As we wrap up the blog tour for Tuck by Stephen Lawhead, I thought I'd take a moment or two and compare Lawhead's masterful retelling of the Robin Hood stories to other portrayals of this story. At least, the ones I've seen and can remember.
Let's start with the first, namely Disney's 1973 version:
Okay, so maybe this is a bit silly. There's not many points of contact here, seeing as Lawhead's book doesn't feature anthropomorphic talking animals. But I still see some similarities to this movie and the book series as a whole. I mean, this movie did feature Robin dressing up as different characters to trick ol' Prince John (think the stork costume for the archery contest). That's similar to what Lawhead's Rhi Bran does time after time after time (such as the papal envoy at the end of Scarlet). And I suppose I could make something of the fact that in this movie Robin is portrayed as a fox while Bran pretends to be King Raven ... well, maybe that's a stretch.
Let's move on then. How about Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves?
Now here we have the more traditional portrayal of Robin. And while there may not be as close of a connection between Robin and Rhi Bran, I think they still exist. You have the wicked clergyman in Prince of Thieves contrasted against the simple spirituality (and somewhat drunk spirituality) of Friar Tuck. You have a "wise woman" in both, although one is a witch and the other is a banfaith. And some of the traps the "merry men" use are reminiscent of the ambushes we see in the King Raven trilogy. Which only leads to the next one, namely Robin Hood: Men in Tights.
What? Don't look at me like that.
Okay, so obviously this one is more of a parody of Prince of Thieves, but I still see some cross-connection. There were a lot of genuinely funny moments in the King Raven trilogy (especially the times that Bran dressed up in his many costumes). And this is, by far, the funniest of the Robin Hood movies.
But there is one other similarity. At 1:12, Robin Hood reminds people that unlike other Robin Hoods, he can speak with an English accent. Well, we can certainly say the same about Lawhead's Bran (although in this case, it's a Welsh accent). I certainly enjoyed the linguistic gymnastics that my mental voice had to do to decipher the many Welsh phrases scattered through Lawhead's story.
And here's the final one: Qpid.
Okay, so this time I really do have nothing. No connection. I just really like Worf's version of Will Scarlet.
So that's it from me this month. Go check out what the other tourists have to say:
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Jim Black
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4 comments:
Clever idea to do a compare and contrast. Did you ever see the t.v. series? (Probably before your time.) I wonder how you think that would compare.
Becky
Those are so interesting! I love how you have all those different video clips. I was definitely amused by the starwars one :P hehe!
~Books
The video clips are great, brings back a lot of good memories. It seems like in the animated Robin Hood, Robin disguises himself as a cloaked bird of some type. That might be the link between Tuck where Bran disguises himslef as King Raven.
~Tim
Fun pics, John. Thanks for bringing your perspective.
I also agree on Angharad. It would be like have a doctor who is a Christian ... they wouldn't have looked at it any differently. This gives the book an authenticity to the era.
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