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Introduction to movie. Bitter comment from Walt Disney. Batman joke. He's been to Bahia. Have you ever danced with the Red Rooster in the pale moonlight? Columbo appearance. Batman joke. Batman joke.
Oh, sorry. Does it seem like I'm recycling a lot of material from other reviews? Well, when in Rome.
Robin Hood came out in 1973, in a decade when the Disney company was moving further and further away from its roots as an animation studio and becoming the massive, many tentacled, HYDRA-esque cartel bent on world domination that we know and love today.
- Obey or die.
The vast majority of the company's earnings in this period came from the theme parks and merchandise. The studio's live action movie division was also branching out into new genres like science fiction (The Black Hole) horror (The Watcher in the Woods) and hardcore pornography (Herbie Rides Again. I assume from the title). Meanwhile, the animation division was increasingly being treated like the weak sister of the company and Robin Hood is one of the best examples of this. This movie is infamous for its borrowing of animation from earlier Disney movies, in fact it's probably got the most blatant examples of any film in the canon. Why is this? Well, because they were fucking broke. They had to make this thing on $15 Million, which sounds like a lot, but for a feature length animated movie is like trying to re-enact the moon landing with some aluminium cans and a few bottle rockets. And yet, I come here to praise Robin Hood, not to bury it. This movie, probably more than any other, perfectly encapsulates the Scratchy Era aesthetic: We got no money, we're ugly as sin, but we got the charm and we got the tunes. Robin Hood has buckets of charm and some really great songs. It also has the kind of manic energy you would expect from a movie animated by starving hobos who were being paid in hot dogs.
Have to admit, that was a WAY better score than I was expecting. Having watched it recently myself I felt kinda struck by how the movie felt like it didn't have much structure, mostly just Robin having various wacky misadventures until the big damn heist scene and then Richard shows up out of nowhere. It's entertaining, but it's a bit... TOO wacky, I suppose is what I'm getting at, to really sink in. It's kinda like watching a movie consisting of a TV show's various episodes put together, if that makes any sense.
Still, can't deny your points about the movies charm- it's a humdinger of a tale. Having the Baloo-voice do Little John seems to apply nearly all around the world, for 'twas the case over here too. A heavily edited version of the final battle is also part of that Swedish Disney Christmas Special, so I can pretty much recite the whole finale word for word and did so as you were going through that section. What can I say, indoctrination is a powerful thing- and no one knows it better than the Walt Disneyhailbetheirglory Company.
ANYHOW- favorite gags here were definitely the "archer meme"-joke, followed shortly by riffing on Obama and the "predator" gag, mostly for coming straight out of left field and suckerpunching me with awfully hilarious truthyness.