Robin Hood (1973)
September 21, 2014 6:07 PM - Subscribe

Because of this FPP and because it's on Netflix SPOILER HE ROBS FROM THE RICH TO GIVE TO THE POOR
posted by Greg Nog (27 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: Poster's Request -- frimble

 
no the best is when the baby bunny is running for the wagon and says MAMA MAMA WAIT FOR ME
posted by poffin boffin at 6:15 PM on September 21, 2014 [5 favorites]


I miss the era of Disney proclaiming "we lifted this story from a classic fairy tale" by literally opening a book in the beginning of the movie.

And HAMSTERDANCE.WAV
posted by filthy light thief at 6:32 PM on September 21, 2014 [4 favorites]


you are in fact a giant nerd yes this is correct
posted by poffin boffin at 6:39 PM on September 21, 2014


Greg, I was with you (and don't you love the uneven colors seen for a moment, indicating that the cels were actually painted!) until the "force-kiss," unless that's some weird hybrid Disney/Lucas edited version of the film, where Maid Marian is a jedi or something, and then I think I'm back in your camp.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:16 PM on September 21, 2014


I'm not the type of person who can quote from every old movie I've seen. In fact, I'm quite the opposite. I don't care if I've seen a movie 50 times, it doesn't help. Lines just don't stick in my brain, with one exception. Yup, I can still quote astonishingly (for me) long passages from this version of Robin Hood.

I'm sure the fact I had this LP had a lot to do with what has buried its way into my brain. Yes, I had other Disney movie LPs and SP records (like this one), but Robin Hood is the one that got the most play and had the longest lasting impact. Long live Robin Hood, hurrah! And long live Maid Marian, bravo, hurrah. And down with that scurvy Prince John!
posted by sardonyx at 7:23 PM on September 21, 2014 [1 favorite]


I feel like I have to add that seeing Brian Bedford on stage starring in Noel Coward's Private Lives was one of the more surreal experiences of my life. Logically I could comprehend what I was witnessing--a talented actor and director performing live in front of me-- but somewhere deep down, all I could see and hear was Robbie burning the chow or the long-legged stork gleefully hitting bullseye after bullseye. Somehow it was just very, very wrong. But also spine chillingly thrilling to be in the presence of that voice years so many years after I first heard it and after it had worked it way into my consciousness.
posted by sardonyx at 7:46 PM on September 21, 2014 [1 favorite]


I love how little effort Robin puts into all the archery, he just like uh, I dunno, thwip? and it's a perfect bullseye and he's already at the bar getting a drink
posted by shakespeherian at 8:38 PM on September 21, 2014 [2 favorites]


i am still confused about how lady kluck knits with her featherhands, that is not how feathers work
posted by poffin boffin at 8:42 PM on September 21, 2014 [1 favorite]


I too realized recently (thanks watching it on Netflix) that I have much of this movie still memorized. My little sister loved this movie so much that I borrowed a neighbor friend's family VCR to teach myself how to make a pirated copy of a rental. (Remember when VHS tapes were so expensive that my parents wouldn't care about my youthful misdemeanors as long as I didn't copy the FBI warning.)

Of course, I just now realized as I how committing this illegal action for this particular movie was pretty appropriate. Nice lesson, Disney.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 8:58 PM on September 21, 2014 [4 favorites]


because of this FPP and because it's on Netflix SPOILER HE ROBS FROM THE RICH TO GIVE TO THE POOR

Can I put this on my CV?
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:04 PM on September 21, 2014 [1 favorite]


Still a better English accent than Costner.
posted by radwolf76 at 9:26 PM on September 21, 2014


Wow, could we have had the spoiler after the fold?
posted by Ik ben afgesneden at 10:09 PM on September 21, 2014


The "Love Goes On and On" still makes my heart go pitter-patter. Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, Cary Elwes, and Errol Flynn can all get in line behind that fox for the title of "Sexiest Robin Hood".
posted by donajo at 7:09 AM on September 22, 2014 [9 favorites]


This was always one of my favorite Disney movies from the era, in a time, where I kind of felt that Disney had a stable of animal actors, who would play different roles (albeit typecasted) in different movies. Oh, it's the same gang from the Bedknobs and Broomsticks bit with the soccer game, and oh, it's the bear from the Jungle Book, and snake, too! There was something sweet about the same voices reappearing that I appreciated.

This is also one of the few Disney movies I have bothered to buy on Blu-ray (when it came out of THE VAULT).

I love the nasal voice of the Sheriff's and the refined English voice of Robin. One of the saddest moments in animation history is the break down on how bad things are a getting and everyone ending up in debtor's prison. I mean, THE DOG IS ON CRUTCHES! It can't get much sadder than that. (Close to that are the poor church mice!)

