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Psycho's Movie Reviews #377: Robin Hood (1973)

  • Mar 30, 2022
  • 11 min read

Robin Hood is a 1973 American animated adventure musical comedy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Distribution, based on the English folk tale of the same name with the characters reimagined as anthropomorphic animals. Produced and directed by Wolfgang Reitherman, it is the 21st Disney animated feature film. The story follows the adventures of Robin Hood, Little John, and the inhabitants of Nottingham as they fight against the excessive taxation of Prince John, and Robin Hood wins the hand of Maid Marian. The film features the voices of Brian Bedford, Phil Harris, Peter Ustinov, Pat Buttram, Monica Evans, and Carole Shelley.

The idea to adapt Robin Hood into an animated feature dated back to Walt Disney's interest in the tale of Reynard the Fox during his first full-length feature production, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). The idea was repeatedly shelved until writer and production designer Ken Anderson incorporated ideas from it in a pitch of the legend of Robin Hood using anthropomorphic animals rather than humans during the production of The Aristocats (1970).

Robin Hood was released on November 8, 1973. The film was a commercial success. While it was initially met by positive reviews by film critics, who praised the voice cast, animation, and humour, its critical reception became gradually mixed since its release. Despite this, the film has garnered a cult following and has become a Disney fan-favourite over the years.



Plot

The story is narrated by Alan-a-Dale. He introduces Robin Hood and Little John, who live in Sherwood Forest, robbing from the rich and giving to the overtaxed townsfolk of Nottingham. The Sheriff of Nottingham tries to catch the two, but he fails every time. Meanwhile, Prince John and his counsellor Sir Hiss arrive in Nottingham. Earlier, Sir Hiss hypnotized Prince John's brother King Richard to go off on the Crusades, allowing Prince John to take the throne as de facto King. Unfortunately, the Prince is greedy and immature, even sucking his thumb whenever his mother is mentioned. Robin and Little John rob Prince John by disguising themselves as fortune tellers, prompting the Prince to put a bounty on their heads.

The Sheriff, under Prince John's orders, taxes the inhabitants of Nottingham excessively. However, Robin gives back some money to a family of rabbits, and gives a bow, arrow and one of his hats to the young rabbit Skippy for his birthday. Skippy and his friends test out the bow, but Skippy accidentally fires the arrow into the grounds of Nottingham Castle. The children sneak inside, meeting Maid Marian and her lady-in-waiting Lady Kluck. Marian reveals that she and Robin were once childhood sweethearts, but she was sent to London and has not seen him for years, only recently returning to Nottingham.

Friar Tuck, the local priest, visits Robin and Little John to report that Prince John is hosting an archery tournament, with a kiss from Maid Marian as the prize. Robin disguises himself as a stork and enters the contest, while Little John masquerades as the Duke of Chutney to get close to Prince John. Robin wins the tournament, but Prince John recognizes and exposes him, sentencing him to death despite Marian's pleas. Little John threatens Prince John with a dagger, resulting in a fight between Robin's forces and Prince John's soldiers, culminating in Robin's party escaping with Marian and Lady Kluck in tow.

In the forest, Robin and Marian share a romantic evening, then are surprised by Robin's “merry men”, who sing a funny song dubbing John the "Phony King of England". Prince John learns of the song and spitefully triples the taxes; most of the town cannot pay, and are imprisoned. The Sheriff visits Friar Tuck's church to steal from the poor box, and Tuck savagely attacks him, resulting in Tuck's arrest for treason. Prince John learns of this and orders Tuck's execution, hoping to lure Robin into doing something rash to save him.

The night before the execution, despite the precautions of Prince John, Robin Hood and Little John sneak into the castle. Little John manages to free all of the prisoners, Tuck included, whilst Robin steals all of Prince John's gold. Hiss awakens, and tries to stop them, rousing the castle. Chaos ensues as Robin and the others try to escape to Sherwood Forest, and Robin is forced to return to the castle to rescue Skippy's sister, Tagalong. The Sheriff chases Robin through the building and attacks him with a lit torch, setting the castle ablaze and forcing Robin to jump into the moat. Little John and Skippy anxiously watch as the water is pelted with arrows, and for a moment, it seems as if Robin has been killed, but he eventually emerges unharmed. Hiss chides a despairing Prince John for his failed trap, and points out the castle (belonging to Prince John's mother) is afire, which drives Prince John to insanity.

