Film Review - Disney's Robin Hood
Feb 19, 2023 16:09:13 GMT
Lucy of Ravenscar, Nolwë, and 1 more like this
Post by Dennis of Ravenscar on Feb 19, 2023 16:09:13 GMT
The Disney Animation
i.imgur.com/lJwgHwN.jpg
Plot
A big book opens and the scene is set. King Richard is away crusading (surprisingly enough) and his brother, Prince John, has usurped his throne. A rooster with ye olde guitar turns up and tells us that even the animals have their stories of Robin Hood and what we are about to see is what really happened in Sherwood.
As the titles roll, we are briefly introduced to a variety of variously cute and funny animals.
i.imgur.com/lpUHxx0.png
The rooster introduces himself as Alan-a-Dale and begins a song about Robin Hood and Little John in the forest. We see the two playing about, being chased and escaping up a tree. In said tree, John tells Robin that he is taking too many risks. Robin, being the carefree guy (sorry; fox) that he is, dismisses this with a wave of his paw. There is a flourish of trumpets just to draw their attention to the fact that Prince John is travelling through Sherwood with a lot of tax money. He and his counsellor, Sir Hiss, are on their way to Nottingham. Prince John is trying to get his brother’s crown to stay on his head and being flattered by Hiss. Apparently, Hiss hypnotised the king so that he would go on his Crusade and Prince John could run the country. At the mention of his mother John starts sucking his thumb. He does that a lot.
i.imgur.com/Jw5zfqK.jpg
Robin recognises the royal carriage and decides to rob the Prince. Little John has his doubts but goes along anyway. They disguise themselves as gypsy women. The Prince wants his fortune told even though Hiss doesn’t think it’s a good idea. The entourage stops. First, the outlaws get the Prince’s rings as they kiss the royal paw. When Hiss tries to tell him, the stupid lion puts him in a basket and sits on it. As Robin proceeds to tell John’s fortune (your name will go down in history, etc.), Little John lifts the gold hubcaps and goes for the money. As he escapes behind the carriage, he bumps into Robin who is escaping with a sack of gold. They collect up the fallen coins and run as Prince John emerges in his underwear. The guards give chase, taking the royal carriage with them. A wheel comes off, the Prince goes in the mud and the rhino guards charge over the top of him. He has a tantrum and breaks a mirror over the smug Hiss’s head.
i.imgur.com/VqHjTpr.jpg
Back with Alan, we see various animals looking miserable in rags, mud and the stocks. Everyone is generally down on their luck. Singing his way onto the scene, comes the Sheriff of Nottingham to collect even more taxes. He sees Friar Tuck going into the blacksmith’s place. Tuck gives the smith some money from Robin. The Sheriff bursts in and demands the smith pays his taxes. The smith, hobbling along with a broken leg, claims he has nothing. Unfortunately, the big guy is not fooled and hears the chink of gold coming from the plaster on the smith’s leg. He grabs the cash and leaves, ignoring Tuck’s outraged blustering.
In a cute little rabbit house, it is Skippy’s seventh birthday. He opens his present as the Sheriff arrives and gets his new farthing stolen for his trouble. Feel free to boo and hiss at this point. A blind beggar (looking suspiciously like Robin with dark glasses on) appears at the door and also has his money stolen by the nasty ol’ Sheriff who leaves. The sweet old widowed rabbit welcomes the beggar, who then reveals himself to be none other than Robin Hood. He gives Skippy a little bow and arrow and his hat, which is far too big for him. The kiddies go off to play. Before Robin leaves, he gives the widow a bag of money and promises happiness in Nottingham.
i.imgur.com/55hllOV.png
The kids are playing and Skippy manages to shoot his arrow into the castle grounds. Oops. He creeps into the grounds to get it. In the garden, Maid Marian and her lady in waiting, Lady Kluck, are playing badminton. Marian goes to fetch the shuttlecock and comes face to face with little Skippy in his oversized hat. The other kids come into the garden and ask about Marian and Robin. She gets embarrassed and shows them where Robin carved their initials on a tree years before. Marian and Kluck play with the children for a bit, taking the michael out of Prince John, and there is a comedy moment when Marian kisses the star of the show, Skippy.
