Robin Hood - After watching two more modern Disneys, it's startling how slow this movie is. No one would ever make a kid's movie these days with such leisurely opening credits (hampsterdance!). But while some sequences are sluggish by today's manic standards, it was refreshing to take a little time to breathe. It's a film with a lot of character, it's just got its own thing going on. There are some delightful slapstick zings, and lots of charming oddball asides. I really cottoned to Brian Bedford's easygoing portrayal of Robin Hood, I'd even say I prefer it to Errol Flynn's. Ustinov has a lot of fun with Prince John, laying the frustrated, effete "oooh!"s on with wonderful hammy thickness. Still, I must say I did start getting a bit bored near the end. And I would charitably call the animation work "uninspired". It looked little better than the Saturday morning cartoons of my youth. As for the songs, it was weird to have most of them chunked together about 2/3rds of the way through, but they were all pretty decent except "Phony King of England".
Overall, flawed but still entertaining. Rating: Good (77)