- “Uh Oh! Here comes Old Bad News himself... the Honorable Sheriff of Nottingham.”
- ―Alan-A-Dale describing the Sheriff
The Sheriff of Nottingham is the secondary antagonist of Disney's 1973 animated feature film Robin Hood. As his title would suggest, he is the "honorable" chief law enforcer of Nottingham, serving directly under Prince John. Much like Prince John, the Sheriff is heavily despised by the villagers of Nottingham.
Background[]
Personality[]
In contrast to Prince John, who is the mastermind behind the many plans to stop Robin Hood, the Sheriff is a more active antagonist, constantly fighting and attempting to capture Robin Hood. He is completely unsympathetic to the poverty of the town's people, using immoral ways to collect taxes such as forcing out the coins Otto had hidden in his leg cast, not caring of the pain the blacksmith would endure from his broken leg in the process, stealing the one farthing Skippy had been given for his birthday and insincerely wishing him a happy birthday, taking money from a blind beggar (unaware it was Robin Hood in disguise), or even taking the single farthing that was in the church's poor box and laughing as he did it. He excuses his corruption and cruelty by hypocritically claiming he's only doing his duty. Because of this, he is hated by the people of Nottingham, who often derisively refer to him as "Bushel-britches," referring to the Sheriff's rather obese physique.
Despite his frequent attempts to capture Robin Hood, the Sheriff always fails. In addition, he is always fooled by Robin Hood's disguises, despite his claims to the contrary. However, he is not completely stupid, as, following Robin Hood's capture at the archery tournament, he was baffled by Prince John's unexpected claim that Robin should be released, and immediately grew suspicious of John's behavior. His suspicions were confirmed when he found Little John holding the prince hostage by sticking a dagger in his back.
The Sheriff commands a posse of archer wolves and has authority over two vultures, Trigger and Nutsy.
Being larger and heavier than Robin Hood, he physically overpowers him in a fight and Robin has to use his wits to escape him.
The Sheriff puts on a cheerful, friendly act, but is as callous as any Disney villain. He also speaks with a heavy Southern United States accent, which was contrasted with most of the characters who spoke in British accents.
Even if he follows Prince John's orders and claims to be faithful to the Crown, the Sheriff does not seem to hold a high opinion of the prince, since he happily sings "The Phony King of England" and even encourages Sir Hiss to do the same.
Physical appearance[]
The Sheriff is an obese gray wolf with yellow eyes, thick black eyebrows, a black nose and wears red sheriff's clothing, a hat with purple stripes and a feather, crimson shoes, puffy purple sleeves with magenta stripes, a gold star badge, and a brown necklace with a gold medallion around his neck.
Appearances[]
Robin Hood[]
The Sheriff appears at the film's opening, sneaking up on Robin Hood and Little John as the two are swimming. Despite his attempts, Robin Hood manages to escape by hiding in a tree.
Later, he is shown traveling through the town for his daily tax collection. He uses several unkind methods to get them. First, he comes to the shop of Otto the local blacksmith, who conspires with Friar Tuck to hide his earnings in his cast. The Sheriff, however, is not fooled by this, having spied on Otto and Tuck just prior to his arrival at the smithy. The Sheriff whacks Otto's cast until the coins that the dog hid in his cast come out, which causes obvious pain to Otto's broken leg. The Sheriff snidely remarks that "it is all part of the pain of giving" to pay for the greater good of society. At Mother Rabbit's home, he steals the single farthing that was meant as a birthday present for Skippy. The Sheriff even stoops so low as to take money from a "blind beggar", while being completely oblivious to the fact that the beggar is Robin Hood in disguise and harbors more money.
"There's something funny going on around here."
Some time later, the Sheriff is one of the participants in Prince John's archery tournament. Once again, he is unaware of the fact that a stork archer is a disguised Robin Hood. He even carries on a conversation with the "stork" about how Robin Hood did not come and brags that he could always see through the disguises. Though the sheriff is apparently a decent archer, making it to the final round, he resorts to cheating to defeat the disguised Robin Hood. First, he has his vulture henchman, Nutsy, hide in the target, and the vulture jumps to adjust the target so that the Sheriff gets a bull's-eye. When the "stork" shoots, he nudges the stork's bow, in an attempt to have him miss. He loses anyway, thanks to Robin Hood's prodigious skill. After Prince John unmasks Robin Hood and sentences him to beheading, the Sheriff becomes suspicious when the prince suddenly reverses himself and orders Robin to be released. His suspicions are then confirmed as he discovers Little John holding a knife to the back of Prince John's neck and attacks him, freeing the prince and resulting in the following battle against Robin Hood. During the battle, he is punched by Little John, then flipped over and defeated by Lady Kluck.
