ATDis #21 Robin Hood

Hello Internet Friends!

Welcome back to Adventuring through!

We have almost made it through “Classic Disney” (after today, we only have one more movie).  Then we will be headed straight into the “Disney Dark Ages” (i.e. the period before the Disney Rennaissance– from The Rescuers through Oliver and Company).  I am very excited for this next phase of Disney, as it is one I am not as familiar with.  But for now, lets continue on with this episode’s movie: Robin Hood.

I’d seen Robin Hood for the first time somewhat recently (in the past 4-ish years) and my opinion hasn’t changed since that time.  I don’t really like this movie.  It didn’t have anything that stood out to me, it had a couple of cute characters (the turtle, the little baby bunny, the older main bunny whose birthday it was), it made me smile a couple of times (but not quite so far as laugh) and yes, the love story was cute, but honestly, I was bored by the end.

The movie to me was depressing.

We have a little town, sad and overtaxed, whose only hope comes from someone stealing from the government.  The whole movie is dedicated to showing the characters sadness (and not in the fun way like Inside Out did) so that Robin Hood could come in with a little bag of coins and make things better.  Robin Hood is also honestly a bit of trouble to me because of his morally dubious endeavors.

Although, if you think about it, he doesn’t really help anyone.  The minute Robin leaves, the Sheriff of Nottingham comes right back in and takes the money again (shown by the poor dog with a cast on his leg).  So really, Robin hood just lets the Sheriff do more bad.

As for positives about the movie, I always love Phil Harris’ voice work.  I also enjoyed the scene with Badminton between Maid Marian and Lady Cluck, and the whole fake fight between the children and Lady Cluck.  It was cute, and the love story was also cute (albeit a little lacking in story, I mean come on, all we get is that they were in love in childhood and they are both still pining over each other, we see none of their actual love story).

And speaking of not seeing an actual story, the main source of action in this movie SHOULD have been the rightful King coming back from the crusades and claiming his rightful place (Lion King-style) but that happens off-screen and all we get is a repeat of a joke that was mentioned earlier in the film.

Overall, this movie was disappointing.  I got bored by the time the jailbreak was happening.  The main villain was more annoying and pitiable than evil, his henchman was just bothersome as well.

But that’s just my opinion.  Disagree? Let me know in the comments!

As for Walt’s Legacy, I would like to think that this movie is adding to the “stories I loved in childhood” genre.  I think the people at the studio saw the story of Robin Hood and knew that they wanted to take the character to the animated screen.  I think their animators were also quite used to drawing animals at this point, so they decided to go for it.  The characters are classics, and the story is a classic, and Disney did a good job portraying these things (in the amount of story we ended up getting).

Don’t let the Heffalumps and Woozles stop you from Adventuring Through the Hundred Acre Woods next time!

ATDis #20 Aristocats

Bonjour internet friends!

Long time no see!

For this post, I watched Aristocats.  This movie was one I have seen many many times, and I still love it to this day.  My roommate has two cats (pictured below) and when choosing their names, my vote was for Duchess/Marie and Thomas/Toulouse but their names ended up being Cracker and Simba.

 

When watching this time, honestly I found Napoleon and Lafayette less funny than I should have.  It seems they were in the movie for comic relief, but to me, they just fell a little flat.  Maybe this is because I have seen it so many times, but I don’t know, their bit never really got me laughing.  Next point.  (Oh no, I’m the leader, so I say when we move onto the next point.  Ok next point.)

Roquefort is adorable.  And he’s also Winnie the Pooh.  I don’t like that his eyes are entirely black (no pupils) and I wonder why he is the only animal in the entire film to have fully black eyes.  Perhaps because mice are a “lower species” than cats and therefore don’t get pupils? Who knows.  If you have a different theory, feel free to comment or send me a message.

Spoilers warning below (Obviously)

Watching this time, I realized that for the first 10 minutes(?) Edgar was just a blundering butler, and was actually quite kindly, but (because I’ve seen the movie) I COULDNT STAND HIM.  I WAS SO MAD AT HIM BECAUSE HES EVIL AND A CATNAPPER.  He just bothered me.  Also another thing that bothered me (aside from stealing cats) is that he didn’t wait until Adelaide (the Madame) had died.  If he had waited, he would be guaranteed the money.  By doing it before she died, she had ample opportunity to change her will to include some other cats that she had plenty of time to go out and buy.  I suppose if he had waited, more people would be invested in the cats’ lives and if the will said he had to take care of them then he would be breaking the will by removing them, and may be out of the money anyways.

Also, to put in some of my legal knowledge (and study a bit for my Criminal Law class) IF the cats had died in the process of stealing them/shipping them to Timbuktu, that would be known as “Depraved heart” because he didn’t care if they died or not and was putting them at a great risk without just cause.  IF he had poisoned the cats the way that he did, it would be “cold blooded” (1st degree murder) and IF he had gotten angry when he heard about the will and gone and killed them out of anger, technically it would be called “Hot blooded.”  If you want to argue these with me, feel free to comment or send me a message and we can discuss.

Let me tell you, internet friends, law school changes you.

As for the Disney Legacy, this is our first movie where Walt is no longer with us.  However, he was working on a live action version of Aristocats for “The Wonderful World of Disney” Saturday morning show but it never came to fruition.  So Walt did have his hands on this.  If I had to give it my guess, I think “Lady and the Tramp” and “101 Dalmatians” gave dogs such a good name that the company had to fix the reputation of cats (especially after Lady and the Tramp’s Si and Am fiasco, although the cat in 101 did a good job of fixing that).  I think they were rounding out the animal kingdom so to speak.

Speaking of animal kingdoms, don’t miss out on the next episode of Adventuring Through where we finally get rid of the Phony King of England with the help of a lovely fox with a bow and arrow.

(I’m sorry that wasn’t a pun*, it’s been a long weekend)

 

***Edit: The Pun I should have said is as follows:

Don’t Oo-de-lally-gag, join us next time for Adventuring Through!****