Will We Want to Bang This One, Disney?

Ummmm okay.
Ummmm okay.
Image: Disney

Robin Hood, otherwise known as the animated movie that probably confused you sexually as a young person, is reportedly getting a CGI live-action remake. And while it might sound like a good idea to update the story for a new generation, we have a better question: Is it though?


According to the Hollywood Reporter, Robin Hood is the latest classic Disney film to be getting the remake treatment, coming on the heels of other films like Beauty and the Beast, Dumbo, and Cinderella. However, this one is following the Lady and the Tramp path instead of The Lion King, heading straight to Disney+ instead of into theaters. THR notes, “The deals were inked in early March before Hollywood’s lockdown. The project is in early development.”

[Editor’s Note: Wow. Wow, wow, wow. -Jill P.]

The article states that this remake is being helmed by director Carlos Lopez Estrada (Blindspotting) with a script by Kari Granlund, who also wrote the Lady and the Tramp remake. It will be a musical like its predecessor and “will again feature the characters as anthropomorphic, this time in a live-action/CG hybrid format.” This could get interesting.

The reason Disney’s 1973 animated Robin Hood worked is because of how well the look of the animals lent itself to the story—not just in appearance, but also their thematic purpose. Their animal roles served the characters, having them look and act like people was what made them shine. If they make them look like the animals in Zootopia, okay I get it (but also you already have Zootopia so you don’t need this). But if they’re going The Lion King route, buckle up buttercup.

I’ve got some questions, first of all how dare you.






Obviously, these non-stop remake of Disney’s greatest hits is bad, and about as crass a money grab as anyone’s ever seen in film.

But I know that this is a controversial opinion, but is Disney’s Robin Hood actually good? I tried watching it with some age-appropriate cousins a year or two ago, and they were bored enough that we switched to a different movie eventually. The animation nerd in me loves the animation style, but the story is really a collection of vignettes that just kind of happen one right after another. There’s no real sense of cohesion to the thing, and I don’t think that it really builds any kind of emotional attachment to the characters.