Review of Robin Hood: Special Edition (Disney)

Introduction

Oo-de-lally! The traditional English battle cry. As Churchill once said, "We shall Oo-de-lally on the beaches, we shall Oo-de-lally on the landing grounds, we shall Oo-de-lally in the fields and in the streets…" The United States may have parted company with King and Country barely two hundred years ago, but that is enough time for them to have developed some rather twee opinions of the old land. Hollywood`s take on good old England usually amounts to a snapshot of Big Ben, traditional bobby, double-decker bus, and a quick burst of Rule Britannia. So when Disney turned their attentions to the legend of Robin Hood, the result, while superficially familiar offers a rather skewed vision of the lovable bandit. It`s an approach that Kevin Costner would later use to box office effect. Still, Disney`s animated adaptations very rarely stay true to the original subject, and what`s more important is how enjoyable the final result is.

Robin Hood sees the familiar characters recast as animals. The titular outlaw and his friend Little John, fox and bear, are pitted against the greedy Prince John (lion) and the Sheriff of Nottingham (wolf). The two rogues are dedicated to stealing from the rich, and giving to the poor, and since the Prince is the richest fellow around, he regularly falls victim to their cunning plans. Things get serious when Robin`s childhood sweetheart Maid Marian gets involved, and one prank too many pushes Prince John into drastic measures against the populace of Nottingham.

Video

Robin Hood gets the intended 1.78:1 ratio, and the image is clear and sharp, with strong vibrant colours. It`s obvious that the film has gone through restoration, as print damage is nigh on absent. There are traces of where that print damage has been removed, ghosts of scratches and dirt, but you`d have to look for them and ignore the film. There is a perceptible shimmer on straight edges, particularly the credits text, and there is occasionally some flicker, but by and large the film looks splendid.

There is one moment some 16 minutes in, where there is a simultaneous pan and zoom, which is horrifically jerky. Oddly enough this is also visible on the television recording I have, which makes me think it is a problem with the source material and not the transfer.

Audio

Fate has a way of making you eat your hat. The last Disney disc I reviewed was a screener, and I was reluctant to review it, as the final product may have been completely different. I flippantly added that it might even ship with an Arabic audio track.

Robin Hood has a DD 5.1 Arabic track…

From the mouths of innocent reviewers… Actually, Robin Hood has audio tracks in DD 5.1 English, Spanish and Arabic, with subtitles in the same as well as Hindi. It is a victim of spurious labelling though, as the box promises a DD 2.0 Hindi dub, while the menus offer DD 5.1 Portuguese and Portuguese subs. None of these appear, and the track flagged as Portuguese on the disc is just the English track repeated.

Purists may bemoan the lack of the original mono, but the 5.1 audio doesn`t add any particular flourish to the proceedings, instead offering a fairly central experience with just enough ambience to give the film weight.

Features

The disc comes packaged in an Amaray case, contained in a nice shiny slipcase cover that repeats the cover art. Inside you will find an anti-piracy leaflet (just where these things should be), as well as an eight-page activity booklet, with puzzles and games for the little ones to play.

There are also some extras on the disc, although Fastplay isn`t an extra but an annoyance. Place the disc in your player, and unless you select otherwise, it will autoplay the film, the extras and some trailers. It isn`t an option that I would choose to brand and advertise.

I found the pleasantly animated menus to be a little jerky on my player, but they do carry the theme of the film well.

Of most interest is the deleted scene. It is an alternative ending presented here in the form of storyboards and dialogue. Unfortunately, it appears that the original cast never recorded the dialogue, or the recordings were lost. We get a new voice cast that isn`t a patch on the original. This lasts 4½ minutes.

Disney Song Selection offers some Karaoke moments with the songs, Oo-de-lally, Love and The Phony King Of England subtitled and accessible from the menu. You can watch the whole film that way if you choose.

Robin Hood`s Merry Games offer some fun to be had with your remote, as you answer questions about the film, and then help Robin find Marian with the aid of some visual puzzles.

