Robin Hood

Er, basically, no one makes cultural appropriation as much fun as Walt Disney. America is what he does best, so he does it to Robin Hood. Animated, Sherwood Forest becomes more like Nashville, Tennessee, with a slob of a sheriff humming 'Taxes are doo, doo de doo', and cute suburban kid byplay among the bunnies. While Prince John, 'a lion of diminished character', sucks his thumb, the furry faces of the poor are being relentlessly ground, the raccoons are on the chain gang, and Allan-a-Dale sings a Johnny Cash prison lament. Ustinov is the voice of the lion, flattered by Terry-Thomas as Sir Hiss, a courtly reptile: it is their domestic bickering and not the foxy schmaltz of Little John, Robin and Marian that jollies the film along. Good baddies, good poignant bits, and an archery contest that degenerates into all-action American football make up for the familiar, repetitive plot and the several lapses of taste and intelligence inevitable in medieval Nashville.