Later in the castle, Marian and Kluck get girlie and talk about Robin. Marian doesn’t know if Robin will remember her, let alone love her, after all the time she has spent in London.
i.imgur.com/7bMsgw0.png
In Sherwood, Little John is hanging out the washing while Robin burns the food and dreams of Marian. John reckons Robin should ask her to marry him, but Robin says he has nothing to offer her, being an outlaw and all that. Friar Tuck turns up and tells them about Prince John’s archery contest the next day. The prize is a kiss from the lovely Marian and of course Robin gets all over-excited about it. John realises that it will be a trap but of course that doesn’t make much difference to our hero’s mood.
At the tournament, there are trumpets, peasants, troops and more cute animals. Prince John and Sir Hiss have a quick comedy chat about the booby trap they have set whilst Marian and Kluck talk about Robin. Right on cue, the daring duo turn up in appropriate disguises. Little John flatters his way into a good seat next to the Prince, who is completely fooled. He sends Hiss off to try and find Robin. Hiss is not happy but follows orders. He is spotted by Tuck and Alan who decide to keep an eye on him as he takes to the air in a balloon. Robin manages to get a quick word with Marion as the archers parade past the Prince. Unfortunately, Hiss notices her sudden interest in the ‘stork’.
i.imgur.com/YWgDTec.png
The tournament begins. Both Robin and the Sheriff are doing well and engaging in some less-than-friendly banter. Meanwhile, Tuck and Alan shoot Hiss’s balloon down and stuff him in a convenient ale barrel. As the final contestants are announced (Robin and the Sheriff, of course), Prince John notices Marion waving at the stork and comments on her interest. I think he might have guessed, don’t you?
In the shoot-out, the Sheriff is cheating. As Robin takes aim, he knocks the bow, and the arrow flies up in the air. Quick as a flash, Robin shoots another, which knocks the original arrow back on course, splitting the Sheriff’s arrow. And the crowd goes wild.
The Prince gives the nod and the guards move into position. As Robin is revealed, they grab him.
Robin is, of course, sentenced to death, even after a plea for mercy from Marian and rather touching confession of everlasting love and devotion. Robin speaks out in support of King Richard and the Prince has a tantrum. Unfortunately for him, Little John is behind the curtain of the pavilion and has the Prince at knifepoint. He orders that Robin be released. The Sheriff smells a rat and creeps around the back to get John. As soon as the Prince is released, he yells for the guards, and the comedy cartoon fight commences. Mid-fight, Robin proposes and Marian accepts. After a bit of Disney chaos, the outlaws escape. leaving a miffed Prince John to discover Hiss in the barrel, totally off his face.
That night in Sherwood, Robin and Marian are getting romantic. Marian is singing, there is moonlight, trees, fireflies and a waterfall. The slushy stuff ends as Tuck and the gang turn up. There is dancing and merriment in the forest as the outlaws sing of “The Phoney King of England”.
i.imgur.com/moCmpvC.png
At the castle, the Sheriff arrives, singing the song. He teaches it to Hiss, who is counting the taxes. They have a laugh about it; all the peasants are singing it. Unfortunately, the Prince overhears them and decides that he will triple taxes to punish the people.
In the rain and mud, Alan tells us that the people have been bled dry. He and all the little animals we have met so far are in jail for not paying their taxes. There are scenes of general misery.
In a little, rundown church, Tuck, the sexton and his wife (who are church mice) are talking about how hard times are; even the poor box is empty. The sexton’s wife gives Tuck their last farthing for the poor. The Sheriff turns up and empties the box of its farthing. Obviously, Tuck is not happy and throws the Sheriff out of the church, follows him out and starts a fight, which he loses. He is arrested for high treason and put in jail with the rest.
i.imgur.com/JVrtLlG.jpg
In Nottingham Castle, Hiss is trying to cheer up Prince John who is depressed about Robin Hood. When Hiss tells him that they have Tuck in jail, he decides to use the good friar as bait. Add convenient thunderclap.
