If you are a big fan of corn or any of its many byproducts, then a dream harvest is headed your way.
More than 6 million boxes of Chex cereals are in the nation’s supermarkets now, all of them specially marked. Get the right box and the nippers not only receive a game, but also can send for a free copy of Disney’s latest video “classic”: “The Fox and the Hound” (Walt Disney Home Video, 1994, animated, color, 83 minutes, closed captioned, $24.99). It’s one of the studio’s old cornball cuties dusted off for a new generation of consumers.
Corn on the cob or in cereal form can do a body good; “The Fox and the Hound” is corn mush for the minds of viewers 5 to 10. Make sure they brush after every viewing.
Based on a book by Daniel P. Mannix and theatrically released by Disney in 1981 and 1988, “Fox” opens with a mother fox fleeing two baying hounds and a hunter. She carries her cub in her mouth. As the dogs close in, she hides him in some turf and dashes over a hill to draw the dogs away.
Bang! Bang! Goodbye, Mom. Hello, “heartwarming” tale of “lasting friendship.”
The cub, Tod (voiced by Mickey Rooney), is taken under the wing of Big Mama, a wise owl. The owl manipulates things so Tod is “adopted” by a lonely widow living on a neat farm at the edge of a forest.
Across the way is a not-so-neat farm owned by a surly, gun-toting farmer named Amos. Amos has an old hunting dog named Chief and a just-purchased young hound named Copper.
Needless to say, young fox and young hound fall in with each other and become best friends. The story, now very cute, tracks them as they grow up, until the day when the hunting season arrives that puts them at odds and tests their friendship.
Parents should be aware that throughout this sweet concoction runs a thread of potential terror for young viewers. There are some very scary and violent scenes, a fierce bear and one of the dogs takes a dreadful fall.
Disney publicists have compared this to the studio’s “101 Dalmatians” and “The Jungle Book.” I’d get those videos instead-and shift the nippers to whole-wheat cereal.
Speaking of wheat, there’s a bit of it in another animal-centered video, “Where the Red Fern Grows, Part Two” (Heartland Films, 1994, live-action, color, 92 minutes, $24.95). Unfortunately, there is a lot of chaff, too, that clogs up what should have been a great story.
Based on characters created by Wilson Rawls in his autobiographical account of his Depression-era Oklahoma childhood, the central characters in the original “Red Fern” were Billy Coles and his grandfather.
In this sequel, Billy’s name is now Coleman and the scene is rural Louisiana, 1945; grandfather is played by a grizzled Wilford Brimley, an actor also familiar with cereal.
Billy (played by Doug McKeon), grown to manhood, returns from World War II service minus one leg and most of his spirit. Grandpa senses that the key to resurrecting prewar Billy will be a brace of Redbone ‘coon dogs, just like the ones he had in the first picture.
This video is best suited for viewers 12 and older; it is not violent, but there are some thrown fists, some heavy smooching and the standard dying-dog scene. There’s also some very funny stuff, but not enough. Things too often get bogged down in emotion.
A key ingredient to Heartland movies is “The Message,” and we get to it near the end when a bitter, maimed Billy confronts the vicissitudes of life and his dead dog, which fell from a tree while trying to kill a raccoon.
Grandpa tells Billy: “You know, nobody said it was going to be fair or easy. Your dog done what he was bred to do.”
Grandpa goes on to say that he doesn’t understand why leaves turn green in the spring and gold in the fall, or what makes a dog crazy to get a ‘coon in a tree, “and whatever that power is, it’s a lot bigger than me or you . . . and I feel sometimes I have to give thanks to it and call it God.”
I heartily prefer and recommend the original “Where the Red Fern Grows” (Vestron Video, 1974, live-action, color, 90 minutes, $29.98). This adventure, set in the Oklahoma Ozarks in the 1930s, centers on the kind-spirited Coles family. It is a rich tale-with genuine piety and fine performances from Stewart Petersen as Billy and James Whitmore as Grandpa. Author Rawls narrates.
Billy wants a ‘coon hound more than anything in life, but, as his farmer-father tells him, “Hunting dogs cost money, and that ain’t something we got a lot of.” So the boy takes odd jobs between his own farm chores, scrimps, saves and finally buys himself a brace of Redbone hounds. He trains them himself, and they become the best ‘coon hunters in the state.
But being best sometimes isn’t enough, as Billy learns in a heart-wrenching lesson.
This beautifully photographed and well-written story will remind you of “The Waltons” or the books of Willa Cather.
