Wolfgang Reitherman was in charge of 1973’s Robin Hood as he was with all the Disney animated films after Walt’s death. These are not exactly seen as the glory days at Disney animation sadly for Reitherman’s legacy. He was one of Disney’s Nine Old Men https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney%27s_Nine_Old_Men and was over 60 sixty (with forty of those years already working at Disney) when he made Robin Hood. He brings back the vocal talents of Phil Harris from probably his most successful film – 1967’s The Jungle Book. Here Harris plays Little John and some of the best scenes capture the combative chemistry between Harris’s Little John, Peter Ustinov’s character (excellent as Prince John), and Terry Thomas’s character (nearly as good- as Sir Hiss).
The storytelling vehicle is country troubadour/minstrel Roger Miller voicing (and playing guitar) the rooster. He’s our narrator here and there are a few nice little songs by Miler including “Not in Nottingham” and “Oo-de-lally” (this word is said no less than fifty times in a ninety minute film).
The opening and closing fifteen minutes almost play like mini-heist films with robbery set pieces.
The word play is often clever (Harris’s Little John calling Prince John “PJ” is inspired), the plot moves along nicely for the most part (the archery competition is solid) but this is closer to the fray of the archives than the top 10 (or 25) of 1973 and there not much beauty at all to behold in the drawings.
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