It is Night. There are guards everywhere and the Sheriff himself is asleep outside the jail. Nutsy and Trigger, the incompetent vultures, are with him. Robin and John grab Nutsy and Robin disguises himself as the vulture. He sings to the Sheriff to put him back to sleep and nicks the keys. John creeps in to release the prisoners whilst Robin goes after the gold. He climbs up the tower and into the Prince’s bedroom where there are piles and piles of sacks full of gold. Hiss is asleep in a cot at the Prince’s feet. With a bit of rope and some fancy archery, a pulley system is set up and Robin starts to tie the bags to the rope. At the other end, the released peasants help to carry the booty. Some coins drop onto the Sheriff and wake him up, but John grabs him in time and takes his place at the door.
i.imgur.com/1AsSuyM.jpg
In the tower, Robin has retrieved the sack from under the Prince’s pillow and goes for the last one, which seems to be a substitute teddy bear. He grabs hold of the rope and is away. But no; Hiss is awake and sounds the alarm. The guards attack and more silliness begins. Eventually, Robin manages to let the drawbridge down and everyone escapes on a cart. Everyone, that is, except the cute little rabbit kid. Robin goes back for her, but it’s too late; the portcullis is down. John takes the kid through the gate and follows the cart. Robin starts climbing. He gets into a room in a tower, but the Sheriff stops him. As they fight, a fire starts and spreads like, well... wildfire. Robin gets away and ends up on the roof of the burning tower. As John and Skippy watch, he leaps into the moat. The guards are on the battlements, keeping up a hail of arrows as Robin tries to swim to the bank. He disappears under the water and then the bubbles stop. Silence. Robin’s hat floats to the surface with an arrow through it. It sinks forlornly.
On the battlements, the Prince starts to celebrate. At the edge of the moat, John and Skippy are crying together. As they are about to leave, Skippy spots something. It is Robin swimming under the water, using a reed to breathe. He lives! Well, this is a children’s movie, after all.
Sir Hiss spots Robin climbing out of the moat. The Prince gets depressed again and decides that beating up Hiss might make him feel better.
Alan wanders into a colourful, jolly scene and tells us all about King Richard’s return and Robin’s pardon. Even the flowers have cheered up. Prince John, Sir Hiss and the Sheriff are now convicts, complete with striped uniforms, working on the rock pile.
Robin and Marian are getting married and the guest of honour is the King. They get into their ‘Just Married’ carriage and ride away from the church. A flourish of music, a final comedy moment and all is well again.
i.imgur.com/cjpQd7Z.jpg
Review
This was the first Robin Hood film I ever saw. I must have been very young, but remember loving it. For children, this is a great introduction to the legend because Disney haven’t tried to make it too realistic. If they had animated ‘real’ people, I don’t think it would have worked as well as it did for Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, etc. The main reason is that those were fairy tales, but Robin Hood may or may not have been real, so to give it the Disney treatment, they had to take it that step away from reality. And besides, the animals give the characters their standing in the story. Robin is a fox (for obvious reasons), Prince John and King Richard are lions, the Sheriff is a wolf and the other characters are divided up into the good guys (rabbits, bears, badgers, tortoises) and the bad guys (vultures, snakes, alligators). You don’t even have to think about who doesn’t like who; it’s made easy. It make’s Robin’s actions seem like part of the natural order of things. Well, Disney’s natural order of things, anyway. If you really want to read things into the film, you could write a very convincing essay about Robin’s legendary oneness with nature, but I won’t bother right now. It is basically just a lovely idea to tell the kids that Robin Hood was such a hero, that even the animals have their own legend about him.
It helps that the writers seem to have treated their subject with some respect. They let Robin and Marian carry the ‘serious’ side of the film and use the others (especially Prince John) to play for laughs. And, as is usual with Disney, they don’t seem afraid to show the worst side of things. Basically, this film is well-balanced between the serious and the comedy moments.
