#toby sings love songs to the forest it's canon

[grifalinas]

ngl i would read a very long meta history of toby. i find your characters delightful

All right, anon, you asked for it. Forgive me for taking so long, it's long and I had to check some dates.

So: basic tl;dr, Toby started out as a Tolkien rp oc, a Silvan elf meant to explore more traditional folklore elves. Everything he became, regardless of verse, grew from that initial idea, of a wild elf who saw humans as alien and insignificant, but entertaining, and didn’t follow the same moral code that humanity does. This is what I mean when I say that certain elements have to go into Toby for him to be Toby, because without that element of invoking folkloric elves, he’s not Toby.

(By the way, if you want to read the original Toby, his blog is still up over at @roofoftrees)

So, let’s start at the beginning, shall we? The year is 2o14, it’s either January or February at this point. I’ve been active in the Tolkien rp community as various characters for about a year, and I’ve grown in my understanding of the lore. I’ve also made lots of friends, and a lot of them have elf ocs. And while I love and cherish all of their ocs, I can’t help but notice some... trends. Which make sense from a certain perspective because obviously people are drawing from the more recognizable aspects of Tolkien’s lore to create their wish-fulfillment ocs. That’s okay! But my character creation motives tend toward a combination of “what would be interesting?” and “how would I go about this common trope or concept?”

So everyone has an elf oc and I want to be like the cool kids, I want my own elf oc, except that... uh... elves are kinda boring to me? I believe I kinda tossed around a few ideas but none of them really stuck, until I was thinking about folklore elves and got an itch for an elf who reflected those elves instead. I didn’t think I’d be able to pull it off until my research reminded me of the Silvan elves, the original inhabitants of Mirkwood. 

(By the way, nothing makes it more apparent that Tolkien is British than the fact that we’re expected to believe without question that when the Sindar asked the Silvan if they could live with them, the Silvan happily made the Sindar their rulers and allowed them to erase ninety percent of their culture and most of their language. Like. Just saying.)

So I made an elf oc who was a bitter Sindar, angry at what through his lens he saw as conquerors, as well as his people for allowing it and going along with things. This was the first iteration of Toby, and was how I sowed the seeds for what he would become.

Toby, in this iteration, lived in Mirkwood. He was a healer, originally of trees but after running off to live in the forest he expanded his knowledge and can heal non-trees too. He did go off wandering sometimes, but mostly he wanted to hang out in his forest with the trees. He also was prone to stealing children from Dale and Laketown and any other human settlements that were relatively near, an would raise them until they were an adult and boring and send them out into the world. (One of my later oc’s ended up being a child of one of those children.)

While I was playing Toby, a partner of mine wanted to do a Hades/Persephone inspired verse, and I volunteered Toby as her Hades. While our verse never really got very far, it is the origin of Toby’s godhood iteration, which is when I started exploring the core of Toby’s personality, and determined what aspects of him would remain from one iteration to the next. The bitterness at the Sindar couldn’t carry over, but wanting to hang out with the trees and stealing children could translate into anything.

I played Toby off and on until I left the Tolkien rp community for good in 2o15, and at that time, like everything else from that period, he was shelved for awhile. It wasn’t until later on that I began thinking about him again, and allowed him to flourish as an oc, though he didn’t initially have a home verse because I hadn’t yet added him to Rhell.

So, Rhell. I’m going to be honest, I don’t remember the exact sequence of events here. I just know that I was playing around with lorebuilding in Rhell, and I rather liked the idea of basing the lore on what I had built for the rp verse. I revamped it somewhat and added Toby to Rhell, which is where he has done his most growth as a character and is the default version of him I use when I’m talking about Toby in a general sense.

Later on, I was working on a new story, Brolly Mage. Elves are prevalent in that, and I added Toby in a “throw-it-in” kind of sense, because I wanted more elves. Instead of staying a background character, he decided he was going to be the series antagonist. That this was the easiest alignment to get him to play worries me, but honestly it makes sense: Toby, in almost all incarnations, hates humans and elves and everyone else, too. It made sense that he’d try to destroy everything.

