Disney’s movie, The Fox and the Hound, uses different colors to represent the character’s background and motives.  Big Mama is the owl who watches over the woods.  Her feathers are brown, and the voice actress for Big Mama is African American.  She gives realistic advice to Tod once Copper has been trained to be a hunting dog.  She tells Tod the fox that he can no longer be best friends with the hound Copper due to his training to hunt and help kill foxes for their hides.

Big Mama’s wisdom seems to come from her age.  It could also be related to racism.  Before Copper and Tod were taught what society wanted them to be, the two were best friends.  This could be similar to children, white and black, who play together in elementary school, but as society teaches them how to act, they lose their friendship.

Chief, the older hunting dog, is dark gray in color and stuck in the restraints of society.  Chief always tried killing Tod when he would visit Copper.  He never accepted the friendship between a fox and a hound which he instilled into Copper.  To Chief, all foxes were meant to be hunted and none were considered friendly.  This is similar to racism against black people.  In the 1920s, all black people were second class to white people.  Chief tells the puppy Copper that he has to earn his right to sit in the front of the car with their master, so he goes to the back of the trailer without hesitance.  This is similar to how blacks were oppressed in society by whites and were made to sit in the back of the bus.  The black bear at the end of the movie had red eyes and tried killing Copper and Chief.  He was considered evil in the movie with black and red colors.
Dark colors are considered evil and antagonists in almost all the Disney movies which reinforces the racial hierarchy of whites being more superior to the “colored” people.  In the end, Copper broke free of the restraints of society and protected Tod from his own owner.  Tod saved Copper’s life from the black bear, so Copper reciprocated the compassion.