Nottingham and Yeggs Storyboard

Fables and legends provided a rich source of parody for animated cartoons going back to the silent era. The story of Robin Hood was among them. It had enough basic concepts (rob from rich, Sherwood Forest, evil sheriff, etc.) that they could be easily adapted in wildly varying deviations. “Rabbit Hood” and “Robin Hood Daffy,” both written by Mike Maltese at Warner Bros., have nothing in common other than Robin Hood was used as a starting point.

Hanna-Barbera borrowed from Robin as well, twice in two years on the Huckleberry Hound Show. “Robin Hood Yogi” (story by Joe Barbera and Charlie Shows) featured the bear dressed in Robin garb, robbing from the rich (food rich tourists) and giving to the poor (himself). The following season, Huck dressed in Robin garb and robbed from the rich and gave to the poor (himself) in “Nottingham and Yeggs” (story by Warren Foster). Again the cartoon were completely different, but both pretty funny.

That benevolent friend of old cartoons, animator and cat fancier Mark Kausler, has passed on a copy of the storyboard for “Nottingham and Yeggs” for your perusal. The board is by Dan Gordon. There are only minor changes in the dialogue. Animator Ed Love departed from some of the staging suggested by Gordon and Joe Montell’s backgrounds are more stylised than what you see in the panels. Compare Montell’s opening pan to Gordon’s.



In panel 10, the sheriff dismissively tosses the bone, but in the actual cartoon, he’s more contemptuous and angry. And panel 12 has mouths open, tongues out, while the cartoon has the dogs with clenched teeth. Panel 16 has the word “Jester” scrawled and an arrow pointing at Huck. This could have been Joe Barbera’s suggestion (judging by the shape of the “E”) to make Huck’s costume consistent as that’s what’s in the finished cartoon.




I love the cat’s crazy exit Gordon has come up with in panel 28. Love went for something more reminiscent of Jackie Gleason, since the dialogue line is a direct steal from him. I also like the idea of light streaming into the forest like in panel 34 but it never made it into the cartoon.



Panels 56 and 57 have characters in silhouette with a tree and a rock on an overlay cel in the foreground. That didn’t make it into the cartoon. Instead, there’s simply a pan from Huck over to the Merry Men as in panel 59. Panel 75 has one man; it may just simply be a drawing indicating the whole group as the dialogue line says “men.” In the actual cartoon, all the Merry Men move their mouths but there is only one Merry Man (Hal Smith’s) heard.

The remaining panels pretty much follow what ended up on the screen.



We’ll have a Pixie and Dixie storyboard for you next month.