Robin Hood

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!

Arguably the best pre-"Little Mermaid" Disney film, "Robin Hood" takes the characters from past Disney films and features such as Baloo (Jungle Book) and Rabbit (the Pooh films) and casts them in a classic re-telling of the popular Robin Hood fable. While not as historical as Kevin Costner's big to-do, nor always as laugh-out-loud ridiculous as Mel Brooks' affair, Disney's effort comes off as amiable and very likable. It's very much a product of its times but has a timeless quality that is unmatched, really, and the humor doesn't date itself as quickly as some of the jokes in recent Disney features have. The voice acting (as in almost every Disney film) is superb, but contains very few outstanding stars (Peter Ustinov's role is especially well-done, however). All in all, a film well-deserving of all the praise it receives.

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.

When one thinks of Disney songs, one generally thinks along the vein of "Someday My Prince Will Come" or "Once Upon A Dream". Disney songs are usually silly love songs, villain's expressions of their villainy, or some generally upbeat nonsense. Disney songs are generally not hard and gritty.

Which is why "Not In Nottingham" is my favourite Disney song ever. It is a hard and emotional song, blues like an icepick to the soul, the loudest and harshest cry of pain I have ever heard in a Disney film. Where else in Disney-land would you hear a line like "Don't you know there's nothing left for me?".

Combined as it is with the jail scene, it is melancholia at its depths, and a refreshing change from the general froth one expects, and generally gets, from Disney movies and songs.

Disney's animated "Robin Hood" gets somewhat lost in the shuffle of great animated films from the famed studio, but is still a nice piece of entertainment that tells the popular story well. Good songs and fun situations are the greatest assets here. The film lacks the real drama that makes others of its kind better cinematically. Still a good film for the whole family. 4 stars out of 5.