Robin Hood

Walt Disney's Robin Hood, was released in the United States in 1973.  For more about the cast and the storyline click here.This story, of Robin Hood and his Merry Men is a legend that has been told told since around the 13th century.  This adaptation is animated and assigns all the characters as an animals because "Well, we folks of the animal kingdom have our own version".  This movies introduces it's viewers, who are usually rather young,  to the legend of Robin Hood, and his acts of heroic proportions.  Robin Hood is portrayed as a fox, because of his sneakiness of robbing the rich and giving to the poor.  Prince John is a cowardly young lion with no mane, that is running things in England yet lives under the shadow of his well-loved elder brother King Richard, who is on the crusades.  Here is his a comedic song about that shows the townspeople's opinion of Prince John https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8v1NSsFVfEA.  The Sheriff of Nottingham is a big fat wolf, in this version, which denotes his untrustworthiness, and how he benefits from the taxes he is so happy to collect.

The social classes are very defined within this movie.  The upper-class has the money and the comfort, while the lower class is struggling to put food on the table be cause of Prince John's excessive taxes.  The upper-class(the haves) include: King Richard, Prince John, Sir Hiss, Maid Marian,  Lady Kluck, and the Sherriff.  The rest of the townspeople including Robin Hood and Little John do not have much at all.  This binary system leads to the majority of people being generally unhappy about the social order.  Some may think they would try to start a revolution, but they don't because Robin Hood redistributes the wealth in this town by robbing from the rich (Prince John) and giving to the poor (the townspeople).  This heroic task of keeping the people alive, by using this system, makes Robin Hood and Little John very unpopular among most of those that have.  The lower class are all oppressed throughout this movie with the taxes, and at the end of the movie pretty much all the townspeople are locked up in jail for inability to pay the taxes.  Robin Hood leads the jailbreak.

This legend teaches that it is evil to hoard your riches and not share with those in need.  Robin Hood is a hero because he takes from the greedy rich and gives to the needy poor.  Although his actions of stealing are against the law, and he is an outlaw, he has been celebrated throughout history.  This is because his actions were necessary to keep the people alive, and he risked his own life to try and provide some for the people to keep their spirits up.  This whole idea of redistributing wealth, is a very Marxist ideal, where people share all they have but especially their money and property for the benefit of the whole society.   Here is a clip of Robin Hood and Little John escaping the Sheriff, so they could continue redistributing the wealth.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGzyDnIocug