Robin Hood (1973 film)

Robin Hood
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Wolfgang Reitherman
Produced by	Wolfgang Reitherman
Screenplay by	Larry Clemmons
Story by	Ken Anderson
Narrated by	Roger Miller
Starring	Phil Harris Andy Devine Peter Ustinov Terry-Thomas Brian Bedford Monica Evans Carole Shelley Pat Buttram Roger Miller
Music by	Score: George Bruns Songs: Roger Miller Johnny Mercer Floyd Huddleston
Studio	Walt Disney Productions
Distributed by	Buena Vista Distribution
Release date(s)	November 8, 1973 (1973-11-08)
Running time	83 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$15 million
Box office	$32,056,467 $17,160,000 (rentals) $37,876,746 (DVD sales)

Robin Hood is an 1973 American animated film produced by the Walt Disney Productions, first released in the United States on November 8, 1973. The 21st animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film is based on the legend of Robin Hood, but uses anthropomorphic animals instead of people.

Plot

The film is narrated by the rooster Alan-a-Dale, who explains that Robin Hood and Little John live in Sherwood Forest, robbing from the rich and giving to the poor townsfolk of Nottingham. The Sheriff of Nottingham and his posse often try to catch the two but fail every time. Meanwhile, Prince John and his assistant Sir Hiss, arrive in Nottingham. Sir Hiss hypnotised Prince John's brother King Richard to go off on the Crusades, allowing Prince John to take the throne. 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 and makes the Sheriff his personal tax collector.

The Sheriff taxes Friar Tuck and a family of rabbits. However, Robin gives back some money to the rabbits, giving his hat and archery kit to the young rabbit Skippy for his birthday. Skippy and his friends test out the archery kit, but Skippy fires an arrow into the grounds of Maid Marian's castle. The children sneak inside, meeting Maid Marian and her attendant Lady Kluck. Maid Marian reveals she and Robin were childhood sweethearts but they have not seen one another for years. Friar Tuck visits Robin and Little John, explaining that Prince John is hosting an archery tournament, and the winner will receive a kiss from Maid Marian. Robin agrees to participate in the tournament disguised as a stork whilst Little John disguises himself as the Duke of Chutney to get near Prince John. Sir Hiss discovers Robin's identity but is trapped in a barrel of ale by Friar Tuck and Alan-a-Dale. Robin wins the tournament, but Prince John exposes him and has him arrested for execution despite Maid Marian's pleas.

Little John threatens Prince John leading to a fight between Robin, Little John, Maid Marian, Lady Kluck and Prince John's soldiers. In the forest, Robin and Maid Marian fall in love again as the townsfolk mock Prince John, describing him as the "Phony King of England". Enraged by the insult, Prince John triples the taxes, imprisoning most of the townsfolk who cannot pay their taxes. The Sheriff visits Friar Tuck's church to steal from the poor box, enraging Friar Tuck who is arrested too. Prince John plans to hang Friar Tuck to lure in Robin and kill him. Robin and Little John sneak in, with Little John managing to free all of the prisoners whilst Robin steals Prince John's taxes, but Sir Hiss awakens to find Robin fleeing.

Chaos follows as Robin and the others try to escape to Sherwood Forest. The Sheriff corners Robin after he is forced to return to rescue a straggler, setting fire to Prince John's castle and causing Robin to leap from a tower into the moat below. Little John and Skippy watch as the moat is pelted with arrows and Robin is apparently shot and drowned, only for him to emerge unharmed after using a reed as a breathing tube. Prince John despairs and is driven into a blind rage when Sir Hiss points out his mother's castle is on fire. Later, King Richard returns to England, placing his brother and his cohorts under arrest and allows Robin and Maid Marian to be married and leave Nottingham with Little John and Skippy in tow.

Production

Initially, the studio considered a movie about Reynard the Fox. 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.

Robin Allan writes 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 Ward Kimball 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 villains, only to be overruled by the director who wanted to keep to the villainous stereotype of a wolf instead.

Reuse of footage, sound, and voice actors

As the film was allotted a small budget, the artists referenced footage from previous animated features. A dance sequence in the film was traced from sequences originally produced for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Jungle Book, and The Aristocats.

Alternate ending

The alternate ending (included in the "Most Wanted Edition" DVD) is a short retelling of the story's conclusion, primarily utilizing still images from Ken Anderson's original storyboard drawings of the sequence. 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. 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 his brother, King Richard, having returned from the Crusades, is appalled to find that Prince John has left his kingdom bleak and oppressed. Abiding his mother's wishes, King Richard decides he cannot banish Prince John from the kingdom, but does grant him severe punishment. King Richard returns Nottingham to its former glory (before leaving for the Third Crusade), and orders Friar Tuck to marry Robin Hood and Maid Marian.

