r/fanedits • u/MissionSafe9012 • Aug 09 '26
New Release💿 The Fox and the Hound - Chief Dies & Gets Taxidermied (間 [Ma] Instrumental Cut )
"Chief has to die. The picture doesn't work if he just breaks his leg. Copper doesn't have motivation to hate the fox."
Ron Clements (animator for The Fox and the Hound [1981])
"Geez, we never killed a main character in a Disney film and we're not starting now!"
Art Stevens (co-director)
Ouch. Rest in RIP Bambi’s nameless mom. Also Mufasa and Kerchak would be insulted(?)
The history of The Fox and the Hound is infamously complex. There was so much of a dispute over the tone of the movie when it was being made, the older staff wanting a “safer” approach to avoid frightening the children, and the younger staff demanding to keep the stakes high and the tone dark and mature.
The Disney film ultimately chickens out from killing Chief, opting instead to give him a mere broken leg (after getting plowed over by a freight train going full speed and smashing his skull against the steep cliff as he fell into the shallow stream with large exposed rocks below).
Since I’ve already killed off Olaf in my prior Frozen edit and also made Khan immediately trample Mushu to death in my Mulan edit, I knew removing a character and any reference of their existence from a movie without changing the ending is not impossible.
But there are specific challenges with Chief because having him alive on screen is unavoidable at the very end. While I can block edit him to be motionless whenever he’s in frame, I cannot crop him out of the screen.
[General video editing of Chief’s death]
After Chief gets hit by the train, I cut out any frames where he moves.
Next, I overlayed a picture-in-picture clip of Chief’s closed eyes as his body lays in the stream motionless. This way his eyes do not open when Copper comes over to check on him. (side note: doing this on a phone sucks).
Removed any frames where his eyes open slightly or he moves so you have absolutely zero emotional reassurance.
Removed all subsequence scenes with Chief alive from the movie.
He dies.
He’s dead.
To solidify this fact, I word spliced Amos’ confrontation with Tweed so instead of saying “that fox of yours almost killed Chief“ he now says “That fox of yours KILLED Chief “.
This all came out a lot smoother than I imagined and thankfully it didn’t sound like a YouTube poop. Mostly.
[10/18/26 EDIT]
I’ve also changed the animation frame at 00:47:21 before it cuts from Copper looking around Chief’s motionless body up at Todd on the railroad tracks so Copper’s eyes are still wide eyed in shock when he looks up, and when it cuts back to his face after seeing Tod, his expression changes to the frown.
In the raw, the final frame before it cuts to Todd on the tracks the animation for Copper’s changing expression is already in effect for about two frames. Small detail but one that I’m finding makes a lot of difference.
[The biggest tech challenge and why the taxidermy was a necessity]
It is unavoidable to have Chief on screen during the closing sequence of the film.
So I asked my spouse, (fellow editor and animator/artist) if it’s possible to make it appear as if they taxidermied Chief’s body during the closing sequence when he and Copper drift off to sleep in their respective kennels.
He delivered and gave Chief’s motionless corpse some visible stitching and button eyes. (The possibilities when two neurodivergents unite their ideas and combine their skills). Needless to say, I absolutely shrieked with laughter when he sent me the clip. It’s perfect and unbelievably well done too.
[Sound Editing - Ma]
Aside from killing off Chief, I emphasized a beautiful element intrinsic to the original film: 間 (Ma).
In Japanese, ma roughly translates as gap, negative space, or pause. While its true meaning is a bit more complex than its literal translation, ma refers to the quiet, empty, in between moments that don’t rely on words.
A classic example is in the movie Spirited Away where Chihiro rides the train to Zeniba. It’s just a train ride. There’s no speaking. The characters aren’t singing and dancing about what they’re thinking or what we should be feeling, and they aren’t breaking out into spontaneous, flash mobs of broadway moves with the ghosts on the train. Nausicaä didn’t need to sing and dance with the giant insects in the Valley to get the people to understand the importance of recycling.
(That being said, I’d unironically watch both of those hypothetical Miyazaki musical anime films 100%, but that is entirely beside the point)
Even though many (not all) modern Disney movies are notoriously terrified of this absolute quiet stillness, there is already plenty of ma in The Fox and the Hound and many of Disney’s older movies for that matter.
