Disney’s Robin Hood focuses on the legend from English folklore Robin Hood; a master swordsman, archer and outlaw from the time of King Richard the Lionheart and Prince John who famously “stole from the rich and gave to the poor. ” The movie starts out with the viewers being introduced to Robin Hood and Little John, two outlaws living in Sherwood Forest, as they’re being hunted by the Sheriff of Nottingham. They manage to avoid capture and almost immediately after set their sights on stealing all the riches from the royal coach as it travels through the forest carrying the greedy Prince John and his assistant, Sir Hiss.
Following this, Prince John has the Sheriff start collecting any money he can find as payment for taxes. In order to counter this Robin Hood goes to the families after the collection and gives them what he can in hopes of helping them keep their heads up. Sometime later there is a competition for the best archer. Robin competes in disguise and wins with a miraculous shot tipping the Sheriff and Prince off to who he is. This leads to a scuffle and the ordering of Robin’s arrest and execution.
Luckily, after a fight between the townsmen and the soldiers everyone, including Robin, Little John, Maid Marian, and Lady Kluck, escape to Sherwood. This escape leads to Robin and Marian growing close again and a celebration among the townspeople that involves insulting Prince John. Due to this, John grows angry, triples the taxes, and orders the jailing of anyone who can’t pay. Eventually, almost everyone ends up in jail; including Friar Tuck who is to be hung. Robin, hearing this news, plans a jailbreak with Little John that leads to a massive fight ending in the freedom of everyone and the return of all the unfairly collected money.
Robin Hood ends with King Richard returning, Robin Hood and Maid Marian getting married, and Prince John, the Sheriff, and Sir Hiss being arrested and put to work. The story is one that is based on both story and truth. It’s truth lays in the ruling of the King of England John who succeeded his brother King Richard the Lionheart and the unfair taxing that was enacted at the time due to the need for money to fund the Crusades. The story portion is based on the 12th century tale of Reynard the Fox. Reynard is a fox who dupes other characters/animals for his own gain and then attempts to avoid payback anyway possible.
The combined story that’s being told is one of how the clever fox outwits the deceitful lion for the good of the people. Robin Hood helps the people because they are being unfairly taxed and abused by Prince John. An easily distinguished lesson in this story is that sometimes a person has to stand up for what’s right even when it’s hard. There’s also noticeable lessons on greed leading to ones downfall, the end at times justifying the means, and good triumphing over evil (even though stealing isn’t necessarily good). Any one of these lessons can be distinguished in the movie.
Furthermore, I think part of the reason they chose to tell the tale this way is because this version of Robin Hood was made for younger audiences; in most cases when making something for younger individuals you can’t go too graphic or overly complicated. The director made the movie with the point that it would be easy to see that Robin Hood, the good guy, wins; also, Prince John, the bad guy, loses. It’s simple and set for that clear understanding that what happened at the time of the crusades was similar to other situations that are still present, and even in eight hundred plus years the world hasn’t changed that much.
In relation to the question on what some of the most important moments are | have 5 in mind. The first is the very beginning when Robin and Little John escape from the soldiers. Right away you get a look at the characters and their personality’s. This look gives you an idea on how the story is going to go. Second, Robin Hood going to the shooting competition and escaping with the help of the townsfolk. This scene showcased exactly how much robin meant to the people.
They were willing to take an arrow for this outlaw hich really builds the idea that he’s an outlaw who’s not really an outlaw. Third, the scene with the arresting of Friar Tuck. That scene was really the start of the build. Everyone else was arrested sure but until this point the Sheriff and Prince John had had enough mind to be wary of a man of God and then suddenly it didn’t matter; they arrested him and sentenced him to death. This was kinda the “oh no they didn’t” moment. Fourth, the prison break scene was important because you know right away something is going to go wrong.
Lastly, the scene where the three main baddies are at the rock pile. This scene didn’t develop the story, bu tit does give that sense that everything is right and so to me it makes it important. In reality, it’s quite clear that most of this was the director’s interpretation of a well known legend that led to this adaptation. Obviously this storyline and setting isn’t going to feel the most accurate as all the characters are animated animals. The good thing that comes with that is that it isn’t random animals that are assigned to parts.
The animals were chosen based on the believed personality of the characters: King Richard was often written as being extremely courageous and brave so he’s a lion, his brother John is the exact opposite in everything but blood so he is a far wimpier lion (even his crown is too big), Robin is sly and cunning like a fox, Maid Marian a vixen, there’s even a young rabbit who gets scared. The characters work for this reason, and while it is hard to relate them to actual people it can be done.
Past the fact it’s animated the storyline is all over the place and because of that it’s impossible to call it accurate because there is very little factual history behind this movie. Honestly, the only way to fix it would be to find another historical story not based on legend, but if the story was changed to something more historically recorded it wouldn’t be Robin Hood and that wouldn’t be okay. After watching this movie I did notice one thing quite clearly: members of the church were held to a higher standard than many other community members.
For example, Friar Tuck was only imprisoned after he physically forced the sheriff out. Had he not done that it likely would have been a good amount of time before the Prince would’ve gone after Friar Tuck with the intentions of jail. Onto questions, what is the real life comparison for Maid Marian staying with Prince John? Personally, a question l’ve always had is: was it normal for ladies in Medieval times to stay with their extended family? Was it not normal? What’s that story? Overall, I am still a 5-year-old at heart so I love this movie.
Always have, hopefully always will. Despite this love though, I would not recommend this to someone who was seriously interested in learning about the real history of the time for several reasons. First, the majority of the story is based on folklore. There is very little factual background to this adaptation. Second, there’s lots of in between scenes made to keep it light and therefore there isn’t enough portrayal to really get any solid history. So unless you already know everything that isn’t factual in it there’s very little chance of you learning any solid information.
Third, it never gets you a definite period to work from as far as I could figure it was based somewhere between the second and third crusades. Now, if I had to tell a friend what it’s best and worst points were I’d be clear that it’s biggest strength was that in it’s direction towards children it doesn’t over complicate scenes, yet at the same time it’s biggest weakness is that in being made for children it withholds most of the nitty gritty truth from that era and therefore only gives out cloaked “everybody lives and nobody dies” lies. As I said, I love this version of Robin Hood, it’s just not a good movie for historical research.
