Whenever you return to a piece of art after some time away, it’s never easy to know what your reaction might be. If enough time has passed, you have likely evolved and so too have your opinions. Recently, however, I rewatched one of my favorite childhood Disney movies, Robin Hood, and I must say, I was just as entertained as ever. Although structurally messy, Robin Hood holds up today due to the strength of its smaller details, which easily compensate for such flaws.

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One of the first places you notice Robin Hood‘s smaller details compensating for its structural drawbacks is with its main antagonist, Prince John. Although lacking a full character arc, the contours of John’s personality still make him one of the most memorable and funny Disney villains. His avarice, for example, is glorious to watch. Heck, the movie literally introduces him fondling a large SACK of gold and crying: “Taxes! Beautiful, lovely taxes! Ah ha! Ah ha!” John’s pathological insecurity is equally distinctive. The film saddles him with chronic and chaotic mommy issues, going so far as to show him vigorously thumb-suckling at the sound of her name while cranking madly on his ear.

Furthermore, the film’s depiction of John’s wanton cruelty is so entertaining it deserves its own paragraph. Mostly, the film depicts this trait through his repetitive abuse of his minion Sir Hiss. In just the first 15 minutes alone, John ties Hiss in knots, throttles him repeatedly, nearly suffocates him in a wicker basket and puts his head viciously through a mirror. John also unleashes a torrent of alliterative attacks in-between. Some of the best include “silly serpent,” “suspicious snake,” “cowardly cobra,” “procrastinating python,” “aggravating asp,” and my personal favorite: “eel in snake’s clothing.”

Similar to how it treats the arcs of characters like Prince John, Robin Hood barely develops its story. The central conflict between Robin and John is particularly torpid, often treated in a muted and meandering fashion. However, each scene has individual qualities so enjoyable that they make the lack of an overarching story a non-issue. This is true even in scenes where Robin Hood is at its most superfluous.

One particular sequence that encapsulates this is the film’s back-to-back musical numbers in Sherwood Forest. Neither substantively advance Robin Hood‘s story. They also arguably take away from the tension of the film’s conflict by separating Robin and John right when their conflict should be ramping up. But due to the fantastic songwriting from Floyd Huddleston, George Bruns and Johnny Mercer, there is more than enough here to compensate for these scenes’ generally irrelevant nature. The second of the two songs, “The Phony King of England,” stands out in particular. Structured as joyful denunciation of Prince John, the song layers reduplicative adjectives on top of reduplicative adjectives to tremendous effect, hailing the little tyrant as:

The breezy and uneasy king of England!
The snivellin’ grovellin’,
Measly weasly,
Blabberin’ jabberin’,
Gibberin’ jabberin’,
Plunderin’ plottin’,
Wheelin’ dealin’
Prince John, that phony King of England!
Yeah!

The second example occurs later and concerns our secondary antagonist, the Sheriff of Nottingham, and his vulture guardsmen, Trigger and Nutsy. Like the Sherwood Forest stuff, their scenes have no real relevance to the film’s story or central conflict. The only purpose they seem to serve is to set up a protracted joke about Trigger’s cross bow, aka “Ol’ Betsy,” repeatedly going off without warning. But the gag is so well done it definitely justifies its existence. From the sounds of Trigger’s ricocheting arrow to the Sheriff frantically trying to move his bulk out of the way to Trigger getting a retaliatory “bonk” on the head, I would be shocked if someone wanted this scene to be more central to the film’s plot and couldn’t enjoy it for what it is.

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Returning to a childhood movie as a senile old man is always a roll of the dice. After all, what entertained you as a six-year-old may not be the same as what does at 36, or so you would hope. For this wrinkled fart, however, my tastes have apparently not changed since I was a young tyke. That’s true, at least, regarding my love of Disney’s Robin Hood, which I found out recently upon rewatch. While it has plenty of structural deficiencies, these are canceled out by smaller details like hilarious character quirks and a great crossbow joke. And ultimately, they make watching Robin Hood today just as enjoyable as it was 30 years ago.