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 threatening to kill his neighbor's pet Tod.
Amos Slade (or simply known as Amos) is the main antagonist of Disney's 24th full-length animated feature film The Fox and the Hound (which is based on the 1967 novel of the same name by the late Daniel P. Mannix), and a minor character in its 2006 midquel The Fox and the Hound 2. He is Tod's former archenemy, Widow Tweed's neighbor and Chief and Copper's owner, master and boss.
Unlike most Disney Villains, even though he is a hunter, he does not come across as being evil. Instead, he just hunts for a living and is very professional at it, until he gets motivated by revenge, rather than that "just because" brand of evil that you see in way too many villains: in fact, if Amos had not broken wildlife laws and entered a sanctuary with the intent of illegally hunting down and killing Tod, he would barely qualify as a villain at all. In the end, his foul temper and desire for revenge would cause him to cross the moral and legal boundaries, though he would soon regret doing so.
In the first film, he was voiced by the late Jack Albertson, who also played Grandpa Joe in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (which is the 1971 musical film adaptation of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). Amos Slade is also Jack Albertson's final theatrical role before he died on November 25, 1981 at the age of 74. In the midquel, he was voiced by Jeff Bennett despite being uncredited.
Personality
Amos is a crabby, mean, grumpy, argumentative and bad-tempered old man. However, he does care about his two hunting dogs, Chief and Copper. Later, Amos reforms after Tod saves him and Copper from a dangerous bear.
Biography
The Fox and the Hound
Amos is Widow Tweed's bad-tempered neighbour and is known to be a hunter. At the beginning of the film, he was seen when he got a surprise for his hunting dog named Chief, and the surprise was shown to be a hound puppy called Copper, and Amos said that Copper is someone for Chief to look after from now on, but Chief was shown to dislike him, but grows to like him later on. He doesn't like it when Copper wonders off, so he often has to search for Copper, who met a fox named Tod, who lives with Widow Tweed. After Copper plays with Tod a couple of times, Amos finally tied up Copper at his doghouse to prevent him from wondering off again. When Tod arrived at Amos' house to see Copper, Chief alerts to his master, Amos that there is a young fox is on his property. Amos accuses the fox of chasing after his chickens, because of this, Amos tries to kill the young fox. Tod was able to escape, as he jumped into Widow Tweed’s truck as Amos follows them. Widow Tweed stops her truck as she confronted Amos for trying to kill Tod as she angrily grabs Amos' gun and then she uses it to shoot Amos' radiator/truck. Amos threatens to kill Tod as he says to Tweed that he will blast him if he ever catches him on his property again.
After that, Amos takes both of his dogs, Copper and Chief on a hunting trip. By springtime, Amos has collected a lot of skins and trophies with the help of a grown up Copper. Amos, Copper and Chief later return, as Tod comes to see Copper again, but Amos saw Tod again and tries to kill him once more. Chief helped Amos chase Tod to a railroad bridge, as Chief traps Tod onto the bridge. Suddenly, a train comes. As Amos tells Chief to jump, Tod escapes, but Chief fell off the bridge by the train hitting him, causing him to be injured badly. Amos and Copper accused Tod of making Chief get hit by a train, and both Copper and his master, Amos want revenge on Tod by killing him, while Tod safely returned to his owner, Widow Tweed. Suddenly, Amos marches to Tweed’s house and attempts to kill Tod who was hiding, but Tweed was able to close the door and lock it to stop Amos from killing the fox, but Amos tells her that she can’t keep Tod permanently locked up. Because of how Amos wanted to kill Tod, Widow Tweed thought that he is not safe with her anymore. Tweed has no choice but to take Tod to a game preserve where he'd be safe from Amos.
Later on, Amos Slade and Copper saw Widow Tweed after dropping off Tod at the game preserve. Then, Amos Slade breaks in a mad attempt to kill Tod, even if it means breaking hunting laws. As Amos and Copper saw Chief making a fuss over his injured leg to get attention, Amos threatened to break Chief's other leg, causing him to whimper. After that, Amos shows Copper his plan to catch and kill Tod as he shows him a trap. After that, he set multiple traps as Tod cautiously comes closer. As Amos used his gun as he tries to shoot Tod, Tod’s ear perks up, and he barely escapes from the traps. Amos and Copper chased Tod and his girlfriend, Vixey. Tod managed to distract Copper by engaging him in a fight before returning to the foxhole. Amos puts fire in the den, while he and Copper wait at the other end. However, Tod and Vixey escape through the flames. As Amos continues to follow the 2 foxes, a bear appears as Amos shoots the bear with his gun out of fear. Because of this, the bear attacked Amos, and swiped his gun out of his hand making him fall. While Amos tries to escape from the bear, Amos fell into one of his own traps and has lost his gun, that got caught on a small tree and landed slightly from his reach. However, Tod and Copper saved him as they attacked the bear.
When Tod was injured from the bear attack, Amos tries to take kill Tod. However, he eventually reforms when he sees Copper proving that he and Tod are friends, as he was standing in the way of the gun. Amos eventually decides to return home as a slightly better man, while Widow Tweed fixes his injured leg causing him to complain about his leg as his 2 dogs watch.
It is possible that he learned his lesson about foxes being different from people.
The Fox and the Hound 2
Amos Slade appears as a minor antagonist in the midquel. He appears when he was wondering where Copper was because Copper needed a hunting lesson. After Copper talks to Chief, Amos finally found Copper and told him to howl causing an apple to fall on his head. Amos and Chief tried to chase after Tod and kill him, but then a bucket of milk fell on Amos' head causing him to ride on Widow Tweed's cow, Abigail causing Tweed to scold Amos. After that, Amos was thrown in the mud, and Widow Tweed threw a pie at his face. Amos scolds Copper for failing at being a hunting dog. Slade and his oldest dog, Chief enter the fair for a hunting dog contest, where Chief takes another ribbon which is fourth place for the second time which makes him seem to think makes him the champion hunting dog in the county.
He tries to look for Copper when he left Amos' house to join the Singin' Strays. Amos and Chief were being lead by Tod to the Singin' Strays' performance. Amos reveals that Copper is his dog, not a stray causing Cash to scold him and fire him. After Copper gets fired, Amos takes him back home.
Amos appears during the climax of the film as he was enjoying some pie with Widow Tweed at her house until they were interrupted as Chief, Tod and Copper caused a chase causing Tweed and Amos to fall. Because of this, Widow Tweed angrily attacks and hits Amos with a broom.
While many people say that Amos is not a villain and while they see Amos as a minor villain, he does commit several crimes throughout the film - for example he threatens to commit violence, endangers others with both reckless driving and reckless shooting then finally crosses an even bigger line when he deliberately breaks into a wildlife sanctuary (going as far as cutting the fence) : he also uses illegal methods of hunting to try and kill Tod, for pure revenge. His actions are foreseen when he is warned that his temper will get him in trouble some day, which indeed it did (both on a moral and legal ground).
Amos' performance model was made by the late Art Stevens.
Amos was animated by 2 people who are John Pomeroy and Ron Husband.
Amos is almost based on Colonel Pierson from King of the Grizzlies.
Amos is based on the Master from the original Fox and the Hound novel.
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