Sheriff of Nottingham

The Sheriff of Nottingham is a fat, grey wolf character from Robin Hood voiced by Pat Buttram. Alongside Prince John, he is one of the main villains of the film.

Background
The Sheriff is in league with Prince John to oppress the people of Nottingham, and is charged with collecting taxes for Prince John. He is unsympathetic to the poverty of the towns people, and he will often use underhanded methods to collect taxes. Because of this, he is hated by the people of Nottingham, who often refer to him as Bushel-britches, referring the the Sheriff's rather overweight physique. He is also constantly trying to capture Robin Hood, but is always fooled by Robin Hood's disguises, despite his claims to the contrary. The Sheriff commands a number of rhinos who carry pikes, and also a posse of grey wolves, who serve as archers.

Role in Robin Hood
The Sheriff appears at the films opening, sneaking up on Robin Hood and Little John as the two are swimming. Despite his attempts, Robin Hood manages to escape by hiding in a tree.

Later, he is shown traveling though the town for his daily tax collection. He uses several methods to get them. First, he takes them from Otto the blacksmith, by hitting Otto's leg until the coins that the dog hid in his cast come out, which causes obvious pain to Otto's broken leg. At Mother Rabbit's home, he takes the single farthing that was meant as a birthday present for Skippy. The Sheriff even stoops so low as to take money from a blind beggar, though he is oblivious to the fact that the beggar is Robin Hood in disguise.

The Sheriff is one of the participants in Prince John's archery tournament. Once again, he is unaware of the fact that a stork archer is a disguised Robin Hood, and even carries on a conversation with the "stork" about how Robin Hood did not attend, and that the Sheriff could always see through the disguises. Though the sheriff is apparently a decent archer, making it to the final round, he resorts to cheating to defeat the disguised Robin Hood. First he has his vulture henchman, Nutsy, hide in the target, and the vulture adjusts the target so that the Sheriff gets a bulls-eye. When the "stork" shoots, he nudges the stork's bow, in an attempt to have him miss. He loses anyway, thanks to Robin Hood's skill. The Sheriff is seen participating in the proceeding battle against Robin Hood.

Despite his supposed loyalty to Prince John, he is not above making fun of him when Prince John is not around, as the Sheriff is next seen singing a mocking song about Prince John that the villagers had made up. Later, he presumably imprisons most of the townspeople on the Prince's orders for not paying the dramatically increased taxes that Prince John imposed as punishment for the mockery, takes money from the Poor Box in the church, and arrests Friar Tuck for high treason. The Sheriff is seen guarding the jail with his two vulture henchmen, but falls asleep, allowing Little John to break the prisoners out of jail, while Robin Hood steals the treasury. The sheriff attempts to fight Robin Hood but is cut off from him by flames. The Sheriff is finally seen at the end of the film, having been stripped of his position by King Richard, who returned from the crusades, and is sentences to working in the Royal Rock Pile alongside Prince John and Sir Hiss.