Robin Hood is an animated film produced by the Walt Disney Studios, first released in the United States on November 8, 1973. It is the twenty-first animated feature in the Disney animated features canon. It was the first feature which began production after Walt Disney's death, although some elements were taken from an earlier aborted production ("Reynard the Fox", see below) which Disney had been involved in. As a result this was the first Disney movie to carried on in production without Walt Disney's involvement.
The film recounts the traditional stories of Robin Hood with the characters cast as anthropomorphic animals. It is narrated by Alan-a-Dale who explains that while there are many different versions to the Robin Hood legend, "we folks of the animal kingdom have our own version."
Robin Hood teams up with his band of outlaws including Little John, Friar Tuck and Alan-A-Dale, to assist the people of Nottingham. He does this by returning to the people the money taken from them through oppressive taxation by Prince John and his followers: Sir Hiss and the Sheriff of Nottingham. The true king, King Richard had left for the crusades and Prince John usurped the throne in his absence.
The beginning of the film shows Robin Hood robbing Prince John, who is on his way to Nottingham. The angry Prince puts out a reward for Robin Hood's capture, but no one responds. Later, Robin Hood, disguised as a blind beggar, distributes his loot among the townspeople, as they had been suffering as a result of Prince John's heavy taxes. He also secretly attends a birthday party for a young rabbit named Skippy. After discovering that the Sheriff had taken the boy's birthday present as taxes, Robin Hood gifts the young rabbit with a bow and arrow, as well as his hat.
Skippy, along with his sisters Sis and Tagalong, as well as his friend Toby, go out to test the bow and arrow. However, Skippy shoots it into the courtyard of Prince John's castle. Retrieving the arrow leads the children to a run in with Maid Marian, Robin Hood's childhood sweetheart, who tells of her relationship with Robin. A later scene reveals that Maid Marian had left for London sometime before the film, and had only recently returned. Both Robin Hood and Maid Marian still love each other, but each has their doubts about their relationship. Robin fears that his outlaw status means that he could never pursue a relation with Maid Marian, who is King Richard's niece, while Marian worries that Robin has forgotten about her while she has been away.
Robin Hood later chooses to sneak into archery tournament held by Prince John, after learning that the prize is a kiss from Maid Marian. Knowing it to be a trap, he disguises himself as a stork. However, his archery skills give away his identity, and he is caught by Prince John and sentenced to death. Thanks to interference by Little John, Robin Hood manages to avoid death. A huge fight breaks out where they tangle with the Captain of the Guard, as well as the Sheriff. Robin Hood manages to escape with Marian, while also proposing to her. The two of them are joined in the forest with the rest of the outlaws and other citizens of Nottingham who all have a wonderful time mocking the Prince. But when John finds out about this, he orders taxes to be increased even more, to the point of most of the citizens being driven into debt and jailed.
Friar Tuck is arrested when he tries to keep the Sheriff from taking money from the church's charity collection box, thus leaving Father Mouse and Mother Mouse to run the church. To scare Robin out of hiding, John plans to hang Friar Tuck. Fortunately, Robin gets wind of this ahead of time and manages to rescue the Friar as well as the other imprisoned people and steal back the prince's ill-gained gold.
They all escape from the castle, but Robin goes back to rescue one of Widow Rabbit's children. Though he succeeds, the guards close the portcullis of the castle, blocking his exit. While trying to escape, he fights the Sheriff, who has become recklessly obsessed with killing him, on the top floor of the castle. While trying to escape a fire started as a result of the Sheriff's recklessness, Robin is forced to jump from the tower roof into the moat, while being shot at by the Sheriff's posse. When Robin Hood does not emerge, Little John as well the Prince John, who had been watching, assume Robin Hood is dead. However, Robin Hood survives by swimming under water, using a reed as a snorkel.
Soon after, King Richard returns from the crusades and straightens everything out. King Richard pardons Robin Hood, imprisons Prince John, the Sheriff, and Sir Hiss, and allows Maid Marian and Robin Hood to marry. At the end of the film, Skippy joins Robin Hood's Merry Men, this is evidenced by the fact that Skippy stated that "Robin Hood's gonna have kids, so somebody's gotta keep their eye on things".
