Robin Hood (1973 film)

Robin Hood is a 1973 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Productions which was 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 rather than people. 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.

Plot
Alan-a-Dale introduces the story of Robin Hood and Little John, two outlaws living in Sherwood Forest, where they rob from the rich and give to the poor townsfolk of Nottingham, despite the efforts of the Sheriff of Nottingham to stop them. Meanwhile, Prince John and his assistant Sir Hiss arrive in Nottingham on a tour of the kingdom. Knowing the royal coach is laden with riches, Robin and Little John rob Prince John by disguising themselves as fortune tellers. The embarrassed Prince John then puts a bounty on their heads and makes the Sheriff his personal tax collector, who takes pleasure in collecting funds from the townsfolk including hidden money from the crippled blacksmith Otto and a single farthing from a young rabbit, Skippy, who had just received it as a birthday present. However, Robin Hood, disguised as a beggar, sneaks in and gives back some money to the family, as well as his hat and a bow to Skippy in honor of his birthday.

Skippy and his friends test out the bow, 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. Meanwhile, 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 decides 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 in order to release Robin, which leads to a fight between Prince John's soldiers and the townsfolk, all of which escape to Sherwood Forest.

As Robin and Maid Marian fall in love again, 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. The Sheriff visits Friar Tuck's church to collect from the poor box, but when Friar Tuck protests, the Sheriff arrests him for high treason. Prince John plans to execute Friar Tuck, giving him the chance to capture Robin Hood when he comes to rescue Friar Tuck.

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 Tagalong. During the chase, Prince John's castle catches fire and forces a trapped Robin Hood to leap from a tower into the moat below. Little John and Skippy fear Robin is lost, but he surfaces safely after using a reed as a breathing tube, which drives Prince John into a blind rage.

Later, King Richard returns to England, placing his brother, Sir Hiss and the Sheriff under arrest and allows his niece Maid Marian to marry Robin Hood, turning the former outlaw into an in-law.

Alternate ending
The alternate ending (included in the "Most Wanted Edition" DVD) is a deleted version 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 by 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. Sure enough, he finds Maid Marian tending to an unconscious Robin Hood, and draws a dagger to kill them both. Before Prince John can strike, however, he is stopped by his brother, King Richard, having returned from the Crusades. King Richard 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 (which explained how Prince John, Sir Hiss, and the Sheriff ended up in the Royal Rock Pile). King Richard returns Nottingham to its former glory (before leaving for the Third Crusade), knights Robin Hood as Sir Robin of Locksley, 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 fox)
 * Phil Harris as Little John (a bear)
 * Roger Miller as Alan-a-Dale (a rooster)
 * Andy Devine as Friar Tuck (a 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 (a wolf)
 * Ken Curtis and George Lindsey as Nutsy and Trigger, respectively (vultures)
 * John Fiedler and Barbara Luddy as Friar Tuck's Sexton and his wife, respectively (church mice)
 * Billy Whitaker, Dana Laurita and Dori Whitaker as Skippy, Sis, and Tagalong, respectively (rabbits)
 * Richie Sanders as Toby (a turtle)
 * Barbara Luddy as Mother Rabbit
 * Candy Candido as the Captain of the Guard (crocodile)
 * J. Pat O'Malley as Otto (a dog)

Although several of the voice-actors utilized were British, 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. This effect was further reinforced by the choice of country singer Roger Miller as the movie's songwriter and narrator.

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, the project languished. Ken Anderson used the central element of an animated fox in Robin Hood, however.

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 was traced from sequences originally produced for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Jungle Book, and The Aristocats.

Release
The film was originally released in 1973, followed by a re-release in 1982. It was released to videocassette in 1984, 1991 (as part of Walt Disney Classics Collection), 1994, 1998 (as part of the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection), and in 2000 (as part of the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection) and has stayed in general release since then. It was first released on DVD in 2000 also as part of the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection. The remastered "Most Wanted Edition" DVD ("Special Edition" in the UK) was released in 2006 and featured a deleted scene/alternate ending, as well as a 16:9 matted transfer to represent its original theatrical screen ratio. In 2013, the movie was released as a 40th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy combo pack.

Reception
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 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 said that it "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 it "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 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.

Reviews written decades after the initial release of the film have been more mixed. At the movie review site Rotten Tomatoes it has a 52% "Rotten" rating based on 25 reviews. The site's overall assessment is that it 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 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
 * 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/Oo-De-Lally Reprise" sung by Chorus

The music played in the background while Lady Kluck fights off Prince John's soldiers in an American football manner, following the archery tournament, 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 its release in 1973, which included its songs, score, narration, and dialogue. Both "Oo De Lally" and "Love" appear on the CD collection, Classic Disney: 60 Years of Musical Magic.

The song "Love" is featured in the 2009 feature film Fantastic Mr. Fox.

The song "Whistle-Stop" was used in the Super Bowl XLVIII commercial for T-Mobile.

The song "Oo De Lally" is featured in a 2015 commercial for Android which shows animals of different species playing together.