Movie Review #63: Robin Hood (1973)

 

Robin Hood is a story about a man robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. Personally I think we need a real Robin Hood these days but we don't need me complaining about billionaires. Anyway Robin Hood was one hell of a popular story for people to make their versions of. They must have made at least a hundred Robin Hood movies between the Errol Flynn movie in 1938 and the Kevin Costner movie in 1991. Another strange thing is after that movie pretty much every Robin Hood movie was a failure. Well, maybe not Robin Hood Men in Tights but that's not exactly the same as a real serious Robin Hood movie. Seeing as I'm doing this whole Disney/Touchstone/Hollywood Pictures watchathon I figured why not, let's talk about the Disney Robin Hood which is still one of the more popular versions of Robin Hood. (Strangely Robin Hood Men in Tights is probably way more popular today than Robin Hood Prince of Thieves) 

So this movie was made during a low point in Disney's history. Way before they became the super duper company that could eat other companies they were not making great money. Walt Disney himself had passed away 6 years earlier and they were trying to find out what movies they would make. This movie was good for the company as it made them money and was considered pretty good by critics. Personally this is one of my favorite Disney films. I'm weird in the fact I really like most of the Disney movies from this period. This movie is Robin Hood kinda mixed with another story called Reynard the Fox (a story that Walt Disney himself wanted to make going all the way back to the Snow White days.) This movie was directed by Wolfgang Reitherman, an animator that had been working with Disney since 1934. He's one of Disney's Nine Old Men. He pretty much directed every Disney movie between 1961 and this film. The ones he didn't direct he helped produce. So he's a big deal. Plus he's got one cool as hell name. 

This movie has a great cast. First off Peter Ustinov is great as Prince John, he's able to be a big sniveling weiner but when he's gotta be a scary angry bastard he's great at that too. Terry Thomas is also great as Hiss. These two have great chemistry together and are very funny. Phil Harris is great as Little Baloo....I mean John. Pat Buttram is great as the Sherrif of Nottingham. Everyone in this movie has a great voice. Secondly the music in this film is really good too, very catchy memorable songs that will wiggle your way right into your head and never leave. The plot is pretty much your usual Robin Hood shenanigans. I'm sure stuff is different from many other versions of Robin Hood but the stuff you wanna see in a Robin Hood story is here. The animation is bright and fluid and very well done, yeah there's some reused animation from things like The Jungle Book or Snow White but I still believe the vast majority of this animation is very good. It's even got Don Bluth working on it! 

FINAL VERDICT: Yeah this isn't the longest review for my blog, but this is a very well made animated film that is very amusing, fun, action packed, memorable and with a great voice cast. There's not much for me to complain about or point out. It's very much worth a watch and I believe you should check it out.