Robin Hood Discussion

[Escapay]

Hate to be doing a Wonderlicious, but I'm thread-bumping! Joy!

Anyways, I watched it for the first time in years, with an open mind, and expectations as to which scenes were the "re-animated" stuff (essentially all of "The Phony King of England" and the wedding finale).

I have to say, I'm probably a bigger fan of it now, as it's a nice little movie. Not one of those timeless classics revered by millions (deservedly like Snow White or undeservedly like The Lion King), but still a happy picture to watch. Lady Kluck is probably my favorite character, just after seeing her in the football game, er...chasing scene. The singing rooster got on my nerves though. But the songs were nice, and I find myself whistling "Love (It seemed like only yestereday)" every so often.

The animation is not exactly Disney's best. The quality seemed like a combination of Saturday Morning TV and an overly-long Silly Symphony. But you can easily overlook that cause the characters take your mind off of how stiff they're animated at times.

I don't know if it's a contender for my DVD collection, but if the price were right (maybe only $10 or less), then I'd buy it. Or I'll just wait for any edition that's better than the GC.

Escapay

[Jayden]

Hate to be doing a Wonderlicious, but I'm thread-bumping! Joy!

Anyways, I watched it for the first time in years, with an open mind, and expectations as to which scenes were the "re-animated" stuff (essentially all of "The Phony King of England" and the wedding finale).

I have to say, I'm probably a bigger fan of it now, as it's a nice little movie. Not one of those timeless classics revered by millions (deservedly like Snow White or undeservedly like The Lion King), but still a happy picture to watch. Lady Kluck is probably my favorite character, just after seeing her in the football game, er...chasing scene. The singing rooster got on my nerves though. But the songs were nice, and I find myself whistling "Love (It seemed like only yestereday)" every so often.

The animation is not exactly Disney's best. The quality seemed like a combination of Saturday Morning TV and an overly-long Silly Symphony. But you can easily overlook that cause the characters take your mind off of how stiff they're animated at times.

I don't know if it's a contender for my DVD collection, but if the price were right (maybe only $10 or less), then I'd buy it. Or I'll just wait for any edition that's better than the GC.

Escapay

Glad to hear you enjoyed this often underrated classic. While hardly on the level of the original classics in terms of animation quality and innovation, it still holds a high place on my most enjoyable list, because it is a flat out fun story that allows you to forget your troubles for the period of the movie. The characters are engaging, and often times hillarious (Sir Hiss is my favorite, probably because he reminds me of Kaa).

It's a must have on DVD for me, however I'm going to be paitent (Wow! A first for me!) and see if they come out with a better version than the GC. I'm hoping for a 2-discer in the near future

[FantasiaMan]

I remember when I was a kid watching Robin Hood. I do really like the movie, but many people say that the animation is poor. The animation isn't poor, it's the process they used to film the animation. During that time, Disney was using the Xerox process to film the animation. Instead of inking cels like previous features like Fantasia and Bambi, the pencil animation was xeroxed right onto the cels, which might make the lines gitter or make the characters less softer or less smooth looking. The Xerox process was first used on 101 Dalmatians in 1961. It was developed to be less time consuming, which sped up production much quicker than hand-inking the cels and also saved money.

[Zoltack]

I watched it about once or twice. One time I can remember watching it in Middle School during art class. I liked it. I thought it was a very cool movie. I think I watched it in German before, I'm not sure, because we've seen a lot of Disney video's in German class at high school. I know that I've watch 101 Dalmations in German, that was great when they were doing the K-9 crunchys comercial.

[FantasiaMan]

Here's an interesting fact about the animation of the film:

One of the animation techniques used in the film was ROTOSCOPING. This means that the animators trace over live action footage to help improve their animation or make it look better. But in this film, no live action was used for this, it was previous animation from previous Disney Animated Films! The animators rotoscoped from 3 films that I know of: The Jungle Book, The AristoCats, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. This is mostly seen in the "Phony King of England" sequence.

Here are my best examples:

1-When Maid Marian is dancing with Otto, the dog with the cast on his leg, she dances exactly like Snow White did in the "Silly Song" sequence of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, with the same steps and body movements.

2-In the scene of Little John and Lady Kluck dancing with each other, they both dance exactly like Baloo and King Louie did in the Jungle Book(spite the uncanny fact that both Little John and Baloo are bears, both are voiced by Phil Harris, and are almost identical to eachother).

3-When you see Maid Marian and Robin Hood dancing with eachother and the band playing, they both dance like Duchess and O'Malley did in the AristoCats. An added plus, the players of the band look almost identical to the players of Scat Cat's band (the rabbit playing the drums looks a lot like the Chinese Cat and the cat playing the horn looks a lot like the Italian Cat.

