Amos Slade

"TEMPER!? Temper, Woman, you ain't SEEN My temper! If I ever catch that fox in my property again, I'll blast him, and next time I won't miss."

- Amos Slade

Amos Slade is the major semi antagonist of The Fox and the Hound,  although he is more a misguided simpleton than a criminal - nevertheless he causes much misery for the young fox Tod as well as Copper the hound-dog (even if Amos didn't intentionally mean to do so). He was voiced by the late Jack Albertson in the first film and Jeff Bennett in the midequel.

Amos is a very bad-tempered and trigger-happy farmer who is also an avid hunter, he sees Tod as a pest and had no hesitation in trying to shoot the fox multiple times whenever he strays onto his property - he also has plans on making Copper into a great hunting dog and thus treated the pup somewhat harshly (though he is never outright cruel to him).

In the end Amos' temper is what truly made him a threat as he often flies into a rage and would open fire at will, even being described as a "trigger-happy maniac" at one point in the film.

Eventually Amos' foul temperment forces Tod's kindly owner, Widow Tweed, to give him up and take him into the forest where she felt he would be safe - unfortunately for her Amos caught wind of this and decided to hunt Tod down to be rid of the fox once and for all. (Even when Tod is at the forest where no one is supposed to hunt, but Amos broke that rule and broken into the preserve).

During the chaos that ensued the old hunting hound Chief is injured by a fall and struck by a train and is wounded and Copper blames Tod, creating tension between the two friends and after taking Chief home to recover Amos and Copper return to once again hunt Tod.

Well, this time, the battle is interrupted by the arrival of a very large and feral bear that tries to kill Copper and Amos, whilst trying to escape from the bear, Amos is caught in one of his own traps and his gun falls just out of his reach, but Tod intervenes to protect his childhood friend - falling down a waterfall in the resulting fray.

Amos prepares to open fire on the exhausted fox as he drags himself out of the water, but Copper finally comes to Tod's aid and pleads with his master. In the end, Amos couldn't bring himself to betray his loyal hound, so he lets Tod live.

Amos then returns to his farm and presumably never bothered Tod again as the fox was now happy and free in the forest.

Trivia

 * Amos Slade was voiced by Jack Albertson who also did Grandpa Joe from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
 * Amos Slade was animated by John Pomeroy.
 * The peformance model for Amos Slade was Art Stevens.
 * Amos Slade's temper had caused him to be the main antagonist of the film. But, he was not meant be a true villain.
 * Disney confirms him to be the main antagonist of Fox and the Hound, due to his bad attitude, although some fans still consider the bear as the movie's real antagonist
 * Amos Slade is one of the Disney villains to have redemption at the end.
 * Amos Slade was voiced by Jack Albertson's last role before his retirement and death the same year.
 * According to a Youtube Video,  Amos Slade was The Hunter who killed Bambi's Mother.
 * Amos Slade was rumored to be the secondary antagonist of the film.
 * Amos Slade's character role is similar to The Ringmaster from Dumbo, Aunt Sarah from Lady and the Tramp and Sir Ector from The Sword in the Stone: As all four start off as antagonistic towards the protagonists (Dumbo, Lady, Arthur and Tod), but reform at the end of the films.
 * Amos Slade could be a tragic villain for reasons:
 * Amos Slade had chickens in his farm. But, the Bear ate one of his chickens.
 * This had froze Amos Slade's heart.