Rivers of Light: We Are One

Parades: Main Street Electrical Parade
Fireworks: Momentous

Characters
The Fox and the Hound: TodCopperBig MamaDinky and BoomerSqueaksWidow TweedAmos SladeChiefAbigailMr. DiggerPorcupineVixeyBear

The Fox and the Hound 2: CashDixieWaylon and FloydGranny RoseLyle SnodgrassZeldaWinchell P. BickerstaffOlivia Farmer

Locations
Widow Tweed's HomeAmos Slade's HouseThe Game Preserve
Songs
Best of FriendsLack of EducationGoodbye May Seem ForeverA Hunting ManAppreciate the LadyFriends for LifeWe're in HarmonyHound DudeGood Doggie, No Bone!Blue BeyondWe Go Together
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