Disney Era Analysis – Robin Hood
As mentioned in the first blog post in this series, I’ll be writing analysis content on all 60+ Disney animated feature films and their film making eras.
The fourth era is the Bronze Age, which ran from 1970 to 1988 and started with The Aristocats. As mentioned in a previous blog post, the Bronze Age is also known as the “Dark Age,” as the films during this era were the first ones made after Walt Disney’s death.
Without Walt Disney’s creative direction, the animators tried new things with the animation style during this era, which ended up being criticised as cheap and lazy, due to their use of xerography and recycling animation. As well as the heavy use of xerography and recycling animation, this era is also known for its darker and edgier films, which were the brainchild of the then-new generation of animators from Cal Arts.
So how well did Robin Hood measure up to these famous features?
Use of xerography and recycling animation:
The famous xerography black lines can be seen with every character, although they seem straighter and cleaner in comparison to its predecessor, The Aristocats. I could also spot blatant recycled animation from The Jungle Book, most notably with the character of Little John, who looked, moved and sounded exactly like Baloo (the latter due to Phil Harris voicing the character).
According to the film’s IMDb page, some of the dance scenes in the woods were recycled from “The Silly Song” in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, “I Wanna be Like You” from The Jungle Book, and “Everybody Wants to be a Cat” from the film’s predecessor.
According to the film’s IMDb page, the recycling of animation for this film was the decision of director, Wolfgang Reitherman, as he wanted to use animation from previous films that he knew would work for this one, and that it’s actually harder and takes longer to re-draw an existing sequence, as opposed to drawing a new one.
Being a darker and edgier film:
This film didn’t become dark and edgy until the climactic scenes involving the Sheriff chasing after Robin after the latter steals money back from Prince John. It also touches on dark themes, such as poverty and class inequality. It also gets darker visually after Prince John triples the taxes on the villagers, to reflect the affects of his decision, as it’s raining and dark in the village.
My overall thoughts:
Overall, I enjoyed this film more than The Aristocats as the animation and art were of better quality, and the adaptation was charming with its use of anthropomorphic animals, instead of humans. I also appreciated the comedy and use of music in this film, with the latter actually having a narrative purpose, instead of being included just for the sake of it.
The next part of the Disney Era Analysis series will focus on The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.
Fun Facts and Trivia (according to the film’s IMDb page):
- This is Disney’s first animated feature film to not feature any humans since Bambi.
- This film was released in 1973 to celebrate the 50th birthday of the foundation of Walt Disney Productions.
- The bell in the tower of Friar Tuck’s church was a real bell added into the film.
- Maid Marian only appears in the film for thirty minutes, despite being the main character’s love interest.
References:
Loveday Writing 