Robin Hood is a 1973 American animated musical adventure comedy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Distribution.

The film features the voices of Brian Bedford, Phil Harris, Peter Ustinov, Pat Buttram, Monica Evans, Terry-Thomas, Roger Miller, and Carole Shelley.

The idea to adapt Robin Hood into an animated feature was dated back to Walt Disney's interest in the tale of Reynard the Fox following the release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).

In 1968, Ken Anderson pitched a film adaptation of Robin Hood, incorporating ideas from Reynard the Fox by using anthropomorphic animals rather than humans.

Local priest Friar Tuck brings news that Prince John will be hosting an archery tournament; the grand prize will be a kiss from Maid Marian.

During production on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937, Walt Disney became interested in adapting the twelfth-century legend of Reynard the Fox.

[7]For Treasure Island (1950), Disney seriously considered three animated sections, each one of the Reynard tales, to be told by Long John Silver to Jim Hawkins as moral fables.

In the next decade, the studio decided to make Reynard the villain of a musical feature film based on Edmond Rostand's Chanticleer, but the production was scrapped in favor of The Sword in the Stone (1963).

[9] On his own, Anderson blended his ideas for the character Robin Hood by conceptualizing him as a slick fox that still used his skills to protect the community.

Reitherman further overruled Anderson's creative suggestion by setting the film in its traditional English location as inspired by The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952).

[15] Little John was the only Merry Man retained in the film, while Friar Tuck was put as a friend of Robin's who lived in Nottingham, and Alan-a-Dale was turned into the narrator.

[17] Steele himself was chosen because of his performance in The Happiest Millionaire (1967) while Peter Ustinov was cast because Walt Disney had enjoyed his presence on the set of Blackbeard's Ghost (1968).

However, Steele was unable to make his character sound more heroic,[12] and his replacement came down to final two candidates which were Bernard Fox and Brian Bedford.

The film was first released on VHS, CED, Betamax, and Laserdisc on December 3, 1984, becoming the debut installment of the Walt Disney Classics home video line.

[22] Disney had thought the idea of releasing any of its animated classics (known as the "untouchables") might threaten future theatrical reissue revenue.

[26] The DVD contained the film in its 1.33:1 aspect ratio, and was accompanied with special features including a trivia game and the cartoon short "Ye Olden Days".

[28] Judith Crist, reviewing the film in New York magazine, said it was "nicely tongue-in-cheek without insult to the intelligence of either child or adult."

"[29] Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote that it "should ... be a good deal of fun for toddlers whose minds have not yet shriveled into orthodoxy" and he called the visual style "charmingly conventional".

[30] Dave Billington of The Montreal Gazette wrote "As a film, Robin Hood marks a come-back of sorts for the Disney people.

Ever since the old maestro died, the cartoon features have shown distressing signs of a drop in quality, both in art work and in voice characterization.

But the blending of appealing cartoon animals with perfect voices for the part makes Robin Hood an excellent evening out for the whole family.

"[33] Awarding the film four stars out of five, Ian Nathan, in a retrospective review for Empire, praised the vocal performances of Peter Ustinov and Terry-Thomas acknowledging "while this is hardly the most dazzling of animated features, it has that cut-corner feel that seem to hold sway in the '70s (mainly because Disney were cutting corners), the characters spark to life, and the story remains as rock steady as ever.

"[34] Among less favorable reviews, Jay Cocks of Time gave the film a mixed verdict writing, "Even at its best, Robin Hood is only mildly diverting.

There is not a single moment of the hilarity or deep, eerie fear that the Disney people used to be able to conjure up, or of the sort of visual invention that made the early features so memorable.

The website's consensus states that "One of the weaker Disney adaptations, Robin Hood is cute and colorful but lacks the majesty and excitement of the studio's earlier efforts.

The full soundtrack of the film was released on August 4, 2017, as part of the Walt Disney Records: The Legacy Collection series on compact disc and digital.

[50][51] Disney animator and director Byron Howard admitted that Robin Hood was his favorite film while growing up and cited it as a major influence on Zootopia.

[56][57][58] The song "Whistle-Stop" was sped up and used in the Hampster Dance, one of the earliest internet memes,[59] and later used at normal speed in the Super Bowl XLVIII commercial for T-Mobile.