The Hound That Thought He Was a Raccoon

Last updated
The Hound That Thought He Was a Raccoon
Directed byTom McGowan
Based onan original story by Rutherford Montgomery
Produced by Winston Hibler
Starring Rex Allen
Edited byGeorge Gale
Music by Buddy Baker
Production
company
Distributed by Buena Vista Distribution
Release date
  • August 10, 1960 (1960-08-10)
Running time
47 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The Hound That Thought He Was a Raccoon is a 1960 Walt Disney film directed by Tom McGowan. It was released on the same bill as Jungle Cat .

Contents

Plot

Mala, a female raccoon, lives with her cubs inside an old tree in the South. During a flood caused by an intense storm, the tree collapses and Mala is able to save only one of her cubs, Weecha. Nearby, Jeff Emory, a backwoods "Mr. Fix It", owns a pack of coonhounds, and recently Lulubelle, his prime female, has had a litter of pups. Nubbin is the most active pup and frequently explores the farmyard. One day his curiosity leads him inside a butter churn that Jeff is about to return to a neighbor, and Jeff loads the churn onto his old truck and drives off with Nubbin still inside. During the trip, the churn falls off the truck, rolls down the road, over an embankment and breaks up against a tree. Nubbin emerges from the wreckage dizzy and lost, but eventually finds the hollow tree where Mala is nursing Weecha. Although hounds and raccoons are natural enemies, Mala nurses Nubbin and mothers him.

Two weeks pass and as Nubbin explores the area, he encounters Old Grouch, Weecha's father, who attacks him. Mala intervenes and fights her mate, who later leaves the area. By the time summer arrives, Nubbin and Weecha are firm friends and have several adventures together. One day while chasing a rabbit, Nubbin is threatened by a bobcat, but Mala lures the bobcat away from him and gives her life to save the dog. Now alone, Weecha and Nubbin search for food and when they come upon Jeff fishing, steal his fish. Jeff realizes that Nubbin is Lulubelle's missing pup and captures both of them, putting Weecha in an unused rabbit hutch. Jeff is surprised when Nubbin refuses to abandon his friend, and later, Weecha manipulates the latch on his cage and escapes for a nighttime romp with Nubbin, during which he wrecks Jeff's workshop. When an iron rod falls against a grinding wheel Weecha has accidentally started, sparks fly and start a fire, but Weecha races back to his cage. After Jeff is awakened by his hounds' barking and extinguishes the fire, he discovers Weecha and Nubbin sleeping innocently.

Three weeks later, Jeff begins to train Nubbin and his other young hounds to locate raccoons by following their scent. At first Jeff uses a raccoon skin as bait, but when he switches to Weecha, Nubbin refuses to work and fights off all the other dogs. Several months later, Jeff is invited on a coon hunt in a neighboring valley and leaves with his favorite hound, Rounder. Nubbin and Weecha are now full grown although Weecha is still a captive in the rabbit hutch. However, the hound helps his friend to escape and Weecha, having learned how to manipulate the latches on the hutches, releases all of Jeff's rabbits. He steps on the trigger of a shotgun and the shot alerts the hounds, who break out of their enclosure to chase the rabbits. Weecha hides inside a barrel, which the dogs roll over just as Jeff returns with Rounder. Weecha manages to escape but is pursued by Rounder. While fighting in a pond, Weecha grabs Rounder by the neck and almost drowns him, then escapes. By autumn, Weecha has completely reverted to the wild and survives by stealing duck eggs, as well as nuts and berries from pine squirrel nests.

In the spring, as Jeff and his friends begin a new hunting season with plans for a kill, Weecha finds and courts a mate, Waheena. When Weecha hears the hounds approaching, he instinctively uses a decoy trick learned from his father to draw the pack away from his mate. Nubbin is the leader of the pack, and when he corners Weecha, he recognizes his old friend and barks happily, but Nubbin's barking attracts the other dogs and he finds himself fighting his own kind in order to protect his friend. After Jeff arrives and sizes up the situation, he asks the other hunters to call off their dogs. As Weecha runs off, followed by Nubbin, Jeff explains their history. When Nubbin finds Weecha with his mate, Weecha chases him away, and Nubbin, realizing that their friendship can no longer continue, vows never to hunt Weecha again and returns to Jeff, his friend and master.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ibizan Hound</span> Dog breed

The Ibizan Hound is a lean, agile dog of the hound family. There are two hair types of the breed: smooth and wire. The more commonly seen type is the smooth. Some consider there to be a third type, long, but the longhair is most likely a variation of the wire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scent hound</span> Dog type, hunting dog

Scent hounds are a type of hound that primarily hunts by scent rather than sight. These breeds are hunting dogs and are generally regarded as having some of the most sensitive noses among dogs. Scent hounds specialize in following scent or smells. Most of them tend to have long, drooping ears and large nasal cavities to enhance smell sensitivity. They need to have relatively high endurance to be able to keep track of scent over long distances and rough terrain. It is believed that they were first bred by the Celts by crossbreeding mastiff-type dogs with sighthounds. The first established scent hounds were St. Hubert Hounds bred by monks in Belgium during the Middle Ages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coonhound</span> Type of scenthound

A coonhound, colloquially a coon dog, is a type of scenthound, a member of the hound group. They are an American type of hunting dog developed for the hunting of raccoons and also for feral pigs, bobcats, cougars, and bears. There are six distinct breeds of coonhound.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Common raccoon dog</span> Canid indigenous to East Asia

The common raccoon dog, also called the Chinese or Asian raccoon dog to distinguish it from the Japanese raccoon dog, is a small, heavy-set, fox-like canid native to East Asia. Named for its raccoon-like face markings, it is most closely related to foxes. Common raccoon dogs feed on many animals and plant matter, and are unusual among canids in that they hibernate during cold winters and can climb trees. They are widespread in their native range, and are invasive in Europe where they were introduced for the fur trade. The similar Japanese raccoon dog, native to Japan, is the only other living member of the genus Nyctereutes. Other names for the common raccoon dog include mangut, and neoguri.

<i>The Chain Gang</i> (1930 film) 1930 Mickey Mouse cartoon

The Chain Gang is a 1930 Mickey Mouse animated film produced by Walt Disney Productions for Columbia Pictures, as part of the Mickey Mouse film series. It was the twenty-first Mickey Mouse short to be produced, the sixth of that year. It is one of a group of shorts of strikingly uneven quality produced by Disney immediately after Ub Iwerks left the studio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Most Dangerous Game</span> 1924 short story by Richard Connell

"The Most Dangerous Game", also published as "The Hounds of Zaroff", is a short story by Richard Connell, first published in Collier's on January 19, 1924, with illustrations by Wilmot Emerton Heitland. The story features a big-game hunter from New York City who falls from a yacht and swims to what seems to be an abandoned and isolated island in the Caribbean, where he is hunted by a Russian aristocrat. The story is inspired by the big-game hunting safaris in Africa and South America that were particularly fashionable among wealthy Americans in the 1920s.

<i>Where the Red Fern Grows</i> 1961 book by Wilson Rawls

Where the Red Fern Grows is a 1961 children's novel by Wilson Rawls about a boy who buys and trains two Redbone Coonhounds for hunting. It's a work of autobiographical fiction based on Rawls' own childhood in the Ozarks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Petit Basset Griffon Vendéen</span> Dog breed

The Petit Basset Griffon Vendéen, or PBGV, is a breed of dog of the scent hound type, bred to trail hares in bramble-filled terrain of the Vendée district of France. The breed is known in the United States as "Petit" or "PBGV," in England as "Roughie," and in Denmark as "Griffon" or "Petit". The PBGV is one of six types of "basset"-type breeds recognised by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale (FCI).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treeing Walker Coonhound</span> Dog breed

The Treeing Walker Coonhound is a breed of hound descended from the English and American Foxhounds. The breed originated in the United States when a stolen dog known as "Tennessee Lead" was crossed into the Walker Hound in the 19th century. The Treeing Walker Coonhound was recognized officially as a breed by the United Kennel Club in 1945 and by the American Kennel Club in 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Feist (dog)</span> Dog breed

A feist is a small hunting dog, descended from the terriers brought over to the United States by British miners and other immigrants. These terriers probably included crosses between the Smooth Fox Terrier, the Manchester Terrier, and the now-extinct English White Terrier. These dogs were used as ratters, and gambling on their prowess in killing rats was a favorite hobby of their owners. Some of these dogs have been crossed with Greyhounds, Whippets or Italian Greyhounds, and Beagles or other hounds —extending the family to include a larger variety of purpose than the original ratter, or Rat Terrier.