Later, King Richard returns to England, and sentences Prince John, Hiss, and the Sheriff to hard labor in the Royal Rock Pile. He pardons Robin Hood, who marries Maid Marian and leaves Nottingham, with Little John and Skippy in tow.



Production

Around the time of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937, Walt Disney became interested in adapting the twelfth-century legend of Reynard the Fox. However, the project languished due to Disney's concern that Reynard was an unsuitable choice for a hero. In a meeting held on February 12, 1938, Disney commented: "I see swell possibilities in 'Reynard', but is it smart to make it? We have such a terrific kid audience parents and kids together. That's the trouble – too sophisticated. We'll take a nosedive doing it with animals." For Treasure Island (1950), Disney seriously considered three animated sections, each one of the Reynard tales, to be told by Long John Silver to Jim Hawkins as moral fables. Ultimately, the idea was nixed as Treasure Island became the studio's first fully live-action film. In the next decade, the studio decided to make Reynard the villain of a musical feature film named Chanticleer and Reynard (based on Edmond Rostand's Chanticleer), but the production was scrapped in favour of The Sword in the Stone (1963).

In October 1968, during a fishing trip with Ken Anderson, studio executive Card Walker suggested that a "classic" tale should be the subject for the next animated film after The Aristocats (1970). Anderson proposed the tale of Robin Hood, to which Walker responded enthusiastically. Back at the studio, Anderson relayed the idea during a story meeting on The Aristocats which was met with approval. In a follow-up meeting, with Wolfgang Reitherman, Bill Anderson (no relation), and Larry Clemmons, Ken Anderson was assigned the job to begin "exploratory animal character drawings". Anderson blended his ideas of Robin Hood by incorporating that the fox character could be slick but still use his skills to protect the community. Additionally, Anderson wanted to set the film in the Deep South desiring to recapture the spirit of Song of the South (1946). However, the executives were wary of the reputation of Song of the South, which was followed by Reitherman's decision to set the film in its traditional English location as inspired by The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952). Clemmons came on board the project by writing a script with dialogue that was later storyboarded by other writers.

As production went further along, Robin Allan stated in his book Walt Disney and Europe that "Ken Anderson wept when he saw how his character concepts had been processed into stereotypes for the animation on Robin Hood." According to Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, one such casualty was the concept of making the Sheriff of Nottingham a goat as an artistic experiment to try different animals for a villain, only to be overruled by Reitherman who wanted to keep to the villainous stereotype of a wolf instead. Additionally, Anderson wanted to include the Merry Men into the film, which was again overridden by Reitherman because he wanted a "buddy picture" reminiscent of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), so Little John was the only Merry Man who remained in the film, while Friar Tuck was put as a friend of Robin's who lived in Nottingham, and Alan-a-Dale was turned into the narrator.

Because of the time spent on developing several settings, and auditioning actors to voice the title character, production fell behind schedule. In order to meet its deadline, the animators had no other choice but to recycle several dance sequences from previous Disney animated films, including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), The Jungle Book (1967), and The Aristocats (1970).


Casting

By October 1970, most of the voice actors were confirmed, with the exception of Tommy Steele cast in the title role. Steele himself was chosen because of his performance in The Happiest Millionaire (1967) while Peter Ustinov was cast because Walt Disney had enjoyed his presence on the set of Blackbeard's Ghost (1968). However, Steele was unable to make his character sound more heroic, and his replacement came down to final two candidates which were Bernard Fox and Brian Bedford. Disney executives had first seen Bedford performing onstage in Los Angeles, in which they brought him in to test for the role in May 1971 and ultimately cast him. Meanwhile, Louis Prima was so angered at not being considered for a role that he personally paid the recording expenses for the subsequent album, Let's "Hear" it For Robin Hood, which he sold to Disneyland Records.



Release/Reception/Box Office

The film premiered at the Radio City Music Hall on November 8, 1973. The film was re-released on March 26, 1982.


