Robin Hood is one of the first animated films produced by the Walt Disney Company after Walt Disney's death in 1967. For the film, the studio's animators took the Disney tradition of adding human-like animal sidekicks to established tales (Cinderella, Pinnochio) a step further by making Robin Hood's legendary characters creatures themselves. Robin Hood (Brian Bedford) is a wily fox; Maid Marian (Monica Evans) is a beautiful vixen; Little John (Phil Harris) is a burly bear; Friar Tuck (Andy Devine) is a soft-spoken badger; the Sheriff of Nottingham (Pat Buttram) is a greedy wolf; and the scheming Prince John (Peter Ustinov) is a sniveling, groveling, thumb-sucking undersized lion with a serpent sidekick named Sir Hiss (Terry Thomas). The film begins after Prince John and Sir Hiss have tricked the true King into leaving the country on a phony crusade. With the help of the Sheriff of Nottingham, they tax the life out of Nottingham's peasants, leaving them all penniless but with the courageous Robin Hood as their only hope.