A few of the voice-actors utilized in this production are British (Bedford, Evans, Ustinov, Thomas, Shelley and O'Malley). However, the creators of the film made the decision to cast quite a number of American character actors in the traditional medieval roles. Many of these individuals were veteran performers from Western-themed movies and television programs, which meant that characters like Friar Tuck and the Sheriff of Nottingham have accents and mannerisms more associated with the rural southwestern United States than with England. This effect was further reinforced by the choice of country singer Roger Miller as the movie's songwriter and narrator.
As the film was made during Disney's financial slump and therefore allotted a small budget, the artists reused footage from previous animated features. This is most noticeable during the song-and-dance number, "The Phony King of England"; the characters' movements strongly resemble those from The Jungle Book, The Aristocats, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
In particular, the section where Little John and Lady Kluck dance together mirrors part of the song "I Wanna Be Like You" from The Jungle Book with Baloo and King Louie respectively, and Robin Hood and Maid Marian mirror the dancing movements of Thomas O'Malley and Duchess during the song "Everybody Wants to Be a Cat" from The Aristocats (from which some of the musicians also mirror the movements of Scat Cat and his gang) and Maid Marian mirror dancing the movements of Snow White during the song "The Silly Song" from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
The animation of Little John, the bear in Robin Hood, is nearly identical to that of Baloo in The Jungle Book, but Little John more closely resembles a brown or grizzly bear (Baloo was based on an Indian Sloth Bear). Both characters were voiced by actor Phil Harris, and have similar personalities, though Little John seems a far more responsible character than the "jungle bum" Baloo. When Maid Marian, dances the same moves as Snow White she is caused to wear a petticoat instead of bloomers. The robe that Prince John wears, and the crown worn by the puppet version of him, are the same robe and crown the king wears in Bedknobs and Broomsticks. In addition, Robin Hood's costume (green tunic and feathered cap) is similar to that of 1953's Peter Pan, sometimes leading to confusion between the two characters. At the end of the movie, a sound clip of the church bells ringing in Cinderella was used for the wedding church bells. During the beginning of the film, Sir Hiss mesmerizes Prince John with his eyes. This was the same type of ability Kaa the snake had in Disney's 1967 film, The Jungle Book. This short scene also appears to be another re-use of older animation.
At one point, one of the elephants who acts as heralds for Prince John attempts to trumpet a warning. Lady Kluck grabs the trunk, preventing the trumpeting and leaving the elephant flapping his ears ineffectually. The same joke was used in The Jungle Book, with identical sound.
The vultures in the movie are identical to one of those (Buzzy) in The Jungle Book.
The movie also reuses the same animated shots several times, including those of the rhinos walking and running and those of Sis, Tagalong and Toby laughing. Several animated clips of the Sheriff of Nottingham are also recycled at different points in the film.
Box office and reaction
At the time leading up to its release, Robin Hood had a bit of a burden to carry — many observers were treating it as a benchmark to determine whether or not the studio could carry on without the late Walt Disney, since this was the studio's first animated feature produced without his involvement. Since Disney had attached his name to all his previous films, it gave the impression among many that the studio was nothing without him. Had the film failed, this impression might have been cemented, and might have done serious damage to the studio's reputation. However, Robin Hood was very successful upon its initial release, garnering around $9.5 million, the biggest Disney attraction at that time. Its 1982 re-release brought in even more income.
Critical response was (and remains) somewhat mixed, with some complaining that the film lacked the grandeur, scope or passion of Disney's earlier efforts. Others commended it for its lively characters, witty dialogue, catchy songs, and overall fun atmosphere. At Rotten Tomatoes, it garners a 54% "rotten" rating among critics, but a 90% "fresh" rating among users.
Release info
The movie was originally released in 1973, followed by a re-release in 1982. The film was released to videocassette in 1984, 1991 (the first two being in the Walt Disney Classics video line), 1994 and 1999 (these two were in the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection video line), staying in general release since 1991. In 2000, it was released on DVD in the Gold Classic Collection. On November 28, 2006, the movie was remastered as the "Most Wanted Edition" featuring a deleted scene/alternate ending, as well as a 16:9 matted transfer.
As one of the earliest Disney animated features to be released on home video, it is also one of the few to have been released on every home video format (except): laserdisc, VHS, Betatape, CED, and DVD. Portions of the film have also been sold on Super 8 reels. It has also been shown many times on The Disney Channel during the 80's and 90's.