A short finished scene from the planned original ending, featuring King Richard and revealing himself to vulture henchmen 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.

Cast

• Brian Bedford as Robin Hood (a fox)
• Monica Evans as Maid Marian (a vixen)
• Phil Harris as Little John (a bear)
• Roger Miller as Alan-a-Dale (a rooster)
• Andy Devine as Friar Tuck (an American badger)
• Peter Ustinov as Prince John and King Richard (lions)
• Terry-Thomas as Sir Hiss (a snake)
• Carole Shelley as Lady Kluck (a chicken)
• Pat Buttram as The Sheriff of Nottingham aka "Old Bushel-Britches" (a wolf)
• Ken Curtis and George Lindsey as Nutsy and Trigger (vultures), respectively
• John Fiedler and Barbara Luddy as the sexton and his wife (church mice), respectively
• Billy Whittaker, Dana Laurita and Dori Whittaker as Skippy, Sis and Tagalong (rabbits), respectively
• Richie Sanders as Toby (a turtle)
• Barbara Luddy as Mother Rabbit
• Candy Candido as Captain Crocodile
• J. Pat O'Malley as Otto (a dog)

A few of the voice-actors utilized in this production are British. However, the decision was made 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 distinctly American accents and mannerisms more associated with the rural American South, Midwest, and Southwest than with England. This effect was further reinforced by the choice of country singer Roger Miller as the movie's songwriter and narrator.

Release

The film 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" ("Special Edition" in the UK) featuring a deleted scene/alternate ending, as well as a 16:9 matted transfer to represent its original theatrical screen ratio.

Reception

In 1973 when the film was originally released, Judith Crist said it was "nicely tongue-in-cheek without insult to the intelligence of either child or adult." she also notes that the film "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 said that the film "should ... be a good deal of fun for toddlers whose minds have not yet shriveled into orthodoxy" and he called the visual style "charmingly conventional" The Montreal Gazette said that when "Disney cartoon films ... are good, they are very good" and that "there are not many films around these days which an entire family can attend and enjoy. Robin Hood is one of them." New York Magazine called the film "a sweet, funny, slam-bang, good-hearted Walt Disney feature cartoon with a fine cast" and said it was "a feast for the eyes for kiddies and Disney nostalgics." The Milwaukee Sentinel said that the film was "excellent children's fare" and singles out Ustinov's Prince John as "delightful" and says he "practically steals the movie."

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that "although Robin Hood can't compare with the best Disney cartoon features (Fantasia, Pinocchio, and Cinderella among them), it's on a par with the company's most recent full-length cartoon, Jungle Book (1970). The Calgary Herald called Prince John and Sir Hiss "the year's most endearing pair of movie villains." It added that "this offering may lack the dramatic and artistic peaks of the more legendary Disney triumphs of the Forties, but it is a good deal funnier than anything we have seen from this studio for several outings."

Reviews written decades after the initial release of the film have been more mixed. At the movie review site Rotten Tomatoes it has a 55% "Rotten" rating based on 22 reviews. The site's overall assessment is that the film is: "One of the weaker Disney adaptations, Robin Hood is cute and colorful but lacks the majesty and excitement of the studio's earlier efforts."

The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Song for "Love." It lost to "The Way We Were" from the film of the same name. The American Film Institute nominated Robin Hood for its Top 10 Animated Films list.

Soundtrack

1. "Whistle-Stop" written and sung by Roger Miller
2. "Oo De Lally" written and sung by Roger Miller as Alan-a-Dale the rooster.
3. "Love" written by Floyd Huddleston and George Bruns, and sung by Nancy Adams.
4. "The Phony King of England" written by Johnny Mercer and sung by Phil Harris,
5. "The Phony King of England Reprise" sung by Terry-Thomas and Pat Buttram.
6. "Not In Nottingham" written and sung by Roger Miller
7. "Love Goes On/Oo-De-Lally Reprise" sung by Chorus.

The music played in the background while Lady Kluck fights off Prince John's goons in an American football manner is an arrangement of "Fight On" and "On, Wisconsin", the respective fight songs of the University of Southern California and the University of Wisconsin.

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 in 1973, which included the film's songs, score, narration, and dialogue.

On Classic Disney: 60 Years of Musical Magic, this includes "Oo De Lally" on the green disc and "Love" on the purple disc.

The song "Love" was also featured in the 2009 film adaptation of Fantastic Mr. Fox.

See also

• Cultural depictions of John of England
• The Hampster Dance - an Internet meme featuring a sample of "Whistle-Stop"

External links

• Official website
• Robin Hood at the Internet Movie Database
• Robin Hood at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Robin Hood at Rotten Tomatoes