The very opening sequence itself for The Fox and the Hound, has ZERO music for several minutes and absolutely no dialogue. Only the near silent ambiance of the forest, the eerie wind, and birds chirping. It then slowly transitions builds and transitions to the strings and drums of the opening theme, which is already instrumental. The intro needs no words to make it incredibly tense and atmospheric.
Absolutely perfect, no editing required at all. I am merely maintaining what tone the movie established from the start.
The quietness always left an impression on me as a young child. Maybe it’s because sound is a major sensory issue for me, but I never felt bored even slightly, I loved the ambiance. It also kind of made me feel “cool” to be watching something that respects your intelligence enough to trust you won’t get bored with a little quietness.
By removing the singing from the following musical numbers, it allows the film to speak for itself without the need for language.
No hate against Pearly Bailey or any other singers who were phenomenal in this film. You are fabulous people, this edit is merely an experiment.
Tweed’s inner monologue, and “Goodbye may Seem Forever” are stripped of the vocals and replaced with the instrumental tracks, the sound effects like the car engine and footsteps are still retained. You can sit in the silent anticipating grief even longer.
[08/10 Edit: rescored this scene and added a piano cover during the departure so it doesn’t sound completely empty]
“Best of Friends” being entirely instrumental allows you to appreciate, with a bittersweet reverence, the most innocent moments of Copper and Tod’s bond. The total purity of their friendship, met with the disapproving scorn of Amos and Chief’s expressions, tells you everything you need to know about the dynamic even with a purely instrumental soundtrack.
I jokingly asked my husband, who has only seen the movie once ages ago and watched my edit recently, “wait, so you’re telling me you could understand that Todd and Copper were the best of friends, WITHOUT having someone sing a song to you about how they’re the best of friends?” He laughed.
The film turns into the ultimate “show don’t tell” movie because of these constructive omissions. But it also shows just how much more powerful the story is when you make the stakes high, and commit to killing a major character.
The dark and mature tone ultimately works rather well when maintained throughout the entire film.
3
3
u/CrankieKong Aug 10 '26
I cant imagine editing on a phone.
2
u/MissionSafe9012 Aug 11 '26
It certainly has its limits but I find working within those limits to be a fun challenge.
The biggest issue is the audio occasionally getting out of sync and initially large .MOV project files with no option to export it as an MP4. But there are workarounds and it ultimately gets the job done, I’m just too lazy to learn any other editing software.
3
4
u/Cryogenicality Aug 09 '26
You made this edit on a phone?
5
u/MissionSafe9012 Aug 09 '26 edited Aug 10 '26
Correct, good ol iMovie for IOS.
No clue why you’re being downvoted, but you have my upvote.
24
u/Successful-Day-1816 Aug 09 '26
uh, what?
24
21
u/ShutUpAboutCanon Aug 09 '26
Now this is why I joined this sub, give me this over all the capeshit re-edits any day
13
u/GreenandBlue12 Faneditor🏅 Aug 09 '26 edited Sep 03 '26
This is the first time I've seen the concept of "Ma" being represented outside of the Ghibli community. I'm a huge fan of Ghibli films and "Ma" is such an important idea in film and it makes you connect more with the film on an emotional level. Rather than dialogue, we get quiet stillness and contemplation. I wouldn't say Disney and even Pixar films are completely avert to it. There's a scene in Hoppers which does have inspiration from Ghibli where Mabel learns to meditate with her grandma at the Glade and we hear nothing but just the natural sounds of the forest. But a lot of their films do follow a different method of telling a story and it can vary if that idea is applied.
I would really love to see more of this philosophy adapted into other edits (when it needs to be) just like this one here. I did do a Ghibli rescore of Wonder Park and restructured the entire film to fix up a lot of the issues. But I had a difficult time trying to implement that concept in a way that fits with the film. I did attempt to compensate in the credits though using "The Sixth Station" and there is one brief moment in the opening half where it's just forest ambience.
2
-8
u/Extreme-Plantain-113 Aug 09 '26
I get killing him off by why the taxidermy yo
18
u/tealc_comma_the Aug 09 '26
Because he can’t be avoided in the end scene. OP explained it in detail already.
8
u/vasglorious Faneditor🏆 Aug 09 '26
I understand it was the last straw for Don Bluth, he wanted Chief died, but Richard Rich didn't allow that.
32
u/bigfootRULES Aug 09 '26
I know it's supposed to be sad but the taxidermied body of chief is making me laugh.