So, in conclusion, the animators seem to have cut corners on this film, probably to speed up production and save money.

(Also, in the scene of Robin Hood climbing to the top of the burning castle and jumping into the moat, it's the exact same music from the climax of the dragon duel in Sleeping Beauty)

[Jayden]

Here's an interesting fact about the animation of the film:

One of the animation techniques used in the film was ROTOSCOPING. This means that the animators trace over live action footage to help improve their animation or make it look better. But in this film, no live action was used for this, it was previous animation from previous Disney Animated Films! The animators rotoscoped from 3 films that I know of: The Jungle Book, The AristoCats, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. This is mostly seen in the "Phony King of England" sequence.

Here are my best examples:

1-When Maid Marian is dancing with Otto, the dog with the cast on his leg, she dances exactly like Snow White did in the "Silly Song" sequence of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, with the same steps and body movements.

2-In the scene of Little John and Lady Kluck dancing with each other, they both dance exactly like Baloo and King Louie did in the Jungle Book(spite the uncanny fact that both Little John and Baloo are bears, both are voiced by Phil Harris, and are almost identical to eachother).

3-When you see Maid Marian and Robin Hood dancing with eachother and the band playing, they both dance like Duchess and O'Malley did in the AristoCats. An added plus, the players of the band look almost identical to the players of Scat Cat's band (the rabbit playing the drums looks a lot like the Chinese Cat and the cat playing the horn looks a lot like the Italian Cat.

So, in conclusion, the animators seem to have cut corners on this film, probably to speed up production and save money.

(Also, in the scene of Robin Hood climbing to the top of the burning castle and jumping into the moat, it's the exact same music from the climax of the dragon duel in Sleeping Beauty)

I think part of the problem was that it was the first movie done completely after Walt died, and thus (as someone pointed out somewhere, but I can't remember where or who. Whomever it is, thanks for pointing this out) the people involved were going "what would Walt do?" This led to a lot of second guessing, and maybe even some of the rotoscoping of previous Walt-approved movies.

Regardless of this fact, it's still a great movie, and is lots of fun. And I just bought the DVD.

[Wonderlicious]

Hate to be doing a Wonderlicious, but I'm thread-bumping! Joy!

Anyway, I'm glad that you like the movie at least.

[Lars Vermundsberget]

I think it can easily be argued that RH is far from great. But it can still be quite enjoyable - and I think it is.

[Disney-Fan]

Haven't seen this since I was four years old... I really need to rent this one!

[Fidget1234]

Prob one of the first disney moves I saw on tv (non cable) & it used to be on all the time along w/ Sword in the Stone & Petes Dragon.

My fav is Maid Marion! Shes so adorable!

[blackcauldron85]

Here are alternate country versions of "Love" and "The Phony King of England" that weren't used in the film. I prefer the film versions myself, but it was nice to hear these versions. I guess at one point they were going to have a more country feel to the songs...

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/disney/love.html

[Margos]

How neat! Personally, I thought that the alternate version for "Love" was more beautiful than the version in the film, but would have been even less fitting, in the end.
"Phony King of England" sounded much better in the final film, though. I like how it sounded like a "hip," Phil Harris version of a olde-time English minstrel song. This alternate version is a little too contemporary, without as much of a grounding in the story's roots.

[Sotiris]

I never knew there was debate among historians over the portrayal of King John but it looks like Disney has finally been vindicated on that front.

Historian: ‘Disney was right to show King John as a villain' in Robin Hood
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-enter ... 81192.html

[Semaj]

VERY hilarious (and fitting) parody for this movie!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC399G-1dwg (Part 1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y7Yb4x6SP4 (Part 2)

[Sotiris]

Must See Rare Robin Hood Artwork from Disney’s ARL
https://d23.com/must-see-rare-artwork-from-robin-hood/

[REINIER]

Must See Rare Robin Hood Artwork from Disney’s ARL
https://d23.com/must-see-rare-artwork-from-robin-hood/

Thanks for that Sotiris! I really enjoyed those visuals!

[blackcauldron85]

Must See Rare Robin Hood Artwork from Disney’s ARL
https://d23.com/must-see-rare-artwork-from-robin-hood/

Thanks for that Sotiris! I really enjoyed those visuals!

I did, too! (I feel like I don't want to post just 'that was neat, thanks,' but that was neat, thank you! I grew up watching this movie a lot, and it's still one that I watch the most. It just makes me feel good!

I don't put them in my top ten list, but at the same time, Robin Hood, TENG, A Goofy Movie, + Winnie the Pooh are the movies that just make me happy/cheered up if I'm sad...