Anna Daniels
Disney’s latest “live-action” remake of one of its animated classics is heading straight to Disney+. Disney has set a remake of Robin Hood, the 1973 animated film which imagined Robin Hood as a suave fox and awakened the inner furry in audiences everywhere. The same anthropomorphic charms will be recreated in the Robin Hood remake, which will be a live-action/CG hybrid also starring anthropomorphic animals. To add to this strange hodgepodge of choices is the hiring of Blindspotting director Carlos Lopez Estrada to helm the remake.
The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that a live-action/CG hybrid remake of Robin Hood is in the works at Disney+ with Blindspotting director Carlos Lopez Estrada set to helm. Kari Granlund, who wrote last year’s Lady and the Tramp, is scripting the remake of Disney’s 1973 animated classic.
Like the 1973 animated musical — which was took a comedic, fable-like twist on the legendary outlaw, by depicting Robin Hood and his Merry Men as various forest animals including a fox, a bear, a badger, and more — the Robin Hood remake will also be a musical that features the classic characters as anthropomorphic, but in a live-action/CG hybrid format.
It’s uncertain where the hybrid elements will come into play — does this mean some of the animals will be live-action? Or that there will be some human actors interacting with CG anthropomorphic animals? Because either way this sounds like an uncanny valley nightmare. CG animals already have a surreal quality to them, but add human-like characteristics, and you’ve got a regular horror show. Which is probably not the effect that Disney wants to give in depicting an animated character who inspired a whole generation of furries. Can a CG fox version of Robin Hood possibly be as sexy as the animated fox in the 1973 film? Probably not. Based on this description it sounds like Robin Hood could look more horrifying than handsome.
But Estrada, whose explosive 2018 feature directorial debut Blindspotting made our best of the decade list, is an exciting rising talent. His gritty, sharp talents just don’t seem to fit with the concept of a live-action/CG hybrid Robin Hood remake, though. I’ll keep my reservations for now because of Estrada, but the fact that this is an anthropomorphic CG-animated film, and one headed to Disney+, doesn’t bode well. But Robin Hood‘s Disney+ destination is likely because it’s an older Disney animated film and doesn’t hold quite the same level of nostalgia for current moviegoers as the ’90s Disney Renaissance films do — much like fellow Disney+ release Lady and the Tramp.
The Robin Hood remake is currently in early development after the deal was inked in early March. Justin Springer (Dumbo, Tron Legacy) is producing the feature.
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