The Fox Hunt (1931)

A Masterpiece!

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

This is an early short in the Silly Symphonies series produced by Disney. There will be spoilers ahead:This is a very cute cartoon, if nothing special. It's simply a series of gags with the basic framing device of a fox hunt. The short starts at break of day, with birds singing and a rooster crowing. There's a nicely animated sequence with a blacksmith and a farrier working in perfect unison.We're treated to a quartet in reasonably fine voice and then the main business starts and the rest of the cartoon is gags related to a fox hunt. It's visual gags galore here, with dogs going wild, riders jumping on horses, a nice bit on horses clearing a jump and a fox running to escape. There's one rider whose day is far more interesting than he probably liked or wanted, with him riding more than just a horse. Various animals are less happy than he is, because they're being ridden. The ending of the short is extremely nice, so I won't spoil it here.This short is available on the Disney Treasures More Silly Symphonies DVD set and it's well worth seeking out.

Light on gags and worthwhile character animation, The Fox Hunt (1931) is a lesser Silly Symphony. It certainly does not have the energy or atmosphere of something such as The Skeleton Dance (1929) or The Old Mill (1937)The major compensation is the backgrounds and illusion of depth, which was lovely to see. Then again, Disney has almost always had beautiful backgrounds in their films. Even their most wretched works (sans the ugly Chicken Little film from 2005) has that redeeming factor.Otherwise, this will likely bore most people, save for those who can be entertained by lovely backgrounds alone.

Disney Silly Symphonies always have been a big part of my childhood. The Fox Hunt wasn't one of the ones I grew up with but one I only saw fairly recently. I can't say it is one of their greats though, the characters' personalities are somewhat bland and there are moments when the animation is rather crude by today's standards. That said, in regard to the latter point, I actually did find the dawn breaking sequence very atmospheric in terms of animation with the use of silhouettes and lighting and it was in this scene where the animation was at its most fluid. The music is simple but never repetitive and has the right amount of energy. The cartoon is crisply paced and the gags come by thick and fast and are very funny. I admit though that the second half is better than the first as it is in the second half from when the horn is blown when the fun really starts. Though I didn't find the first half dull either, while not as fun it was still interesting. So in conclusion, I found The Fox Hunt worth watching and thought it did well thanks to the gags making an oft-done idea fresh, but I do think there are better Disney cartoons elsewhere that had more consistent quality in animation and stronger characters. 8/10 Bethany Cox

One of the weaker Silly Symphonies, this one is quite enjoyable, but fails in a basic aesthetic rule of animation: if it could have been shot as a live-action short, then it doesn't need to be a cartoon, and therefore isn't a good one.Now, you may disagree with this aesthetic rule of mine, and I won't dispute it too strongly. Nor is this a poor movie: the gags are strong and a fair number of them need to be animated, since the 'transformation' gags are clearly animation of gags. But there are plenty of live action fox hunts in the movies, and this could have been done that way. But it has its pleasures nonetheless.