Despite his supposed loyalty, the Sheriff is not above making fun of Prince John when the latter is not around, as he is next seen singing a teasing song about Prince John that the villagers had made up. Later, after Prince John angrily throws a wine bottle at him, the Sheriff presumably imprisons most of the townspeople on the Prince's orders for not paying the dramatically increased taxes that Prince John imposed as punishment for the mockery. He then steals Sexton and Little Sister's farthing from the poor box in the church which is the last straw for Friar Tuck who, despite the Sheriff threatening to hang him, attacks him. He then arrests Friar Tuck for "high treason to the crown". On Prince John's orders, he prepares the gallows to hang the Friar, knowing that Robin Hood would no doubt come to stop the execution and lead to his capture. While he and his two vulture henchmen (Trigger and Nutsy) are working, they are approached by a blind beggar, who is once again Robin Hood in disguise. Trigger gets suspicious when the beggar begins asking too many questions about Friar Tuck's execution, but the Sheriff dismisses Trigger's worries, saying that the blind man is completely harmless.
The Sheriff and his men are then seen guarding the jail. However, the Sheriff had fallen asleep on duty. He gets annoyed by Nutsy frequently waking him up each hour and by Trigger when his crossbow accidentally backfires. When he and Trigger hear the sounds of Nutsy being ambushed by Robin Hood and Little John, they investigate, and find what they think is only Nutsy, but is really a disguised Robin Hood. Robin then puts the Sheriff back to sleep with a lullaby and steals his keys and opens the door to the jail, allowing Little John to enter. When Trigger hears the door shut, he accidentally fires his crossbow again, waking the Sheriff up, who fails to see Little John getting in and then reprimands Trigger for making another false alarm, giving him a kick to the rear as punishment.
Falling back asleep, the Sheriff is later awoken again when coins from one of the bags that is being pulleyed from the royal treasury to a jail cell falls on him. He is then subdued by Little John who steals his clothes to use a disguise to keep Trigger from alerting anyone. The Sheriff is then seen again (in his underwear) chasing Robin Hood through the castle when the latter attempts to escape. The Sheriff eventually corners him in Prince John's chambers and lunges at him with his torch, setting fire to the room. After a brief fight, Robin Hood escapes when he literally pulls the rug out from under the Sheriff and the flames cut him off from chasing him.
It is not immediately known what happened afterwards, but presumably the Sheriff escaped the burning room as well as he is seen alive at the end. He is revealed to have been stripped of his position by King Richard, who returned from the crusades, and is imprisoned and sentenced to working in the Royal Rock Pile alongside Prince John and Sir Hiss as punishment for their crimes against the people of England.
House of Mouse[]
The Sheriff of Nottingham, like many others characters created by Disney, appears as a guest character in this series. Some of the episodes that the Sheriff appears in include "The Stolen Cartoons", "Pete's House of Villains", "Goofy's Valentine Date", and Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse.
Once Upon a Studio[]
In the short, the Sheriff of Nottingham is seen outside of the Walt Disney Animation Studio during Goofy's failed attempt at the group photo and during "When You Wish Upon a Star", he joins in on singing the last line of the song with all the Disney characters as the group photo is successfully taken for Disney's 100th anniversary.
Video games[]
Disney Heroes: Battle Mode[]
The Sheriff of Nottingham appears in the game as one of the unlockable and playable characters, often appearing in special offers and in city guard safes.
Disney Parks[]
Walt Disney World[]
In 2013, the Sheriff was joined with other Disney Villains for the "Unleash the Villains" Halloween event hosted by Hades from Hercules, at Disney's Hollywood Studios.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Unusual for a central character, the Sheriff has no name; he's always called by his title or nickname (for example: Bushel-Britches).
- Three different animations of the Sheriff are reused in the film: five of him walking, two of him tossing a farthing coin up in the air, and two of him saying, "There's something funny going on around here."[1]
- Within the film's blending of Robin Hood with the Reynard the Fox stories, the Sheriff fills the role of Isengrim, Reynard's wolf rival.
- The character was originally intended to be a stupid goat, but this was dropped by the director who wanted Ken Anderson to keep the villainous stereotype of a wolf (since wolves are more stereotypical evil in fiction than goats, who nonetheless are associated in some cultures with dark magic and demons).
- Coincidentally, in that case, the three villains would have been the three animals that made up the Greek monster Chimera, being a lion, a snake, and a goat.
- This character is animated by Milton Erwin Kahl and John Lounsbery.
- In the original Robin Hood story, the Sheriff is the main antagonist, but in the film, that role is given to Prince John.
- Even though he seems to be fearless, the Sheriff is shown to be afraid of Prince John and obeys his every command, but he still likes to make fun of him by singing the mock song.
- When the Sheriff is out collecting taxes he is often singing to himself. Prior to the mock song of John, he is singing one saying "They call me a slob, but I do my job", which meant the villagers may have made an earlier mock song of the Sheriff.
- There was a scene deleted from the final film that showed the Sheriff collecting taxes in a tent in the town square. Additionally, the Sheriff was featured in an unused subplot that involved Prince John sending forged love letters to both Maid Marian and Robin Hood in order to lure them into another trap.
- In the alternate ending, the Sheriff was shown crying at Robin and Marian's wedding, indicating that he did not suffer the same fate as Prince John and Sir Hiss at this point, and that, like Nutsy and Trigger, he does his job no matter for whom he works.
- In the Norwegian dub, he and Little John are voiced by brothers: Henki and Lasse Kolstad.
Variants[]
References[]
- ↑ rafikiZ12 (June 12, 2010). "Reused Disney Animation - Robin Hood (Should I Make This?)" (Video). YouTube.
External links[]
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