Saturday, October 5, 2013

Robin Hood (1973)

Today's animated feature is Robin Hood.  It was a highly entertaining movie when I was a child, but as an adult I got nothing out of it.  Which is sad, because normally I love watching animated movies.  I love animated movies so much that I work for a company that makes them.  But that doesn't mean I'm going to praise every film we make, especially one as cheaply made as this.  Robin Hood had the lowest budget of any animated feature.  In fact, most of the footage is reused.

The tale of Robin Hood is the same one we've all heard of time and time again.  Except this one focuses more on Prince John as a whiny villain and the Sheriff as a menacing side character.  Robin Hood and Maid Marian are lovely as foxes.  All of the characters are anthropomorphic beings, and this is the first time we've seen this.  Before this came all the Princess movies and the animal trend will continue mostly into the 1980s.

Most of the animation was reused from The Aristocats, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and the Jungle Book.  Little John and Baloo are almost identical and were voiced by the same person, Phil Harris.


The best part of this movie is the folksy music.  I really enjoyed it and gave it a fun, gentle feel.  The characters are all fun and even the villains give out many laughs.  However, my daughter was not interested at all in this film.  Maybe she is too used to high quality animations of today.  I have noticed that people who grew up with this film love it, but most kids today don't.  I have compiled a gif of many scenes that were recycled for this film.  Credit goes to the people who first noticed all these scenes, and there are many more.  I will give this film a 5/10.




No comments:

Post a Comment