The Errol Flynn Blog

This weekend I saw the new movie “Thor”, based on the Marvel Comics superhero and his adventures. I really enjoyed the film, and was surprised to find one of the characters in it (he's a character from the Thor comic books) resembles, in part, Errol. His name is Fandral and he's one of the Warriors Three and friend of Thor, the main hero. He looks like a combination of: Oliver Queen (aka Green Arrow from DC comics who's modeled after Errol and Robin Hood), Cary Elwes from “The Princess Bride” and “Robin Hood Men In Tights”, and a young Errol Flynn! Joshua Dallas is the young actor who plays Fandral.

I found the following on the Wikipedia page for the “Thor” film:

“[Fandral is] a member of the Warriors Three, characterized as an irrepressible swashbuckler and romantic…Joshua Dallas said he believed that Fandral 'would like to think of himself a philanderer. He’s a lover, not a fighter'. Dallas also mentioned that Errol Flynn was an inspiration for the character stating, 'He was a big inspiration for the character and for me. I watched a lot of his movies and kind of got that into my bones. I tried to bring out that little bit of Flynn-ness in it. Flynn had a lot of that boyish charm that Fandral’s got all in him'.”

So I thought that was pretty cool. :-) I've attached 2 images: one of Fandral from the Thor comics, and the other of Joshua Dallas as Fandral.

— Rachel

Hi fellow Flynnians!

Aside from being a Flynn fan, I'm also a big Disney fan (and a fan of animation in general). Yesterday I saw Disney's new (50th) animated film “Tangled”. It's a really great retelling/re-imagining of the fairytale of Rapunzel. Anyway, so what does this have to do with Errol Flynn?

Well…the main hero in the film is a guy named Flynn Rider (actual first name Eugene — note the first initial “E”). The Disney filmmakers named him after Errol, and partially modeled his character on Errol and his swashbuckling hero persona. Here's a brief description of Flynn Rider, taken from a promotional magazine for “Tangled”: “The rogue bandit Flynn Rider is daring, and has always relied on his wit, charm and good looks to get out of even the stickiest of situations.”

Also, here's a quote about the character from one reviewer of the movie: “He's named Flynn by the way, and may remind parents, or grandparents, of a similar hero, circa 1937's 'The Prince and the Pauper'.”

And, to top it off, in the film Flynn Rider tells Rapunzel that he took his name from a legendary swashbuckler by the name of Flynnigan Rider — a man who was daring, heroic, good with the ladies, rich, and could do anything and go anywhere in the world. Sound familiar? :-)

So, this is the 2nd time (if you count their animated version of Robin Hood) that Disney has created an Errol Flynn-inspired animated character. I also know of 3 other Errol-inspired animated characters: The heroic archer-poet called Bow and the hero pirate called Sea Hawk — both from the 1980's animated TV series “She-Ra: Princess of Power”, and the heroic swashbuckling mouse Reepicheep — a computer-animated character in the Disney live-action “Narnia” films.

Anyone else know of any others?

— Rachel