 A reviewer for the "Reading Eagle" felt Mannix wrote well enough to make a reader feel like they were the characters Tod and Copper and that the story was "really exciting" due to the "dramatic opposition" of the two animals.Walt Disney Productions purchased the film rights to "The Fox and the Hound" when it was awarded the Dutton Animal Book Award.Production on a film adaptation began in 1977 and it would become the most expensive animated film produced at the time, at a cost of $12 million.