By that point, Toby had taken on a life of his own, and began writing himself into stories that I allowed to develop to a certain point. Admittedly I tend to keep him out of certain verses, but like Stasney, he has iterations across the board; he’s both a mainverse character and a floater, because there are so many interesting ways to explore him.

While elements will shift and change over time, and different things come to the fore, every incarnation of Toby is meant to invoke that “folklore/old gods” feel that inspired him. While being a grumpy, sulky asshole tends to carry over, it’s not the iron core of who Toby is (in fact, the original incarnation wasn’t even that grumpy, except when he had to go to the palace for some reason). It exists more to make him endearingly shitty instead of just regular shitty. (Which seems to be working, y’all tend to be really thirsty for Toby to be in every verse ever. Or maybe that’s just Hayley.)

The final piece of history for Toby is that the final element that made him come together in the beginning was watching Ryan Kelly (of Celtic Thunder) perform. I tend to use this, this, and this as my go-to performances when I need to get him into my head. (Ryan is the one with dark hair.) (He’s also my face/voicecanon for Toby.)

(Also if you want the full “Toby inspo playlist” just ask, I can link people to Ryan Kelly singing all day, though there are a couple other songs thrown in for good measure.)

[fleetwoodmactshirt]

roadtrip headcanons (requested)

i think they’d all have a different vibe and a different energy. i didn’t really rank them best to worst, i just explored what i think the vibe of a road trip with each of them would be like. i also let loose and slipped in some super self-indulgent personal hcs/one-shot au idea that is a WiP about ezra as an intriguing handsome stranger you encounter on your solo cross-country road trip. as a treat. s/o to @ithinkhesgaybutwesavedmufasa​ for suggesting whiskey’s fav song.

frankie morales is the road trip king. no matter how spontaneous, frankie can whip a road trip plan together smoothly. he’s got a spacious truck, he’s got a cooler, he’s got the coziest blankets, he’s got the travel pillow, he’s got the camping gear, he knows the best scenic routes, he’s got the best classic tunes, he’s got the best snacks. he makes homemade sandwiches and burritos, wraps them tightly in tin foil. he heats up frozen pizzas, cuts them into slices. he stores it all in the cooler for lunches. when the supply runs out, you gorge yourselves on burgers and fries at roadside diners. but every morning he’ll stop in the nearest town to buy some apples, or some fresh fruit/veg of some kind. if they’re ripe he’ll get avocados that he’ll cut in half for you both to scoop out with a spoon to eat plain while you sit together in the bed of his truck in the shade of a lake you’ve stopped at for the afternoon. but he surprises you with your favourite junk food and snacks. he lets you borrow his cap if the sun is in your eyes; he’s got a spare, more threadbare one in the glove box. he’s low key done the research on the best places for stargazing; you lie back nestled together under a blanket, in the bed of his truck, gazing upwards; you listen as he describes the constellations, tracing them out with his finger.

max phillips. business road trips but max’s...condition necessitates driving at night only. liminal spaces. driving through the night, sleeping in business hotel rooms during the day, dust motes floating in the thin streams of sunlight peeking through the cracks in the curtains you’ve pulled shut. you see incredible sunsets and sunrises from the highway. you also see some undeniably weird shit late at night on road trips with max. he watches you eat breakfast food at 2 am in neon lit 24/7 diners. while on the road he passes you lots of candy throughout the night; he stocks up from the hotel vending machines. but no matter how much caffeine and sugar he tries to fuel you with, sometimes you’re lulled to sleep by the peacefulness. you nestle your head against max’s shoulder; it’s not the most comfortable position to drive in but he can’t bring himself to readjust and shift away from you. solitary brightly lit gas stations that are like an oasis of light breaking the pitch darkness. the two of you feel utterly alone sometimes; the world has shrunk down to only you, max, in this car, driving along this empty, dark stretch of road, a blush of purple on the edge of the horizon signalling the dawn.

