The Bear

This article is about the character inThe Fox and the Hound. For theSilly Symphonies character, seeBear.

The Bear

Background[]

Physical appearance[]

The bear is a gigantic and burly animal with black fur and red eyes. He is likely amelanisticKodiak bear. He seems to be more 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 byAmos andCopper, who are looking forTod andVixey, 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, lose his hat in the process, 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[]

The Bear's first appearance as he appears in front of Amos from within the bushes.

Rearing up as a warning to the intruders in his territory.

The Bear is grumpy.

The Bear grazed in the shoulder by Amos' bullet.

The Bear roars in pain from the shot.

The Bear is really furious now.

The Bear lets out a deep growl and steps toward the alarmed hunter.

The Bear goes in pursuit of Amos after knocking the gun out of his hands and sending him tumbling the hillside.

Amos has his leg caught in one of his own steel traps as the Bear rages toward him.

The Bear and Copper in confrontation with the hound dog trying bravely to defend his injured master.

Copper leaps at the Bear and bites into his neck.

The Bear swipes Copper away to hurt him.

The Bear slashed in the snout by Copper.

The Bear forcefully swats Copper.

The growling Bear circles around the wounded Copper.

The Bear approaches Copper.

The Bear prepares for the final blow to kill Copper...

...until Tod comes to the rescue.

Tod bites into the Bear’s right ear.

The Bear roars in pain as Tod bites and pulls on his ear.

The Bear vainly trying to shake Tod off.

The Bear chases after Tod.

The Bear swipes his paw at Tod.

The Bear tries to bite Tod, but misses the fox.

The Bear continues chasing Tod up a cliff.

The Bear swats Tod with his left paw.

Tod biting the Bear again.

The Bear roars in pain as Tod continues biting him.

The Bear fed up with Tod biting him.

The Bear swats Tod with his paw, sending him onto an old log.

The Bear emerges out of the mist and onto the log.

The snarling Bear climbs onto the old log.

The log shakes under the Bear's weight as he stalks closer to Tod.

The Bear's fierce look as he approaches Tod.

The Bear corners Tod.

The Bear raises his paw to kill Tod on his final attack...

...only for the log to break and send both of them plunging several dozen meters down the waterfall.

The Bear plummeting into the water for his demise.

Trivia[]

• The bear's roars, snarls, and growls are the same asMaleficent in Dragon form fromSleeping Beauty,Brutus and Nero fromThe Rescuers, andShere Khan fromThe Jungle Book.
• WhenAmos 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. However, either way in real life would certainly anger a bear so it’s plausible that it angered the bear even further.
• 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 amelanistic grizzly bear).
• The bear is the only forest animal character in the film without spoken dialogue.

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