Robin Hood (1973)

Sandwiched in between the death of Walt Disney, the visionary who established the entire Disney brand, and the company's partnership with Pixar that produced Toy Story, was a period of time in which Disney Co. was in limbo. This film came along smack dab during that period, but still managed to turn in a more than decent effort.The basic plot of Disney's Robin Hood closely follows the classic tale, where Robin (with the help of Little John and Friar Tuck) tries to save the poor citizens of Nottingham from a corrupt Sheriff and King, all the while striving for the hand of that beautiful Maid Marion. The fantastical twist, however, sees the characters being portrayed in an animal form that children will love. Robin is a crafty fox, Marion is his lovely vixen, King John is a cowardly lion, and the evil Sheriff is a menacing wolf, to name but a few.The plot of the film pretty much meanders around aimlessly, but is filled with enough action, hijinks, and subtle dashes of humor to keep your interest. In a nice addition, a slew of child-like characters add some heart to the movie, as well as give the kiddies some contemporaries to identify with (I did while watching the film as a youngster!).Perhaps the hallmark of the entire effort, though, is the fantastic music. The soothing, clear vocals of Roger Miller narrate portions of the film, as well as provide the signature songs. Other characters also lend their vocal talents to the soundtrack, and none fail.Thus, although Robin Hood isn't as "classic" as the early Disney collection or as ultimately engaging as the films of the Pixar era, children (and nostalgic adults) can still find plenty of things to enjoy about this movie. Plus, with Russell Crowe set to resurrect the Robin Hood franchise in a feature film this summer, now is the time to re-discover this hidden gem.

After years of only watching bits and pieces of this movie, I finally watched the entirety of this on a recent flight from Korean Air. Made after Walt Disney's death, it still had many of his old crew involved making this quite entertainingly funny to watch. All the characters of the Robin Hood tale are portrayed as various forest animals with the leading character and his leading lady being foxes. This marked Phil Harris' third and final voice role in a Disney movie, having previously been such in The Jungle Book (Uncle Walt's last in the animated category) and The AristoCats. Roger Miller contributed some songs and also voiced a character though the tune that got an Oscar nomination-"Love"-was written and performed by someone else. Overall, Robin Hood was a nice movie to watch on a flight back home...

When I was young, I loved watching Disney films with my family. From Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs to Brother Bear, I loved every film. So, with Robin Hood being one of their classics, you'd think I'd like it too! Unfortunately, even when I was young, I never cared much for this film...but I couldn't stop watching it either. Why is that? Was it the animation? The characters? The story? The anthro characters?Let's talk about the story. If you know the legend of Robin Hood, then this movie is nothing new. It's basically Robin Hood and his buddy Little John robbing the rich and giving to the poor. It's a classic Robin Hood story that's been told many of times, but Disney does manage to find a way to make it creative, which is the use of anthropomorphic characters. Sadly, the story does fall apart near the middle once half of the villagers are jailed, cause by then it seems like the story is on fast-forward as it races towards a, surprisingly, tense action- packed finale. The ending also suffers from being classic Disney fare, UNLESS you look at the alternate ending, which actually ends the story a bit better and a better explanation pertaining to Prince John's punishment.Thankfully, the characters save this movie from being almost boring. First, you got the main man himself, Robin Hood. Portrayed as a fox, he is the prince of thieves, but not your standard thief. Instead of going for the poor, he goes for the rich to give to the poor. His design is decent for the time, though he suffers from the 'Disney Big Eye Syndrome' at times, especially when the film focuses on his face straight-on. There's also his friend and cohort, Little John, whom I'm just gonna say this, is a straight copy of Baloo from The Jungle Book in terms of both design and characteristics. Yes, I know this film does copy from the aforementioned Jungle Book and I will touch on it in a bit, but if you want to know what Little John is like, watch Baloo in that film and you'll see tons of similarities. Moving on, we got Maid Marian, who is sadly very under-used. Unlike other adaptations of the tale, here she is literally only in three scenes: The beginning where she is playing bad-mitten and kisses one of the rabbit kids, the archery scene and finally the ending. You'd think she would have a good amount of screen time, but she ends up being wasted in her role (Though, I'll give the film this: Her design does make her cute). As for the villains, they are some of the funniest villains Disney had made in a while. I like how Prince John, while ruthless, is more or less reduced to a momma's boy and when stuff doesn't go to plan, ends up sucking his thumb. His assistant Sir Hiss, though, ends up being much like Maid Marian as in being wasted potential. As for the Sheriff Of Nottingham, well, dude's a douche. I was tempted to peg him as the worst character but he is saved by one thing: His voice actor. Voiced by the late Pat Buttram, he manages to bring a bit of goofiness to the character and, at times, a bit of Mister Haney in there as well. With the rest of the characters, they're just there and somewhat forgettable, with a few having some cool moments, so there is not much to say.Like all of Disney's classic animated films, the animation here is beautiful at times. The backgrounds are a treat to look at and the characters are animated realistically but keeping their animal traits in the movement as well. But, there is a problem with the animation. The problem being is that it, well, is infamously known for copying a lot of sequences and animation cells from the previously released films 'Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs', 'The Aristocats', and 'The Jungle Book', with the most infamous scene in the film being the Dance Scene near the middle of the film. Not only are moves reused from the previous aforementioned films, but it is a shot-for-shot remake of all the dance scenes from those films. Sure, you can attribute this to a smaller budget, but they could've at least made some newer dance animation cells for this film instead of reusing so many from those films.Now let us return to a question I asked earlier: Why did I return to watch this film so many times even though I never cared for the film? Well, it wasn't because of the anthro characters, the story, nor the animation. It was because it was a Disney film that, to me, didn't feel like the usual Disney fare. Unlike their previous films, this one felt more like a live-action film then a animated film, if that makes sense. I think that's why I returned to watch it constantly. It felt like a mature Disney film then what they were known for back in the day.In conclusion, Robin Hood, while it has it faults, ranks up there as one of Disney classic animated films, I still do recommend this film to any Disney fan out there.

Robin Hood is a heroic outlaw in English folklore who, according to legend, was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. Traditionally depicted as being dressed in Lincoln green,[1] he is often portrayed as "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor" alongside his band of Merry Men. Robin Hood became a popular folk figure in the late-medieval period, and continues to be widely represented in literature, films and television.It was a really nice Disney movie with interesting characters and some enjoyable scenes. People can perceptive differents recurring scenes, things, symbols, which have been in Snow white and the seven dwarfs,The ArostiCats, and the The Jungle Book. So this movie includes some characteristics of Disney, and it was mixed scenes of the mentioned films.