based on how oberyn canonically took his daughters to explore an abandoned holdfast, i think his road trip energy would be all about the journey and not the destination. road trips with oberyn and ellaria would be meandering and adventurous. sometimes you’re riding shotgun and sometimes you’re sitting in the backseat with ellaria laid out and napping beside you, sun hat dipped down covering her eyes, her long legs stretched across your lap. if the three of you come across a motel you enjoy he’ll feel no urgency to leave; the days blur together and soon you’ve spent a week soaking up sun by the pool and sleeping in late entangled together in a pile of limbs after long passionate nights. day by day you may not even travel very far; he wants to stop and explore. hike amidst rock formations, swim in hot springs, explore the local museums; whatever catches his or your fancy. if he sees a billboard on the side of the road advertising local caves, or a petrified forest, or hears rumour of nearby ghost town that’s all but disappeared off the map, you’ll suddenly find yourselves veering off down small country roads, hours from the highway, seeking out pleasure, adventure, mystery. 

marcus has a hilton rewards card so you’re staying at hilton garden inns every night. clean sheets. comfortable beds. complimentary breakfast. it’s very pleasant. middle class fancy. holds out his hand for you to drop some snacks into his palm so he can remain focused on the road while you’re both munching. let’s you curate the spotify playlists.

roadtrips with javier are always last minute decisions to just take off, head to a gorgeous but isolated beach you’d heard about that’s a few days from here. he doesn’t get many opportunities for long stretches of time off, so when he does you don’t hesitate. you might not even wait for a rational time to leave. it’s midnight and you guys just speed off into the darkness. you just threw some essentials into a bag, jumped in his jeep, and booked it. you gotta buy toothpaste and toothbrushes at a gas station, and you borrow javi’s deodorant stick because you forgot yours. greasy fast food containers, half-empty cigarette packs, and snack wrappers litter the dashboard. his aviators perched on his nose, one hand resting on the wheel, the other curled around your thigh, javi on a road trip is relaxed. he’s leaving all his burdens, his worries, everything weighing on his chest, all of it, behind him. literally, the more distance you guys put between yourselves and where you were, the more uplifted his spirits. when your favourite song comes on the radio, and you’re shimmying in your seat, he can’t keep his eyes off you, his gaze flicking between you and the road. he sings along under his breath, bobbing his head almost imperceptibly and tapping his fingers on the steering wheel, a slow smile spreading across his face.

whiskey pulls up to your house at 5 am on the dot, the obnoxious custom sound of the horn of his bronco rattling the windows and scaring the birds out of the trees lining the street. country music jams ONLY. you argue over his taste in music; does he enjoy being a walking cliche? he will not accept any song that doesn’t have a twang to it. he’d be an aux cord hog if he knew what an aux cord even was. so much for your favourite spotify road trip playlists. “spot fly? spot what fly, where?” still has mixtapes he made himself, the same ones he’s been playing since forever. forces you listen to all his favourite songs, the ones he knows all the words to, while he obnoxiously sings along and ignores your eye-rolling. but he doesn’t ignore how your feet start tapping absentmindedly to toby keith’s ‘whiskey girl’. the corner of his mouth quirks up in a smirk that quickly becomes a broad grin as he reaches over to smack your thigh, laughing he’ll make a country girl of you yet. startled out of your daze, you vehemently deny you weren’t enjoying the song, he doesn’t know what the fuck he’s talking about. he insists he knows the best places to stop, which means you always end up driving far off the highway to some little mom and pop diner that has killer apple pie for lunch. in the evenings you always end up in some honky-tonk bar that’s joined to a motel and yes, there’s line dancing, and yes he manages to twist your arm and convince you to join in. 

