A Tale of Two Critters

"A two-story story of a very odd couple" ran the tag line for A Tale of Two Critters (1977), a live-action film by Walt Disney Productions. It didn't star a mouse or a dog, but a real bear and a real raccoon. With narration by Mayf Nutter, the film tells the tale of a bear cub and a raccoon brought together by a flash flood in the Pacific Northwest. During the course of the film, they need to learn to trust each other in order to make it home safe. The idea of two very different animals coming together to survive was a not uncommon theme in Disney films, like Nikki, Wild Dog of the North (1961), in which a dog and a bear cub must band together, or The Incredible Journey (1963), which stars two dogs and a Siamese cat who must work out their differences in order to return 250 miles through the Canadian wilderness to their home, and would later be repeated in The Fox and the Hound (1981), about a dog and a fox whose unlikely friendship is tested as they grow up. At a scant 48-minutes, A Tale of Two Critters was written, produced, and directed by Jack Speirs. Speirs was a veteran of Disney for more than a quarter of a century, writing dozens of animal-themed films for the Disney television programs and feature films, like The Bears and I (1974). He also was involved in music, including co-writing the lyrics to the song for A Tale of Two Critters, Travelin' On, with Erika Borgeson and music by Buddy Baker, who had worked on many Disney productions, including Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color (1954) and The Apple Dumpling Gang (1975). A Tale of Two Critters was released through Disney's Buena Vista Distribution on June 22, 1977 as a featurette to accompany the main film, Disney's animated blockbuster The Rescuers , and would later air on The Wonderful World of Disney on June 4, 1978. SOURCES: Brode, Douglas, Multiculturalism and the Mouse: Race and Sex in Disney Entertainment http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/A_Tale_of_Two_Critters The Internet Movie Database http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/jack-speirs-veteran-disney-writerproducer-who-penned-more-than-300-tv-intros-for-walt-disney-and-wrote-numerous-animal-adventures-for-film-and-television-dead-at-age-86-77140207.html http://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/the-wonderful-world-of-disney/episodes/191907/5/ By Lorraine LoBianco