ROCKET ROBIN HOOD
It was an animated television series that initially appeared on CBC beginning 9 October 1966 and after fifty-two, twenty-two minute episodes ended in 1969. It was produced by Trillium Productions and Krantz Films
Essentially, it took the English stories of the medieval Robin Hood and his band of outlaws located in Sherwood Forest and transported them into the future to the year 3000. Sherwood Forest was relocated onto an asteroid. Robin’s band continued to include Little John, Friar Tuck, Will Scarlet, and Alan-a-Dale. Maid Marion continued to provide the love interest and the villains continued to be Prince John and the Sheriff. N.O.T.T. or National Outer-space Terrestrial Territories, was the new name for the English town of Nottingham in the medieval stories. Dr. Medulla, Manta and the Warlord of Saturn were additional villains.
Although billed as a Canadian animated television series it was actually more of a service contract between Trillium Productions and Steve Krantz an American film producer financing and owning the property. Shamus Culhane the first director was an American animator. Ralph Bakshi who replaced him was another American animator. Bakshi is credited as the writer although he came into the production late. It appears that he was given credit because he introduced several gimmicks including laser eyes. Under his direction though the tone became gloomier and spookier. The second season already had large input from the Americans with New York comic book artists Gray Morrow, Wally Wood and Jim Steranko creating layouts and sending them to Trillium. The last season was produced in the U.S. under Bakshi. A French version called Robin Fusée was also produced.
Generally speaking Rocket Robin is considered mediocre. This was probably due in part to the fact that this was Trillium’s first such project and there was a lot to learn. But making the episodes as cheap as possible was undoubtedly another factor. Bakshi later commented that while episodes under Shamus Culhane who he replaced cost $18,000, he produced them for $14,000 saving Krantz four thousand dollars an episode. An insight into Bakshi’s corner cutting methods is revealed in the much-publicized account where he used two episodes “From Menace to Menace” and “Five Dementia” from Robin Hood practically intact as two episodes “Phantom from the Depths of Time” and “Revolt in the Fifth Dimension” in the Spiderman series. The only difference was that he replaced “Robin Hood” with “Spiderman”. However, the voice talent is judged of high caliber. This isn’t surprising as the voices came from some of the best actors in Canadian theatre and television. Len Birman was the voice of “Robin”. Paul Kligman did “Friar Tuck” and the legendary Chris Wiggins voiced “Will Scarlett”. Bernard Cowan narrated the series.
Quality does not appear to be an issue in its marketability. Rocket Robin Hood was later aired on Toronto’s CITY-TV, CHEX-TV in Peterborough and CJOH-TV in Ottawa in the 1970’s and on to 1983. In the UK it appeared on ITV in the 1970’s . Again in the 1970’s it was aired in South Korea and Japan. It has also been released on DVD.
SOURCES:
Article book:
Cartoon Capers. Writ., Karen Mazurkewich. McArthur & Co.: 131-133.
Internet:
www.cbc.ca/television/tbt-when-rocket-robin-ruled-outer-space-1.5139219
cartoonresearch.com/index.php/rocket-robin-hood
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/krantz-Films
www.google.ca/search?q=Rocket+Robin+Hood&sca
GALLERY:
www.google.ca/search?q=Rocket+Robin+Hood&sca