ezra…..as a man who’s floated from planet to planet, following jobs and leads, for the better part of his life, he’s found himself smooth-talking his way into being a lot of people’s unexpected travel companion out of necessity over the years. road trip ezra is on the run from someone or something; maybe the law, maybe not. all you know is this beautiful, mysterious stranger you met under dubious circumstances somehow, with his roguish grin and drawling accent, his kind eyes and eloquence, convinced you to let him ride along with you. you ran into him in the grungy diner attached to an even grungier motel in some desolate nowhere town. you recognized him; he’s unmistakably the lone figure on the side of the dusty road, his thumb stuck out, that you drove past yesterday. you’d driven past but that blonde streak had been unmissable and you won’t admit it but you’d felt his gaze on you long after you’d left him in the dust. ezra’s endless chatter on the road isn’t unwelcome; he knows seemingly innumerable facts about local folklore, flora, and fauna, and he never seems to be depleted of stories. you’d made the conscious and contrary decision to make this cross-country road trip alone, rebelling against a lot of cautionary advice, but somewhere along the way loneliness had creeped in under your skin and settled there. this handsome stranger may have an edge of danger to him but later when he’s bringing you to heights of ecstasy in a motel room you won’t give a damn.

maxwell lord flies everywhere in a private jet. the worst.

din djarin’s entire life is basically one long never-ending road trip. but in space. i figure earth-bound din on a conventional road trip would basically be how we see him: no nonsense. no frivolities. no music; travels in total silence. gets where he needs to go. stops for soup, as needed. stops for repairs, as needed. stops to work an odd job with some really sketchy people for some gas money, as needed. din’s road trip energy would be like that john mulaney joke. you’d see the mcdonalds sign lit up and shining in the distance and plead for him to stop so he’d pull into the drive-thru, order one black coffee and keep driving. except if you’ve got the baby with you; he gets a chicken nugget happy meal for the kid. he’s a good papa! and of course you’d get whatever you wanted too, he provides and cares for his loved ones after all.

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[placetobenation]

Robin Hood

Release Date: November 8th, 1973

Inspiration: The legend of Robin Hood

Budget: $5 million

Domestic Gross: $32 million

Worldwide Gross: $35 million

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 54%

IMDB Score: 7.6/10

Storyline (per IMDB): An imaginative Disney version of the Robin Hood legend. Fun and romance abound as the swashbuckling hero of Sherwood Forest and his valiant sidekick plot one daring adventure after another to outwit the greedy Prince John (Sir Peter Ustinov) and his partner as they put the tax squeeze on the poor.

Pre-Watching Thoughts: We continue on through the 1970s with one of the more polarizing films in the Disney canon as this film has its fans, but also certainly has its detractors as well. This has always been one of my favorites films growing up and I remember watching this one constantly along with another film that we will get to down the line, and I’m hoping that this film has managed to hold up well since it has been a long time since I’ve seen it.

Voice Cast: This last few years has seen a lot of the same names show up for these films and we see a bunch of them return here, but this also is the last appearance for a couple of them as some new voices show up towards the end of the decade. At the top of the list for the returning actors is Phil Harris who voices Little John which is basically a carbon copy of Baloo since both characters are bears and this would be his swan song with Disney. We then have the pairing of Monica Evans and Carole Shelley return as they voice Maid Marian and Lady Cluck respectively, and sadly this would be Evans’ final film role as she would retire after it while Shelley wouldn’t return for quite a while. We then have Pat Buttram return as he voices the Sheriff of Nottingham in a pretty memorable role, and then we have George Lindsay return as Trigger the Vulture and then we have Barbara Luddy who voices the Sexton’s wife in a minor role. Finally we have Candy Candido as the Captain of the Guard and J. Pat O’Malley as Otto the blacksmith in one of his last film roles as he would transition into TV shortly after this. We then come to our debuting actors as we have Brian Bedford who voices Robin Hood in what would be his only appearance in an animated film, and then we have country singer Roger Miller who voices Alan-a-Dale in one of his few film appearances. Next, we have Andy Devine who voices Friar Tuck in what would be one of his final appearances, and then we have Peter Ustinov who voices Prince John as well as King Richard though he is better remembered as Prince John. We then have Terry-Thomas who voices Sir Hiss as he was starting to wind down his career by this point, and then we have Ken Curtis who voices Nutsy the Vulture though he was more famous at this point for being in Gunsmoke. We then have John Fielder who voices Friar Tuck’s Sexton though he would become famous for another role shortly after this, and finally we have the quartet of Billy Whitaker, Dana Laurita, Dori Whitaker, and Richie Sanders as the children Skippy, Sis, Tagalong, and Toby. Again we have a few voices debut here that would become standard bearers for the next couple of films while we bid farewell to a few, and again it will be interesting to see how much longer before the idea of returning voices starts to fizzle out.

