Robin Hood (1973 film)

Robin Hood
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Wolfgang Reitherman
Produced by	Wolfgang Reitherman
Written by	Screenplay: Larry Clemmons Story & Character Concepts: Ken Anderson
Starring	Roger Miller 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
Distributed by	Buena Vista Distribution
Release date(s)	November 8, 1973
Running time	83 minutes
Language	English
Budget	$1,500,000
Gross revenue	$9,500,000

Robin Hood is an animated feature produced by the Walt Disney Studios, 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 a rooster minstrel named Alan-a-Dale (mentioned verbally only, while credited officially on-screen as "The Rooster") who describes Robin Hood and Little John as outlaws who dwell in Sherwood Forest, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor people of Nottingham. They are constantly pursued by the Sheriff of Nottingham and his men. Prince John, the ruling king of England passes through Nottingham. After his servant Sir Hiss hypnotised King Richard into going to battle in The Crusades, Prince John made himself king and began collecting taxes from the people of England to become richer. Robin and Little John disguise themselves as a female fortune tellers and manage to steal from Prince John.

Robin is romantically infatuated with Maid Marian who shares his feelings, although they have not seen each other for years. An opportunity arises for their reunion when Prince John announces an archery tournament, the winner receiving a kiss from Maid Marian and a golden arrow from Prince John. Robin enters the tournament disguised as a chatty stork from Devonshire and competes against the Sheriff and others. Hiss discovers Robin's identity but is trapped in a barrel of ale by Friar Tuck and Alan-a-Dale. Robin wins, but his disguise is blown by Prince John who orders him to be executed. Little John, who has been disguised as the Duke of Chutney, threatens Prince John, starting a battle between Robin, Little John and Prince John's soldiers. Robin and Maid Marian are reunited, and the townsfolk all retreat into Sherwood Forest where they dub Prince John as the "Phony King of England".

Enraged by this, Prince John maximises taxes to impossible amounts and all who cannot pay are put in prison. Alan-a-Dale is among the unfortunate ones. The Sheriff visits Friar Tuck's church where he steals money from a poor box, enraging Friar Tuck into attacking the Sheriff, leading to his arrest. Prince John decides to hang Friar Tuck, prompting Robin and Little John to rescue him. On the night before Friar Tuck's hanging, Robin steals a large amount of taxation money from Prince John's bedroom while Little John frees Friar Tuck and the other townsfolk, who all escape on a cart. The Sheriff confronts Robin in Prince John's castle and sets the castle on fire. Robin is forced to flee to the spire of the castle but falls into a river, seemingly shot by archers. He survives, much to Prince John's anger, and the destruction of the castle which belonged to John's beloved mother, sends him over the edge.

Later, King Richard returns and pardons Robin and Little John, and forces Prince John, Hiss and the Sheriff to do hard labour. Robin and Maid Marian get married and depart to places unknown with Little John and a young rabbit named Skippy in tow.

Production

As the film allotted a small budget, the artists referenced footage from previous animated features. A dance sequence in the film was traced from a sequence originally produced for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.^[1] 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. A notable example is that the section where Little John and Lady Cluck dance together mirrors part of the song "I Wanna Be Like You" from The Jungle Book with Baloo and King Louie respectively. Other examples include Robin Hood and Maid Marian mirroring the dancing movements of Thomas O'Malley and Duchess during the song "Everybody Wants to Be a Cat" from The Aristocats and Maid Marian mirroring the dancing 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. However, Little John more closely resembles a Brown Bear or Grizzly Bear, and 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. Because Maid Marian dances the same moves that Snow White does, she was animated to wear a petticoat instead of bloomers. The robe that Prince John wears, and the crown worn by the puppet version of himself, 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 Indian Python had in Disney's 1967 film, The Jungle Book. This short scene may be another re-use of older animation; Hiss looks similar to Kaa.

At one point, one of the elephants who act 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 the ones 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 and Tagalong Rabbit (Skippy's siblings) and Toby Turtle (his friend, a turtle) laughing. Several animated clips of the Sheriff of Nottingham are also recycled at different points in the film: twice in the film, he says "There's something funny going on around here" in exactly the same tone of voice and with the exact same posture. The music piece during which the rabbit children run outside to play with the bow and arrow Robin Hood gave them is identical to the scene in Bambi in which Faline chases Bambi up the hill to their mothers after seeing each other for the first time.

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.

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 Emperor Nero in the epic film Quo Vadis. 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 an overt reference to a classic comedy routine by the Smothers Brothers, in which Tom Smothers would bewail the maternal favoritism shown to Dick Smothers. 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.

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. 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 heads and coloring.

Phil Harris and Andy Devine had both appeared on The Jack Benny Program.

John Fiedler and Barbara Luddy would eventually be cast into the roles of Kanga and Piglet for The Many Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh.

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.

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."^[2]

Cast

• Roger Miller as The Rooster (aka Alan-a-Dale)
• Phil Harris as Little John (a bear)
• Andy Devine as Friar Tuck (an american badger)
• Peter Ustinov as Prince John and King Richard (lions)
• Terry-Thomas as Sir Hiss (a snake)
• Brian Bedford as Robin Hood (a fox)
• Monica Evans as Maid Marian (a vixen)
• 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 Father Sexton and his wife "Little Sister" (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 The Tournament Crocodile
• J. Pat O'Malley as Otto (a dog)

A few of the voice-actors utilized in this production are British. 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 southeastern 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.

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

Robin Hood was very successful upon its initial release, garnering around $9.5 million, the biggest box office total of all the Disney films at the time.

At the movie review site Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 55% "rotten" rating among critics, summarizing that it was "One of the weaker Disney adaptations, Robin Hood is cute and colorful but lacks the majesty and excitement of the studio's earlier efforts." However, it may be more popular with viewers, since it enjoys a 91% "fresh" rating from the same site's user community.

This film received an Academy Award nomination in 1973^[3]:´

• Best Song for "Love". (Lost against "The Way We Were" from The Way We Were).

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
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 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 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.

See also

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

References

1. ↑ Maltin, Leonard (1987). Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons. New American Library. pp. 76. ISBN 0-452-25993-2. 
2. ↑ Robin, Allan (1999). Walt Disney and Europe. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. pp. 253. ISBN 0-253-21353-3. 
3. ↑ Oscar Awards

External links

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