Robin is courageous and principled, as he should be. Both he and Marian seem to have been deliberately animated with more grace than the others. Their movements flow more; they seem softer somehow. This means that they stand out as special. Robin is definitely a simple version of the more complicated, live-action portrayals, but he is very much what he should be. The only real difference is that this is a film for kids, so he has to be the perfect good guy. He is. Marian is the perfect lady; she is beautiful (for an animated vixen), she likes children and she is in love with who she should be. Both have what I call ‘straight’ voices, as opposed to ‘character’ voices, which is what all the others have. Little John, for example, is very American. He is ‘the funny one’ as French and Saunders might put it. Having said that, he is quite a typical John; he is a big, soft bear (literally) and he loves Robin. All the characters have been given much the same treatment; they are what we have come to expect from a Robin Hood story, but have a certain something that sets them apart as Disney characters. This is why the film is a good introduction to the legend for kids. It is the usual children’s fare; a few laughs, some catchy tunes, a bit of adventure, but it also tells the story the right way. It shows some hardship and the need for a hero to bring some hope to the downtrodden masses. It shows the legend the way it should be believed. The fact that a lot of the characters have American accents and that there isn’t much that could be termed as realistic makes no difference because, of course, this is a cartoon; naturalism and historical accuracy don’t come into it.
Also, there are the ‘children’ characters, inserted very neatly into the plot, that the kids watching can connect with. In fact, the entire film is geared to connect with a young audience; even the humour is childish. It seems that whoever was responsible for the film in general really wanted to make a story for children, but a story that actually meant something, unlike most of Disney’s previous fairy tales. These days, we are used to Disney making more ‘meaningful’ animations, but if my memory serves, this was one of the first to use an established story, rather than a fairy tale. It works, I think.
Great lines
Prince John:
“To coin a phrase; rob the poor to feed the rich.”
“Forgive me a cruel chuckle.”
“I sentence you to sudden, instant and even immediate death.”
Lady Kluck:
“Oh, Marian; what a bonny wee bunny.”
Friar Tuck (to Robin):
“You’re no outlaw. Why, some day you’ll be called a great hero.”
Old Widow:
“Ah Robin; you do so much to keep our hopes alive. Bless you.”
Sir Hiss:
“Sire, if I may venture an opinion, you’re not your usual, genial self today.”
Cast
Robin Hood (A Fox) Brian Bedford
Maid Marian (A Vixen) Monica Evans
Prince John (A Lion) Peter Ustinov
Sir Hiss (A Snake) Terry-Thomas
Little John (A Bear) Phil Harris
Friar Tuck (A Badger) Andy Devine
Sheriff of Nottingham (A Wolf) Pat Buttram
Lady Kluck (A Chicken) Carole Shelley
Alan a Dale (A Rooster) Roger Miller
Trigger (A Vulture) George Lindsey
Nutsy (Another Vulture) Ken Curtis
i.imgur.com/lJwgHwN.jpg
Plot
A big book opens and the scene is set. King Richard is away crusading (surprisingly enough) and his brother, Prince John, has usurped his throne. A rooster with ye olde guitar turns up and tells us that even the animals have their stories of Robin Hood and what we are about to see is what really happened in Sherwood.
As the titles roll, we are briefly introduced to a variety of variously cute and funny animals.
i.imgur.com/lpUHxx0.png
The rooster introduces himself as Alan-a-Dale and begins a song about Robin Hood and Little John in the forest. We see the two playing about, being chased and escaping up a tree. In said tree, John tells Robin that he is taking too many risks. Robin, being the carefree guy (sorry; fox) that he is, dismisses this with a wave of his paw. There is a flourish of trumpets just to draw their attention to the fact that Prince John is travelling through Sherwood with a lot of tax money. He and his counsellor, Sir Hiss, are on their way to Nottingham. Prince John is trying to get his brother’s crown to stay on his head and being flattered by Hiss. Apparently, Hiss hypnotised the king so that he would go on his Crusade and Prince John could run the country. At the mention of his mother John starts sucking his thumb. He does that a lot.
i.imgur.com/Jw5zfqK.jpg
Robin recognises the royal carriage and decides to rob the Prince. Little John has his doubts but goes along anyway. They disguise themselves as gypsy women. The Prince wants his fortune told even though Hiss doesn’t think it’s a good idea. The entourage stops. First, the outlaws get the Prince’s rings as they kiss the royal paw. When Hiss tries to tell him, the stupid lion puts him in a basket and sits on it. As Robin proceeds to tell John’s fortune (your name will go down in history, etc.), Little John lifts the gold hubcaps and goes for the money. As he escapes behind the carriage, he bumps into Robin who is escaping with a sack of gold. They collect up the fallen coins and run as Prince John emerges in his underwear. The guards give chase, taking the royal carriage with them. A wheel comes off, the Prince goes in the mud and the rhino guards charge over the top of him. He has a tantrum and breaks a mirror over the smug Hiss’s head.