Hero/Prince: I had neglected to mention this back in the One Hundred and One Dalmatians review that it was the first time I had a pair of heroes, and now we have the second instance of that happening as we have the duo of Robin Hood and Little John. They are deemed outlaws by Prince John as they rob from the rich and give it back to the poor who is taxed by the Prince, and things come to a head at first at an archery tournament where Robin and John escape the Prince’s plot. Prince John eventually has the entire town arrested after overtaxing them and Robin and John free them while also taking all the Prince’s wealth, and Robin escapes death again and he and John are deemed heroes when King Richard returns to reclaim his throne. Now in most circles, Robin Hood is the main hero and Little John is mainly his sidekick while Robin also had his band of Merry Men who are mysterious absent in this film, but Robin and John are in essence treated as equals and they are fine heroes for the film.

Princess: I was debating whether or not to include this character as a princess since she is never considered a princess even in the folklore, but I feel that she does deserve mentioning and that is Robin Hood’s love interest Maid Marian. She is the niece of King Richard and serves in his court as she remembers Robin Hood when they were children, and she reunites with him and falls in love with him as she is supportive of him in spite of Prince John. After King Richard returns, Marian and Robin get married as Richard muses that he now has an outlaw for an in-law. Again, she technically is not considered a princess though I felt it necessary that she should at least be mention, but she will probably rank at the bottom of the list of princesses.

Villain: We have had 20 films in the Disney canon prior to the release of this film and to this point, Pinocchio had the largest number of villains as they had 5 different villains throughout the film though they were not united under one cause. Here, we once again have 5 villains though they are united in one cause and that is the capture and/or death of Robin Hood as well as taxing the poor. At the top is of course Prince John who was placed in charge of England when his brother King Richard went off on the Third Crusade, and John would extort the poor people in taxes while being aided by his assistant Sir Hiss. He would have his personal collector the Sheriff of Nottingham be the main one in charge of capturing Robin Hood and he uses the vultures Nutsy and Trigger as well as John’s army to do so. They first try to capture Robin by holding an archery tournament which ultimately fails, and John in a fit ends up overtaxing the population of Nottingham and has them all thrown in jail. They devise a plot to lure Robin Hood out by threatening to hang Friar Tuck, but Robin and John save everyone and recover the taxed gold much to John’s chagrin. Before John can retaliate, King Richard returns to reclaim the throne and upon learning of John’s actions, he has John, Hiss, the Sheriff, Nutsy, and Trigger all arrested and working hard labor. Prince John is a classic example of a little brother being extremely jealous of his older and more successful brother, and when he takes the throne in Richard’s absence he becomes drunk with power by taxing the poor and living in excess with the Sheriff serving as his main henchman. He puts on this façade of a great leader, but in reality is a petulant child who complains when he doesn’t get his way, even going as far as to call for his mother and suck his thumb like a baby. Sir Hiss is basically a yes man to Prince John though he does call him out on some of his decisions, while Nutsy and Trigger try their best but are pretty useless as the Sheriff’s main henchmen. It is going to be interesting to see where these villains, in particular Prince John rank amongst the other villains, but in terms of the legend of Robin Hood they are all worthy villains to the great outlaw.

Other Characters: This is interesting because we have quite a number of characters that make up this film, but we have already covered quite a decent number of them and they are the main focus though there are some other characters that get some good time as well. At the top of the list we have Friar Tuck who serves as a protector to the people of Nottingham while supporting Robin Hood, and at one point he is captured by the Sheriff and is set to be lynched only for Robin and Little John to save him as well as the other townspeople. We then have Lady Kluck who is Maid Marian’s friend and lady-in-waiting and at one point fights with Prince John’s men during the archery competition, and then we have Alan-a-Dale who is the minstrel and serves as the narrator to the story though he is also a member of the town. We then have the brief appearance of King Richard at the end when he reclaims the throne from Prince John and has him and his minions arrested, and then we have the townspeople of Nottingham who are supported by Robin Hood and are oppressed by Prince John and his army. While a lot of the film focuses on the main characters of the film, the supporting characters are fine to help fill out the story though they are mainly just there as filler.