Judith Crist, reviewing the film in New York magazine, said it was "nicely tongue-in-cheek without insult to the intelligence of either child or adult." She also stated that it "has class – in the fine cast that gives both voice and personality to the characters, in the bright and brisk dialogue, in its overall concept." Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote that it "should be a good deal of fun for toddlers whose minds have not yet shrivelled into orthodoxy" and he called the visual style "charmingly conventional". Dave Billington of The Montreal Gazette wrote "As a film, Robin Hood marks a come-back of sorts for the Disney people. Ever since the old maestro died, the cartoon features have shown distressing signs of a drop in quality, both in art work and in voice characterization. But the blending of appealing cartoon animals with perfect voices for the part makes Robin Hood an excellent evening out for the whole family." Also writing in New York magazine, Ruth Gilbert called it "a sweet, funny, slam-bang, good-hearted Walt Disney feature cartoon with a fine cast" and wrote it was "a feast for the eyes for kiddies and Disney nostalgic."

Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the Disney "hallmarks are there as they ever were: the incomparably rich, full animation, the humanized animal characters perky, individual and enchanting, and the wild, inventive slapstick action." Awarding the film four stars out of five, Ian Nathan, in a retrospective review for Empire, praised the vocal performances of Peter Ustinov and Terry-Thomas acknowledging "while this is hardly the most dazzling of animated features, it has that cut-corner feel that seem to hold sway in the '70s (mainly because Disney were cutting corners), the characters spark to life, and the story remains as rock steady as ever."

Among less favourable reviews, Jay Cocks of Time gave the film a mixed verdict writing, "Even at its best, Robin Hood is only mildly diverting. There is not a single moment of the hilarity or deep, eerie fear that the Disney people used to be able to conjure up, or of the sort of visual invention that made the early features so memorable. Robin Hood's basic problem is that it is rather too pretty and good natured." Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film one-and-a-half stars out of four, describing the film as "80 minutes of pratfalls and nincompoop dialog," and criticizing the animation quality as "Saturday morning TV cartoon stuff." John Baxter of The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote that "for the most part the film is as bland and one-dimensional as the product of less sophisticated studios; and except for Peter Ustinov's plummy Prince John, the voice characterisations are as insipid as the animation is unoriginal."

Decades since the film's release, the film has been noted for the recycled scenes of animation. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that the film received a 54% approval rating with an average rating of 5.70/10 based on 28 reviews. The website's consensus states that "One of the weaker Disney adaptations, Robin Hood is cute and colourful but lacks the majesty and excitement of the studio's earlier efforts." Metacritic gave the film a score of 57 based on 9 reviews.


During its initial release, Robin Hood earned $9.6 million in rentals in the United States and Canada. It also grossed $18 million in foreign territories, which was at the time a Disney record, for a worldwide rental of $27.5 million.

The film has earned a lifetime gross in the United States and Canada between $32–35 million across its two releases.


Budget $5 million

Box office $32 million



My Review

Robin Hood is personally one of my favourite 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 counsellor, 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 favourite 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.


Robin Hood mayn't have the direct charm or the memorable songs of the later Disney movies, but it is solid entertainment nonetheless. The animation is generally lovely, if slightly archaic which is a style I kind of like, but the story sometimes fails to engage being fairly episodic but this is only occasionally. But the action highlight was the archery contest, which was so funny, as was the witty and delightful script. The songs are not as memorable as the ones in Beauty and the Beast, but they are still lovely. "Love" is a beautiful song, but my favourite was "Phony King of England" because of the funny lyrics. The only song I didn't like as such was the rather annoying song in the opening credits, which were a bit long. As for the characters, I loved the fact, the animators made the legendary characters animals. The best ones were Prince John and Sir Hiss, who were an absolutely hilarious double act, especially when Prince John sucks his thumb, the only villain to do that. Peter Ustinov and Terry Thomas were superb supplying the voice overs. Robin and Little John were also entertaining, as well as the Sheriff of Nottingham. Casting Phil Harris as Little John was genius, after his incredible voice-over as Baloo in the Jungle Book. I particularly loved the line "I'm Sir Reginald, duke of Chutney". I know in some scenes, they looked as though they were running out of ideas, but they weren't. They were just looking for a bit of inspiration. In conclusion, a really entertaining animation, that couldn't really live up to the Jungle Book. 8/10



{This film is filled with many underrated Disney films, my favourite one being 'Love' sung by the beautiful Nancy Adams}


 
 
 

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