Average Disney, Robin Hood Is Uncomplicated And Dated.

The Good: Good story, Generally decent animation
The Bad: Very much a children’s version of the classic story, Sexist
The Basics: Disney’s Robin Hood is less-memorable than it is actually bad (or good).


Today as I hung out, hoping to watch a movie with my wife, we both realized that with all of my many movie reviews, I had never reviewed any incarnation of Robin Hood. My wife, being a big fan of Disney films, opted for us to watch Disney’s 1973 animated fable Robin Hood to get me into the swing of it. Like most Disney animated films, Robin Hood has fairly frequent musical numbers and replaces human characters with various animals in order to tell an occasionally subversive story in a family-friendly way. In the case of Robin Hood, the manipulations of the ruthless snake Sir Hiss and the homicidal tendencies of Prince John are muted by the anthropomorphic snake and lion that embody the characters in this version.

As eager as I was to watch Robin Hood, the film surprised me for a decent number of aspects external to the film. First and foremost, having grown up in the 1980s and 1990s, where Disney films traded on the celebrity of the participants, Robin Hood surprised me by lacking any big, recognizable names for the actors involved. Despite having gained a pretty healthy respect for older movies, I was surprised as the credits for Robin Hood rolled, I did not immediately recognize any of the names. Making up for the lack of celebrity is a strongly familiar story. Outside utilizing animals for the characters, which makes Robin Hood a fable, there is nothing truly unique or compelling about the 1973 Disney animated version of Robin Hood.

While King Richard is out searching for the Holy Grail, Prince John takes over his kingdom. Under the advice of Sir Hiss, John taxes almost all of the citizens of Nottingham to impossible levels. With many of the citizens in the stockade for tax evasion and the few homes in the forest getting special visits from the Sheriff, who brutally collects tax money the citizens do not truly have to pay, the fox Robin Hood and his friend Little John con Prince John and outwit the Sheriff. Enraged at being outright robbed when Robin Hood and Little John impersonate soothsayers, Prince John puts a bounty on Robin Hood’s head.

Robin Hood’s mission to save the poor citizens of the Nottingham Forest is challenged when his upper class love Maid Marian motivates him to enter an archery contest that is an obvious trap for him. Like Maid Marian, Robin Hood still pines for his lost love and that love inspires him to risk everything to stop Prince John. But when Prince John’s trap leads to Robin Hood’s capture and the hero’s death sentence, Robin Hood will need all of his friends to survive.

Robin Hood is a classic story of class warfare told in metaphor. Robin Hood leads an uprising of economically-oppressed animals who have been oppressed and abused by Prince John. The story is familiar and the whole concept of harnessing the powers of the oppressed majority is presented well through the fable.

Robin Hood is a decent character. Inspired to marshal popular support by entering an archery tournament (where Maid Marian’s kiss is his prize), Robin Hood does the “wrong” thing for all of the right reasons. Selflessly risking his life to rob the rich, Robin Hood is still motivated by more base desires, like love and lust for Maid Marian. Still, Robin Hood is given the most character depth in the film, which makes sense. Prince John is given a classic revenge story with his only real motivations being jealousy for his kingly brother and manipulations from Hiss. Neither of the two main characters in Robin Hood are particularly complex. The film still flows fairly well with its simplified characters engaged in an obvious, epic conflict.

The voice actors in Robin Hood are all adequate, but given the lack of complexity for the story or the characters, there is little they can do to truly embellish the roles. Phil Harris’s Little John notable falls flat on a few goofy jokes during the climactic action sequence, but the rest of the film features at least competent performances by the voice cast.

As for the look, Robin Hood features classic Disney animation. Most of the film looks good, though they use very cartoony physics. In fact, outside some rough lines on the rhinos, Robin Hood looks smooth and well-animated. None of the songs in Robin Hood are particularly memorable, though the film’s few songs are not as intrusive as in some Disney films.

Ultimately, Disney’s take on the Robin Hood story is very average. The classic story makes for a decent fable; though the film lacks real spark or greatness, it does not have any severe detractions, either.

For other Disney animated films, please visit my reviews of:
Frozen
Monsters University
Wreck-It Ralph
Brave
Tangled
Toy Story 3
A Christmas Carol
Up
Ponyo
The Princess And The Frog
Bolt
WALL-E
The Incredibles
Lilo & Stitch
Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Monsters, Inc.
Mulan
Hercules
The Lion King
Beauty And The Beast
The Little Mermaid
Lady And The Tramp
The Sword In The Stone
The Aristocats
Sleeping Beauty
Fantasia

5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

A Short, Basic, Disney Family Adventure, The Aristocats Is All Right.