Songs: Given that this was a Disney film, you knew that they were going to come up with some songs to fit into the film even though to my knowledge no previous Robin Hood adaptation had featured any songs. The first song from this film is the song played during the opening credits titled “Whistle-Stop” and while it was mainly whistling and no singing it was a pretty catchy song and gets you fired up for the film. The next film is one of the centerpiece songs which is “Oo-De-Lally” sung by Alan-a-Dale which is another fun song early on, and the next one we have is the other centerpiece song “Love” which is sung as a love ballad for Robin and Marian. We then have “The Phony King of England” that Little John sings with the townspeople as they mock Prince John and that is another fun song, and finally we have a slight downer song in “Not in Nottingham” which is sung when the townspeople are imprisoned by Prince John. Again, the songs might not rank up very highly with the rest of the songs in the Disney canon, but they are still pretty good songs and fit just fine into this film.

Plot: When it comes to English folklore, there is perhaps no bigger story besides the story of King Arthur and that is the story of Robin Hood and his Merry Men to the point that there is still question as to whether Robin Hood was in fact a real person. The story is pretty much the same as King Richard leaves to go on the Third Crusade and Prince John is given control, and unlike his respected brother Prince John is a greedy ruler who taxes the poor. Robin Hood is still loyal to Richard and is deemed an outlaw by John due to Robin stealing from the rich and giving it to the poor, and John employs the Sheriff of Nottingham to track down Robin who is assisted by Little John and Friar Tuck. Prince John tries several plots to capture Robin Hood including imprisoning the townspeople only for Robin to free them and steal back the gold, and finally Richard returns and has Prince John along with his minions imprisoned as Robin marries Marian. There had been numerous adaptations of Robin Hood on the big screen and TV prior to this film and even a few animated films made about it as well, but this would arguably be the biggest and most successful adaptation until 1991’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. While most adaptations are more action and have some suspense to them, this version is a fun adaptation though it does have a few dark moments in the film which was common for Disney films.

