Robin Hood

Dir: Wolfgang Reitherman

1973

***

Walt Disney's Robin Hood is a rather odd mix of merry old England and America's Deep South. Disney had wanted to make an adaption of the Reynard the Fox tales back in the 1930s and although there is still much of the original stories style within Robin Hood, it was thought Reynard himself would be a rather difficult character to sell as a hero to parents. Uncle Walt though the idea was brilliant but argued it would be too sophisticated. They tried again to incorporate Reynard the Fox in their 1950's Treasure Island and then in the 60s they decided a full adaptation was achievable but they changed their minds at the last minute and made The Sword in the Stone instead. Ken Anderson eventually convinced the studio to have a Reynard the Fox type character in a lightened version of Robin Hood but his idea of setting the film in America's Deep south was rejected (Anderson was art director on Song of the South and wanted to recapture it's spirit). However, most of the voice cast had already been hired and this is why many English voices are met with deep southern drawls. The animation is good, no one does sad baby bunny rabbit like Disney, but for me this film is all about the voice work. Brian Bedford was pretty good as Robin considering he was third choice behind Tommy Steele and Bernard Fox, he was joined by the brilliant Phil Harris who pretty much played a slightly different version of Baloo the Bear from Jungle Book. Director Wolfgang Reitherman decided to give the two more of a lead so that the film had more of a 'buddy' element about it, rather than include the merry band of men as Anderson did in the original draft. Roger Miller headed the southern voice cast and narrated the story via a Rooster, western legends Andy Devine and Pat Buttram played Friar Tuck and the Sheriff of Nottingham respectively and John Fiedler (Piglet) played a church mouse. The real pull however was from the voice pairing of the mighty Peter Ustinov as Prince John and Terry-Thomas as his servant and adviser Sir Hiss. The story was very tongue in cheek and reminiscent of the live action comedies of the time. Anderson was said to have cried when he saw what had been done to his original script, and it certainly isn't one of Disney's greatest achievements, but it's an enjoyable version of the Robin Hood story all the same.