i.imgur.com/VqHjTpr.jpg
Back with Alan, we see various animals looking miserable in rags, mud and the stocks. Everyone is generally down on their luck. Singing his way onto the scene, comes the Sheriff of Nottingham to collect even more taxes. He sees Friar Tuck going into the blacksmith’s place. Tuck gives the smith some money from Robin. The Sheriff bursts in and demands the smith pays his taxes. The smith, hobbling along with a broken leg, claims he has nothing. Unfortunately, the big guy is not fooled and hears the chink of gold coming from the plaster on the smith’s leg. He grabs the cash and leaves, ignoring Tuck’s outraged blustering.
In a cute little rabbit house, it is Skippy’s seventh birthday. He opens his present as the Sheriff arrives and gets his new farthing stolen for his trouble. Feel free to boo and hiss at this point. A blind beggar (looking suspiciously like Robin with dark glasses on) appears at the door and also has his money stolen by the nasty ol’ Sheriff who leaves. The sweet old widowed rabbit welcomes the beggar, who then reveals himself to be none other than Robin Hood. He gives Skippy a little bow and arrow and his hat, which is far too big for him. The kiddies go off to play. Before Robin leaves, he gives the widow a bag of money and promises happiness in Nottingham.
i.imgur.com/55hllOV.png
The kids are playing and Skippy manages to shoot his arrow into the castle grounds. Oops. He creeps into the grounds to get it. In the garden, Maid Marian and her lady in waiting, Lady Kluck, are playing badminton. Marian goes to fetch the shuttlecock and comes face to face with little Skippy in his oversized hat. The other kids come into the garden and ask about Marian and Robin. She gets embarrassed and shows them where Robin carved their initials on a tree years before. Marian and Kluck play with the children for a bit, taking the michael out of Prince John, and there is a comedy moment when Marian kisses the star of the show, Skippy.
Later in the castle, Marian and Kluck get girlie and talk about Robin. Marian doesn’t know if Robin will remember her, let alone love her, after all the time she has spent in London.
i.imgur.com/7bMsgw0.png
In Sherwood, Little John is hanging out the washing while Robin burns the food and dreams of Marian. John reckons Robin should ask her to marry him, but Robin says he has nothing to offer her, being an outlaw and all that. Friar Tuck turns up and tells them about Prince John’s archery contest the next day. The prize is a kiss from the lovely Marian and of course Robin gets all over-excited about it. John realises that it will be a trap but of course that doesn’t make much difference to our hero’s mood.
At the tournament, there are trumpets, peasants, troops and more cute animals. Prince John and Sir Hiss have a quick comedy chat about the booby trap they have set whilst Marian and Kluck talk about Robin. Right on cue, the daring duo turn up in appropriate disguises. Little John flatters his way into a good seat next to the Prince, who is completely fooled. He sends Hiss off to try and find Robin. Hiss is not happy but follows orders. He is spotted by Tuck and Alan who decide to keep an eye on him as he takes to the air in a balloon. Robin manages to get a quick word with Marion as the archers parade past the Prince. Unfortunately, Hiss notices her sudden interest in the ‘stork’.
i.imgur.com/YWgDTec.png
The tournament begins. Both Robin and the Sheriff are doing well and engaging in some less-than-friendly banter. Meanwhile, Tuck and Alan shoot Hiss’s balloon down and stuff him in a convenient ale barrel. As the final contestants are announced (Robin and the Sheriff, of course), Prince John notices Marion waving at the stork and comments on her interest. I think he might have guessed, don’t you?
In the shoot-out, the Sheriff is cheating. As Robin takes aim, he knocks the bow, and the arrow flies up in the air. Quick as a flash, Robin shoots another, which knocks the original arrow back on course, splitting the Sheriff’s arrow. And the crowd goes wild.
The Prince gives the nod and the guards move into position. As Robin is revealed, they grab him.
