The Disney Dark Age began with Walt's death in 1966 and didn't end up The Little Mermaid came out in 1989. In those intervening two decades a mere eight films were made, most of them unremarkable fare that put the studio name in disrepute. Slap bang in the middle was Robin Hood. With a budget less than half the size of 101 Dalmatians a twelve years previously, the film did everything it could to cut corners. All the characters were recast as animals to justify the amount of time and money spent trying to get a feature version of Reynard the Fox off the ground; no need to design new characters. And worse, they simply reused the animation from previous films; dancing scenes from Snow White, The Jungle Book and The Aristocats were all lazily drawn over, making an uninteresting film all the less engaging. Other Disney films would employ this, but none as blatant as Robin Hood. Was it plagiarism? It's well documented it was done to keep the costs down, but that doesn't make it any better; all it does is make the studio look lazy. Which other Disney films have been accused of stealing ideas? Let us know down in the comments.
