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.
