Disney's
Robin
Hood
 I
saw this film when it was first released in the winter of 1973-74.
I was ten years old at the time, and it was a wathershed event
for me.
For
as long as I could remember, I had always enjoyed cartoons, comics,
and storied that featured talking animals. This was probably due
in part to my being raised on a farm, surround by cats, a dog, cattle,
pigs, ducks, geese, turkeys, and chickens. Such characters were
invariably used for comedy. Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, Yogi Bear
and the like
Upon
seeing Robin Hood, I realized for the first time that talking
animals didn't have to be funny, that they could be used
to tell dramatic stories. Whole new worlds opened up for me.
Robin
Hood was the first Disney animated feature conceived, written,
and directed entirely without input from the late Walt Disney, and
it shows. The film is very episodic and doesn't really tell a coherent
story. In retrospect, most of the attempts at humour seem to fall
flat. What annoyed me the most was that the entire film was given
a country and western twang in both music and characterizations.
Personally,
I would have preferred a clever, tongue-in-cheek adventure film.
Maybe something a little truer to the English locale. I always seem
to be attracted to stuff that has more potential than was realized
in its execusion.
Disney licensee Gold Key published an adapation of the film in one
of their comics digests. The comic actually came out before the
film was even released. They also published an almost bimonthly
comic series featuring original stories that take place between
events in the film. The comic lasted seven issues before being cancelled.
The quality in these ranges from the "unispired" to the "actually
pretty good."
You
can click on the indvidual thumbnails on the left to bring up a
larger version of that issue's cover.
 Robin
Hood is one of the view Disney films that would make a good
TV series. Unfortunately, the chances of that ever happening are
virtually zero, since the film is considered celluloid non grata
around the Mickey empire these days. (The only other animated film
more despised around Disney is The Black Cauldron.) Of course,
that still doesn't stop the company from hawking video sales of
this feature on their website. It's actually a decent page, with
a couple of MOV samples. Click on the loverbirds to take you there.
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