So far - the only difference between the two (that I've noticed) is that in the book - old Dan died from wounds he received while fighting a wild boar to protect Billy. In the movie it was a mountain lion - not a wild boar. Did anyone else notice any differences between the book and the movie?
shareI distinctly remember it was a cougar that killed Old Dan in the book and they also describe Old Dan's intestines hanging out and them sewing them back in before he dies which obviously wouldn't have been in any movie version, the entire beginning where an adult Billy finds a dog and takes care of it which leads to the flashback isn't there, in the book he has three sisters while in the movie he has two, there was a scene in the book where Billy kills a raccoon and his parents scold him for it but they use it's hide as training for Old Dan and Little Ann, and also in the book they have a contest for best looking dog that Little Ann wins.
shareOld Dan dies from injuries after fighting a mountain lion in the book and the movie. However, Old Yeller (different book/movie) gets injured by a wild boar and has to have his entrails sewn back in. That's probably what you're thinking of.
shareCall me crazy, but didn't one of the dogs get drown by a coon?
[deleted]
"Call me crazy, but didn't one of the dogs get drown by a coon?"
Neither of the dogs died from drowning in either the book or movie. However, there are some references in the book to the potential for a hound to be drown by a coon, which might be what you were remembering. First, the book describes how it is possible for a coon to hold a dog's head under water long enough for it to drown, and during a couple of hunts, when the dogs are chasing coons across the river, Billy worries that this might happen to one of his dogs. Second, on one hunt, Old Dan disappears after crossing the river, and Little Ann's strange actions lead Billy to believe that Old Dan has drown. However, it turns out that he has chased the coon into an old muskrat den, out of which Billy subsequently has to dig him. Third, Billy and the dogs go hunting one night when the ground is covered with snow and ice and the river is partially frozen. Because of the freezing temperatures, the dogs cannot swim across the river (but must instead walk out over the ice and jump over the narrow stream of still flowing water). Little Ann slips and falls into the river, and for a while, Billy thinks she will freeze to death because she is unable to climb out and he cannot reach her. However, in the end, he devises a plan to rescue her in time. Neither of these 2 latter hunts are included in the movie but are described within the book.
Many things are left out of the movie, but for plot changes...
In the book, the Ghost Coon hides in a hollow fence post, not up in the mill.
In the book, Rubin trips on a tree root. In the movie, Billy trips him.
In the book, Little Ann finds Grandpa during the storm while Old Dan keeps three coons in a tree (these three would give Billy a total of four for the championship run-off). One gets away, and the dogs go after it and get lost in the blizzard. When the men find the dogs in the daylight, the dogs had the fourth coon treed and prevented freezing to death by circling the tree all night. Billy wins the championship with four coons. In the movie, the dogs leave the coons in the tree to find Grandpa and the declared winner gives the trophy and money to Billy.
To clarify, Old Dan is killed by a mountain lion in both the book and movie. In the book, his intestines come out and Mama sews them back in.