Robin is, of course, sentenced to death, even after a plea for mercy from Marian and rather touching confession of everlasting love and devotion. Robin speaks out in support of King Richard and the Prince has a tantrum. Unfortunately for him, Little John is behind the curtain of the pavilion and has the Prince at knifepoint. He orders that Robin be released. The Sheriff smells a rat and creeps around the back to get John. As soon as the Prince is released, he yells for the guards, and the comedy cartoon fight commences. Mid-fight, Robin proposes and Marian accepts. After a bit of Disney chaos, the outlaws escape. leaving a miffed Prince John to discover Hiss in the barrel, totally off his face.
That night in Sherwood, Robin and Marian are getting romantic. Marian is singing, there is moonlight, trees, fireflies and a waterfall. The slushy stuff ends as Tuck and the gang turn up. There is dancing and merriment in the forest as the outlaws sing of “The Phoney King of England”.
i.imgur.com/moCmpvC.png
At the castle, the Sheriff arrives, singing the song. He teaches it to Hiss, who is counting the taxes. They have a laugh about it; all the peasants are singing it. Unfortunately, the Prince overhears them and decides that he will triple taxes to punish the people.
In the rain and mud, Alan tells us that the people have been bled dry. He and all the little animals we have met so far are in jail for not paying their taxes. There are scenes of general misery.
In a little, rundown church, Tuck, the sexton and his wife (who are church mice) are talking about how hard times are; even the poor box is empty. The sexton’s wife gives Tuck their last farthing for the poor. The Sheriff turns up and empties the box of its farthing. Obviously, Tuck is not happy and throws the Sheriff out of the church, follows him out and starts a fight, which he loses. He is arrested for high treason and put in jail with the rest.
i.imgur.com/JVrtLlG.jpg
In Nottingham Castle, Hiss is trying to cheer up Prince John who is depressed about Robin Hood. When Hiss tells him that they have Tuck in jail, he decides to use the good friar as bait. Add convenient thunderclap.
It is Night. There are guards everywhere and the Sheriff himself is asleep outside the jail. Nutsy and Trigger, the incompetent vultures, are with him. Robin and John grab Nutsy and Robin disguises himself as the vulture. He sings to the Sheriff to put him back to sleep and nicks the keys. John creeps in to release the prisoners whilst Robin goes after the gold. He climbs up the tower and into the Prince’s bedroom where there are piles and piles of sacks full of gold. Hiss is asleep in a cot at the Prince’s feet. With a bit of rope and some fancy archery, a pulley system is set up and Robin starts to tie the bags to the rope. At the other end, the released peasants help to carry the booty. Some coins drop onto the Sheriff and wake him up, but John grabs him in time and takes his place at the door.
i.imgur.com/1AsSuyM.jpg
In the tower, Robin has retrieved the sack from under the Prince’s pillow and goes for the last one, which seems to be a substitute teddy bear. He grabs hold of the rope and is away. But no; Hiss is awake and sounds the alarm. The guards attack and more silliness begins. Eventually, Robin manages to let the drawbridge down and everyone escapes on a cart. Everyone, that is, except the cute little rabbit kid. Robin goes back for her, but it’s too late; the portcullis is down. John takes the kid through the gate and follows the cart. Robin starts climbing. He gets into a room in a tower, but the Sheriff stops him. As they fight, a fire starts and spreads like, well... wildfire. Robin gets away and ends up on the roof of the burning tower. As John and Skippy watch, he leaps into the moat. The guards are on the battlements, keeping up a hail of arrows as Robin tries to swim to the bank. He disappears under the water and then the bubbles stop. Silence. Robin’s hat floats to the surface with an arrow through it. It sinks forlornly.
On the battlements, the Prince starts to celebrate. At the edge of the moat, John and Skippy are crying together. As they are about to leave, Skippy spots something. It is Robin swimming under the water, using a reed to breathe. He lives! Well, this is a children’s movie, after all.
Sir Hiss spots Robin climbing out of the moat. The Prince gets depressed again and decides that beating up Hiss might make him feel better.
Alan wanders into a colourful, jolly scene and tells us all about King Richard’s return and Robin’s pardon. Even the flowers have cheered up. Prince John, Sir Hiss and the Sheriff are now convicts, complete with striped uniforms, working on the rock pile.
