officialqueer replied to your post “My favorite thing about DIsney’s take on The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh...”
What is this it sounds incredible
Scarecrow of Romney Marsh was a special that aired on The Wonderful World of Disney in 1963 in a series of three parts, and it’s about a county vicar named Dr. Syn who, in the face of King George III’s taxes and the ever-looming threat of the naval press gang, decides to take matters into his own hands and decides to head up the local smuggling ring. He becomes so successful at his job that the king sends a regiment of soldiers under the command of General Pugh to bring them to heel and offers a thousand pounds for any information leading to his arrest.
In order to prevent anyone from knowing it’s him, he and two of his most trusted lieutenants (one of whom is his right-hand man/live in partner Mipps, in the middle, and the other one is the squire’s son John, to the right) dress up in masks that I’m fairly certain were specifically designed to haunt the nightmares of children growing up in the 60s.
Now, in the original series of novels by Russell Thorndike, Syn had a complicated past involving an unfaithful wife, pirates, blood, guts, exploding ships, everything, including a love interest in the form of the squire’s DAUGHTER. But, here, they managed to bend themselves over so spectacularly by making her a very underaged him, thus putting all the emotional focus on Mipps and Syn instead and not giving a hint towards ANY past romantic attachments for Syn, as well giving Syn an archenemy DEDICATED to his arrest in the form of General Pugh.
Whoops. You outplayed yourself, Disney.
Sadly enough, there isn’t as much interaction between Pugh and the Vicar, but they do *have* to meet at the Squire’s house semi-regularly. So Dr Syn knows what he’s planning and can stay one step ahead.
In his episode introduction, Walt appears to believe that the Scarecrow was a real person, despite the fact the original never CLAIMED to be anything more than a swashbuckling piece of historical fiction, but...given that it’s Walt Disney, I’m not sure whether he GENUINELY believed it or not. Either way, it’s a fun bit of trivia. It also comes with an incredibly catchy opening:
Unfortunately, the release for it’s been very limited through the years. They released it out of The Disney Vault briefly in 2010, and at this point the only way to get ahold of legitimate copies is to track down those second hand, with them being known to go for upwards of $200-300. Which...is obscene. But nostalgia factor’s a powerful thing. And there are always PLENTY of people offering high quality bootlegs on demand.
Also, it looks like this account uploaded the entire thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaSTjq-fK1M&t=2152s, though the quality is...sad. There’s another, higher quality one available as well, but it somehow managed to cut out most of the first episode.