Backstage Disney takes you to a gallery of concept art and character designs. Navigate through the images yourself, or watch them in a 9-minute slideshow with an explanatory narration.

There is an 8-minute long bonus short. Ye Olden Days is a Mickey Mouse cartoon from 1933. In this black and white animation, Mickey has to rescue Minnie from a mediaeval castle and a shotgun (should that be crossbow?) wedding.

Finally there are seven minutes of sneak peaks, tantalising us with Leroy and Stitch, The Fox and the Hound, The Fox and the Hound II, and most juicy of all, The Jungle Book 2 disc special edition due Autumn 2007.

Conclusion

When I was little, DVD was just a wink in a scientist`s eye, the word video wasn`t yet shorn of the suffix -nasty, and the only place to see Disney animation was in the cinema, when they deigned to re-release a film. Either that or I managed to catch a clip on Screen Test. I loved it when the showed a bit of Robin Hood, it would invariably be the chicken playing American Football with a team of rhinos, but the anarchic and zany humour appealed to this five-year-old. Decades on, I watch this film with a wry smile on my face, recalling how much I enjoyed it as a child. As an adult it falls a little short.

Robin Hood was the second animated feature to be made after the passing of Walt Disney, and came not long after the phenomenally successful Jungle Book. It may be an indication of that previous film`s popularity that Robin Hood tried to replicate that success with a cast of animal characters taking the roles of the humans of legend. With Phil Harris practically reprising Baloo in the form of Little John, the parallels become even more apparent. It`s really just a gimmick to dress the characters up as animals, albeit a charming one.

It`s also very much an American vision of Robin Hood, carefully divested of the politics and history. These are just two scamps having fun in the forest. There are one or two genuine English accents, Robin, Prince John and Sir Hiss spring to mind, but the remaining denizens of Nottingham offer the faux cockney so common in Hollywood depictions. You were never going to get Phil Harris to lose his dulcet tones, and there are more than a few anachronistic accents on offer too. The wonderful Andy Devine voices Friar Tuck, and Pat Buttram`s amoral Sheriff of Nottingham could have walked off the set of any John Wayne movie. Even Alan-A-Dale is more country singer than minstrel. The big draw for me after all these years, are the villains. The inimitable Peter Ustinov voices the greedy Prince John, apt to suck on his thumb and call for mummy at the first sign of stress, while Terry-Thomas is his aide Sir Hiss, and the byplay the two have is funny and delightful.

Unfortunately, what Robin Hood is lacking is a story, a consistent narrative, with a beginning, middle and end. It feels more like a collection of set pieces tied together, with a bit of romance added for good measure. And while the set pieces are very good, the stop and start nature of the film drags the pacing down. I was clock watching after barely an hour. Without a consistent narrative, the trademark Disney charm is lacking, there really aren`t any characters to root for, and it feels as if the film is made more for the fun and the gags than for a meaningful story. There is a fine line between sweetness and schmaltz, and Robin Hood crosses that line. It`s at that moment when instead of being immersed in a film, you can feel your emotions being manipulated. That moment occurs near the end of the film when they try to repeat a dramatic moment that worked in The Jungle Book. It doesn`t work here. Robin Hood is also a product of its time, unlike earlier Disney animations that are essentially timeless. The dialogue and the music just screams early seventies and it`s as out of place as the `chav` Robin Hood that the BBC have been serving up of late.

I`d argue with the assertion on the cover that Robin Hood is a classic; it`s an uneven and disjointed experience, which while entertaining doesn`t hang together that well. This is one of the films that you will remember your favourite moments of, rather than the movie as a whole. Fortunately there are more than enough moments to make it worthwhile, although the songs are instantly forgettable. Robin Hood`s appeal may be lost on adults, but children will still love it. The film is presented well on a nicely rounded disc, but the labelling may be misleading. Just to reiterate, no Hindi audio, and no Portuguese whatsoever. A pleasant jaunt down memory lane. Oo-de-lally!