Walt Disney Productions is probably the
most well-known producer of children's movies in the past century.
With classics like The Lion King
and Toy Story, Disney
has created some of the highest grossing animated movies of all time.
One such classic is Robin Hood, the
1973 animated film depicting the old English tale of the bow and
arrow wielding vigilante. Contrasting to most film depictions of the
ancient folklore, this particular version uses talking and human-like
animals to portray the characters. This is a familiar move by Disney,
and can be seen in countless other films they've made through the
years. Since the target audience for their films are primarily
children, Disney uses these cute and fluffy animals to appeal to the
children's emotions and logic. A child can see these animals and it
not only entertains As far as the plot goes in this film, the movie
does not stray far away from the main moral of all Robin Hood movies.
Robin Hood has always been depicted as a notorious vigilante who
“steals from the rich and gives to the poor”. This phrase has
developed into a cliché itself. The thought of stealing from those
with excess money to support the poor has always been relevant in the
world. Robin Hood just personifies that cause.
The
theme of “the rich giving to the poor” can even be dissolved further
to a simpler lesson of “sharing”. This is the main message that
children take from this film. They see poor families struggling and
rich people not sharing their wealth so they learn that sharing makes
everyone happy. Now this could cause some problematic lessons. First
off, children could see that all rich males are mean and do not share
since all wealthy male characters are portrayed in the movie as being
mean and greedy. Another problem that can be caused is potentially a
child could think that the poor has to rely on illegal means to
attain wealth. This may be a little far-fetched but Robin Hood and
his sidekick Little John are very deceiving and rely on trickery or
violence to steal the wealth from the rich so a child could mimic their actions.
I
think that most would agree that the positive lessons of the film
heavily outweigh the potential problematic underlying messages. I
remember watching this movie as a kid and it was always one of my
favorites. I loved how Robin Hood would take from the rich to give to
the poor because I thought that it was unfair that the rich didn't
have to share. I can say from personal experience that this movie
portrays a positive message that is easy to grasp, whether it be cliché or not. Because of this, I give Robin Hood four out of five slurpees.
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