Robin and Marian are getting married and the guest of honour is the King. They get into their ‘Just Married’ carriage and ride away from the church. A flourish of music, a final comedy moment and all is well again.
i.imgur.com/cjpQd7Z.jpg
Review
This was the first Robin Hood film I ever saw. I must have been very young, but remember loving it. For children, this is a great introduction to the legend because Disney haven’t tried to make it too realistic. If they had animated ‘real’ people, I don’t think it would have worked as well as it did for Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, etc. The main reason is that those were fairy tales, but Robin Hood may or may not have been real, so to give it the Disney treatment, they had to take it that step away from reality. And besides, the animals give the characters their standing in the story. Robin is a fox (for obvious reasons), Prince John and King Richard are lions, the Sheriff is a wolf and the other characters are divided up into the good guys (rabbits, bears, badgers, tortoises) and the bad guys (vultures, snakes, alligators). You don’t even have to think about who doesn’t like who; it’s made easy. It make’s Robin’s actions seem like part of the natural order of things. Well, Disney’s natural order of things, anyway. If you really want to read things into the film, you could write a very convincing essay about Robin’s legendary oneness with nature, but I won’t bother right now. It is basically just a lovely idea to tell the kids that Robin Hood was such a hero, that even the animals have their own legend about him.
It helps that the writers seem to have treated their subject with some respect. They let Robin and Marian carry the ‘serious’ side of the film and use the others (especially Prince John) to play for laughs. And, as is usual with Disney, they don’t seem afraid to show the worst side of things. Basically, this film is well-balanced between the serious and the comedy moments.
Robin is courageous and principled, as he should be. Both he and Marian seem to have been deliberately animated with more grace than the others. Their movements flow more; they seem softer somehow. This means that they stand out as special. Robin is definitely a simple version of the more complicated, live-action portrayals, but he is very much what he should be. The only real difference is that this is a film for kids, so he has to be the perfect good guy. He is. Marian is the perfect lady; she is beautiful (for an animated vixen), she likes children and she is in love with who she should be. Both have what I call ‘straight’ voices, as opposed to ‘character’ voices, which is what all the others have. Little John, for example, is very American. He is ‘the funny one’ as French and Saunders might put it. Having said that, he is quite a typical John; he is a big, soft bear (literally) and he loves Robin. All the characters have been given much the same treatment; they are what we have come to expect from a Robin Hood story, but have a certain something that sets them apart as Disney characters. This is why the film is a good introduction to the legend for kids. It is the usual children’s fare; a few laughs, some catchy tunes, a bit of adventure, but it also tells the story the right way. It shows some hardship and the need for a hero to bring some hope to the downtrodden masses. It shows the legend the way it should be believed. The fact that a lot of the characters have American accents and that there isn’t much that could be termed as realistic makes no difference because, of course, this is a cartoon; naturalism and historical accuracy don’t come into it.
Also, there are the ‘children’ characters, inserted very neatly into the plot, that the kids watching can connect with. In fact, the entire film is geared to connect with a young audience; even the humour is childish. It seems that whoever was responsible for the film in general really wanted to make a story for children, but a story that actually meant something, unlike most of Disney’s previous fairy tales. These days, we are used to Disney making more ‘meaningful’ animations, but if my memory serves, this was one of the first to use an established story, rather than a fairy tale. It works, I think.
Great lines
Prince John:
“To coin a phrase; rob the poor to feed the rich.”
“Forgive me a cruel chuckle.”
“I sentence you to sudden, instant and even immediate death.”
Lady Kluck:
“Oh, Marian; what a bonny wee bunny.”
Friar Tuck (to Robin):
“You’re no outlaw. Why, some day you’ll be called a great hero.”
Old Widow:
“Ah Robin; you do so much to keep our hopes alive. Bless you.”
Sir Hiss:
“Sire, if I may venture an opinion, you’re not your usual, genial self today.”
Cast
Robin Hood (A Fox) Brian Bedford
Maid Marian (A Vixen) Monica Evans
Prince John (A Lion) Peter Ustinov
Sir Hiss (A Snake) Terry-Thomas
Little John (A Bear) Phil Harris
Friar Tuck (A Badger) Andy Devine
Sheriff of Nottingham (A Wolf) Pat Buttram
Lady Kluck (A Chicken) Carole Shelley
Alan a Dale (A Rooster) Roger Miller
Trigger (A Vulture) George Lindsey
Nutsy (Another Vulture) Ken Curtis