The Good: Fun music, Voice acting is expressive
The Bad: Lower animation quality, Unmemorable characters, Predictable plot progression, Really racist song . . .
The Basics: The Aristocats is a very basic adventure involving cats who survive an assassination attempt upon them by a jealous butler!


Today, my wife and I spent the day in and she wanted to watch animated movies. Given how we have a new cat, she chose The Aristocats. I was somewhat surprised by her choice; we’re members of the Disney movie club and The Aristocats came up a few months ago in the rotation and she said she didn’t want it. After watching The Aristocats, I understand it now.

The Aristocats is a classic Disney animated film that is a very simple adventure story, that features animals surviving an assassination attempt and trying to get home. It is pretty much the archetypal fable and it offers remarkably little to viewers, especially now. And in one of the jazz songs – for being advertized as a jazz adventure, there is remarkably little of it in the music and what there is is reused for two numbers! – there is some incredibly dated and racist (anti-Chinese) bits.

In Paris, 1910, the Countess brings her lawyer to her estate to plan her will. There, her faithful servant, Edgar, overhears their conversation and learns that the Countess will leave everything to her prized cats. Jealous, Edgar is furious that he will inherit the leftovers from her millions only after the last cat dies. He plans to dispose of the cats so that way when the Countess dies, he can inherit everything sooner. To that end, he makes up a broth with sleeping pills, nutmeg, and other things that are poisonous to cats and serves it to the four cats – Duchess, Berlioze, Toulouse, and Marie.

On his way to disposing of the cats, Edgar runs afoul of two dogs, who knock the basket with the cats off his motorcycle. The cats meet up with J. Thomas O’Malley, an alley cat, who charms Duchess and helps the cats get back to their home. With the help of a crafty mouse, who realized that Edgar is the villain, the animals send the greedy butler packing!

The Aristocats includes a very basic romance story as the journey home to Paris provides Tom O’Malley with a lot of time to impress Duchess with how resourceful he is. This is a pretty classic relationship story about two people from different social classes and the fact that they are both cats is almost incidental (save for the moments when Tom jumps on the hoods of cars to try to get them to stop for him, Duchess, and the kids). That said, there is nothing truly distinctive about Duchess (stereotypical rich, oblivious woman of privilege) or Tom (stereotypical street urchin who knows something the rich woman needs to know to survive).

As for the voice performances, The Aristocats is fine. Eva Gabor, George Lindsay, and Phil Harris are all good. The Aristocats has very expressive vocal performances that match well the animation. That said, The Aristocats has very scratchy animation, as far as lines and the sense of movement. It is not bad, but it is clearly dated.

The Aristocats is not incredible in any way, not bad (save the exceptionally racist moment), but not memorable or worth adding to one’s permanent collection.

For other Disney animated films, please visit my reviews of:
Wreck-It Ralph
Brave
Tangled
Toy Story 3
A Christmas Carol
Up
Ponyo
The Princess And The Frog
Bolt
WALL-E
The Incredibles
Lilo & Stitch
Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Monsters, Inc.
Mulan
Hercules
The Lion King
Beauty And The Beast
The Little Mermaid
Lady And The Tramp
The Sword In The Stone
Sleeping Beauty
Fantasia

4.5/10

Check out how this movie stacks up against other movies I have reviewed, visit my Movie Review Index Page for a listing from best to worst!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

Disney's The Sword In The Stone Is A Lot Of Set-up, Little Pay-off.

The Good: Timeless hero tale, Generally decent animation, Message
The Bad: Plot is setup and then the movie ends, Not the best animation in a Disney film, Utterly unmemorable musical numbers.
The Basics: While my wife might have a love for The Sword In The Stone, there are far better cinematic representations of the Arthurian Legend.


As my Disney exploration comes to an end - I am sure I will eventually be subjected to those films I have missed in this first pass of new and new-to-me Disney films and film reviews moved from my prior reviewing site in time, given that my wife is a huge fan of Disney animated films - for now, I am left thinking about two things. The first is that what we are exposed as children truly does influence who and what we become. That conclusion comes from my wife sitting next to me while watching The Sword In The Stone. The musical numbers in The Sword In The Stone number among the least sensible and least memorable songs in any Disney production, yet there my wife was singing along with Merlin as he sang out gibberish on our screen. She used to watch The Sword In The Stone a lot as a child and it was her favorite movie for some time (presumably until she encountered Labyrinth and fell in love with David Bowie!), so the repetition of the song brought it meaning to her that was not inherent in the lyrics or out of context.

