The Royal Guards in the film Robin Hood are played by rhinos. This was a appropriate choice be production designer Ken Anderson, who came up with all the initial animal versions for the cast of characters. When you look at a real rhino, you find it’s the one animal that resembles an armor plated warrior.
Milt Kahl finalized the design for animation, and as usual they are beautiful looking concepts.
The Rhinos' range of emotions is pretty one dimensional, they are just a bunch of stern, if not too intelligent, heavies. And that works fine for the movie.
There is this one scene, where one of them actually buys into the concept that Little John, the bear, is a sexy gipsy woman. The Rhino even throws a whistle as he watches Little John sashaying in front of him. Milt came up with these key drawings, giving the Rhino’s mouth some rather loose lips. It’s a funny effect.
Another Rhino appeared as a pretty intimidating executioner.
Love these designs! I just bought Robin Hood on DVD a couple of weeks ago, it was a childhood favorite of mine.
ReplyDeleteIt's fun to compare these Rhinos with the Goons in Sleeeping Beauty, to see the differences. The Goons seem to have a wider range of facial expressions, but they are way more stylized, while the Rhinos have more volume to them (and wonderful sense of weight in the way there were animated).
Disney returned to the Sleeping Beauty 'Goons' as a self-mocking parody in Emperor's New Groove, one of the better sequences in that charming if rather light-weight comedy.
ReplyDeleteThanks Andreas! These are GREAT!
ReplyDeleteI like Robin Hood from 1973!
ReplyDeleteI love it when you break down these posts into a simple topic such as this; it always brings out the best in drawings and scenes I hadn't noticed before.
ReplyDeleteKen Anderson's drawings are so amazing. He did a fantastic job drawing those rhinos for the movie. The executioner rhino scared me as a child.
ReplyDeleteI've always wondered as animator what happens when you get a writer's block when you are animating a character?
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ReplyDeleteVery inspiring
ReplyDeleteI always loved these characters and seeing Ken Anderson's designs along with Milt Kahl's brilliant animation it's just spectacular
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