Initially, the studio considered a movie about Reynard the Fox (which had previously been made as a stop-motion film in 1937 by pioneering French filmmaker, Ladislas Starevich). However, due to Walt Disney's concern that Reynard was an unsuitable choice for a hero, Ken Anderson used many elements from it in Robin Hood.
The voices of Mother Rabbit, Mother Mouse and Father Mouse would be cast in the roles of Kanga and Piglet from Winnie the Pooh.
Peter Ustinov grew famous playing over-the-top villains. His campy, spoiled and thoroughly weak-willed portrayal of Prince John is an effective caricature of his own performance as the Roman emperorNero in the epic film Quo Vadis (1951)
Robin Hood, Little John, Friar Tuck, Trigger, Prince John and the Sheriff of Nottingham appear at the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts as meetable characters.
This is unique version of Robin Hood who gives Prince John the place of main villain instead of Sheriff of Nottingham.
Many Robin Hood characters make cameo appearances in various episodes of the House of Mouse television series.
John endlessly sulks over his mother's preference for his brother, a grudge marked by thumb-sucking and the reversion to an infantile state. At one point the behavior culminates in the complaint "Mother always did like Richard best." This is a sly reference to a classic comedy routine by the Smothers Brothers, in which Tom Smothers would bewail the maternal favoritism shown to Dick Smothers. ("Dick" is a common nickname for Richard.) In the historical play and film "The Lion in Winter," Richard is indeed shown as being the favorite of their mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, while John is the favored son of their father, King Henry II.
The church bell on Friar Tuck's church is an actual bell, filmed and added in post-production.
Friar Tuck was originally envisioned as a pig, but was changed to a badger to avoid offending religious sensitivities.
Peter Ustinov lent his voice to both the original English-speaking Prince John and the Prince John in the German dubbed version of the movie. Although Ustinov also voiced King Richard in the English version, he doesn't do that character's German voice.
Phil Harris's voice as Little John is virtually identical to the voice he used for the character Baloo in Disney's The Jungle Book. Both characters were bears and looked generally similar except for their color.
In the jailbreak scene, "God forgive Prince John" is written on the wall when Little John and Friar Tuck enter. Preceding this, in Friar Tuck's cell, the words "Forgive them all" is carved in the wall to the right of Friar Tuck.
1991 video cover artwork of Robin Hood (Classics version).
The alternate ending included in the "Most Wanted Edition" DVD) is a short retelling of the story's conclusion, using still images of colored concept art instead of animation. As Robin Hood leaps off of the castle and into the moat, he is wounded (presumably from one of the arrows shot into the water after him) and carried away to the church for safety. Prince John, enraged that he has once again been outwitted by Robin Hood, finds Little John leaving the church, and suspects the outlaw to be there as well. Sure enough, he finds Maid Marian tending to an unconscious Robin Hood, and draws a sword to kill them both. Before Prince John can strike, however, he is stopped by the appearance of his brother, King Richard, who is appalled to find his kingdom bleak and oppressed in his absence. Abiding his mother's wishes, King Richard decides he cannot banish Prince John from the kingdom, but does not pardon him from severe punishment. King Richard returns Nottingham to its former glory (before he left for the crusade), and orders Friar Tuck to marry Robin Hood and Maid Marian.
A short finished scene from the planned original ending, featuring King Richard stopped by, and revealing himself to, Nutsy and Trigger, appeared in the Ken Anderson episode of the 1980s Disney Channel documentary series "Disney Family Album." This scene, at least in animated form, does not appear on the "Most Wanted Edition" DVD.
In one scene of the film, where Kluck is fighting the men of Prince John, the University of Wisconsin fight song, "On Wisconsin", is played.
A fairly popular film in the Furry culture, Robin Hood is considered by many furries to be the "definitive furry film".
Nancy Adams, who sang "Love" as Maid Marian's singing voice, was the wife of one of its songwriters, Floyd Huddleston.
"Whistle Stop" by Roger Miller was sampled and the pitch increased for use on The Hampster Dance website. This sample was later used by the Cuban Boys as part of their song "Cognoscenti Vs. Intelligentsia." A dance remix using the sample also became a popular hit on Radio Disney.
The music played in the background while Lady Kluck fights off Prince John's goons in an American football style manner is better known as Fight On, the fight song of the University of Southern California and On Wisconsin, the fight song of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Although a full soundtrack to Robin Hood has never been released on Compact Disc in the US, a record of the film was made at the time of the film's release, including the film's songs and score.
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