As a kid, Tod is a sweet, cunning, and lovable young fox who lives a very carefree lifestyle with Widow Tweed. Since there are few restrictions on his life, Tod is prone to making mischief and getting into trouble. His mischievous side brings out a devil-may-care attitude toward Chief and trouble in general. He is frequently bored and always on the lookout for a friend, which leads him to Copper. Like any best friend, Tod treats Copper as his own flesh and blood.

When Tod matures into an adult, he retains his affection for those he cares about most, despite destiny driving a wedge between him and Copper and being returned to the wilderness by Tweed. His extreme loyalty to those he cares for is shown when he helps Copper fight off an enormous bear. He later becomes amorous when he meets and falls in love with Vixey.

The Fox and the Hound

At the beginning of the movie, a mother fox leaves her male pup beside a fence before escaping, only to get shot and killed by hunters (off-screen), leaving the little pup orphaned. Frightened and alone, he meets Big Mama, a large owl who takes pity on the pup and decides to find someone to care for him. With help from Dinky the goldfinch and Boomer the woodpecker, Big Mama leads Widow Tweed to the pup by dropping a piece of her laundry on him. Tweed discovers the pup, whom she adopts and names him Tod, for he reminds her of a toddler.

Tod grows quickly and becomes quite mischievous, doing such things as aggravating Tweed's cow and spilling her milk. One day, he goes out to play and runs into Copper, a newly-acquired hound puppy of the neighboring Amos Slade, an avid hunter. The two become fast friends, unaware that they are natural enemies.

One day, Copper doesn't come out to play, so Tod sneaks over to Amos' yard. He finds that Copper is tied up, as Amos had grown tired of the puppy wandering off. Tod decides to play with Copper in the yard, but Copper warns him of Chief, Amos' other dog, who is a trained hunting dog and will not hesitate to kill Tod. Tod doesn't believe Copper and accidentally awakens Chief, who chases him across the yard. Amos spots Tod and attempts to shoot him, believing that the fox was after Amos' chickens (they were actually accidentally let out during the chaos). Tod escapes by hitching a ride in Tweed's car, but Amos' threats against Tod forces Tweed to keep the fox locked up for his own safety.

One fall day, Amos prepares to take Copper and Chief on a winter-long hunting trip. Tod tries to go say goodbye to Copper, but he arrives too late. After they leave, Big Mama warns Tod that his friendship with Copper must come to an end, for Copper will be a trained hunting dog when he returns and thus will pose a danger to Tod. Tod dismisses this, believing that their friendship is stronger as he tells Big Mama that he and Copper will remain friends forever.

The next spring, Tod has matured into an adult. When he sees Copper return with Amos and Chief from their hunting trip, he plans to go over that night to see him. Big Mama warns him once again that Copper won't return his sentiments, but Tod refuses to believe her. Tod sneaks into Amos's yard while Amos and Chief are asleep. Copper is pleased to see him and they both remark on how they have grown. Tod tries to renew their friendship, but Copper forlornly refuses, even though they agreed to be friends forever. Copper warns Tod that he should leave before getting them both into a lot of trouble, but their conversation accidentally awakens Chief, whose barks alert Amos. Tod escapes into the forest, with Chief, Copper, and Amos on his tail.

Tod manages to find a hiding place to lose Chief, a woodpile next to a railroad, but Copper tracks him there. Conflicted, Copper decides to let him go just once, not wanting to see Tod getting killed. Tod escapes onto the railroad, but again runs into Chief, who chases him onto a railroad bridge as a train comes in their direction. Tod ducks under the train that collides into Chief, who tumbles down a steep cliff into a river below and fractures his leg. As Tod looks down to see what has happened, Copper, believing that Tod had intended for Chief to get killed by the train, furiously swears revenge on him. Tod escapes through the forest back to Tweed, who brings him safely home. Later that evening, Amos arrives at Tweed's house in a vengeful fury over Tod nearly killing Chief. Tweed blocks him out, but Amos warns that she can't hide the fox forever.

The next day, Tweed sees that Tod is no longer safe to live with her on the farm, has no other choice, but to release the fox in a game preserve in the forest to protect him from Amos. Tod has no idea of how to survive in the woods and is soaked in a rainstorm that night. After a run-in with an old, angry badger, a friendly porcupine invites Tod to sleep in his home for the night.

The next morning, Tod wakes up after being pricked by the porcupine's quills, falls from its home in a tree, and lands right on the badger's den. The badger again scolds Tod, who tries to apologize, but the badger thinks Tod is making up excuses. The porcupine tries to defend Tod, but the Badger shakes him off and orders Tod to go back where he came from. Tod walks off, now more depressed than ever, when Big Mama catches up with him. To help Tod, Big Mama leads him to a lovely vixen she has found. Tod walks over to the vixen, who introduces herself as Vixey, and the two foxes develop affections for each other. However, they both get into an argument when Tod humiliates himself as a result of his lack of survival skills, such as attempting to catch a trout, originally on display to impress Vixey, and is being laughed at by Vixey and the other forest animals. Feeling hurt and angry, Tod insults Vixey, calling her "a silly, empty-headed female", and the two foxes refuse to talk to each other. Big Mama then persuades Tod to be natural and sings "Appreciate the Lady" as a means for Tod to give Vixey a second chance. Tod offers Vixey a flower and successfully wins her back. Tod allows Vixey to show him around the forest and moves into a burrow where she makes her home.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the foxes, Amos sets foot into the game preserve with Copper, bent on hunting Tod. Tod and Vixey emerge from their burrow and wander around, happy to have each other. Soon, they come across a very quiet area of the forest that Vixey does not want to enter, having sensed danger within. So Tod himself steps in to investigate the area, where Amos has laid some bear traps. Tod almost steps into one, but his instincts kick in, and both he and Vixey escape with Copper in hot pursuit. In order to buy Vixey more time to head back to the burrow, Tod jumps in front of Copper, snarling at his former friend while distracting him. After a brief fight, Tod runs back to the burrow, where he rejoins Vixey, but Copper catches up with them. With Copper thrashing and clawing his way into the burrow, Tod and Vixey attempt to exit through the back end, but retreat at the sight of Amos and his gun. Amos sets fire to some straw and fans flames through the back end before joining Copper at the front end to wait for the foxes to emerge. Tod and Vixey find themselves cornered, but Tod decides they must take a chance, and they both dash out through the back end, narrowly escaping the flames.