The second thing that I am left contemplating is how the Arthurian Legend has been done a lot in cinematic endeavors and everyone seems to have a favorite. My mother, for example, is partial to The Mists Of Avalon (reviewed here!). I'm not sure what cinematic representation of King Arthur's story I like best, but I am sure it is not The Sword In The Stone, if for no other reason than it seems like a lot of filler before the story pretty abruptly ends. And while the focus of the King Arthur legend is usually supposed to be Arthur, Disney seemed to realize that Merlin was a much more interesting character and focused a lot more on him than on Arthur throughout the film.

In the Dark Ages, Uther Pendragon has died and his successor has not been named, leaving a power vacuum in England. To establish the new King of England, a sword is set into a stone and only the rightful heir of Uther will be able to remove it. Unfortunately, no one is able to and soon even the sword is forgotten. Years later, a twelve year-old boy - Arthur, nicknamed Wart by his foster brother - is hiking through the woods playing squire to his older brother when he encounters Merlin. Merlin knows that he is in the right time and place to meet the heir to the throne and he eagerly tries to impress upon Arthur that there is more to life than warfare. Merlin, a sorcerer, insists on tutoring Arthur and the two leave the forest.

Returning home to his foster father, Arthur gets Merlin set up with a room in a rickety tower the family owns. While Arthur continues to train with Kay to be his squire - while Kay works on jousting and training to be a knight and compete in a New Year's Day competition at which the next King will be declared - Merlin works to get Arthur to think about academic and perspective issues. To that end, Merlin transforms Arthur into a fish and a squirrel and Arthur learns to avoid other fish, wolves and amorous female squirrels. But when Arthur is transformed into a bird, he crashes into the home of Madam Mim. Mim is a witch whose magic is based on sleight of hand, as opposed to true sorcery and she threatens to undo Arthur before he has the opportunity to reach his full potential!

The Sword In The Stone is one of Disney's shorter animated films and right about the time it gets started, the film ends. The title event, the intrigue of the sword in the stone and its relationship with Wart - or Arthur - only comes in as an afterthought after a particularly forced debacle with Mim, which Arthur is not responsible for his fate in. This is emblematic of the problems with The Sword In The Stone. The protagonist is not much of a protagonist at all and while that can work in a story of a hero in the process of becoming, Arthur is constantly outshined by Merlin and because he never truly reaches heroic proportions in anything he does, the movie seems like one long set up for an anticlimax. And it is disappointing.

Furthermore, as one of its earlier cinematic endeavors, The Sword In The Stone is hardly an impressive work visually. The animation style is very sloppy and there are frequently moments where the movie looks like exactly what it is; a collection of line drawings and sketches that are repeated to make movement. Unlike other Disney animated works which were cleaned up for digital and high definition presentations, The Sword In The Stone suffers because it looks like primitive animation, especially on newer HDTVs.

That said, what The Sword In The Stone has going for it on the animation front is an interesting sense of character design and decent coloring. The characters look like what they are supposed to. Wart is a gangly kid and his foster brother Kay is a beefy lad with Ector (his father) looking like a fat-off-the-land minor noble and it works. Merlin embodies the stereotype of a wizard and the whole sense of proportion and realism of movement in the film is done with a quality that some of the recent Disney films have noticeably lacked. And the color palate is good and has more shading and depth than some of the film's contemporaries.

On DVD, The Sword In The Stone comes with short animated works which were featured with the film in theaters as well as a plethora of previews for priced-to-own Disney DVD works. None of the bonus features adequately explore what the point of the film truly was. After all, in Arthurian literature, this is the first of four essential Arthur stories; Disney produced only this of the four. Even without the other three stories, it is hard to feel like this is a worthwhile adventure on its own and ultimately, that is why I do not recommend it.

For other Disney animated films, please visit my reviews of:
Tangled
Toy Story 3
A Christmas Carol
Up
WALL-E
The Incredibles
Monsters, Inc.
The Little Mermaid
Lady And The Tramp
Sleeping Beauty

3.5/10

For other film reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



| | |