MovieChat Forums > The Fox and the Hound (1981) Discussion > Ursus Ex Machina

Ursus Ex Machina

posted 9 years ago by BobStage
2 replies | jump to latest

Even when I was a kid, I was astounded at this random insertion of a 12 foot tall black Grizzly bear into the final act. And what's more astonishing is how much this bear was promoted. In my copy of the VHS, the bear is featured on the front of the cover, as though it features as a prominent antagonist to Todd and Copper throughout the story.

And yet, the bear is arguably the best thing that happens to Todd and Copper because it forces them to remember how they were friends and it unites them against it. Even Amos puts aside his hatred because of the bear.

Strange message, really. We might have been friends as kids, but we are fated to be enemies... until something even bigger and more dangerous threatens us and then we'll temporarily unite until the natural order is re-established. Then it's back to the way things were...

Oh wow, that's more realistic than I want it to be....

(In all seriousness though I do like this movie and the scenes with the bear are incredibly well animated and intense, no matter how randomly it appears into the story)

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] IceboxMovies 9 years ago

I try to view the bear less as a Deus Ex Machina and more as a personification of the Mindless Hunter, which is sort of the theme in this movie: the characters' obsessions with hunting, killing and dehumanizing their prey, from Tod and Copper, to Tod and Chief, to Tod and Amos, to the Widow Tweed and Amos, to Dinky/Boomer and Squeeks.

Finally, just when Amos is willing to cross the line into the "No Hunting" zone to kill Tod just for the hell of it, he meets his match in the bear. The bear is what finally brings out Amos' humanity (his fear), and when Copper defends Tod at the end, it forces Amos to realize that killing will solve nothing.