Tod and Vixey run up a cliff next to a waterfall with Amos and Copper still chasing them. As Amos aims his gun at the foxes, a huge grizzly bear suddenly looms up before him. The bear attacks Amos, who tumbles down the cliff, dropping his gun, and steps into one of his own traps, injuring his leg. Copper fearlessly lunges at the huge bear to defend his master, but is easily overpowered and overwhelmed in a very vicious fight. Copper's loud yelp reaches Tod's ears. He turns around and is horrified to see his childhood friend getting nearly killed. Unwilling to leave him to die, Tod races back to save him. As the bear prepares for the final blow on the wounded exhausted Copper, Tod leaps onto the bear's back and bites his ear, pulling with all his might, and the bear turns his attention to him. Biting and scratching wildly, Tod manages to lure the bear away from Copper while narrowly dodging the bear's vicious swipes. Tod bites the bear again, but the enraged bear then swats him with his paw, sending Tod flying onto a log bridge protruding over the waterfall. While Tod hangs on for dear life, the bear climbs onto the log that sags under his immense weight. As the bear raises his paw to kill Tod, the log suddenly breaks, sending both animals plummeting several meters down the waterfall.

Tod barely survives the fall while the bear presumably dies. Immensely hurt and exhausted from his savage fight with the huge creature, he limps out of the shallows and collapses just before he reaches shore. Copper silently approaches him, amazed that Tod just saved his life despite everything that happened, and now feels genuinely remorseful for all the horrors he put him through. When Tod notices Copper, he sadly accepts that he is at Copper's mercy. Just then, Amos arrives with his gun aimed at Tod. Copper stands over Tod, in front of the gun, looking pleadingly at Amos. Amos orders Copper to move out of the way, but Copper refuses to let his friend die. Amos eventually relents, lowers his gun, and tells Copper that they should let the fox be and leave for home. As Copper follows his master, he turns around to take one last look at Tod. Tod and Copper exchange smiles as they acknowledge each other as best friends once again. With their friendship finally restored, Tod and Copper then go their separate ways.

In the very last scene of the movie, Tod is seen sitting on a cliff, watching his friend Copper from afar, as Vixey joins him.

The Fox and the Hound 2

The second film takes place; prior to Copper going hunting with Amos Slade and during Tod's youth living with Widow Tweed. Tod is still best friends with Copper, but their friendship is tested when Copper joins up with a band of musical stray dogs called The Singin' Strays at the fair.

Feeling abandoned and upset, Tod works with Dixie, whom Copper had replaced, to get Copper to leave the band and back to being his best friend. Tod lures Copper's owner, Amos Slade, and his other dog, Chief, to the fair and sabotages the band's performance in front of a talent scout. Copper is fired and returns home. However, the band conflicts over Copper's firing and breaks up, leaving Tod regretful.

The next day, Copper and Tod apologize to each other and plan to fix their mistakes. Tod, who had come into possession of the talent scout's hat, gives it to Copper, who tracks the scout. Meanwhile, Tod lures each band member to a local diner. Copper meets them there and convinces the band to reform. The band's subsequent performance interests the Talent Scout brought to the diner by Copper. The band is given the chance to perform at the Grand Ole Opry. Copper, however, chooses to stay home and be friends with Tod.

House of Mouse

Tod and Copper appear briefly in the episode "Dining Goofy", running out of the club with other Disney dogs and cats when Goofy spreads a rumor about the club being infested with fleas, which was actually a misinterpretation of Minnie's statement that the kitchen was out of cheese.

• Although Tod is usually shown as a kid in merchandise, he actually has more screen time as an adult.
• Tod is one of the few main protagonists whose film is a (semi) musical, but does not sing in it at all, following Peter Pan, Robin Hood, Basil of Baker Street, and Oliver.
• Adult Tod is actually a modified Robin Hood, with his design altered so that he resembles a normal fox.
• Similar to Bambi, although Tod is shown regularly as a kid and adult (adult Tod is known as "Tod", and young Tod is referred to as "Young Tod"; also, he has more screen time as an adult in the original movie), his more iconic age is as a kid, and a majority of the film and its midquel focuses on his youth during his initial scenes with Copper.
• In Italy, Tod is known as "Red" due to his fur color.
• Tod's "glove" on his right paw is longer than the left one.
• Tod got scolded by the badger twice for trespassing on his property. Ironically, in real life, red fox competes with badgers and can prey on them if red fox desires.
• Tod as a kid doesn't have any patches around his eyes, but as he's an adult, he appears to have light red patches around his eyes.