Robin Hood Makes Good (1939) Online

Robinhood Makes Good is featured on a video I used to watch as a kid. It's been a long time since I've seen this short, so after seeing it again, it took me a while to remember how the story went. It's just one of those cartoons that doesn't really stand out. It does try to get too cutesy when the squirrels go into song about their Robin Hood fighting. I definitely could have done without that! Then a fox captures the two older, bullying squirrels, and it's up to the youngest squirrel to save them. I will have to admit that the squirrel's method to saving his brothers was pretty funny, but that's about it. So I guess overall, this cartoon isn't a complete loss, but it's definitely not one for the animation history books.

My IMDb Rating: 5/10

Three squirrels are reading a book, and then decide to play about Robin Hood. The littlest one wants to be Robin Hood, then the second largest, and finally the largest is selected to be Robin Hood. The little one is the villain by default, meaning the other two outvote him. They give him a bag of pretend gold, a pot for a helmet and a wooden sword. Then they turn him loose in the woods. Then the other two pretend to be Robin Hood and Little John and begin chasing the little guy. Meanwhile, the fox steals their book and formulates a plan. From his reading, he can tell the real Robin Hood had a sweetheart named Maid Marion. So he calls "help" and pretends to be Maid Marion through the use of his voice. The two larger squirrels follow the sound of the fox's voice through the woods until he lures them into an abandoned log cabin. He closes the back door, then sneaks around to the front and locks them inside the cabin. He hangs the two squirrels on the wall and begins preparation for a squirrel stew meal. Meantime, the little squirrel finds a fox hunter's horn in the woods and uses it to begin a noise campaign at the front door. He blows the horn, he bangs on the door, he yells, and the fox panics. Believing a troop of hunters is at the door, he beats on the back door furiously. He becomes so scared, his pelt turns yellow. Finally the back door breaks open and, pushing the door in front of his beating fists, the last we see of the fox is his hurried departure down a forest lane. Once again free, the two big squirrels go outside the front door where they find a jubilant little squirrel who says, "Now who gets to play Robin Hood?"

Robin Hood Makes Good (1939)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Three squirrels are in the woods reading about Robin Hood and then decide to act is out. The smallest squirrel is forced to be the bad guy, although he wants to be Robin Hood. Soon a fox sees them playing a decides to fool the bigger two so that he can eat them.

ROBIN HOOD MAKES GOOD certainly isn't a classic by any stretch of the imagination but it's entertaining enough to make it worth watching. Obviously the big moments are going to come towards the end when the smaller squirrel has to rise to the occasion and battle the fox. The final few minutes are certainly the highlight of the picture as it's quite funny how everything plays out. The animation itself was extremely good but the characters really aren't all that strong, which keeps the film from being better.

This animated short is unusually cutesy for a Warner Brothers short. It tells the story of 3 squirrels who do battle with a wolf while playing Robin Hood. It's a one joke short, of interest mainly becauase it was directed by Chuck Jones. However, the voice work by Bernice Hansen and Mel Blanc is excellent.

When looking at the title of this WB cartoon, one might expect a parody or a jab at the Robin Hood myth, or given that it's an early Jones, a straight Disney-esque adaptation. This title is none of the above, but rather an original slice of life story of three young squirrels reenacting the story only to encounter their own villain.

As cartoon buffs know, Jones' early directorial efforts were very Disney-esque and contrary to the brash and zany direction his colleagues were headed. These entries were criticized by his colleagues and in later years by some fans. Yet, with Bob McKimson as one of his principle animators, these cartoons have some very solid looking animation and realistic movement.

As a slice of life type cartoon, this one works, but it would have been done better at Disney's, Especially since it's not an adaptation of the Robin Hood story (some 30 years before the Disney studio did their own adaptation). This would have made an excellent story for a Silly Symphony.

Another thing that's needed is a full restoration (hopefully original titles still exist). Most prints, except the Golden Age of Looney Tunes laserdisc, are badly faded, and don't do the lushness of the film any justice. It's Public Domain status hasn't helped that matter, but it's been readily available for viewing.

. . . we learn that there MIGHT be hope for Today's America yet. ROBIN HOOD MAKES GOOD is a product of Warner Bros.' Animated Shorts Seers division (aka, the Looney Tuners), who spent the 1900s churning out warning after warning of America's upcoming Calamities, Catastrophes, Cataclysms, and Apocalypti. However, it was not ALL doom and gloom in the so-called "Termite Terrace." Sometimes there was mixed in with these many uncannily accurate depictions of disaster prescriptive remedies for the crises inevitably resulting when a nation ignores Warner's warnings. ROBIN HOOD MAKES GOOD is one such film. A fox, representing our first U.S. Tsar, Red Commie KGB Chief Vlad "The Mad Russian" Putin, half-lynches self-proclaimed fraudulent squirrel Robin Hoods Don Juan and Iwanna Rump, gleefully discussing his rodent stew recipe with the apparently Doomed Duped Deplorables. But Hillary, the Brave Little Female Treehugger, calls a Constitutional Convention, repeals and replaces the cob-webbed Racist Screed from the 1700s, declares martial law, deports the 220 treasonous U.S. general officers beholden to the KGB Fox Putin (along with Steve Bannon, Neil Gorsuch, the entire Rump cabinet, and 879 other KGB Mobsters of that ilk). Foxy Putin turns yellow and flees, with Hillary Squirrel yelling after him, "Don't let the door smack you in the Rump on your way out of America!"

Don't get me wrong, I really liked this. The animation is outstanding, with excellent character movements and very nice colours. The music is absolutely beautiful, lyrical and bouncy, and I thought I even heard a snippet of Schubert's Unfinished symphony, great stuff that. And there seemed to be a sort of variation on the Midsommer Night's Dream Overture by Mendelssohn. Also the voice work from Mel Blanc and Bernice Hanson is truly excellent. And I liked the story, and the characters; the squirrels are sweet and the fox crafty. However, the cartoon is a little too cutesy for me, especially the song about the Robin Hood fighting. Also whereas there are cartoons that are loaded to the brim with gags, this is merely one joke. No problem with that strictly speaking, but the cartoon could've done with more humour and less of the whimsical feeling. All in all, too cute for me but nice to watch. 7/10 Bethany Cox