Random Watching Thoughts: Once again we have the storybook beginning; I find it funny they had to specify each animal as if they thought kids wouldn’t know what each animal was; It was a bit weird they called Marian a “vixen” and not just a “fox”; This is also the second film in a row where we see animations that will be used numerous times throughout the film during the opening credits; Reportedly, the reason while there are so many recycled sequences from previous films was because the film fell behind schedule and they did it to catch up and make sure the film released on time; Another fun fact is that Friar Tuck was originally going to be a pig and not a badger, but it was changed as they felt that having the friar be a pig would be offensive to the Catholic Church; Alan-a-Dale needs to watch how tight he pulls the strings on his lute if one broke up that easily; Robin scoffs at the notion that they are taking too many chances while an arrow is embedded in his hat near inches from going his head; Bit of fat shaming of John by Robin when he says the Sheriff and his posse couldn’t get him off the ground to hang him; It’s funny they tried to avoid the arrows only for John to then use one of them as a back scratcher; Prince John has got himself quite the convoy with a pack of elephants, hippos, and rhinos as his security; Is he that paranoid that he needed 6 padlocks on that chest?; So they had to have either been returning to or coming from London if they are going through Nottingham; It was interesting they had it be a plot by John and Hiss to send Richard off on the Crusade when in real life Richard went willingly; It’s mentioned about how John sucks his thumb, but what’s not talked about enough is how he tugs on his ear at the same time; Did Robin and John have these outfits stashed away somewhere because they were not carrying them at all when we first met them; Funny how Little John says there’s a law against robbing royalty, but yet they do it all the time by robbing the rich which would probably be royalty; A note is that Robin takes Prince John’ ring off before kissing his hand, but when he puts his finger in his ear the ring is on the finger though it is missing the jewel; Robin is quite the actor knowing he was having to say those nice things about Prince John and he didn’t believe them; Prince John’s name did go down in history, but not the way he probably wanted it; How much gold does Prince John have that he was able to have gold hubcaps for his carriage?; Little John must’ve had quite a bit of room in his dress to be able to fit all that gold; A bit scandalous scene there of Little John teasing the rhino guard; How was Robin able to coerce Prince John into giving him his robe?; The guards just kept right on going not even realizing that Prince John had falling out of the carriage; So Prince John offered 1,000 pounds for the capture of Robin Hood; Nottingham was quite the slum with all those houses being seized for taxes; Of all the places to hide the gold, why would you hide it in Otto’s cast?; It’s amazing that with such a large family that the mother can keep track of everyone’s birthday unless a bunch of them are twins; The Sheriff is real cold to not only take Skippy’s birthday present, but to also take the two other pieces of gold from the beggar not knowing it is Robin in disguise; I don’t know if I would be giving a 7 year old a bow and arrow as a gift; We got three rabbits and a turtle as friends because this was many years before “The Tortoise and the Hare”; Considering he only had one arrow, Skippy should’ve taken his sister’s advice and not shot it so high that it went into the castle ground; Of all the things do to when taking that oath, they had to cross their eyes?; I always thought badminton was first created in the 19th century, well apparently not since Marian and Lady Kluck are playing it; The shuttlecock goes down Kluck’s dress yet somehow manages to land exactly next to the arrow; Sis is eager to throw Skippy under the bus for exposing them yet it was Tagalong’s sneeze that gave them away; The children are so keen to see Marian marry Robin yet she thinks he’s forgotten her; Kluck was spot on in her mocking of Prince John all the way down to the thumb suck; The poster on the tree offered 1,000 pounds for Robin’s capture yet the one that Marian has in her closet says 1,000 ingots; Robin and Little John carved themselves out quite a bachelor pad in the forest; The pot was boiling over at one point yet Little John was able to pour several spoonfuls of water into it without it spilling over; That was a bit rude of Friar Tuck to just help himself to whatever they were making and he was quite a good amount of it; This archery tournament was quite the elaborate plan for Prince John to come up with to try and catch Robin; Another animation snafu is the ring Prince John is wearing is missing a jewel when he goes to rub his ear, but in the next shot the jewel is there; Hiss must really admire Prince John if he is willing to take his abuse that much; Bushel britches is quite the nickname that they came up with for the Sheriff; In case anyone was wondering, what Prince John said in French was “Such know how, brilliance, verve, and dynamism”; A nice callback there as Prince John remembers what happened last time and doesn’t let Little John kiss his hand; That is quite the array of archers competing and the shaggy dog can’t be bothered to carry his bow as he drags it on the ground; How was Hiss able to get into that balloon and considering that it could be filled with either oxygen or helium, how is he able to breathe easily without suffocating?; They haven’t seen each other since they were children yet Marian was quickly able to realize it was Robin in that disguise just by staring into his eyes; Again, how much gold does Prince John have that he can just have a golden arrow made?; The shaggy dog had to blow his fur up to see, yet it came back down and blocked his vision when he made the shot; If Robin