As was the case with most cartoon studios in the 1950's, Robin Hoodwinked shows obvious and dramatic cost cutting. If you notice in the credits, only Ken Muse is the animator from the glory days. Not to slam the other fellows, but when compared to the 1940's and early 50's shorts, this one falls down in terms of style, animation quality, and overall appearance. Its a good story though and its been done countless times both in animation and film. As would be the case with future HB efforts, this one has dialoge. Lots of it. This would be a hallmark of HB in the 60's onward as the animation quality was in a state of irretrievable decline. Keep in mind that a T&J cartoon from the 40's cost nearly 60K to produce! Obviously with the advent of television and the decline in movie attendance, MGM was not keen on shelling out big bucks to produce these cartoons. Thus, when Fred Quimby left in 1955, HB took over both direction and production. Faced with declining budgets, animation quality suffered. Still, this cartoon is entertaining. The faked English accent gets a bit unnerving and Jerry is reduced to a bit part role in this outing. Its quite a departure from the earlier cat vs. mouse conflict that served T&J so well. In later shorts such as Tot Watchers, we even see T&J buddy up as a team. Again, the formula would work if only we hadn't known T&J from a bygone era.
Review of Robin Hoodwinked