<i>The Fox and the Hound</i> (novel) 1967 novel by Daniel P. Mannix

The Fox and the Hound is a 1967 novel written by American novelist Daniel P. Mannix and illustrated by John Schoenherr. It follows the lives of Tod, a red fox raised by a human for the first year of his life, and Copper, a half-bloodhound dog owned by a local hunter, referred to as the Master. After Tod causes the death of the man's favorite hound, man and dog relentlessly hunt the fox, against the dual backdrops of a changing human world and Tod's normal life in hunting for food, seeking a mate, and defending his territory. As preparation for writing the novel, Mannix studied foxes, both tame and wild, a wide variety of hunting techniques, and the ways hounds appear to track foxes, seeking to ensure his characters acted realistically.

<i>The Legend of Lobo</i> 1962 American film

The Legend of Lobo is a 1962 American animal-adventure film that follows the life and adventures of Lobo, a wolf born and raised in southwestern North America. Based upon "Lobo the King of Currumpaw" by Ernest Thompson Seton from the author's 1898 book titled Wild Animals I Have Known, neither the time period nor the precise location are specified in the film; in part because the story is told as much from a wolf's point of view as from a human's. There is no dialogue in the film, with the only interpretation presented through the use of story-song composed and sung by the Sons of the Pioneers and the Sherman Brothers, and narration by Rex Allen. Based on the non-fiction account by Seton, Lobo is an 1890s wolf from an account by Seton who was a naturalist, and was a bounty hunter in the real-life story. Filming took place in Sedona, Arizona.

<i>The Pack</i> (1977 film) 1977 film by Robert Clouse

The Pack is a 1977 American horror film directed by Robert Clouse about a pack of abandoned dogs who turn against humans by killing them for food at Seal Island.

<i>Foxy by Proxy</i> 1952 film

Foxy by Proxy is a 1952 Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on February 23, 1952, and features Bugs Bunny and Willoughby the Dog, in the latter's last appearance. Mel Blanc voices Bugs Bunny, while an uncredited Stan Freberg voices Willoughby and one of the dogs that talks in the short. This cartoon is considered a remake to Of Fox and Hounds from 1940; in fact, the opening sequence was "borrowed" directly from the original.

<i>Runt</i> (novel) 2002 novel by Marion Dane Bauer

Runt is a 2002 children's novel written by Marion Dane Bauer. It tells of a story about a wolf pup who is a runt.

<i>Pound Puppies</i> (2010 TV series) Canadian TV series or program

Pound Puppies is an animated children's television series developed by Wendy Klein Moss, Nancy Steingard, Paul Germain and Joe Ansolabehere for the Hub Network. It premiered on October 10, 2010 in the United States as the first Hub "original series". It also aired on YTV in Canada and on Boomerang in the UK, Ireland and Australia. Produced by Hasbro Studios, it was the second series to adapt Pound Puppies into a cartoon format. Originally a property by Tonka, Hasbro acquired Tonka itself and currently manages Pound Puppies. The plot style and music were similar to the 1960s TV series Hogan's Heroes and to films like Stalag 17 and The Great Escape. 9 Story Entertainment animated the first 7 episodes of the series, but DHX Media/Vancouver took over production starting with episode 8.

<i>Where the Red Fern Grows</i> (2003 film) 2003 American film

Where the Red Fern Grows is a 2003 American family adventure film directed by Lyman Dayton and Sam Pillsbury and starring Joseph Ashton, Dave Matthews, Ned Beatty and Dabney Coleman. Based on the children's book of the same name by Wilson Rawls and a remake of the 1974 film of the same name, it follows the story of Billy Colman who buys and trains two Redbone Coonhound hunting dogs to hunt raccoons in the Ozark mountains.

<i>Where the Red Fern Grows</i> (1974 film) 1974 film by Norman Tokar

Where the Red Fern Grows is a 1974 drama film directed by Norman Tokar and starring James Whitmore, Beverly Garland, Stewart Petersen and Jack Ging. It is based on the 1961 novel of the same name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coon hunting</span> Practice of hunting raccoons

Coon hunting is the practice of hunting raccoons, most often for their meat and fur. It is almost always done with specially bred dogs called coonhounds, of which there are six breeds, and is most commonly associated with rural life in the Southern United States. Coon hunting is also popular in the rural Midwest. Most coon hunts take place at night, with the dogs being turned loose, trailing and putting the raccoon up a tree without human assistance. Once the raccoon is in the tree, with the dog at the base, it is referred to as "treed", with "treeing" being the active verb form.

References