July 28, 2006

Robin Hood

Robin Hood was released in 1973, long after Disney's golden era of
animated films had passed. I was completely captivated by it, the last time that would happen with me and a Disney cartoon. I can remember sitting in The Rescuers, four years later, and thinking it was for babies.

Robin Hood has a nice little tune in it, titled "Love," by Floyd Huddeston and George Bruns, sung by Nancy Adams. As you can see in the video, it's used in a "romantic" scene between Robin Hood and Maid Marian, yet the song seems to be about the love of a mother for her child. This makes lyrics such as "you're all grown up inside of me" seem rather odd, at best. Quite frankly, while the lyrics seem to have a nice message, they don't make a whole lot of sense if you analyze them too closely ("Life is brief, but when it's gone/Love goes on and on"???). But I do think the melody is very nice, though perhaps a little schmaltzy. The fairly prominent presence in the mix of guitar and electric bass marks another departure from the more traditional sound of classic Disney cartoon music.

click to enlarge


6 comments:

Chris said...

I discovered while "researching" it that it's on DVD. You'd think it was a lot more obscure (like Black Cauldron, or something). I also remember the character being really likeable.

Exactly, who am I to judge? NO-body.

The decision to do a post about this was completely random, and it could have been something else. I just really like the song, cheesy though it may be. We do seem to have an almost uncanny similarity in pop culture interests. It's as if a power bigger than either of us is at work here.

Anonymous said...

did you upload the robin hood clip yourself? if you did... oh, please, oh, please... can you put up the oo-de-lally scene?

i *also* had a crush on animated robin hood. meerowr.

Chris said...

Disney's Robin Hood had sex appeal. Who knew?

I'll look for it, amy. I taped it off of the Disney Channel a couple of years ago, mainly for "Love," and I don't think I recorded the entire movie. If the oo-de-lally scene is there, I'll put it up (at the very least at YouTube).

Anonymous said...

thank you! oh, yea, robin hood was hot. i'll be on the lookout for it...

Anonymous said...

i did not mean to be anonymous... thanks again!

Anonymous said...

Though certainly flawed, "Robin Hood" is re-watchable and thoroughly entertaining. I've always enjoyed it.

About the song "Love," you mentioned, "the song seems to be about the love of a mother for her child." In case you got that idea from the line "it seems like only yesterday, you were just a child at play," I think that line is there because Maid Marian and Robin Hood were childhood pals.