wanted to not make it as obvious, he should’ve botched the first few shots intentionally and then picked it up towards the end especially since he tells the Sheriff he’s not that good right before he hits a perfect bullseye; I do like the touch of Robin using a bow and arrows made out of branches; The Sheriff says he can spot Robin through his disguises not realizing that he’s talking to Robin in disguise; If Hiss says he doesn’t drink, he’s going to be in trouble if he stays in that barrel for too long; It’s funny because Prince John is a whiner and a child, yet he is more devious than you think because he has clearly deduced the stork is Robin and is playing along with everything; They said to move the target back 3 paces yet Nutsy looked like he took a good 10-15 paces back; Prince John was not fooling around by sentencing Robin to sudden, instant, and immediate death, and he even had the executioner there to do it; Prince John tells Little John not to choke him so hard yet he says nothing about the sword jabbing into his back; Prince John was all tough until Robin knocked the sword out of his hand and he went running like a coward; Kluck tells Marian that this is no place for a lady as she jumps right into the fight; That’s quite the expensive honeymoon going to London, Normandy, and Spain; That’s an exact number of children to have and Marian seems way too eager considering she then bumped it up from 6 to a dozen; An interesting fun fact is during the scene where Kluck fights off the guards, the music is a mashup of the fight songs for the University of Southern California and the University of Wisconsin; As expected, Hiss proves himself to be a lightweight when it comes to drinking; As great a sequence as this is with “The Phony King of England”, it does hurt a bit when you know that most of the animations are borrowed from other films; You know the song became catchy when even the Sheriff and Hiss are singing it even though it is mocking Prince John; Does Prince John realize that by taxing the townspeople so much that they ended up in jail and now no one there will be paying him taxes?; This is a pretty sad scene seeing all of the townspeople in jail; That was a quick appearance by the Sheriff as he showed up right as the Sexton’s wife gave Friar the farthing; That’s quite a threat from the Sheriff to hang a man of the Church; I was wondering if Prince John was thinking of punishing Marian but didn’t because she is family; It’s safe to say that Prince John is obsessed with Robin that he is willing to have Friar Tuck executed just to draw Robin out; Nutsy was so willing to test the trapdoor even though he knew the Sheriff was standing on it; They were hiding behind one wall and then a second later they managed to sneak to another wall right behind Nutsy; Nutsy says that it’s 1:00 yet the clock clearly says 3:00; Trigger was so confident his crossbow was safely locked yet he shot the arrow just like that; The Sheriff was smart to have Trigger go ahead of him; Why would Little John just think to slam the door like that?; You would think that after being robbed as much as he has that Prince John would keep the gold locked up and under constant guard, not in his bedroom just begging to be taken; I feel that Friar saying that line about the tax rebate was an inside joke since most religions are tax-exempt; Ironically one of the prisoners was a stork that looks suspicious like Robin did when he was in disguise; That was a super quick turnaround for Little John to kidnap the Sheriff, tie him up, takes his clothes, and then take his place in the chair; I wonder what time of year it was that the sun was already starting to come up at 4AM; One of the arrows pierces a bag yet amazingly nothing falls out of it; Was that another inside joke to have the raccoons dressed as robbers?; How strong was Alan-a-Dale’s lute that it deflected the arrows with none of them piercing it?; Those guards are not great shots since it seems like they are missing Robin quite often; The Sheriff should’ve been a bit more cautious if he’s going to swing a flaming torch around like that in a closed space; Prince John was so confident Robin was killed even though he never saw the body float up to the surface; The look on Robin’s face when Skippy said he could’ve swam twice that far; Considering that Robin was standing there for quite a while, you would think Prince John would’ve told his archers to keep firing at him; Prince John was able to clearly spit out his insults to Hiss and chase after him while keeping his thumb in his mouth; Why does Prince John have to use the bigger hammer and the Sheriff gets the smaller hammer?; Good callback by King Richard saying he has an outlaw for an in-law after Kluck made the joke earlier to Marian; Did Skippy’s mother really give him permission to go with Robin and Marian?; That arrow must be bouncing off a lot of things for them to have to constantly avoid it.

Overall Thoughts: Overall, this film was still just as enjoyable as it was when I was a child, but it was not quite as good as some of the other films in this canon. It is interesting to see these films get good reviews when they come out only for the reviews to become more mixed to negative as the years go on, and sadly this is one of those films that suffers that as it is not held in high regard like when it first came out. The early part of the decade has been pretty tumultuous around the world with the American populace being fed up with the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal was dominating the news, and Disney was experiencing some highs with the opening of Walt Disney World two years earlier. It will be a few years until the release of the next film and we were about to see a major shift in the animation studios, but we will get to that when we get there. As for this film, it is a solid film and is still a lot of fun though it doesn’t reach the same status as some of the other legendary films released to this point.

Final Grade: 7/10