It was the first version of Robin Hood I ever saw and the one standard I hold all Robin Hoods now and in the future, too. I whistle the heck out of that tune, too.
posted by Atreides at 7:52 AM on September 22, 2014


a time, where I kind of felt that Disney had a stable of animal actors, who would play different roles (albeit typecasted) in different movies.

They weren't just recycling characters, entire animated sequences were lifted from other Disney films.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 8:24 AM on September 22, 2014


i am still confused about how lady kluck knits with her featherhands, that is not how feathers work

If it comes to that, how does Robin Hood win the archery tournament with improvised feather hands?
posted by donajo at 8:55 AM on September 22, 2014


Well but he had his regular handpaws beneath the feathered mitten disguise which surely

ok i dunno
posted by poffin boffin at 9:18 AM on September 22, 2014 [1 favorite]


Disney had a stable of animal actors, who would play different roles (albeit typecasted) in different movies.

And of course you had actual actor Phil Harris coming back again and again: he voiced Baloo in The Jungle Book, a working-class cat in The Aristocats, and Little John in Robin Hood.

(Until I double-checked IMBDb just now, I didn't realize that he was pushing seventy when he did Little John. Disney actually brought him back to play Baloo again 16 years later for TaleSpin; he managed to tape a few episodes before they realized that, holy shit, this guy's 86, maybe this exercise is a little cruel.)
posted by Iridic at 9:26 AM on September 22, 2014 [3 favorites]


I love the bosomy hen playing badminton.

And everything else, but you know.

Sir Hiss turning himself into a fey little helicopter and getting drunk is pretty much the only snake I can stand in any medium, including seeing an oddly coiled belt lying on the floor of my bedroom. Bless that little Terry-Thomas.
posted by Madamina at 2:09 PM on September 22, 2014 [4 favorites]


I would just like to take this opportunity to give a shout-out to Peter Ustinov. "Mother always did like Rrrrrichard best."
posted by wabbittwax at 2:48 PM on September 22, 2014 [3 favorites]


(Until I double-checked IMBDb just now, I didn't realize that he was pushing seventy when he did Little John. Disney actually brought him back to play Baloo again 16 years later for TaleSpin; he managed to tape a few episodes before they realized that, holy shit, this guy's 86, maybe this exercise is a little cruel.)

This reminds me of the recent remake of the DuckTales game, with voice acting by basically all surviving members of the original cast, which has to have the highest average age of any voice-acting cast, with June Foray (age 97) and Alan Young (age 94) standing out in particular.
posted by DoctorFedora at 8:02 PM on September 22, 2014 [2 favorites]


I would just like to take this opportunity to give a shout-out to Peter Ustinov.

AH-ha! AH-ha!
posted by Iridic at 8:56 PM on September 22, 2014 [2 favorites]


I'm sure the fact I had this LP

I had that LP also, and yet actually I do not think I have ever seen this movie in full. Is that weird? (But it's on Netflix? I'll add it to my list!)
posted by dnash at 8:56 PM on September 22, 2014


I watched this movie every day as a wee one, necessitating the purchase of another VHS, as I wore out the first.
My family likes to remind me that any time a box arrived that had packing material, I'd sit in front of it, fling the packing peanuts behind me, and yell TAXES! TAXES! TAXES!
posted by missmary6 at 12:25 PM on September 23, 2014 [6 favorites]


Disney's "Xerox era" films sometimes get a bad rap for all the cost-cutting measures, but they have a low-key humility that I find really appealing -- it's the difference between watching a spectacle and reading a storybook. Robin Hood doesn't have The Sword in the Stone's lush palette and mastery of space or 101 Dalmatians's nervy, gritty, jazzy aesthetic, but it's just so darn charming! And has great incidental music.

Also Robin is super dreamy despite being, you know, a fox I swear I'm not a furry and I totally wanted Marian's pretty dress as a kid.
posted by bettafish at 4:50 PM on September 23, 2014 [1 favorite]


ahhh this was probably my favorite movie as a child.

Mumford and Sons covers Not in Nottingham
posted by rebent at 7:08 AM on September 24, 2014 [5 favorites]


This movie was the bedtime movie for my one-year old for about a month straight. Thanks, Netflix. She is rapt by the opening whistle / scat / fake trumpet hamsterdance song, and "mama mama wah fuh me" was one of her first repeated movie lines. Having had watched it nightly for about month straight, I definitely have had a lot of time to reflect on the film.

First, the front-view of Robin Hood and Maid Marian when they are mooning over each other may have been paid homage in Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Second, the line "You've grown up all inside of me" in Maid Marian's song makes me feel uncomfortable when I think about it too much.

Third, Peter Ustinov is the best. My daughter loves his character and repeats his lines too. She has no idea he is a villain. "Fortune tellers! Oh, how droll."

Finally, Hiss the snake has no hands. No hands! But he is animated so awesomely that it seems like he does! It's rather amazing.
posted by 90s_username04 at 4:40 PM on September 25, 2014 [4 favorites]


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