Robin des Bois

Disney's Robin Hood is my all time favorite Disney animation movie and right up there with one of my favorite all time movies. I can practically recite every word from "Robin Hood and Little John Walking through the Forest" to "There's the church bells someone's gett'n hitched". Yet it's hardly ever mentioned, it's always been hard to find and you can never get a poster. The songs are never lauded and they should be "The Phoney King of England" is a hoot! And even though "Love" was nominated for an Oscar, it's an obscure fact.

The animation is beautiful! Those scenes of the castle & the church in the rain - you would think it was shot rather than drawn. The dialog is smart with subtleties & wit. The character's motives are seen and not told. It's not dumb down at all for kids. It's more romantic then Lady & The Tramp, Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid combined. And yes, that Fox, Robin Hood himself, voiced by Brian Bedford was and will always be sexy!

When I was about four or five years old I used to watch this film almost every day in my day care. Then a couple of weeks ago I was discussing with my friend about animation movies and it came up that he had this important piece of my childhood on VHS. So of course I borrowed it and watched it for the first time in about 13 years. I remembered surprisingly many scenes.

Watching this movie wasn't as big event as it was years ago, but I still find it quite enjoyable. There were some funny mistakes in the translation from English to Finnish, but nothing crucial. I think I'll watch this a couple of times again for the old times sake before I give the tape back to my friend. :) 8/10

Robin Hood is personally one of my favorite Disney movies of all time, it's one of those animated films that gets over looked or over shadowed by other Disney classics, I wish it did get more notice. The animation is great and just has that old feel to it when animators used to draw the pictures, it feels more personal and special that way. Not to mention that this was a great adaptation of the Robin Hood story for the kids. Even as an adult I still enjoy watching this movie, it's funny, romantic, touching, and just very entertaining to watch. How could you not love Prince John? He is one of Disney's most awesome and hilarious villains of all time! Granted I know this film can come off as a little corny, but seriously give this movie a chance, it's one of Disney's buried treasures.

The story begins as Robin Hood and Little John run from the Sheriff of Nottingham, who has ambushed them with a team of archers. After narrowly escaping, Robin Hood and Little John happen upon the royal entourage which is taking Prince John and his counselor, Sir Hiss, to Nottingham in order to tax the people there. Disguised as female fortune-tellers, Robin and Little John effectively steal all the gold they can carry and run off into the forest, leaving Prince John sucking his thumb in humiliation. In Nottingham, Robin uses Friar Tuck to smuggle the stolen gold back to the peasants. Later Robin sees Maid Marian, she and Robin had once been sweethearts as children, but were forced to part ways when she moved to London. But she is mistaken: Robin can't stop thinking about her. But since Robin is an outlaw he and Marian wait for marriage. Seething with rage, that Robin is winning, John triples the taxes, making the bleak situation in Nottingham even worse. One night, Robin Hood, disguised again as the beggar, learns that Friar Tuck is in jail and will rescue him, save Nottingham once and for all and give Prince John the justice that has been coming to him for a long time.

I can't tell you how much I love this film, I think my favorite scene will always be the archery scene. Robin Hood learns that there is an archery contest and the winner gets a kiss from Maid Marian, so he enters and goes in a disguise, and Little John had his back the whole time while getting Prince John to lighten up about Robin being in the contest. I also love Prince John's side kick, Sir Hiss, he's the perfect little sleaze bag tattle tail and we go in Tom and Jerry classic mode when Prince John has it with him and just ties Hiss's body in a knot. This is a terrific Disney movie, just trust me when I say that it's a lot of fun to watch and just enjoy it, we don't get films like this any more.

10/10

The opening credits present us with all of the animals who will later appear in the film (the very same footage, in fact), parading themselves in front of a white background and a rather catchy tune. We see a fox dressed as Robin Hood. ROBIN HOOD, reads the credits. And in smaller letters underneath, in brackets: (a fox). We see a badger in a monk's outfit. FRIAR TUCK, says the credits. (a bear). I find this highly amusing. I love it. Don't ask me why. I think, though, that it demonstrates two things: that "Robin Hood" was made under the same cost cutting Disney regime that made "The Aristocats" three years earlier and "The Rescuers" three years later; and that it has far more life than both of these films put together.

It IS the cost-cutting that would damn this film, and it's liveliness that redeems it. (That, and Peter Ustinov's vocal performance as Prince John.) I can't even find it in my heart to condemn the Southern voices scattered throughout Sherwood Forest and Nottingham - replacing a human sheriff with a lupine one is such a violent change that the use of expressions like, "Aw, geez, Nutsy," seems trivial by comparison. At any rate I found the voices far less irritating than Kevin Costner's drawl in HIS version of Robin Hood.

The animation is mostly good but without the stand-out brilliance of, say, "The Jungle Book". There are a few scenes that look as if they belong on television (which is a problem shared with the next five animated features that Disney made). The children are more cloying than usual with Disney and we see too much of them. That's about it with the carping. All in all it's cheerful, it's shameless, it's hard to resist.

It is strange how many people damn the Disney version of "Robin Hood" for rough and repetitious animation, one-dimensional characters, and weak pacing. After all, A LOT of animated films suffer from this syndrome, even "landmark" productions like "Anastasia" and "Shrek." The characters are stereotypes, but they act believably: Prince John is silly, but with a truly evil undercurrent ("Squeeze every last drop out of those insolent...musical...peasants."), the Sheriff is deliciously nasty ("Upsy-daisy"), and Robin Hood is very affable. The music is, quite simply, fantastic. "Not in Nottingham" is easily the best Disney song ever (barring "When She Loved Me" in Toy Story 2), the opening theme and song are catchy and appropriate for the movie's tone, and the movie's action scenes are clever, chaotic, and action-packed but not gory. This is a movie you can show your kids without being embarrassed upon seeing that the movie is one long commercial for action figures and plush toys.