Robin Hood

Robin Hood is one of those rare Disney films that actually excludes human characters fully. Quite often when it's a more animal based story, such as Oliver and Company or The Rescuers, we still get a few humans who play a part. In Robin Hood's case, however, we get the entire cast as animals. Despite being set in England, a large part of the animal choices are not even native to the country.

This film is an odd mix. While it can be a lot of fun to watch, with quite a few entertaining scenes there is still a feeling that this film isn't really living up to it's full potential. One scene we have that works really well is when Robin Hood is stealing all of the gold right out of Prince John's bedroom during a jail break. The entire sequence is full of suspense and is really well done, but then we get scenes like the "Phony King of England" which is much less entertaining and uses a ton of recycled animation from previous films.

Another thing that does hamper this film is how the songs aren't exactly memorable. "Whistle Stop" is perhaps best known not for it's use in this film, but as a much slower version of the Hamster Dance. While "Love" is probably the best known song from this film, the lyrics leave quite a bit to be desired.

What Robin Hood lacks in the song department, it more than makes up for it with characters. Prince John and Sir Hiss are completely delightful to watch, as is Lady Cluck who even gets an entertaining football-esque scene at one point. Despite being the main leads, Robin Hood is just charming enough to be likable while Maid Marion makes for a good match. Perhaps the worst of the characters is Little John, who is essentially a recolored Baloo wearing clothing. As far as the voice actors go, there are a lot of familiar voices floating about including the voice actors for Merryweather, Piglet, Jasper, the goose sisters from Aristocats, and of course Baloo.

Despite it's flaws, Robin Hood still manages to entertain and if you're able to push past recycled animation then this film is all the better.

3/5