- A long time ago, in a faraway land, legend tells an extraordinary tale of courage and friendship. Get ready for swashbuckling adventure, unforgettable characters, memorable music, and lots of laughs in Disney’s ROBIN HOOD, one of the most cherished animated films of all time. Heroic Robin Hood — along with his trusted companion Little John and his devoted band of merry men — conjures up one
ROBIN HOOD-MOST WANTED EDITION (DVD)A minor classic from Disney, this 1973 all-animal, all-animated musical version of the familiar story is more charming than one might expect. Perhaps it’s the warm, chummy take on key relationships within the legend–the way Robin Hood (Brian Bedford) gets twitterpated whenever the subject of Maid Marian (Monica Evans) comes up or the way best pal Little John (Phil Harris voicing a variation on his own Baloo from The Jungle Book) admonishes the Sherwood Forest hero, “Aw, Rob, why dontcha just marry the girl?” (Then, of course, there’s the canny “casting” of the romantic leads as foxes: Robin the sly one and Marian the, well, foxy one.) The rest of the vocal cast is lively and eclectic: Peter Ustinov, Andy Devine, Terry-Thomas, George Lindsey. Roger Miller provides the songs and voice for the minstrel character Allan-A-Dale. The film is ably directed by Wolfgang Reitherman, whose decades of work in Disney’s animation division helped create the studio’s rich legacy. –Tom Keogh
Buy “Robin Hood “ For Only $17.40
March 4, 2008
#1
I know I will not be the only who sees Robin Hood as one of the most artistically poor of all of Disney’s animated features, unfortunately, people think of this kind of animation when they think of ’70s Disney and forget that the Disney seventies were so much superior to this.
Robin Hood is weak in story-line, characters and specially artistry and yet, it seems to have a rating of 7.3 at IMDb and a high rating here, too, I guess that’s the reason for the special edition because there are many other more deserving Disney films out there (The Sword in the Stone, or The Rescuers to name a few, you know the *real* Disney masterpiece films?) and Robin Hood isn’t even close. Sure, it’s entertaining, but the DVD release it got once was enough to satisfy it, I personally can’t see the film improving with a digital restoration.
Still, before saying anything else, I’ll wait until the Special Edition is out and then we’ll see, but so far, this film gets a 2/5.
March 4, 2008
#2
The transaction was smooth. The product was damaged! This is not how it was described and I wouldn’t have purchased it if I knew that the DVD was going to have a dent in it. I’m sure this seller is typically good, but this time the product sucked. I returned the DVD and received a refund. I’m just going to buy the movie from Target for a little more, but at least I’ll know what I’m getting.
March 4, 2008
#3
I love this movie. I had tried buying it here at Amazon used and the product never showed up. I paid for it and complained to Amazon but was told to e-mail the seller directly, which I did to no avail. Great movie but they stole my money. The only time I’ve ever had a problem with Amazon.
March 4, 2008
#4
I liked this as a child, but it’s really one of Disney’s weaker animated films and lacks a lot of the attention to detail that sets apart the studio’s real Classics. Some of the scenes look like actual tracings from other movies (the scene where Maid Marian is dancing with the animals – it’s Snow White and the Dwarfs down to every move!). I recently rented Disney’s live action “The Story of Robin Hood” and was so impressed I went out and bought the video – great film full of excitement and suspence. It also explained the whole legend of Robin Hood better and gave the characters a bit more depth. This animated version is only so-so.
March 4, 2008
#5
First of all, let’s straighten out the misconceptions of the widescreen version “missing” information.
The film was originally animated “full-frame” 1.37:1, but that is not how it was theatrically presented – the film was shown with a 1.85:1 projector matte, and this is how the animation needed to be composed.
Second, as an animation fan, I’ve been put off by this film. It was done with little budget, several characters are simply re-used designs from films like “The Jungle Book” (including Little John being a re-draw of Baloo, including the re-use of Phil Harris in the role), and the film re-uses animated sequences from films like “Snow White” (in the dance sequence) and “Wind In The Willows”. It is such a cheat.
Thirdly, in spite of the Roger Miller musical numbers, which are the only memorable parts of this film, the ending is short changed. Prince John is not really defeated (as in the live action versions) and Robin Hood simply shakes his fist and runs away. The return of King Richard was cut from the film, even though it was substantially inked and painted (portions of this footage turned up on the Disney channel in the 80′s). Here, Prince John watches Robin get away and he gets mad and he chases the snake and the castle burns. The film is wrapped up by the Roger Miller rooster walking out and telling us how the story ends. “You know, I thought we’d never get rid of (Prince John and the Sheriff and Sir Hiss), but lucky for us, King Richard returned, and – well – he just straightened everything out.”
With apologies to Ernest Ristler at the HTF, if this was applied to other films like Star Wars (‘C-3PO stepping out from behind a tree at the Rebel Base and saying: “You know, I thought we’d never get rid of that Death Star. But lucky for us, Luke, Han, and the Rebels took off and – well – they just straightened everything out.” ‘) or Jaws (‘ “You know, I thought we’d never get rid of that ol’ shark, but lucky for us, Sherrif Brody went to sea and – well, he just straightened everything out.” ‘), people would be up in arms.
Musically, there’s a lack of originality here, too – a recycled music cue by George Bruns returns here: the music during the sequence when Little John and Skippy think Robin Hood has been killed? The sad music? That cue was used in 4 other Disney features:
1) Sleeping Beauty – the Three Fairies look on at Sleeping Beauty in her bed, asleep, victim of Maleficent’s curse.
2) 101 Dalmations – when Pongo and Perdy wait sadly for news of their stolen puppies.
3) The Sword In The Stone – when Wart sits alone in the kitchen after “popping off” to Sir Ector.
4) The Jungle Book – when Baloo appears dead.
Disney’s Robin Hood is an alright film for kids who don’t know any better, but for Disney animation buffs, this is poor storytelling with budgetary animation cop-outs. The quality is on par with so much of the mid ’70′s to early ’80′s Disney animation, before the renaissance that began with The Little Mermaid and ended with The Lion King.